BVUUF Council/Committee Handbook
Click on the links in blue, and then on the url to open each document in a new window.
Table of Contents
- The Building
- Office Equipment and Supplies
- Useful Forms
- Publicizing your events and Communicating Announcements
- Fellowship Organization
- Congregational Relationships
- Tools for Meeting Operations
- Training & Tips
- Finances
The Building
For information about using rooms at the Fellowship, see the Building Care Handbook.
Office Equipment and Supplies
- How to Use the Copier
- Making Copies – The copier is full-featured.
- Color Copies – The copier offers black and white, and color.
- Scans – Press Send. Press the destination/name of person it’s going to. Insert the paper into the paper feed and press Start.
- Printable Forms – The copier has some Fellowship forms saved in its memory.
- Supplies
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- To avoid waste, the office mostly orders upon request. Having said that, many basic supplies are usually on hand, including pens, pencils, dry erase markers, and easels.
- Supplies that may need to be ordered with two business days lead time: pads of paper, easel paper, name tags, pocket folders. 5-7 business day lead time is preferred.
- How to order supplies – Contact officemanager@bvuuf.org for help in ordering supplies.
- If you or a team member purchase supplies, make sure you stay within budget for your committee and the event, and save your receipts. Make sure that you have a sales tax exempt form on hand so that you do not pay for sales tax (see Useful Forms for a copy of the exempt form).
- How to order books for fellowship related activities. Check out UUA Bookstore online or Amazon for best prices and availability. Contact officemanager@bvuuf.org for help in ordering books. If you sell books on behalf of the Fellowship, you will need to track sales and inform the accountant of your sales (the Fellowship pays sales tax on items sold).
Useful Forms & Documents
- Forms are online at Fellowship Forms. Two helpful forms are:
- Reimbursement – Turn in with committee chair’s authorization, and with original receipts, for purchases made on behalf of the Fellowship. The Fellowship does not reimburse for sales tax.
- Request for payment – Use this form to request a check to be drawn up as pay to an outside party, for instance a guest musician.
- Sales tax exempt certificate – available or from officemanager@bvuuf.org. Our number is on file at several stores, such as Home Depot, McGuckins, Staples.
- Key Documents
- Bylaws
- Organization chart – refer to Fellowship Organization, below
- Strategic Direction – refer to Fellowship Organization, below
- Committee Chair / Board / Staff contact list
Publicizing Your Events & Communicating Announcements
- Resources
- Publicize your event – this document lists popular communication venues both within and outside the Fellowship, and is found at www.bvuuf.org/connection/. Scroll down to Communications; click on its tab to see resources.
- Changes to or questions about the website – Requests for updates can be made from the Member Only Content webpage, available at www.bvuuf.org/connection/ or email officemanager@bvuuf.org.
- Childcare for events – including cost – check in with the Youth Coordinator, youthcoordinator@bvuuf.org, at least four weeks before your event.
- Submit a news piece to the Fellowship’s newsletter, Connections Weekly, by 12:00 Noon each Wednesday.
- Technologies in use at the Fellowship – Canva (creation of graphic design materials), Constant Contact (creation and distribution of publications), Google (for document management and group emails), Google slides, IconCMO (church database management), Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Publisher), Wifi (guest password W@yw@rd!), WordPress (website).
- Constant Contact email group & submissions
- Constant Contact is an email marketing application on the internet that we use for publishing Connections Weekly each week, and other publications such as Memorial Announcements and Meet New Members. The email group associated with distribution is managed by the office.
- Member to member email group (aka “The List Serve”)
- This email group is info@bvuuf.org; email ids are added and deleted by the office. Participants appreciate fewer emails rather than more, and many people have unsubscribed due to email overload.
- To send an email to the Fellowship community, use info@bvuuf.org in the “To” line of your email message; please use this communication venue for topics related to Unitarian Universalism or activities related to expression of our values; do not use to promote political candidates and do not reply all.
- Website maintenance
- You can submit changes to the website by visiting the Member Only content page (accessed from the Get Connected tab).
- Committees can also take on ownership of webpages related to their mission and charter, with a volunteer who is willing and knowledgeable to take on maintenance of the corresponding webpages, and as such, being assigned Editor status by the office.
- Constant Contact email group & submissions
- Rentals [Need updated link]
- Members are eligible for one no-charge reservation year for a personal life passage event at the Fellowship.
The Fellowship Organization
- The Fellowship Organization Chart
- The How We Are Organized shows how committees and councils fall under the Board, Leadership Development or Committee on Shared Ministries. (update requested)
- The Committee Chair contact list (also for staff and elected leaders)
- Navigating the Staff
- Staff Organization chart
- Rev. Teri Schwartz – Transition Minister, minister@bvuuf.org
- Kitty Kalebarn – Youth Coordinator, kitty@bvuuf.org
- Ari Flauta – Early Childhood Educator, ari@bvuuf.org
- Apollo Blue
- Amber Bratt
- Tad Koriath – Director Music & Choirs, musicdirector@bvuuf.org
- Deborah Mensch – Audio Visual Lead, avlead@bvuuf.org
- Carol Pranschke – Office Manager, officemanager@bvuuf.org
- Sue Hankins – Administrative Support, adminsupport@bvuuf.org
- Kitty Kalebarn – Youth Coordinator, kitty@bvuuf.org
- Rev. Teri Schwartz – Transition Minister, minister@bvuuf.org
- Who to go to for what
- Music suggestions – musicdirector@bvuuf.org
- Ministers (minister@bvuuf.org and internminister@bvuuf.org)
- Pastoral care
- Service associates (also serviceassociates@bvuuf.org)
- School of Spirit (religious education) Director (kitty@bvuuf.org)
- OWL Teachers
- Youth related (youthcoordinator@bvuuf.org)
- Office Manager (officemanager@bvuuf.org)
- Directory updates and uploads
- Facility maintenance
- Get an electronic fund transfer started – Fill out the form at Forms and leave it with officemanager@bvuuf.org, who works with the treasurer to get it processed
- Google admin / working with Google
- How to request a google email group – Google email groups correspond to committee names and annual event coordinators such as for the auction. Contact officemanager@bvuuf.org to request a google email for a fellowship group.
- How to get access to the group Drive documents. Contact the owner of the Drive documents or the office.
- How to make a folder and drop a document into that folder – You must first have access to the primary folder (the one that will contain your new folder. Contact the folder owner or the office to discuss. Basically, once you’re in Google, go to Google Drive, click on New in the upper left, then on Folder, then input the name. Use the Share function to share the folder.
- Publications
- Room reservations
- Not sure? Ask at officemanager@bvuuf.org.
- Email groups – Google email groups have been defined for existing committees, teams, councils and groups at the Fellowship. These lists are maintained by the officemanager@bvuuf.org under the direction of the committee chair. An example is stewardship@bvuuf.org.
- Email ids for chairpersons – Some emails exist within the bvuuf.org domain for committee chairpersons (and co-chairs), such as stewardshipchair@bvuuf.org. If you are in need of an email for your work as a chair, please speak with officemanager@bvuuf.org, but be aware that it means you have a second email to maintain. Also used on website as contact.
- Staff Organization chart
- Tools for Communication –
- Zoom is used for conference calls with video. The Fellowship maintains a Zoom account; contact the office for more info. Training is available at the Zoom website.
- Google Meets – available to all Google users.
- The Fellowship has two resources for communicating about events – the How to Publicize Your Event (visit bvuuf.org, tab Get Connected, scroll down to Communications, click on +, then click on the document title), and the Communications Toolkit ( a comprehensive list of communication tools – may be more than you need).
Congregational Relationships
- BVUUF Covenant of Right Relations Approved by the congregation 2/2018. This covenant of right relationship expresses the promises we make to ourselves and each other about how we want to be in community together.
- BVUUF Conflict Management Policy While we recognize that conflict is a normal and healthy aspect of community life, we also know it can become harmful. This policy provides guidance when complaints between individuals have become too much for them to handle.
- BVUUF Disruptive Behavior Policy
- Policy for Naming Groups in BVUUF (Adopted May 23, 2017) The Board of Trustees has jurisdiction over the organizational structure of the Fellowship, and delegates to councils, committees, and other governance entities of the Fellowship the right to name themselves. If the group cannot come to an agreement or the chosen title is objected to by elected or ministerial leadership, the appropriate oversight group (normally Committee on Shared Ministries or the Board of Trustees) will work with a group to determine their name. If a group cannot come to agreement, the Board of Trustees retains final responsibility for the naming of groups.
Tools for Meeting Operations
- Sweet Spot – a tool for determining capacity. This tool is most effective when one person facilitates the discussion and the people invited (and not invited) to participate are carefully considered. (Is it a leadership question, general congregation, specific group, etc.) Make voting confidential by having participants write down their thoughts to avoid “groupthink”. Some have suggested that the outcome of this activity tends to lead towards votes of no-capacity. A further thought on this is that possibly by the time a tool is brought in to judge capacity, it may be due to an underlying feeling of lack of capacity. In other words, a project with no doubt of capacity may not get to this stage
- RACI – a matrix system that helps allocate roles to tasks.
- Simple evaluation of an event or program – make a chart that lists “What went well; What could be improved; Questions; Surprises” or create a Google Form linked in your agenda. This is helpful for Zoom events.
Training & Tips
- UUA Courses – One of the ways the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) supports the personal development of members is by reimbursing the cost of online classes offered through UU Institute. There is a range of classes available; free sample classes available any time, on demand classes available any time ($15), and scheduled classes ($30). Chairs are encouraged to familiarize themselves and their committee members with current offerings that may support their leadership roles and / or work of the committee. Please notify LDC when you or any of your committee members register for a class. LDC can send you a reimbursement request form for UUI class expenses.
- Google training
- Drop in tech help at the Boulder Public Library A range of services is offered to help you become tech savvy. Get started with these online tutorials to get comfortable using basic technology and digital resources, or come to a free drop-in tech help session! Drop-In Tech Help sessions are in-person help at the library. Bring your questions and your device! You may also Teach Yourself Tech on our website, with links for these specific learning areas: Computer Basics, Email & Internet Basics, Jobs, Social, Español.
- Tips on running an effective meeting
- How to avoid burn-out – Keeping Active Leaders Active, Self-Care and Staff Care, and UUA Leaders: Safety in Pandemics
- Covenant of Right Relationship. Review in particular the aspirational covenant with self.
Finance
- Read all about it: Financial Management Policy
- The Fellowship is a registered 501(c)3.Tax ID number – 74-2422895. A letter stating this from the IRS is available by emailing officemanager@bvuuf.org.
- Sales tax exempt certificate – available or from officemanager@bvuuf.org. Our number is on file at several stores, such as Home Depot, McGuckins, Staples.
- Procedure for reimbursement – see Useful Forms, 1.1.
- Procedure for request for payment – see Useful Forms,1.2.
- Receipts for donations can be requested from officemanager@bvuuf.org, which may issue a customized receipt, or a copy of your contributions as produced by our church management system.
- Where to shop – a list of places the Fellowship already has accounts or stores that have our tax ID.
- All BVUUF Restricted Fund Requests, November, 2020
Acknowledgement: We consider this handbook a work in progress with certain sections yet to come and open to users’ feedback. If you have suggestions for additions or updates, please send an email to leadershipdevelopment@bvuuf.org with “HANDBOOK” in the subject line.