Your Board met multiple times in December and planned and participated in the congregational Listening Session and the Special Business Meeting.

At a special meeting on December 6, following a dry run of the presentations for the Listening Session, we reviewed and approved a revised Letter of Intent regarding the construction contract and authorized the President to sign that Letter of Intent and offer it to Milo Construction. The following day, we met to make final plans for the Business Meeting including developing the Resolution to be presented to the congregation for a vote.

At another special meeting on December 14, we discussed what we had learned during the December 9 Listening Session and reviewed and officially approved the language of the Resolution and the simplified Overview that would be presented to the congregation on December 16.

At the Congregational Business Meeting, we learned that the “One More Step” campaign had exceeded the target of $450,000. [NOTE: We later determined that, in the rush to have a current figure for this meeting, some pledges had been double-counted. However, pledges continued to come in and the final amount did exceed the goal.] The Congregation voted unanimously (with one abstention) to proceed with the construction phase of the building project, and empowered the Building Committee “to develop for Board Approval revised budgets consistent with available building project funding, which is increased from the $3.95 million approved on June 2, 2018 by the amount pledged during the One More Step campaign plus any additional funding obtained from other sources.” Additional details were spelled out in the Resolution itself.

At the regular meeting on December 20, we:
• Reviewed the revised building project budget based on the latest estimated increase in Capital Campaign pledges ($453,000) and discussed the application for the bank loan. That budget showed a $44,000 shortfall based in part on knowledge that a few Capital campaign pledges made in the past will not be paid. That budget also uses Milo’s un-negotiated estimate of construction costs as the Building Committee continues its efforts to identify additional acceptable ways to reduce those costs.
• Considered a request from the Building Committee to use Stoner funds to cover this shortfall and, after agreeing to seek more appropriate BVUUF funds, authorized the use of up $50,000 in “temporarily restricted funds” for the building project if necessary following further negotiations.
• Approved the revised Minister’s Letter of Call/Ministry Agreement to reflect Reverend Lydia’s return to full-time status and to incorporate certain changes suggested by UUA.
• Agreed to make minor ByLaws changes regarding the Minister’s ex-officio non-voting membership on all committees, councils, and task forces. These changes are needed to make the ByLaws consistent with the revised Letter of Call. These and other proposed changes to the ByLaws will be presented to the congregation at the June Annual Meeting.
• Approved Board Goals for 2018-19
• Approved the following Consent Agenda items:
o Treasurer’s Report for November
o Minutes of November 15 Board Meeting
o Minutes of four special Board meetings (November 21& 25; December 6 & 14)
o Minutes of Special Congregational Business Meeting of December 16