Board Meeting Minutes: September 12, 2021

Attendees: Jo Ella Coles, Greg Fisher, Adam Goforth, Matt Hoostal, Rosalie Karunas, Alex McCauslin, Minneth Mckoy, Melanie Odom-Groh

Meeting start: 12:10pm

  1. Opening Meditation - Rev. Melanie Odom-Groh

  2. Alex McCauslin gave an overview of the structure of current and future board meetings

  3. Board Member Reflection and Report - Rosalie Karunas and Rev. Melanie Odom-Groh

    • Rosalie and Melanie reflected on their roles as co-chairs and how they see their work in that role.

    • They reported on an upcoming change in the regional Disciples church. Instead of having its own regional minister, the Michigan Region will be hiring the regional minister of the Illinois/Wisconsin Region, Teresa Dulyea-Parker. This will give churches in Michigan access to the resources of the much larger IL/WI Region. It could also lead to more peer collaboration between churches in Michigan. Alex McCauslin noted that Journey of Faith has personal connections to the new regional minister and another staff member in the IL/WI Region, and that we're already looking into resources that could be useful to us.

    • Matt Hoostal will share a reflection about his role at the next meeting.

  4. Old Business 

    • Bookkeeping Proposals

      1. Alex McCauslin presented some background information on bookkeeping practices at the church: we have hired bookkeepers in the past on a part time basis, but we haven't had one in a while. Through working with another local non-profit organization that helped us get our books in order, they recommended we look into hiring a bookkeeping firm. We talked to and received proposals from three companies: Altruic, Aplos, and Jitasa.

      2. Alex gave her assessment of each of the companies:

        • Altruic seems good, but had by far the highest quoted price.

        • Aplos is primarily a church management software company, and only secondarily a bookkeeping service.

        • Jitasa focuses on bookkeeping, was very responsive and helpful in our interactions with them, and is just over half the price of Altruic.

      3. Alex, Matt, Melanie, and Rosalie had discussed the options and recommended Jitasa. The combination of their focus on bookkeeping and the pricing made them the best candidate.

      4. Several concerns were raised by board members about the service we use being flexible enough to handle our distinctive financial situation, about how locked in we would be to a single service provider, exactly which services are offered, and the privacy and security policy of the service provider.

      5. The board reached consensus that we would sign a 12-month contract with Jitasa.

      6. Action Item: Alex will contact Jitasa about getting a copy of their privacy and security policies and will send them to the board for review.

      7. Action Item: Alex will get a contract from Jitasa, which Matt will sign and send back.

    • Church building purchase proposal: in the last meeting we learned that another church is possibly interested in purchasing some or all of our building. We're waiting on a concrete proposal from them, but nothing has been received yet.

    • Neighboring land purchase: there is no new information on the real estate developer purchasing the land bordering the church's land.

  5. New Business and Updates

    • Leadership Academy, Online Conference (Tuesday, September 21 to Thursday, September 23 (11:00 AM EST to 6:00 PM EST))

      1. Alex McCauslin reported that this online conference is primarily for new churches, but they have a track for churches in transition. We got a donation to cover our attendance fees, so we are registered. We can send up to 5 people. It's an online conference and Alex will be attending when she can, but up to 4 others in the church can join.

      2. Action Item: Alex will send an email with the details and schedule.

    • Board meeting minutes

      1. Adam Goforth presented the plan for handling the board meeting minutes:

        • Draft minutes will be sent out to the board for review within a few days of each board meeting.

        • The board will have 48 hours to respond with corrections and additions.

        • A summary of the meeting will be sent out in a weekly church email newsletter, with a link to the full minutes

          1. Note there might be some slight redactions in this version of the minutes to protect people's privacy.

        • A paper version signed of the minutes will be signed by the board chairs and stored in the office as an official record.

        • For any actions that need to take place, an individual owner will be sought, who will be asked about the action item at each board meeting until it is resolved.

    • Church bylaws

      1. Greg Fisher asked about the church's suspended bylaws and when and how we will create new ones.

      2. Alex and Rosalie explained that we have proposed bylaws, but the previous board decided we would like to try them out for a time before confirming them. The congregational meeting in January would be a good time to bring them up with the congregation as a whole.

      3. Action Item: Melanie will lead a discussion on this topic at the November meeting.

    • Grants

      1. Jo Ella Coles reported that she and Minneth are applying for grants right now. These grants often include requirements to track how the grant money is spent, so we'll need to be aware of that with our new bookkeeping process.

    • Journey of Faith online presence

      1. Adam Goforth presented a proposal for how to move forward with Journey of Faith's online properties (websites, social media accounts, etc):

        • In the next few months: document all of our online accounts and transition technical administration of them from Jo Ella Coles to Adam Goforth.

        • Adam will work together with Susana Adame to create an overall online vision and strategy, which will be presented to the board in 2-3 months.

        • In 6-12 months, evaluate whether the services and technologies we're using are right for us, and transition to better alternatives if necessary.

      2. There was some discussion of the need for strategy and long-term planning in this area, things which haven't existed until now. In particular, we help some other organizations with their online properties, and a strategy around that work would be helpful.

      3. Action Item: Adam will make sure our online accounts are documented and administration is transferred to him.

      4. Action Item (longer term): Adam will bring a strategy for the church's online presence back to the board for consideration.

    • Janitor search

      1. We need to find a new janitor. Greg and Alex will start the search.

      2. Action Item: Greg will report on progress.

    • Student interns

      1. Jo Ella Coles notified us that we need to sign off on agreements with schools which outline requirements for student interns to be in our building as we bring on student interns.

      2. Jo Ella is currently managing this, but will involve Greg in the process.

  6. Debrief and Closing Prayer - Alex McCauslin

    • Next Meeting: Saturday, October 9 at 9:30am at Journey of Faith

    • Meeting attendees discussed their experience of and feelings about today's meeting.

Meeting end: 2:05pm