Board Meeting Minutes: March 12, 2022

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

Meeting start: 9:41am

Opening Devotional - Rosalie Karunas
Check-in about The Conversation: Part One
1. The board members shared their thoughts on the first part of the book "The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations"
Finance update - Matt Hoostal
1. Larry Odom-Groh is going to track down the letter from the IRS needed to change the church's name with the bank.
2. Most people have gotten their 2021 financial statements. The coded income numbers will be available within the next couple of days.
3. There is money in the church's PayPal account that needs to be transferred to the church's bank account, but we can't do that right now due to administrative issues. Jo Ella and Matt will work together to resolve the issues.
4. Alex McCauslin: There's an opportunity to get a United Way community impact grant.
5. Jitasa is waiting on information from the church at the moment.
Communications Update - Adam Goforth
1. Susana, Adam, and Larry Odom-Groh met.
2. The staff webpage has been updated, but a couple more people still need to be removed.
3. Social media is seeing increased usage.
4. Larry will be creating a flyer to pass out to people who live near the church.
  1. Jo Ella: How can we connect with and include people in our church life who are not near to the church?
  2. Rosalie: Do we have ways through online communication to connect with the people we serve?
5. Alex: The church's Google Business Profile gets quite a lot of traffic.
6. There was discussion of the different audiences the church communicates with, how we communicate with them, and how to encourage people in certain groups to participate in other aspects of the church's life and work.
Operations Update - Greg Fisher
1. Greg hasn't had a chance to review the church's insurance policies (e.g. worker's compensation), but still intends to.
2. On the church building's hot water heater: a plumber came on Thursday and did something, which may have helped. The recirculating pump was originally installed incorrectly, so the plumber turned it off this week. We should have hot water now, but it will take a long time to get to far–away parts of the building.
3. One heating contractor looked at our heating a while ago, but did not repair anything. We have since received a large bill from them, but we're unsure whether we should pay it. We will ask for an itemized bill and the building team will engage with the contractor.
4. Michael, the recently-hired building manager, is doing great work and everyone is happy with him.
5. We're looking for a new elevator maintenance company. The current one is telling us we need to replace the elevator, but others have said there's nothing wrong with it.
6. The Daytime Warming Center is currently at the building for the month of March. The church will have the carpets cleaned after it's over.
Ministry Reports
1. Homelessness Ministry
  1. The board received a printed report from Rose.
  2. Rose has been working with Jo Ella to develop the art gallery into an independent non-profit organization.
2. Report from Jo Ella Coles
  1. We've started the process to get independent non-profit status for the Art Gallery and A Servant's Heart.
  2. We got a grant from the Disciples of Christ to cover the fees required to establish a non-profit.
  3. We're in the process of creating articles of incorporation and bylaws for the two groups. For the Art Gallery, we would like for the organization to be governed by the participants (artists and the involved people working with homeless people). Getting more people involved in writing the bylaws would be helpful.
  4. Rosalie: It could be helpful for the people working on the bylaws for the church to work together with the people working on the bylaws for the non-profits.
  5. Jo Ella: We need to move quickly on the status of the Art Gallery and A Servant's Heart, because it's part of the entrepreneurship program I'm in and they expect things to move at a certain pace.
  6. National Public Health Week events will happen in West Willow in April.
  7. We're looking for more help with A Servant's Heart, so if you know anyone who might be interested, talk to Jo Ella.
    1. We need help with websites, both the Art Gallery and West Willow.
    2. We're looking for people who might want to be a part-time community health worker.
    3. We're forming a partnership with Growing Hope in Ypsilanti. There's a group of residents interested in starting a food coop in West Willow. We're looking for a younger person to work with a small group of youth in the neighborhood to get something going around food access.
3. Alex McCauslin
  1. Alex will email out a written report to the board.
  2. There has been more opportunity for Alex to connect with shut-ins in the last month than in previous months.
Bylaws
1. Rosalie has met with Jeff Zimmerman, who is consulting from the IL/WI regional office of the Disciples of Christ. The board members involved with writing the bylaws need to discuss how they want to move forward with him.
Future Leadership
1. The current board members' terms will end in July. The expectation is that Rosalie and Jo Ella will step down at the end of the term. The other board members should consider whether they would like to renew their terms for another year.
2. The board should be thinking about who might join the board to fill any gaps.
3. The board had previously talked about replacing Minneth soon, but now Alex is leaning towards adding another person at the new board term in the summer.
DEI Conversations
1. Alex will schedule a meeting time with the board and the DEI consultant in the next couple of days. This initial meeting will be focussed on determining the board's goals with these conversations. The board will then plan for regular conversations facilitated by the consultant.
Closing

Meeting end: 12:09pm