Board Meeting Minutes: May 7, 2023
Attendees: Korderro Brown, Tenia Dewolf, Greg Fisher, Adam Goforth, Melanie Odom-Groh, Anna Wysocki, Jo Ella Coles (guest)
Meeting start: 12:34pm
Opening Prayer: Melanie Odom-Groh
Melanie led the board in prayer.
A Servant's Heart Funds - Jo Ella Coles
There are several grants that A Servant's Heart (ASH) has received or has applied for, that Journey of Faith is the fiscal sponsor for. Jo Ella showed the board a report of past and current grants.
There are several other grants that ASH intends to apply for, but has not yet.
Jo Ella is requesting $1,700 from the church to cover the cost of NEW working with ASH on their financial framework for 6 months.
Greg moved that the church give $1,700 from the Generations Fund to A Servant's Heart for this purpose. The motion passed by consensus, with no opposition voiced.
There was a suggestion that ASH might donate the money back to the Generations Fund if they get a grant to cover the cost, but no commitment to do so was made.
Jo Ella showed the board some information about previously-received funds for various mission projects.
Homeless Ministry - Jo Ella Coles
Jo Ella reported that the church had previously decided not to engage in providing social services. Rather, it decided to do "homeless safety net" ministry, which is a more restricted set of activities.
Jo Ella suggested that some of the things the church has been doing for people, like helping them find housing, moves into the social services realm that needs more professional training. If the church wants to continue doing that, it should bring in external resources rather than doing it in-house.
The board discussed Rose's role and responsibilities. There has been a lack of clarity around her job description and it would be good to make expectations clearer around her work and reporting.
Peace House - Korderro Brown
Journey of Faith no longer wants to be the fiscal agent or property owner for Peace House, but Sheri isn't sure which direction she wants to go in the area of Peace House's legal status and relationship with other organizations. She asked for 6 months to figure that out before making any changes to Peace House's legal structure.
Korderro suggested that Journey of Faith start charging an administrative fee to Peace House for the financial work the church is doing for them. For example, the church could charge 7% of all funds moving through Journey of Faith's accounts. This would serve as both an incentive for Peace House to separate themselves from Journey of Faith, and also compensate the church for the time, effort, and risk involved in handling funds for Peace House.
Melanie, Korderro, and possibly Anna will meet with Sheri again and see if they can get clarity on a plan to move forward. If that discussion is not effective, then the board will revisit the topic and decide on actions that the church will take to motivate Peace House to take action.
Transition team update
The church transition team has been working on the bylaws and has had several discussions about church membership and the church board (or church council). Greg and Adam have met to start drafting the specific language of the bylaws.
Tim, Rosalie, and Melanie have been working on updating the lists of active participants in the church.
Tenia has been talking to Matt and Tim about the future of church finances. She will set up a meeting with those people and Adam Goforth to discuss a transition plan away from Matt as Treasurer.
Ministry teams:
Worship
On June 25th Journey of Faith will have an LGBT Pride Sunday service.
Mission - Anna Wysocki
A National Benevolence Association Representative is coming to Ann Arbor in June to meet with A Servant's Heart. Potentially Journey of Faith could also engage with him while he's in town.
The West Willow Health Clinic has started seeing patients with restricted hours, and there will be an official opening in June with expanded hours.
Anna reported that she hopes to continue to clarify her role as outreach coordinator.
Anna would like to form a DEI committee to be responsible for implementing the DEI roadmap that the board approved earlier this year.
Anna wants to be in closer contact with the New Beginnings ministry. She started a group text message with a number of people, but it still needs to be figured out how to integrate Timothy into the communication. Anna will discuss with Timothy the option of using Slack instead of text messaging.
Anna said that she isn't completely clear about the division of tasks between herself and Rose. Kord suggested that Anna, Tenia, Rose, and Kord could meet to get more clarity around this division of work.
The camper in the RV in the parking lot has been told that he needs to leave and Anna has put him in contact with some resources to help him find housing and move the RV. The board decided to give him a deadline of the end of June to leave the property. Greg will talk to him and communicate the deadline.
The board discussed the continued rental of the portable toilet outside. As previously discussed, the board would like to stop paying the monthly rental fee if possible, in order to reduce expenditures. Tenia said that she would like to keep it for a month or two after the current RV camper has left to see how much it's needed, and the rest of the board agreed with that strategy.
Anna proposed that the board change how the board meeting minutes are approved. Rather than the board chair approving minutes, the entire board could vote on approving the previous meeting's minutes at the beginning of each board meeting. Additionally, a printed copy should be available at the beginning of the meeting for people to look over before the vote. Adam agreed to try this method, so the board will do it at upcoming meetings.
The church was contacted about possibly giving the Ypsilanti IWW free usage of space at the church for their regular breakfasts. Anna has reached out for more details, but hasn't received a response yet.
A few weeks ago Anna collected signatures for a letter to Washtenaw County to continue a set of housing services beyond an original deadline on which they were to end. Rosalie brought the letter to a County Commissioners' meeting and the county decided to continue the services.
Congregational Meeting - Tenia
Tenia suggested the church might want to have a congregational meeting soon to bring the congregation up to speed on what the board and transition team are currently doing.
Ann Arbor Pride Festival - August 5
There was discussion of Raphael's proposed budget of $2,116 for a booth and items for the Ann Arbor Pride Festival. The board members that were in attendance thought that the church doesn't need to sell any branded merchandise at the festival and instead proposed that we just hand out some free materials and talk to people.
Korderro moved that the board approve a $600 budget for the rest of the year for LGBT affirming purposes, including the Ann Arbor Pride Festival. The motion passed by consensus, with no opposition voiced.
Pastor's Report - Korderro Brown
Kord has been attending a transition leadership training course, which has been helpful.
Debrief - Melanie Odom-Groh
Melanie asked the board members to share where they felt tension in today's meeting and where God showed up.
Next Meeting
The next board meeting will be on June 4, at 12:30pm at the church.
Meeting end: 3:00pm