Board Meeting Minutes: June 4 2023

Attendees: Korderro Brown, Tenia Dewolf, Greg Fisher, Adam Goforth, Raphael Guillen, Melanie Odom-Groh, Anna Wysocki

Meeting start: 12:30pm

Opening Prayer: Melanie Odom-Groh

A paper copy of the May board meeting minutes was available for board members to read. Melanie moved to approve these minutes. The motion was adopted by consensus, with no opposition voiced.

Matt, Adam, Tenia, and hopefully Timothy will meet later this week to hand off Matt's responsibilities.
As part of the transition discussions, the finance team is also considering moving to a new bank or credit union some time soon.
Greg moved that upon Matt Hoostal's written resignation from the Treasurer role, Adam Goforth will be named the church Treasurer. The motion was adopted by consensus, with no opposition voiced.
Tenia moved that we request for PNC bank to issue two new credit cards to Timothy Tucker-Smith and Adam Goforth, and cancel any other open credit cards that the church has. The motion was adopted by consensus, with no opposition voiced.

The quiet meditation times in the service will now happen twice per month, instead of in every service.
Journey of Faith's booth for Ann Arbor Pride has been reserved and a check for the fee has been sent. Raphael has an open inquiry to the organizers about the booth dimensions, and if a table and/or tent will be provided.
The church will hand out stickers, candy, maybe buttons, and leaflets with Journey of Faith's information on them.
Raphael is organizing the Pride service for the Sunday morning service on June 25th and is seeking participants to help lead the service, with a preference for queer people.
There was some discussion of how to streamline the children's ministry during Sunday morning services. Kord and the rest of the worship team will follow up on this later.

The bylaws work has continued. The transition team has discussed all aspects of the bylaws, and Greg and Adam have a goal to create an initial draft of the document before the June 17th Transition Team meeting. The transition team plans to propose a set of bylaws to the board at the July board meeting.
Now that the bylaws are wrapping up, the next step for the transition team is to create a financial plan for the church. This will start with a day-long retreat of the board and transition team together.
Kord requested a $900 budget for the board and transition team retreat. Melanie said that she knew of a donor who would support this expenditure, so that it would not have to come out of the church's general budget. Greg moved to approve the $900 budget for the leadership retreat. The motion was adopted by consensus, with no opposition voiced.

The search guidelines documentation has been received from the Region.
Melanie, Tenia, and Larry have agreed to serve on the search committee, and 2 others have been asked, but have not yet accepted.

Jo Ella has agreed to help coordinate the New Beginnings ministry. She will involve student interns in the Art on a Journey art gallery.
Sheri has said that she would like to create an independent financial organization for Peace House, but she is also talking to two other organizations about becoming Peace House's new fiscal agent, as a backup plan.
Anna has not yet talked to Timothy about how to get him integrated in the communication around the New Beginnings ministry (e.g. Slack).
Gordie, the RV camper in the parking lot, has been in and out of the hospital over the last month, so he has not been talked to about moving out of the church parking lot.
There were no updates on IWW's request to use the church building for regular breakfasts.
When the Director of Social entrepreneurship for the Disciples of Christ National Benevolent Association is here in June, Kord is planning to be there when he meets with people for A Servant's Heart.
Anna has not had a chance to clarify her role and division of tasks with Rose. Now that Jo Ella is getting involved, that might be less necessary, but Anna still wants to remain connected.
Update on the church's DEI goals: Kord suggested that Anna, Raphael, and Melanie form a DEI ministry team to make progress on them.

The church no longer has hot water in the basement, most importantly the shower is at most lukewarm. Melanie will contact a plumber who specializes in hot water heaters.
There is a problem with the password on the Ring account being changed by Rose, and therefore Timothy losing access. Adam will talk to Timothy about possibly setting up separate logins so this won't happen again.

Facebook account: it was suggested that it would be nice to add more announcements and event information to the Facebook page. Melanie will mention this to Larry Odom-Groh and Adam will meet with Timothy and Larry Odom-Groh soon.
Communicating about ongoing work to the congregation: the board will tentatively try to share out in August about the work being done by the board and transition team.

Kord wants the church to think about how to communicate what we're doing to the greater community and how to attract people to the church. Raphael will coordinate an initial conversation between Kord, Anna, Raphael, Melanie, and Larry Odom-Groh.

Melanie asked the board where they felt tension and where God showed up. Board members shared their thoughts about today's board meeting.

The next meeting will be at 11:30am (directly after the service) on July 9th at the church.

Meeting end: 2:10pm