Below are descriptions of the Board of Trustee and Committee positions that the Nominating Committee seeks to fill for at the Annual Meeting in June. This slate must be completed within 30 days of the meeting.
Eligibility Requirements: All elected members of the Board and MUUF Committees must be Members in Good Standing, meaning they have joined the Fellowship, are at least 15 years of age (18 if the position entails financial responsibilities) and have made and kept up with a financial pledge to the Operating Budget, or having received a confidential waiver from doing so from the Minister or Board President.
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MUUF Board of Trustees
Description of Board Responsibilities
For all Board positions
- The members of the MUUF Board of Trustees bring their skills and best intentions to help lead and guide our Fellowship.
- Board members are asked to learn about our Bylaws and governance model and to focus on the particular areas of Board work for which they were elected.
- The Board as a whole meets, agrees and recommends a budget and has fiduciary responsibilities to monitor the collection and distribution of funds to run our Fellowship.
- Officers – including President, Treasurer, Secretary, Pres-Elect, and Treas-Elect have the authority to sign checks.
- Working closely with our staff, the Board charters standing and special Committees who plan, implement, teach, and care for our spiritual needs and physical space.
- The Board implements policy, makes and votes on binding resolutions, and represents MUUF in the wider world.
- Our Board sets yearly goals and focuses on governance, strategy, and financial matters.
- Major topics for 2024–2025 include welcoming a new Settled Minister, continued Implementation of the 2022 Strategic Plan, the Completion Phase of our Capital Campaign, and of course, supporting our daily operations and services.
- The Board is currently working to align each Trustee at Large Title and Role in such a way as to support all six areas of our strategic plan. These future TAL focus areas will be closely related to the current descriptions below.
- The Board typically meets once a month on the second Wednesday, and often holds a working meeting on the fourth Wednesday as well. Additional work may be done by email in between.
BELOW ARE BRIEF JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR EACH ROLE
- President – Convene board meetings and agendas, hold retreat, approve expenditures, and budget, train Elect member, and is the official representative of MUUF.
- Treasurer – Monitor financial health, lead development of budget, review, plan and approve expenditures, train Elect member, and represents MUUF.
- President-Elect / Treasurer Elect – A one-year role that automatically serves as the trainee and key support for President OR Treasurer supporting all the areas of that role. The President-Elect can represent MUUF as required.
- Secretary – Record minutes and report votes board meetings and congregational meetings. Post minutes appropriately, advise and support Board record-keeping, documentation and archiving, such as minutes and agendas.
- TAL Membership – Serve as a liaison of the board to membership teams, connecting teams with each other and with the board and the minister as appropriate; support welcoming, engagement, health and growth of membership
- TAL Stewardship – Support Stewardship areas key to the financial health of the Fellowship including the Annual Budget, Capital Campaign, and Fundraising working closely with the Board and Treasurers to ensure the financial health of MUUF.
- TAL Social Justice Equity Compassion – Encourage, keep in close touch with, and help guide activities in line with MUUF and UUA goals and mission.
- TAL Network- Encourage network communication and synergy of committees, convene periodic meetings, call for year end report summaries, and keep in touch with flow of committees such as RE, GEM, Gateways, Membership
- TAL Strategic Plan – Monitor and highlight execution of strategic plan in concert with Network, Membership, President, Minister, etc. – i.e. MUUF.
BELOW ARE DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR THREE ROLES CURRENTLY TO BE FILLED FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS
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NOMINATING COMMITTEE
The Nominating Committee follows the procedures for nominating candidates as written in congregational bylaws to nominate candidates for open board positions and nominating committee positions. They begin meeting in late fall, with discussions of candidates’ strengths and weaknesses beginning in March. The discussions and asking processes continues thru early May when the full slate is due for submission to Fellowship in writing. All conversations are confidential.
Eligibility:
Members of Nominating are not eligible to serve in any other elected position of MUUF, including the Board, COM, Finance, and Endowment.
Criteria:
Critical thinker,
Knows many members of congregation
Familiar with inner workings of the Fellowship with regard to board and other elected positions and their roles
Diplomatic, able to broach sensitive subjects while being direct and clear
Not a gossip – could be trusted to have the appropriate and confidential conversations with other committee members as well as potential candidates
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Finance Committee Member
Role
– The candidate for this position should have an aptitude for dealing with finances
– Experienced in reading a budget.
– Ability to work with or create spread sheets.
– Regularly, as part of the committee review Katy Julich’s monthly finance reports.
– To note and discuss anything of concern with Katy Julich as a committee
– Help to develop the proposed budget for the following fiscal year.
– Meets once a month on 1st Tuesday of month.
- Once elected, the Member should familiarize themselves with the MUUF Bylaws, especially those related to Finances, as well as the MUUF Finance Policies.
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Endowment Committee
Term: Three to five members are elected for staggered, 3-year terms.
Desired qualities: Prospective members should have one or more of the following skills to support Endowment activities listed in the section below:
- knowledge of the congregation and its members,
- writing,
- project mgmt./evaluation,
- outgoing, good interpersonal skills,
Plus (but not required):
- Familiarity with tax implications and advantages of various charitable giving approaches (the new member can be brought up to speed on this)
- Personal experience with endowment giving
The MUUF Endowment Committee roles include, but are not restricted to support the following Endowment activities:
- Attend regularly scheduled meetings (currently monthly).
- Apprise the Congregation of the existence, credibility, and worthiness of the Endowment Fund
- Continuing education of Congregation members about the charitable aspects of estate planning, ways to transfer assets, the use of wills and trusts, life insurance, annuities, gifts of real property, securities or other tangible property such as art works and antiques. Activities include:
- A marketing plan to tell potential donors about ways they can give to the endowment fund and explain the advantages of each giving method.
- Examples of marketing tools are:
- Financial planning workshops that include a charitable giving component.
- Charitable giving brochures.
- Articles in MUUF newsletter and journals,
- Mail/email campaigns,
- meetings with potential donors,
- social media campaign,
- articles and notices highlighting gifts that have been made
- Developing and updating brochures and website reference content
- Interviewing givers and publicizing bequests for “why I give” advertising.
- Honoring givers – ordering plaques
- Memorial Garden
4. Encourages and assists members and friends of the Congregation in making contributions to the Fund.
5. In coordination with the MUUF finance staff, accepts and monitors donations to the fund, adds the donor information to a permanent record kept for that purpose, channels the donation to the investment agency (UUCEF). Thanks are sent to the donor and a note is also sent to the recipient or their family notifying them of the donation.
6. Monitors performance of the UUCEF and presents reports to the congregation re new gifts received, investment returns earned by the fund, the size of the fund, net asset value, annual allocations (where warranted by policy and procedures), project allocations and spending.
7. Periodically conducts campaigns to solicit project proposals for spending allocations made by the membership at the annual meeting.
8. Project Grants: The Committee seeks suggestions for worthwhile recipients and projects from the Congregation, the Board, and Congregation committees. Activities include publicity, education on project proposal sponsorship and form submission, review of submitted proposals, analysis of received proposals, submission to the Board for their consideration and final decision.
9. Review, Update or Write policies and procedures
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Below are descriptions of committees to volunteer on
Green Earth Ministry (GEM)
Linda DeLap GEM@muuf.org
Meets the second Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m.
This committee seeks to encourage earth-friendly practices within MUUF itself, within the lives of MUUF members and friends, and in the larger communities to which we belong. Goals include raising awareness of environmental issues and injustices; encouraging community and government action; generating commitment to sustainable lifestyle choices; and building a connection between spiritual practice and environmental consciousness. All are welcome to participate in our activities and meetings.