By Barry Shumpert, President of the Board of Trustees
Any of you who have happened to hang around after the worship service on the third Sunday of any month have probably noticed a bunch of people sitting around the table in the conference room. You may have wondered who they were and what they were up to. Chances are you have happened upon the WUUC Board of Trustees in “action.” I use that term loosely because our “action” consists mostly of sitting for a couple of hours every month and talking over church matters. Any WUUC member is welcome to sit in on our meetings, but few choose to do so, which is hard to understand considering how exciting the experience is (gentle sarcasm intended).
As for what we are up to, I'd like to give you a re-cap of some of the issues we've been discussing lately. So here, in no particular order, is an annotated list of a few recent board topics.
Safety and Security—For sometime now, we've been concerned with how to keep our congregation and facilities (a) safe from things like health emergencies and severe weather events, and (b) secure from outside human threats. Since doing all the research of looking at ways to accomplish these goals and evaluating which approaches are best for Westside would consume all the board's time and energy, we have been encouraging the activation of a Safety Committee to perform these tasks and recommend actions that the board can then approve.
Family Promise—Those of you who have been around WUUC for a while probably remember when we participated in the Family Promise program as a host church. Several times a year we would provide a home for three to four families who had found themselves homeless. Over time the duties of being a host church exhausted our volunteer base and we withdrew from the program. After a hiatus of several years the board has decided to re-enter the Family Promise program on as a support church. Instead of hosting families for a full week, we will provide meals and coordination for one night to the families who are staying elsewhere. We are doing this on a trial basis; if we have problems generating sufficient volunteer support, we will reconsider our participation.
Building and Grounds—Almost every board agenda includes some issue related to maintaining or improving our physical plant. While our very active and capable Building and Grounds Committee looks after these issues, many of them involve the expenditure of church funds and end up before the board. In the latest example, it was discovered that a malfunction in the HVAC system for our sanctuary was keeping it from operating efficiently. After discussion to understand the issue, the board authorized an expenditure of funds to find out what the problem is and hopefully correct it.
Organizational Matters—The board's president-elect, Alice T., and past-president, Linda F., are leading an effort to revise the WUUC bylaws and policies and procedures so that they best serve the congregation's current needs. Proposed changes to the bylaws will be presented for approval at upcoming Congregational Meetings, and changes to policies and procedures will be approved by the Board of Trustees. The board is also in the process of putting together a church calendar. This calendar will lay out the actions that need to take place each month to ensure our institution functions properly. The calendar will remind us, for example, of when we need to start planning the auction or when certain meetings or decisions are required.
Restroom Accessibility—It has been pointed out to us lately that our restrooms are not welcoming and accessible to all our members and visitors. Some people look at the “Men's” and “Women's” signs on the doors and are bewildered because those terms don't apply to them. And then, when they enter one of them, they don't feel secure because of the lack of personal privacy and security. The board is exploring ways to improve this situation, and changes are underway. For now, we are moving toward making the restrooms (a) all-gender, with signage indicating whether a restroom has a urinal or not; (b) single-use, accommodating one person at a time; and (c) lockable for privacy. We will re-evaluate this arrangement in the future to determine if further changes are needed.
These are some of the issues the board has been wrestling with lately. If you want to know more about them or other concerns, I or other board members will be happy to try to fill you in.
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