Revised Documents for Congregational Meeting, April 1, 2012

The Governance Committee held two congregational meetings, one in February and one in March, to discuss the proposed changes to the bylaws with the membership.  They also held a meeting with the Leadership Council, which consists of the heads of all the standing committees of the church.  After much discussion and feedback, the Governance Committee made a few changes to the proposed bylaws.  Most of the changes were grammatical or did not significantly change the original proposal.  We very much appreciate the efforts of all of you who took time to read and understand our intentions.

On the menu bar to the right of this posting you'll see a list of pages.  Click on the Proposed Bylaws page to see the document that the congregation will be voting on April 1, 2012. Underneath that is the Current Bylaws page, and underneath that is a comparison chart of the old and new which enables you to see where changes have been made and why.

We look forward to seeing you on April 1, 2012, directly after the service at our congregational meeting to help us approve these changes with your vote.

Documents Are Now Ready to be Reviewed!

Please note the additional pages that have been added to this site, on the right side of this page.  Click on the title of the page in order to open it.  For the after-church meetings on February 19 and March 4 the Comparison Chart of Current and Proposed Bylaws will be useful.  Thank you for your attention.

FRS Constitution and Bylaws

It's been a year since the FRS Parish Committee formed a task force called the Governance Committee, charged with assisting the Parish Committee in creating the structure needed to best fulfill the mission and vision of the Society.

During this last year the task force has focused its attention on the Constitution and Bylaws, ensuring that this ever evolving, growing congregation has the tools to effectively govern through this most important document.  The committee has a final draft of the proposed new bylaws and with the Parish Committee's approval will present them to the congregation for discussion and then a vote.

Two meetings will be held, the first on February 19 directly after church in the sanctuary, the second on March 4 also directly after church.  During these meetings the members of the task force will answer questions, give rationale for suggested changes and will address any comments or concerns. Your feedback will give thecommittee an opportunity to make other changes, or to tweak the proposed changes.

The meetings will prepare the congregation for a vote to be taken at a congregational meeting that will be held on Sunday, April 1, directly after church.  This vote will be for approval of the proposed bylaws.

Your opinion, concerns, and questions matter. Please plan to attend one of these meetings.  To help you prepare for this meeting go to the right side of this page to download the document which lays the current and proposed versions of the Constitution and Bylaws next to each other, and gives a rationale for the changes made. The document is called "Comparison Chart of Current and Proposed Bylaws". We invite your comments.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you at one or all of our upcoming meetings.

Annie Madden, chair of Governance Committee; Jeff Bard, chair of Parish Committee; and the following members of the Governance Committee: Marie Murphy, Ned McClung, Nathan Wilbur, Harold Babcock, and John Mercer

Letter from the Minister

A Letter from the Minister: Looking at Governance Change

Dear Members and Friends,

During the last few years the First Religious Society Parish Committee (our congregation’s governing board) has begun a serious conversation about what is the most effective way to govern our growing congregation. Recognizing that at least some aspects of our organizational structure are outmoded and have become less than effective, the Parish Committee has undertaken an exploration of and experimentation with governing by policy, an approach adopted recently by many boards, among them many mid- to large-size Unitarian Universalist congregations.

In a nutshell, governing by policy places more responsibility on staff (both paid and volunteer) to fulfill the day-to-day administration of the church, with the Parish Committee having more responsibility for carrying out the vision and mission of the congregation. The Parish Committee accomplishes this mainly through delegation to the staff after serious discernment and goal setting. In other words, the Parish Committee creates policy that the staff is then empowered to implement.

Under this policy approach, the Parish Committee takes on more of a “big picture” than a management role in the life of the church. While this change in emphasis ultimately demands more of the staff, it also frees the PC to focus more on the policies that help to guide our church toward fulfilling the congregation’s mission of building a beloved community and changing people’s lives and our world for the better.

In reality, our church has become more and more staff-driven during the sixteen years that I have served as your minister. Because of the growth of our church there already are many responsibilities (financial and personnel-related among others) that volunteers are simply no longer able or willing to fulfill.

In recent years, for example, we have created an “Executive Committee” consisting of me, our Business Administrator, and the Parish Committee Chair (currently Annie Madden) to help deal with personnel issues as well as to plan our monthly Parish Committee meeting agendas. By adopting a “consent agenda” and by delegating certain responsibilities formerly managed by the PC, such as space use requests, we have tried to streamline Parish Committee meetings to make them more effective. The Parish Committee aims to keep its focus less on micro-management of the church and more squarely on where and how we want our church to go and be.

Ultimately, the move to this policy approach may also result in changes to the committee structure of the church in an effort not only to streamline the way we currently function but also to create new and perhaps more effective and inviting ways for volunteers to be involved in the congregation’s life and work.

In the coming months you will be hearing more about this new governance model. Eventually, the change to it will require congregational approval and substantial revision of our church bylaws. For now, the Parish Committee and I simply want you to know about these probable changes to the way we do things here at the FRS. We encourage you to bring your questions to a member of the Parish Committee or to its current Chair, Annie Madden.

These are exciting times at the FRS as our congregation continues to grow in numbers and spirit! We thank you for your commitment to making the FRS the most effective church it can be.

- Yours in fellowship, Harold Babcock