This glossary is designed to assist anyone who is reading and learning about our recent governance change process here at FRS.
This glossary was first created by the First Unitarian Church of Omaha, NE and is used with their kind permission. We have modified it for use here at the FRS. Definitions are followed by further explanation in italics.
For governance purposes, the Congregation is made up of the members of the First Religious Society – UU.
Our current congregation received the church from its predecessors and holds it in trust for future generations. In our democratic governance, the Congregation retains the most important responsibilities of calling a minister, electing church officers, voting on annual budgets and By- Law changes. The Congregation is responsible, along with leadership, for voicing the vision and mission on a periodic basis.
Constitution and By-laws
The legal document which defines the purpose of the FRS and serves as a mandate for how the church shall operate. It is voted and approved by FRS Membership and all staff and officers of the church are obligated to adhere to its articles.
The Constitution and By-laws were written many decades ago and has limitations that will need to be addressed if we adopt a policy governance model. Changes to the Constitution and By-laws would be made only after a thorough process of review by the entire membership.
Discernment
Discernment is a process undertaken to discover and voice the congregation’s mission (what good the congregation truly exists to do) and its vision (what the future will look like after good progress).
Discernment is a fundamental responsibility of the Parish Committee with important input from the Congregation.
Governance
Governance is holding the whole institution and its work in trust, voicing its intentions, making its biggest decisions, and taking responsibility for its performance. Governance produces minutes, policies, mission statements, goals, and strategic-planning documents.
Governance is the job of the Parish Committee.
Governance Task Force
This temporary working group reports to the Parish Committee and currently consists of Harold Babcock, Jeff Bard, Annie Madden, John Mercer, Marie Murphy, Nathan Wilbur and Ned McClung. This Task Force supports the Parish Committee in the area of governance.
The Governance Task Force is of late responsible for sharing information more widely with the church leadership and the congregation at large, especially in advance of upcoming important congregational votes on governance issues. Once policy based governance is in practice, the Governance Task Force may evolve into a Board-Governance Subcommittee which will report to the Parish Board and focus on leadership development, nominations, and education for excellence in governance.
Management
Management involves the day-to-day decisions that are made primarily by the Minister and Business Administrator Team and other staff and lay leaders which implement the goals and objectives articulated in the mission and vision, and which are bounded and guided by Parish Committee policy.
The Parish Committee delegates its management responsibility to the Minister and Business Administrator Team by adopting written policies which are designed to guide many decisions by others over time.
Ministry
Ministry is a term which refers to all of the work done by the congregation to serve the church’s mission. Ministry is all of the work that is done to make a positive difference in the lives of members and friends and others in the community and beyond.
Ministry traditionally had referred to the work of the minister – preaching, pastoral counseling, spiritual leadership, etc. In policy based governance, “ministry” is used more broadly to represent everything that we all do to create our beloved community of faith and hope. Ministry brings into being worship services, music, study groups, service projects, shoveled sidewalks, educated and happy children, and renewed hope.
Minister and Business Administrator Team
The Minister and Business Administrator Team manage the church on a day-to-day basis. The Team leads and relies on our dedicated staff and uses the talents and skills of the members of current committees and other church volunteers to perform the ministry or work of the church.
The church’s mission is the good that the congregation means to do, whom it hopes to benefit and how, and what it claims as its central principles or values.
Articulating mission is a central role of governance. The Parish Committee is responsible to and serves the mission of the church.
Open Questions
Open questions are significant to the Church’s strategic planning but do not, as yet, have answers.
Open questions call for a wider, longer conversation than an annual goal-setting process can accommodate; they invite congregational conversation before a decision is made.
Oversight
Oversight is the responsibility to ensure that the church uses its human and material resources for the benefit of its mission. Oversight policies set standards for the church’s life and work to assure that its resources are safeguarded, its leaders are accountable, and the congregation benefits from its experience.
Oversight is primarily the responsibility of the Parish Committee. Policies on oversight establish plans for monitoring and evaluation to ensure accountability and year to year improvement.
Parish Committee
The Parish Committee, the FRS governing board, is elected by the congregation and, according to the By-Laws, has general charge of the property of the Society and conducts the business affairs of the church. The Parish Committee is currently made up of 12 members.
Under policy based governance, the Parish Committee is responsible for understanding and articulating the church’s mission, planning for the church’s future, developing strategies and goals to achieve its vision, and evaluating the degree to which efforts achieve the desired results. To focus on these key responsibilities, the Parish Committee will delegate the day to day management of the church to a Ministry Team which we are calling the Minister and Business Administrator Team. The Governance Task force recommends that we eventually change the name of the Parish Committee to Parish Board.
The Parish Committee’s focus is on the long-term mission and well-being of the Congregation, not on administrative detail. It respects the distinction between Parish Committee governance and ministry and avoids, when possible, making decisions that address only a single situation. The Parish Committee intends to govern primarily by:
- Discerning and articulating the Congregation’s mission and vision of ministry,
- Setting goals and making strategic choices,
- Executing financial oversight to meet its fiduciary responsibility to the Congregation,
- Creating written policies to guide the Congregation’s ministry, and
- Monitoring and evaluating the Congregation’s leadership, including itself.
Strategies, goals, and objectives describe the plan for crossing the gap between the current state and the vision. The Parish Committee expresses its strategy to move toward the vision in its Annual Retreat. The Retreat will produce a short list of high-priority tasks to be achieved in the coming one to three years. It is the short-term product of the Parish Committee’s strategic planning process. The Minister and Business Administrator Team then translates the Parish Committee’s Retreat Strategy into goals and objectives for the coming year.
Policy
A policy is an authoritative written statement designed to control many individual decisions over time.
Developing high level policies is the responsibility of the Parish Committee. Policies provide the framework for on-going decision making. The Minister and Business Administrator Team management decisions are made within the context of the appropriate policies. High level policies address governance, discernment, strategy, management, and oversight. Administrative policies are more detailed policies that are developed by staff or lay leaders, which fall under the higher level policies set by the Parish Committee.
Staff
Staff includes everyone who is part of the chain of practical activities that constitutes the congregation’s work or ministry. Senior Staff refers to the Minister, the Business Administrator, and the Directors of Religious Education and Music.
For the purpose of the Parish Committee’s work, we do not distinguish between ordained and lay, paid and unpaid, or “program” and “administrative” staff. Anyone who does the work or ministry of the church is considered staff and reports to the Minister and Business Administrator Team, or the Minister, or the Business Administrator, or other senior staff. For example, an RE teacher reports to our Director of Religious Education, a choir member reports to our Director of Music, the Sexton reports to the Business Administrator, and the Chair of the Parish Friends reports to the Minister.
Strategy
Strategy is the process of setting goals and making high level decisions to move the organization from its current state toward its desired vision.
At least annually, the Parish Committee will describe its strategy during an annual retreat. The Minister and Business Administrator Team will then develop the action plans to implement the strategy. The process of strategy is a shared responsibility of the Parish Committee and staff.
Teams / Committees
Teams are action oriented groups that produce practical results. Some teams directly fulfill pieces of the congregation’s mission, producing the primary results the mission calls for. Worship teams, educational ministries; outreach, service, and social-action teams; hospitality and caring teams; and choirs—depending how the congregation sees its mission—fall into the primary-results category. Other teams produce supportive, secondary results: a clean building, a fund-drive mailing, a readable newsletter, an attractive garden.
Traditionally, at the FRS, much of the work of the church has been the responsibility of “committees”. Under policy based governance, there is a distinction between “committees” and “teams”. This is a change in parlance that we may or may not want to move towards. We need input on this from the congregation and church leadership as a whole. In this new governance model, committees are groups that produce minutes and policies and support the Parish Board’s work, such as the Human Resources Subcommittee of the Parish Committee. Committees or Board Committees report to the Parish Board. Teams are groups that do things and produce practical results for the mission. Teams create music, adult ed classes, social outreach activities, RE activities, clean grounds and shoveled sidewalks, and meals for the community. Teams do not need to keep minutes. Teams report to the Minister and Business Administrator Team or other Senior Staff.
In practice, there is no hierarchy associated with work group terminology and the terms “committee” and “team” are simply ways to conveniently identify whether a given group does its work primarily for the Parish Committee or primarily for the Minister and Business Administrator Team.
Trial Run
The “Trial Run” is a year in which the church will function under the new policy based governance structure and the new set of high level policies developed by the Parish Committee.
Once enough policies have been developed and approved by the Parish Committee, the Parish Committee will ask the congregation for a vote of confidence to support a year’s trial run of the new structure. We expect to do this at the Annual Meeting in mid May. The Parish Committee's goal is to start our trial run on June 1, 2011. During the trial run year, fine tuning of policies will take place, and preparation for proposed By - Law changes will be made. If all goes well, By-Law changes will be recommended to the Congregation in the Spring of 2012.
Vision
A vision is a star to be guided by. It is an imagined future state of the church as it becomes a better vehicle to serve our mission.
Governance Task Force, February 2011
