UUA
Congregational Services
Extension
Education and Research
Presents
About Our Theme Presenter The Rev. Dr. Gilbert Rendle:
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The Rev. Dr. Gilbert Rendle
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As a Senior Consultant with The Alban Institute, Rendle consults with congregations using his background in organizational development and systems theory. His areas of expertise include: understanding and managing change, coping with congregational conflict, congregational structure and the accomplishment of ministry, building effective staff teams, and the relationship of ministry to a changing culture. He is the author of Leading Change in the Congregation and Behavioral Covenants in Congregations.
Experimenting With a New Way to Do Committees
by Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube - Senior Minister, Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Several years ago our congregation found itself with over forty "committees" and with the staff overwhelmed trying to support them all and keep track of what was going on. Our board member liaison system had broken down, the board and staff did not know what the committees were doing and board meetings often went until midnight as the board dealt with what was properly committee work, often redundantly. About that time, in an issue of Net Results, an article by Herb Miller explained a different way of organizing the board and the committee work of the church. I was so impressed with this article that I shared it with the board and committee chairs who were also enthusiastic about the idea. (The article is available along with other good stuff for $12 in the Net Results reprint packet called "Organizational Systems Improvement." Fax 806-762-2993, phone orders 806-762-8094.)
In that article Miller made several important observations. The first was the most churches committee structures were suitable for the realities of the '50s and not the '90s (and now the '00s). In those days, through mass government and other institutions a generation had won a World War and gone from Depression to prosperity. This was a generation that was used to fitting in with others and doing its part. It was a generation that had good feelings about and trusted institutions. Everyone who joined a church was aware that they would be expected to pitch in and join a committee. The Boomers and X-ers now joining our churches, in the shadow of Vietnam and Watergate, are suspicious of institutions. They give a high value to individual development and often deify it. Still, they are hungry to belong and to serve. This is a conflict for them.
Another observation was the most people hate committee meetings.
Surprise, surprise! About eighty percent of the people that we do talk
into serving on committees do so for reasons other than finding committee
work fulfilling - guilt and expectations and paying the price of going
to meetings because in many church systems this is the only way to engage
in social action, teach adult RE, be involved in caring for other members,
teaching Sunday school, being involved in worship - in other words we
make people do committee work as an entree to doing what they really want
to do. Miller believes that there should be only eight to ten committees,
made up of the twenty percent of people who like and are gifted at meeting,
planning, coordinating and organizing. All other groups are task forces
or action groups who are supervised and supported by committees, who plan
and structure their work.
Based on the article and discussions around it, we got the
congregation to suspend the by-laws for one year so we could try the new
model. We basically started over with only eleven standing committees:
Adult Enrichment, Caring, Finance, Good Times, House and Grounds, Membership,
Music, Children's Religious Education, Social Justice and Worship. All
other "committees" became action groups under a standing committee.
The committee chairs meet every first Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. for 1½
hours over a simple meal.
Each committee and senior staff member reports on their activities and other members add input and coordination of information and effort. In addition there is time for spiritual reflection and "hot topics", problems or issues that members bring up for the whole groups ideas. The meeting ends promptly at 7:30. Almost all of the committees then meet at 7:45 that same evening. This is good in many ways. It keeps people from serving on too many committees and over-influencing congregational life. The congregation is forced to identify and develop new leadership. It forces committees to be strategic about the ministers' time and it frees the ministers from wasting time at committee meetings on things they needn't be involved in, like working out coffee hour tabling schedules. It keeps the ministers from over-functioning. And it frees up many evenings for the ministers to do ministry.
Everything You Wanted to Know About Personnel Management - But Didn't Know Where to Look
The Alban
Institute recently published a comprehensive guide to personnel management
practices in congregational settings - The Alban Personnel Handbook
for Congregations by Erwin Berry. A retired human resources expert
and college professor, Berry has managed to blend his professional and
church experiences in putting together an uncommonly useful manual to
help churches handle the difficult task of establishing a comprehensive
personnel system. By managing staff more effectively, churches can expect
to attract, motivate and retain the best available staff members.
"The foundation of an effective personnel system,"
writes Berry, "is to have written personnel policies and procedures
in a manual that is reviewed and updated on an annual basis." It
is often the case that ministers find themselves in the position of inventing
policies as they go along, since the lay leadership tends to abdicate
responsibility for establishing sound policies in advance. When it comes
to human resources, church policy-making is generally reactive rather
than proactive.
Each of the seven chapters in The Alban Personnel Handbook
deals with one aspect of developing a proactive personnel management
system: assessing the current situation, church organization and job structure,
employee search and training, setting staff goals, evaluation and compensation,
assessing morale, and managing the personnel system.
The book's appendices are a treasure of practical tools,
including guidelines for developing policy and articulating your church's
employment philosophy, information about employee classification, and
a model for new employee orientation. Among the specific policy areas,
the appendices include helpful samples in areas such as fair treatment,
employee discipline, leaves of absence, salary and performance evaluation,
and working conditions. It also includes samples of useful forms: job
description, employment application, employment reference inquiry, employment
offer, performance evaluation, and exit interview. Finally, there is a
sample employee handbook, which provides a template for developing a comprehensive
handbook for your congregation. These appendices are available on a CD-ROM
(included with the book), allowing users to reproduce the materials as
they are or adapt them to their own situation.
The Alban Personnel Handbook highlights some of the
most important federal laws that relate to employment in the United States.
However, it is important to remember that employment laws vary from state
to state and that Canadian churches operate under labor laws that vary
between provinces. So, church leaders should collect and familiarize themselves
with state and provincial legislation by contacting the appropriate authorities.
Church leaders should also be familiar with the professional guidelines
of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Assoc-iation, the Liberal Religious
Educators Assoc-iation and the Unitarian Universalist Musician's Network,
since these guidelines help to establish standards of employment, over
and above what may be required by the law.
The Alban Personnel Handbook won't help you determine
appropriate staff levels or decide which new staff position to add next.
But it will help your congregation develop a thoughtful philosophy of
employment, establish a sound system of personnel management and develop
the kind of practices that will contribute to a healthy workplace environment
for those who staff our churches.