Getting
Started
The UU Church of Spokane is in its third year of a policy governance
style of governing. We started the first year with Board & leadership
training, adopting a very general set of governance policies, writing
our Ends statement, forming our Management Team and congregational informational
sessions. We agreed up front that we would live with being out of compliance
with some sections of the Bylaws while adapting the new governance style.
Over the next two years we have completed re-writing our Ends Statement
and all but one section of our Governance Policies. We also developed
a flow chart for a Complaint & Inquiry Process. In our third year
we have just completed proposed revisions of our Bylaws to reflect current
practices. We also just completed a weekend, incorporating congregational
training with Board and Management Team training to take stock of where
we are, look to the future and make adjustments in those things which
needed work. I think our timing was excellent. We have had time to get
comfortable with the concepts and implement much of the processes needed
for this type of governing, but haven't been in it for so long that
we can't remember the olden days! We also are in the process of formally
developing a good set of orientation materials for incoming Board members.
One of the best things we did this year was to purchase, "The Board
Member's Playbook," by Miriam Carver and Bill Charney. The scenarios
are excellent and easily adapted to our particular concerns. The Board
used one a month for several months with Board members completing the
exercise prior to the Board meeting and then discussing it at a meeting.
It helped us think about how to deal with certain situations, and helped
us to become very familiar with our Governance Policies as we had to
read them each month in order to complete the exercise.
Our Board has three year terms which makes this year's current Board
the first one on which everyone has been elected to the Board while
under the policy governance form of governing. This is a significant
milestone in our progress. Our focus for the upcoming year is leadership
and congregational training to help everyone become more informed and
comfortable with the concepts.
Cathi Lamoreux
President
UU Church of Spokane Board of Trustees
3/31/2005
Our decision to go to policy governance was made only after a year
and a half of discussion, retreats, and explanations.
First we talked about our Society's health. We decided that although
our Society was in a good place, we thought we could do better in growth
and affecting the wider community. We saw that our organizational checks
and balances were over-checking and keeping our leaders from taking
appropriate action. We saw the policy governance model with its strong
charge to the Executive Team as a necessary structural change. We saw
the policy governance mandate for the Board to work with the Membership
to determine our Ends as something critical to our Society which was
not being done at all.
But, it took us months and several facilitated retreats for the Board
to decide that it wanted to focus on communications and ends an then
to be able to explain to the Congregation what an Executive Team was
and what it would be doing.
When we adopted the policy governance model, we did it all at once.
We knew we would continue to work out kinks, but we felt we needed to
clear lines of responsibility as soon as we could.
Galen B. Workman
UU Society of San Francisco
http://www.ozdachs.com
Nov 5 2001