As your Interim President, I’m delighted to be chairing my first Congregational Meeting on Sunday June 7 after the Worship Service. We’ll be approving some bylaw changes, voting on the slate of candidates for the next year’s Board of Trustees and the Nominating Committee. I hope you all can come vote on these important issues. A Zoom option is always available for those who can’t attend in person.
Minister Led Model
The Board has been working on some important policy changes that have needed to happen. One big change has been to switch from a model of a Staff Leadership Team – leadership by a team of several staff, together reporting directly to the Board – to a Minister Led Model, when the director level staff all report to the Minister. I am pleased to report that our Director of Religious Exploration, Amanda Alice Uluhan, our Director of Finance and Operations, Marcy Langrock, and our Director of Membership Development, Nicole Duff, all now report to Rev. María Cristina, in addition to Eric Lane Barnes, our Music Director.
This has helped with clearer reporting lines and more collaboration between staff. These director level staff still submit board reports each month, so the Board can stay up-to-date with what each department is working on, and all staff are welcome to attend board meetings if they wish. Our goal with this Minister Led Model is for it to represent shared ministry, where Board members and staff all work collaboratively together, each knowing their own role and respecting the roles and expertise of each other.
While the new policies for this have already been approved by the Board, there are some minor wording changes to the Bylaws, which need your approval at the Congregational Meeting.
Youth Trustees
A year ago, we added a youth trustee position to the Board of Trustees, and acknowledged that the ideal way to incorporate youth onto the board is to have two positions, so that they could support each other. However, state law only allows for one new board position to be added each year, so we can now add a second youth trustee position.
Just to clarify, youth trustee positions are only available to youth aged 16-18 who are current members of East Shore’s youth group and have joined East Shore as members. In the event of insufficient youth being interested in the role, either role of Youth Trustee can remain vacant. It cannot be filled by an adult member of the congregation.
We also have an ex-officio, board-approved role of Youth Representative, which allows for other youth, who may not be able to take on a full Youth Trustee role, to participate in Board meetings as non-voting members.
Adding the second youth trustee to the board positions also results in some minor wording changes we need to make to our bylaws. So in addition to the Slate of Candidates, we will be asking you to vote on bylaw changes for both the Minister Led Model and the second Youth Trustee.
Facilities Updates
I want to update you on two important much needed fixes that have been completed. We now have a fully functional elevator in the Education Building and a brand new phone system!
Holly House sale – We are nearing the end of a multi-year process to sell off one acre of our 5 acre property for the development of some Town houses. This year we have received the second installment of earnest money – $200,000, and we’ve recently learned that the developer will be able to fit 2 additional units onto the property, which entitles us to an extra half million dollars, around $3 million in total, so that’s really good news. We anticipate the sale being completed around the end of this year. At our December Congregational meeting we will share with you how this money will be apportioned out, remembering that one third of net proceeds will be designated for Social Justice purposes.
EverJoy lease – As you know, we have signed a lease with EverJoy, a daycare company that plans to open up a new daycare in our Education Building. Marcy Langrock, our DFO, has been working closely with the owner and all the interested parties within East Shore, to develop plans for making improvements to the property to comply with Department of Children and Youth regulations. Those plans are currently awaiting approval from the Bellevue City Council, before construction can start.
This also impacts our plans for a new playground. We were delighted to raise around $22,000 from the Fund a Need at the auction to help pay for our portion of the playground, and are in discussion with EverJoy as to how best to meet the needs of both the preschool and our own members (of all ages!)
These are exciting times to be a member of East Shore, and I hope you will all participate to the fullest extent you can in determining our next steps.
by Amanda Strombom, Interim President of the Board of Trustees