President’s Report: November 2018

Nov 2, 2018 | News

by Tom Doe, Board President

On October 20, the Board held its annual retreat. In attendance were the Board members, as well as Rev. Steve Furrer, Asia Hauser, and Jason Puracal, who are ex officio non-voting members. Also invited for the morning portion of the retreat were representatives of standing Board Committees (Financial Stewardship, Personnel, Nominating, Policy & Governance) and task forces (Right Relations, Holly House Development). As I have discussed in previous Beacon articles, a major objective of the retreat is to set Ends, which serve as the Board’s direction to professional and volunteer staff.

Before getting into the details of the Ends, the Board decided the word “Goals” would better describe the objective of this exercise. The draft Goals are largely continuations of the Ends the Board adopted in the previous two years.

The major differences between the draft Goals and our previous Ends are changes that reflect our decision to engage a Developmental Minister instead of a Settled Minister, and the additional goal of preparing a Strategic Campus Plan. We also consolidated some of the previous goals in the interests of simplification and conciseness.

Below are the draft Goals the Board produced. These will be discussed further with a possible vote for adoption at the November Board meeting on the 23rd starting at 7:00 p.m. We welcome any comments on these Goals, and as always members are welcome to attend Board meetings.

2018-19 Board Goals (formerly “Ends”)

Financial strategy

ESUC has a five-year financial strategy. This will be reviewed on an annual basis.

  • By 12/2018 we will review the implementation of the endowment charter
  • By 6/2019 we will have a congregational vote on disposition of the Holly House property
  • By 6/2020 we will prepare the congregation for a vote on use of the proceeds from the Holly House disposition

Developmental Ministry Goals

During the tenure of the Developmental Minister, we will:

  • Inspire a healthier culture at East Shore
  • Continue to implement policy-based governance
  • Establish a leadership and volunteer development program
  • Grow membership

Beloved Community

We will nurture a sustainable Beloved Community by making measurable progress moving our congregation from multi-culturally aware to anti-racist, with specific attention to lifelong learning, pastoral care, and theology.

Strategic Campus Plan

By the 2020 Annual Congregational Meeting, we will have a Preliminary Master Campus Plan that leverages the value of our infrastructure resources for the purposes of:

  • Becoming a hub of earth and social justice ministry teams and affiliated outside organizations
  • Serving as an emergency preparedness and response center
  • Reducing the environmental impact of our facilities and membership activities
  • Measuring impact of our earth and social justice activism to ensure the resources of our community are being used most effectively.