Dear FCU Members and Friends,
In response to an expressed congregational need, the Standing Committee is forming a Governance Task Force. The purpose of this message is to 1) explain why the Task Force is being formed; 2) describe what the task force will do and how it will do it; and 3) invite you to consider joining the Task Force. Please take a few minutes to read all the way through so that we can all be well informed as we go forward.
Thank you! Sincerely, Deb Girard, Standing Committee Chairperson; Steve Edington, Interim Minister; Jim Nehring, Governance Task Force Chairperson
Why is a Governance Task Force being formed?
During the past year, the Standing Committee has heard comments from many FCU members and friends about church governance, meaning the organizational structure and decision making processes. A big theme of the comments is that our current approach to governance feels unsustainable. There are too many positions to fill, and important roles sometimes remain vacant. Also, roles appear to sometimes overlap, which results in confusion. In response, the Standing Committee has decided the time is right to engage in a focused, congregation-wide reflection on our Church governance.
What will the Task Force do and how will it do it?
The Charge from the Standing Committee to the Governance Task Force is as follows:
The Standing Committee of First Church, Unitarian of Littleton commissions a Governance Task Force to assess and determine how well the FCU congregation is being served by its current governance structure. This will include an evaluation of the strengths of our current model, as well as any possible gaps or deficiencies that limit our ability as a congregation to exercise governance at a level that best serves our needs.
If the Task Force determines that such gaps or deficiencies warrant changes, they will also research and evaluate other potential methods of governance that could be of value to our congregation.
Ultimately this work will be one of the factors in helping the congregation determine the kind of minister we are looking for as we embark on the settlement process for calling our next minister.
The Task Force will proceed with its work in the following way:
Outcome
On or before Friday, October 16, 2016, the Governance Task Force will deliver to the Standing Committee a report that includes
- themes from interviews with FCU members and staff and FCU documents;
- a summary of relevant governance approaches in use or under consideration elsewhere;
- themes/recommendations from congregational workshops on FCU governance; and
- reflections from Task Force members.
Process
The Task Force will complete its work in two phases.
For phase 1-- October, 2015, through Friday, March 18, 2016-- a team of 4-5 persons will conduct interviews with members of the congregation and staff and review FCU documents (e.g. by-laws). The team will then review data to identify themes. Themes will be shared with the Standing Committee and, via the Standing Committee, with the congregation.
For phase 2-- Monday, April 4, 2016, through Friday, October 16, 2016-- a freshly constituted team will seek out and collect literature (or oral testimony) about various governance approaches that are in use or under consideration elsewhere, prepare a summary, and then conduct one or more workshops open to all members of the congregation to study the summary together with themes from the data and ask how it all speaks to the question: How should we govern ourselves? The task force will take notes from the workshop(s) and prepare a report for the Standing Committee that includes: themes from data, summary of governance approaches, themes/recommendations from workshops, and reflections from Task Force members.
You are invited to consider joining the Task Force:
The FCU Governance Task Force is looking for 4-5 people who are good at listening and taking notes and finding themes in what you heard. This work will be for Phase 1 only as described above. As a Task Force member, You will:
- Participate in about 4 meetings (one organizational meeting, one mid-way check-in meeting, two meetings for discussion of data). Dates and times to be set by Task Force members.
- Conduct about 7 interviews, some with individuals, some with small groups of three to five persons. For the interviews, you will be given questions to ask and you will be expected to take good notes, which you will type up and submit to the chairperson. Your notes will become our data. Interview dates and times to be set by Task Force members.
- Participate in two recruiting sessions-- walk around during coffee hour with a clipboard and a smile and ask people to sign up for an interview or questionnaire. (Email questionnaire will be offered as an interview alternative.)
- This work is for Phase 1 only of the Task Force work. A group will be freshly assembled for phase 2.
Work will begin in October, 2015 and end by March 18, 2016. Please let a member of the Standing Committee know that you are interested. Please see Jim Nehring (Task Force Chair) with questions about the work.
