Leadership Board Meeting
March 13, 2020 Summary
Change is hard . . . even when the change is good. As we enter our third month of operating in the new leadership structure at PUMC, we are reminded of the importance of doing the RIGHT things, not just doing things right. Also, we want to remind you that there are MANY ways for you to get involved, some of which are highlighted later in this summary.
At our March Leadership Board meeting, Lori Pantaleo led us in a meditation on the importance of our core value of compassionate servanthood. Last month, when we prioritized goals for PUMC, Outreach was in the top four. We are reminded that through our Outreach we form relationships and partnerships with the community and, through this work, grow in our own discipleship. It is truly a blessing and a privilege to be able to serve those in the community, near and far, with our compassionate servanthood.
A PUMC core value that is particularly meaningful for those of us serving on the Leadership Board is disciplined discernment. Pastor Jenny led a mini-training session on what this means and what it looks like in practice. The principles of disciplined discernment include listening, asking clarifying questions, gathering, speaking and testing the vision and giving thanks. We were reminded that our tendency is often to just act or to seize opportunities. In our new structure, practicing disciplined discernment, we need to pause – take a deep breath and consider. We need to ask, “How does this align with our mission, vision, values and goals?” We need to learn to get comfortable with deliberating and discerning before just acting.
During the business portion of our meeting, we continued to discuss and discern how to approach and find ways to reduce our budget and reduce the impending $70,000 budget deficit for 2023 without seriously jeopardizing the effectiveness of our ministries. Our budget taskforce, led by Ed Sproles, continues to help increase our understanding of the budget and what impacts the budget.
At the same time, work is underway to increase giving. A task force led by Ida Cahill will begin making calls this week to finalize the 2023 stewardship campaign and encourage pledging and increased pledging. Your prayerful consideration of both pledging and increasing your pledge is much appreciated.
We will also launch a new taskforce that will focus on overall fundraising, generating ideas, opportunities, and creating plans that will go beyond pledging to help us achieve our mission, vision, values and goals and close the budget gap in 2024 and beyond – a sustainable plan. If you would like to be part of this taskforce, please email Iona at ifkharding@gmail.com.
There were a number of Trustee-related matters that we discussed. The Leadership Board agreed to investigate purchasing or building a movable barrier between the Sandford Davis
Room and the Sanctuary for safety reasons. This would be a low barrier that allows line of sight between the two rooms. We are considering purchasing as well as getting estimates on something custom-made. If you would like to help with investigating these options and making a recommendation, please email Lori at loripantaleo@gmail.com
A number of task forces are needed to help in the following areas:
● Outside clean up and maintenance to plan a spring cleanup, do plantings and upkeep of the plantings throughout the year.
● “Handy skills” to do small, odd jobs around the church like building and installing shelves and doing minor repairs.
● Contract review of our major contracts to look for alternate providers who can meet the same levels of service at a lower price.
● Investigate improving building accessibility for motorized wheelchairs. If you have the skills, some time (none require a lot of time or any meetings) and interest to be a part of any of these task forces, please email Lori at loripantaleo@gmail.com.
We also approved the purchase of a carpet and upholstery cleaning machine and a wet vac.
And, great news! The permits were approved for our new fire alarm system!
We closed with a discussion of how to do more and better communications with you! The weekly Happenings is a great place for you to learn about what is going on in both the Leadership and Discipleship Boards. But what else? We’re talking about starting to host after-worship and Zoom gatherings so that we can share more in person, hear from you and get you engaged by signing up to volunteer on various short- and long-term task forces. If you have other ideas for how we can improve communications, please email Iona at ifkharding@gmail.com.