April 2020 Ritual for Business Minutes

Minutes for the Zoom Meeting on April 18th, 2020

In attendance: Erin, Matt, Kimberly, Devin, Katie, Barbara, Leo, David, Jamie, Susi, Kitty

  1. Chalice: Barbara lit a chalice, as did anyone else with one handy
  2. Roles: Barbara as Vibes Watcher, Katie as Non-Sequitur 
  3. Secretary’s report: March minutes were eaten by David’s computer crash, but they were minimal (we did reports, and authorized using Zoom). Didn’t have the attendee list.
  4. Treasurer’s report – 106.46% YTD Pledges, 105.77 % YTD donations, partly because some people caught up on their pledges in one bulk donation. $15,129.57 in checking account.
    Devin needs an itemized report from Stripe so he can see who is donating online (Kimberly can provide one). Also of note, for recurring payments Stripe only takes the fee once. Amazon Smile collaborative program gave us $15.76 for the quarter.
  5. Elections:
    1. Absentee Ballots – asked for the acceptance of absentee/electronic ballots for a week and a day after today’s RfB, ending Sunday April 26th. Consensed.
    2. Bylaws Waiver – asking for a waiver of the two separate ballots requirement, since we will be conducting ballots online. Consensed.
    3. Elections candidates:
    • Trustees: Matt, Jamie, David, Barbara, Kimberly (Kitty and Erin are partway through their two-year terms). No nominations from the floor.
    • President: Matt
    • Vice-President: Erin
    • Secretary: Barbara
    • Treasurer: David
    • General Assembly Delegates: Susi, Kitty, with Barbara, David, and Leo as alternates
    • Liaison to Ubuntu Village LLC: Kitty
    • Nominating Committee: Leo, Susi, Devin
  6. Committee reports
    1. KidSpace – no report; David recommended suspending this report for the time being. We should reach out to Tori and let her know we are still suspended through May 15th. Barbara will look to communicate that to her.
    2. Communications – Zoom continues to work pretty well for our purposes, noting individual people’s challenges with the technology from time to time. Kimberly has updated the website and FB for upcoming events; they did ask about whether other people seem to be having trouble getting events to load, but that seems to just be their computer’s problem.
    3. Social Justice – pivoting to a framework of caring for members and making sure everyone’s needs are being met as well as possible. Kimberly is going to start holding a Joys & Concerns hour on its own schedule (to be determined). Consensed.
    4. Ritual Teams – met online via Zoom and adjusted the schedule a bit to figure out some things that may not work in an online setting. We also started a discussion about how to handle God Auction if we are still on lockdown.
      Narrowing for the final three candidates for God Auction will take place after our community election concludes, according to RCV similar to last year.
    5. Liaison – no activity to report. Kitty will reach out to DT and see how the Equal Minded Cafe is doing.
    6. NomCom – election is in process.
    7. Membership – Jamie did reach out to Jan before the stay-at-home order went in effect, but then everything changed and that got put on hold. Jamie will reach out to her again. We are continuing to work with Cathy on getting her tech challenges solved. 
    8. Stewardship – pledge drive is ongoing, Matt needs pledge cards to be filled out so he can build a budget.
  7. New Business: 
    1. Volunteering for God Auction – Jamie brought a proposal from Ritual Teams to help balance the need for God Auction Consensed.
    2. Zoom expenses – Barbara made a proposal to reimburse David for the Zoom account cost through the end of the fiscal year. Consensed. After that we should be able to join in the UUA’s annual license program, which will be worked into next year’s budget.