June 2016 Ritual for Business Minutes

Minutes Ritual For Business 6/25/2016

Present: Erin, Susi, Katie, Barbara, Devin, Jan, David, Kimberly, Matt, Rosemary

  1. Roles: Kimberly as Parliamentarian, Devin as Devil’s Advocate, Jan as Vibes Watcher, and Erin wielded the Spatula.
  2. Chalice: Susi lit the chalice.
  3. Agenda was approved as written.
  4. Minutes from May were read and approved. The election results were also read.
  5. Treasurer’s report: Devin continues to try to get John and himself in the same place. John’s phone number was provided/confirmed. Barbara proposed that we consense that Devin Scrogum, the new Treasurer, and Susi Matthews, the new President, will be the only names allowed on our primary bank account at U.S. Bank. These two individuals and no other signers will be allowed to sign checks for the congregation. Consensed by the Committee of the Whole.
  6. Committee Reports:
    1. Communications – Jamie did indeed put out the EH on June 12th.
    2. KidSpace – there have been a few kids present of late.
    3. Ritual Teams – Ritual Teams has continued to deal with the upstairs-downstairs migration as the building is renovated. Titles have been crafted and assigned through Samhain, including a potential New Member Sunday for those who will be taking the class.
    4. Membership – Jamie will be teaching New Member Class tomorrow to the two new potential members.
    5. Pretty Committee – on hold while the building is being rebuilt.
    6. Social Justice – The first episode of Cooked, at Kimberly’s house, went off well. People liked the food presented which went with the Fire theme, including smoked ribs and smoked portabellos.
      The committee meeting was canceled; Katie and Gary showed up after all because they didn’t see the cancellation notice. Communications should probably revise our methods and expectations for communicating with members, since Yahoo!Groups is likely to go away soon.
    7. Stewardship – Pledge Drive has occurred; there is an overall increase in members and pledges, even though some previously high-donors had to reduce their commitment; the budget will be prepared (see New Business).
      The storytelling bonfire is scheduled for August 27th, with a suggested theme of stories that are lies or exaggerations or tall tales. We have gotten a great deal of interest, including from people we haven’t seen in years, or have never come to Gaia but are presumably just interested in booze and fire and lies.
    8. Welcoming – Barbara and Jan successfully argued for reversible signs for the two smaller bathrooms in the space; the center bathroom is avowedly “Family Bathroom” and ADA-compliant. The other rooms will have two-sided signs that say Men (or Women) on one side and Restroom on the other.
    9. Site/LLC Liaison – David went to Manheim’s meeting this month, where he paid our membership dues for the coming year ($75). They held their annual elections, which changed the President from Seft to the former Secretary, Diane Charity. Bill has been nominated for the empty position of Secretary, and will likely be elected in July. There is a new Treasurer, as Pastor Dunn seems to need a break or his work has made him busier. VP and Historian are the same.
      LLC: A building organizational meeting was held this month, where they covered things like the bathrooms. We should be able to hold services downstairs going forward from this week. We have the ability/request to use the reconfigured storage space, and put chairs and tables back up in that space every week. They also requested that our red chairs continue to be made available, which we are happy to do. The new urethane coating on the floor is somewhat more fragile than expected, so the new plan is to get it waxed professionally to protect it further.
      The other thing to be aware of is that there is a Google Calendar for Heart of the Dove, which should be utilized for any events at the space. All of our usual Sunday services, committee meetings, etc are already on there (Kimberly will check on RT, due to its weird schedule). The upstairs rooms have been numbered, starting at the small room at the head of the stairs as 200 (even on the east side, odd numbers on the west side).
      Jamie has additional keys for the North door, which will become the primary entrance for our rituals at some point. We will also need to make further keys so that all ritualists and committee chairs will have building access after they rekey the middle door (which will go into the shop).
    10. NomCom – no report.
  7. Old Business
    1. Budget – Kimberly presented the revised budget (see attached). Pledges are up slightly over last year, so the overall budget is slightly larger. UUA and Regional dues are now proposed to be a fair share again; David has a question in to the APF folks about correcting our membership total, but everyone in that office is out due to General Assembly. They also have a pilot program for an alternate way to contribute APF dues, which would calculate based on the congregation’s annual operating budget.
      Susi asked about the telephone line – we have a virtual phone through Vonage so we can communicate with offline folks, or with organizations that require a phone number for their contact information. David will look back into Google Voice to see if it is possible for us to get a cheaper option.
      Susi also asked about how much KidSpace expenditures we actually are incurring. The budgeted amount is a maximum amount, we are not spending much on teachers and it is unclear whether we are paying the coordinator stipend each month; more will be revealed once the books are transferred from the prior Treasurer.
      Neighborhood dues in the budget were incorrect, should be $75 instead of $50. Amended; the $25 ‘shortfall’ will then come out of the Home Fund line item.
      Consensed on the budget as amended.