The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Monica Board of Directors held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, via Zoom.
Board members present included Vice President Vilma Ortiz, Treasurer Rebecca Crawford, Secretary Linda van Ligten, Past President Barbara Kernochan, and Members at Large Larry Weiner, Norm Richey, Audrey Erbes, Trish Brassard, Shanna Shaked, and Cassie Winters. Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae and Music Director Saunder Choi also attended. Board President Eileen McCormack was absent.
Call to Order and Spiritual Grounding
Vilma called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. and read the UU Shared Value of Justice:
“We work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all thrive. We covenant to dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression. We support the use of inclusive democratic processes to make decisions within our congregations, our Association, and society at large.”
Vilma also provided a reading for the Chalice Lighting:
“We meet as members of a spiritual community. We covenant to engage each other with kindness and courage and love.
We light this chalice as a symbol of our community, our covenant, and our faith.”
— Ben Ogilvie
Attendees provided a personal check-in, and answered a question relating to this month’s ministry theme of Presence.
Membership and Standing Monthly Reports
Current membership is 258. New members Mike and Carrie Manaugh were read into the roll.
The standing monthly reports were noted, and Audrey made a consent agenda motion to approve both the November minutes and the standing reports. Larry seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.
Minister’s Report
In the introduction to his report, Jeremiah addressed the holiday season:
“The Season of Lights has arrived once more on our journey around our Star. The Earth is tilting its farthest away from the Sun and we are summoned by the greater darkness to light brilliant fires in honor of many holiday traditions. The Yuletide season encompasses our congregation’s traditions of celebrating the Winter Solstice, Christmas Eve, Hanukkah, and Kwanza in different measures.”
Jeremiah said our Christmas Eve candlelight service, the largest of our church year, will be held on December 24 at 6 pm, and will be centered on “The Peace of Christmas” in “a time marked by so much bigotry, bloodshed, and war.” The service, he said, will “celebrate the birth of the poor Prophet of Peace, upon whose teachings our liberal religious movement was founded.”
He also noted that, “Our ministry theme of Living Love Through the Practice of Presence this month is deeply related to peace as it is through the practice of being present that we are often able to cultivate a deeper peace within ourselves and with others. Amidst all of the dazzling lights of consumerism and consumption of this holiday season, it is important that we not lose the serenity that is not found in these materialistic temptations but resides only within the spiritual dimensions of ourselves and in our relationships with friends, family, and loved ones. May this be a season of deepening serenity for ourselves and our world.”
Jeremiah also reported that:
- The congregation has gathered four times for Sunday Worship services since our last Board Meeting. Jeremiah started the month with Developmental Ministry: Road Map and Goals, which considered where we are in the last stage of the developmental ministry process, celebrated our achievements, and previewed the work that remains. Next, he conducted our traditional Thanksgiving/Thanxgrieving holiday service, which included a special Bread and Wine Communion, commonly celebrated in conjunction with this holiday in other UU congregations. Although the ritual of heartbreak and communion was triggering for some, Jeremiah said many attendees expressed appreciation for it in this difficult period in the life of this country. Many people also found healing through the service, he said, after having had painful experiences of exclusion when they were younger. For our third service in November, Jermiah co-created the first Heritage Sunday service with Bob Dietz, lifting up the UU life story of one of our elders. This is also a common autumn service in some UU congregations, Jeremiah said, and he thanked Bob for taking the time to write, receive feedback, and spend a Saturday afternoon rehearsing in the sanctuary. Finally for the month, Rev. Kikanza offered What Are You Waiting For? – A Sermon in Song, which followed a popular musical sermon template she used this summer. The service also included our annual holiday pageant, which Jeremiah said received many positive reviews from the community. Overall, Jeremiah said, our services continue to be well attended and members’ spirits are good, despite the climate in our larger world.
- The Worship and Worship Associates Program Teams met last month and Jeremiah said its recruitment campaign brought in four new Worship Associates, which will help make the liturgical workload more sustainable for the team.
- The Pastoral Care Team also met and received reports from team members, continued its discussion of ministering during the holidays and in a difficult cultural climate, and organized its annual holiday card outreach to the congregation. (Jeremiah extended special thanks to Linda Van Ligten for that effort.)
- Jeremiah continues to provide Pastoral Meetings and Spiritual Counseling to members of the community as requested. The work helps to strengthen trust and healthy relations in our communal practice.
- Jeremiah continues to hold weekly, biweekly, and/or monthly Ministry, Administrative, and Governance Meetings with all senior staff, our consulting minister, president, executive committee, worship chair, pastoral chair, UUA congregational life staff, and other congregational leaders as requested.
- Jeremiah again devoted significant time to Personnel & Administrative Planning in November, including finalizing job descriptions for multiple positions with input from various stakeholders in the community, and transitioning Jessica from Interim Director of Religious Education to regular Director of Multigenerational Religious Education. We also publicized the staffing changes in our publications and in our Sunday services.
- We hold many Congregational Special Events at this time of the year, and Jeremiah has participated in several of them, including our Annual Thanksgiving Luncheon, the Arts and Crafts Fair, and the Opening Reception for Community Artists.
- Jeremiah was happy to report we met and exceeded our goal for the Spirit Level Matching Grant. He thanked everyone who has donated so far…and asked people who haven’t donated yet to please do so, since we still need to fully fund the 3/4 time DRE position this year and to potentially minimize depleting some of our reserves next year. He said he has made direct appeals to the congregation in meetings and on Sunday mornings, and many people have responded enthusiastically and by sharing their abundance.
- As part of our Interim DRE & Board Meeting Staff Rotation, Saunder joined this meeting to report on activities in the musical life of the community (see below) and Nurit will join the group in January to report on administrative and facilities matters.
- The Intersectional Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Commission (IARAO) is meeting monthly and its work is ongoing. Jeremiah serves serve primarily as a consultant and ex-officio member of the commission. He said extra time was devoted at this month’s meeting to planning the group’s annual retreat, which was held in Forbes Hall in December and included a discussion of progress mades, areas for growth, and goal-setting for the future.
- Board members also gathered for a continuation of their Annual Board Retreat, where they considered ways to strengthen and improve our congregational practices with information provided by Listening Circles, summer dinner meetings, and a board debriefing process.
- The Board Policies Review Team continues to make incredible success in reviewing, assessing, and renewing our congregational policies. Jeremiah serves primarily as a consultant and ex-officio member of the commission, providing feedback as requested.
- Eileen, Pam, and Jeremiah met again to help the Communications Team plan a “healthier communications ecosystem” in the congregation. They have also invited Jessica to join the group to help bridge the communications divide and streamline communication coordination across the congregation.
- Eileen and Jeremiah worked with Rev. Sarah Millspaugh to offer an introductory Informational Presentation on the UUA Ministerial Search Process to the Board of Directors, Leadership Developmental and Nominating Committee, and Mission and Vision Team Co-Chairs. Jeremiah said they will offer this presentation again to a broader audience to help orient everyone for this long, complex, thoughtful, and worthwhile process of congregational discernment.
- Jeremiah continues to meet monthly with the Santa Monica Area Interfaith Council & Leadership Team, where he continues his term as Vice President. The group is currently planning January’s Annual Interfaith MLK Day Service. The service, on Friday, January 17, will include a sermon on wisdom gleaned from Black women leaders in the civil rights movement that is applicable to today’s challenges. The speaker will be Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Professor of African American Studies at Princeton. A reception will precede the service at 8:30 a.m., and the service will begin at 9:00 a.m. All are encouraged to attend.
- Jeremiah co-facilitated the Interfaith Conversations Cafe of the Interfaith Council this past month with religious and community leaders from around Santa Monica at Mt. St. Olive Lutheran Church.
- Jeremiah continues to meet monthly with the UCLA Medical Center Ethics Committee to help shape health care practice affecting the larger community and to engage in ethical learning and clinical discernment.
In conclusion, Jeremiah wished attendees a “Merry Yuletide, Peaceful Christmas, Bright Hanukkah, Blessed Kwanza, and Happy New Year, as is your tradition and practice.” He said, “It is good to be with each of you and this congregation as we embark upon a New Year with new challenges and opportunities that will require our tradition’s spiritual, ethical, and prophetic leadership.”
Following Jeremiah’s report, Norm requested that IARAO committee chair Susan Hendricks and Policies Committee chair Patricia Wright be invited to make presentations to the Board at an upcoming meeting.
Music Director Report
Saunder reported that recent music program accomplishments included:
- Hiring new staff singers Thalia Moore and Olivia Salazar
- Music preparation and singing for major services (Water Communion, Animal Blessing, Dia de Los Muertos, Christmas Eve, MLK Sunday, Earth Day, etc.)
- An increase in choir members from 20 to 24 volunteer singers
- Production and performance of major music-led events including the Singing for Democracy service; Wine & Cheese Messiah; Earth Day Choral Mediation (planned); and the Dining 4 Dollars Karaoke Night 2025 (Pride edition)
- Day to day tasks including HR and administrative tasks for the music staff; Slack channel maintenance; communications with tech team, meetings with church leadership, music library copying, maintenance and organization, and overseeing the lay-led Music Committee chaired by Janet Goodwin.
- Starting a new youth program
- And working on UUSM’s participation in the UU churches Choral Festival, which will take place on January 19th at 4:00 p.m.
Treasurer’s Report
Rebecca reported that after five months of the current fiscal year, we should have received about $150,000 of our $362,000 total pledges…and that is about what we have received, which is a good sign. Also, she said that thanks to one very generous donation, and some significant others, we have met the matching responsibility for the Spirit Level Grant to fund our DRE. In addition, in response to an appeal from Rebecca and Barbara, more than $3,000 more has come in for the increase in DRE hours. Thank you letters for those donations will be sent soon.
According to Rebecca, expenses are generally predictable right now, and nothing out of the ordinary has happened so far this year. That said, though, she also noted that starting next fiscal year, the church’s Geo Index — a measure of the cost of living in our local area — is changing from Group 5 to Group 6, which means the average target salaries for our employees will go up 5% in addition to cost of living increases. Rebecca said we don’t necessarily need to meet these new targets immediately, but it will be significant for future budgets. Right now, she said, our employees’ salaries are about average for each employee’s qualifications, as defined by the Geo Index 5.
Finally, Rebecca reported that the stock market has been fairly flat for the last month, so our endowment is currently worth about $410,000.
November RE Report
Director of Multi-Generational Religious Education Jessica TenHave-Place did not attend the meeting, but in a written report submitted to the board, she said the month of November “included three big achievements for CYRE — improving our informational database and safety procedure documentation, rebooting Youth RE for middle and high school, and organizing a Holiday Pageant that included both kids and youth, with support from parents, volunteers, and staff.”
Jessica said the pageant, especially, “was a great example of what we aim to do more of going forward – multigenerational programming geared to the specific needs and interests of different age groups, which also gives those diverse age groups opportunities to connect and cooperate.”
Next, Jessica said that after completing a review of our documentation on health and safety policies, she created a brief version of our child safety policy that can be referenced by childcare workers, parents, and volunteers. “I still recommend that these people familiarize themselves with the full version of the policy (which needs to be reviewed and updated),” she said, “but the shorter version…makes it easy to find quick answers to practical questions, like where to go in the event of an evacuation, or what to do if a child needs help in the bathroom.”
She said we’ve also started a “Sign Out” policy on Sundays, requiring parents/guardians to sign their kids out when they pick them up from RE. “This has already been helpful not only with improving child safety,” she said, “but for getting updated contact information from families.”
Also, “Using updated information that families provided through the online Contact & Release Form that we sent out last month, and by compiling all the information available through Breeze (used by the church office), One Church (used in the past by CYRE), and other sources found in shared drives, I have created an updated contact list for families, kids, and volunteers involved with or interested in CYRE.”
“This was a pretty tedious process, but valuable in that it highlighted the limitations of Breeze as a database system, and the problem with how scattered and sometimes out of date our information systems are. I would highly recommend moving to a more robust system like Planning Center, which provides cloud storage, mass mailing, website integration, and apps — this could go a long way in streamlining our administrative and communications systems.”
In addition, Jessica said, “I am extremely happy to report that this month we did important work on rebooting our ministry for middle and high school youth. On November 17 four high schoolers attended a brainstorming session to give their input on what they would like to see from Youth RE. They highlighted needs and interests that are important to them, such as building community, making space for fun activities and socializing, getting emotional support and guidance in achieving personal goals, and learning about and engaging with social and political issues that matter to them. We settled on meeting every second and fourth Sunday of the month after church, with the second Sunday focused more on social activities and with the fourth Sunday dedicated to the Building Bridges program, a UUA world religions curriculum for youth. Our first official meeting will be January 12th, but in the meantime the youth have been meeting after church to prepare their portion of the Holiday Pageant.”
And speaking of the pageant, “Our Holiday Pageant this year was aimed at being a low-commitment for families and accessible for kids of all different ages and abilities. I chose the theme of “The Friendly Beasts” to acknowledge the holiday tradition of the kids singing this carol, which many members told me they looked back on fondly. We also had a lot of costumes still available for a nativity scene, which would keep things low-budget. I wrote the scene for the younger kids, and asked high schooler Kiran Paesal, who is interested in comedy and performing, to write the scene for the older kids. Kiran got feedback on the scene from the other youth, and picked a fun and unconventional song to perform, David Bowie’s “Starman.” We rehearsed with the younger group during Kids RE, still making time at the beginning for a short lesson relating to the themes of the play. The older group rehearsed immediately after church, which helped us keep up our momentum of involvement with that age group.”
Finally, “With only two weeks of rehearsal, I thought everything came together wonderfully — not to the standard of Broadway professionalism perhaps, but my main goals with leading kids performances are always to make sure everyone is having fun, getting their moment to shine, and practicing creativity, cooperation, and self-confidence. I got lots of positive feedback from the kids and the adults, and I’m confident that we will be able to do another performance in the coming year that the kids will be excited about and the parents will be invested in, opening up the opportunity to do something a little more ambitious in the future. As we kick off regular meetings for Youth RE, I’m glad that they had the project of the holiday pageant as something fun and creative to do that garnered recognition from the rest of the congregation. This is a great foundation for helping the youth feel more like a valued part of the community that has something special to offer. I’m looking forward to doing more work with this age group in the coming year.”
Policy Updates
The Board reviewed and then voted unanimously to approve the following four Governance policies:
PAST PRESIDENT (New Policy)
This governance policy addresses the primary functions and responsibilities specific to the position of Board Past President. The Past President:
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- Shall serve in this position until the current President’s term ends and the President moves into the Past President role. If the exiting President is unable to serve as Past President, the Board may appoint another Past President to serve in that role.
SECRETARY (New Policy)
This Governance policy addresses the primary functions and duties specific to the office of Board Secretary. Working with the Administrator and other Board officers, the Secretary shall:
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- Ensure that proper non-financial Congregational records are maintained. All such records shall be the property of the Congregation.
- Distribute the monthly Board Agenda to the Board and make available to the Congregation at least four days prior to the Board’s next meeting.
- Prepare Board Meeting minutes and disperse to the Board for review within one week of each meeting and amend as needed.
- Send the Board-approved minutes and supporting documents to the Webmaster for inclusion on the UUSM website Members-only section and post the minutes on the Board’s shared drive.
- Working with the Administrator, notify the membership of all Congregational Meetings, noting all matters to be acted upon at said meetings.
- Working with the Administrator, prepare the agenda, assign volunteers, and finalize the slate of candidates and resolutions, as needed, for Congregational Meetings.
- Prepare and disperse Congregational Meeting minutes.
TREASURER (New Policy)
Board Treasurer responsibilities:
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- Be familiar with all Fiduciary and Fiduciary Finance Policies.
- Serve as Chair of the Finance Committee if able (see Finance Committee Charter).
- Be a signatory on Congregation financial accounts.
- Work with the Congregation’s Administrator and others as necessary to:
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- Ensure that all Fiduciary and Fiduciary Finance Policies are followed.
- Confirm the accuracy of all financial statements.
- Keep an account of all money and other property of the Church. These records are the property of
the Church. - Prepare and present a monthly financial report to the Board.
- Conduct Town Hall meetings on the budget in advance of the Annual Congregational Meeting, as
needed. - Present the budget and a financial report at the Annual Congregational Meeting.
- Furnish statements as needed to each pledging unit detailing the status of their pledges.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (This policy replaces C2.1: Church Management Policies: Role of the Executive Committee)
Executive Committee Membership
The Executive Committee shall serve as a subcommittee of the Board and shall consist of:
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- President
- Vice President
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- Minister (ex-officio).
The President may invite the Past President to serve on the Executive Committee.
At the invitation of the President, additional Board members may participate ex-officio. If a member of the Executive Committee is unable to attend, the President may designate a temporary replacement.
Executive Committee Meetings
The Executive Committee shall meet two weeks before each Board Meeting. The President facilitates the meeting. In the absence of the President, the Vice President presides.
Executive Committee Function
The Executive Committee prepares the Monthly Board Meeting Draft Agenda. The Committee:
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- Determines the agenda for the upcoming Board meeting.
- Ensures that each agenda item has:
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- A clear purpose or outcome
- A motion if needed
- All the needed supporting material and documentation
- A time limit appropriate to the issue
- A designated presenter
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- Guarantees that the agenda is provided to the full Board and made available to the Congregation at
least four days before the Board meeting.
Board Liaison Update and Recommendation to Review at Executive Committee Meeting
Board Members were encouraged to notify Vilma of their preference for the Liaison position.
Adult RE
Larry encouraged Board Members to share their ideas for Adult RE classes. Current offerings include Humanist Book Group, Non-Fiction Science Book Group, meditation sessions, Soul Collage, Religious Naturalism class, and Folk Dancing.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 9:09 p.m.
Draft minutes used to create this report were provided by Linda van Ligten, Board Secretary. Documents distributed and reviewed at the meeting can be found here.