Congregational Meeting Minutes

Feb. 4, 2007

Meeting was called to order at 12:15 p.m.  The 29 members present met the quorum requirement (of 22) to hold a vote.  gg Gordon called roll of those present.

Nancy Sullivan presented the Board of Trustees’ recommendation that the Board of Trustees be increased  from five to seven members.  Tom Sullivan seconded the motion.

Motion 1: Change language of Article IV #1 of the MUUC bylaws to:   The Board of Trustees shall consist of the president, vice-president, secretary, and four trustees at large. 

The motion passed unanimously.

Motion 2:   Michelle Harrison and Kathy McLean were elected unanimously to the new Board positions which will run from Feb. 4, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

Nancy Sullivan and gg gordon then presented reasons for allowing the Assistant Treasurer and the Chair of the Stewardship Committee access to pledge information.  The following motion was seconded by Paul Wright. 

Motion 3: The Assistant to the Treasurer and the Chair of the Stewardship Committee will be allowed access to the pledge information. 

This motion was approved unanimously.

gg gordon explained the proposed change to the bylaws so that special fund trustees are elected to help the Board of Trustees manage our non-operating funds.  There was some discussion and questions answered.  The following motion was seconded by Tom Sullivan and approved unanimously.

Motion 4: Insert a new Article 7 into our existing bylaws (and renumber following Articles) which states the following:

a.                   The Fund Trustees shall serve as trustees of all endowment and other special funds of the Congregation.  Except as specifically provided in this Article, the selection of Fund Trustees and their governance shall be set forth in separate guidelines establish for each endowment or other special fund by the Board or Congregation.

b.                  The Fund Trustees shall consist of five (5) members, two (2) of whom shall be members of the Board of Trustees and three (3) of whom shall be non-Board members of the Congregation.

c.                   Normally, terms for Non-Board Fund Trustees shall be three years.

d.                  Any decisions made by the Fund Trustees shall be by a supermajority in which at least four (4) of the five (5) Trustees must consent.

Motion 5:  Elect Jim Jackson, Paul Wright and Paul Gray to be Fund Trustees.

This motion was approved unanimously.

Gary Stark presented the rationales for changing the church name and chaired this part of the meeting. After much discussion, it was unanimously decided to seek more information and defer any name decision until the annual meeting.  There is a question to be resolved concerning the name on our incorporation papers and whether Laughing Whitefish has a specific Native American historical reference.

Nancy Sullivan presented the rationales for moving the annual meeting to June 3.     Motion 7: Make a one time exception to our bylaws so that we may hold our congregational meeting on June 3, 2007 rather than during the month of May.

The motion was seconded by Kathy McLean and passed unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned in a record 45 minutes.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Sullivan,

Board member