MINUTES Annual Congregational Meeting FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH OF PITTSBURGH May 17, 2015 1. CALL TO ORDER A quorum of more than 50 voting members being present, Board of Trustees President Brady Hunsaker called the meeting to order at 1:06 PM in the Undercroft of the church. Board and ex-officio members present: Brady Hunsaker (President), Amy DeChicchis (Vice President), Brian Rohleder (Trustee), Corey Layman (Trustee), Marty Leib (Trustee), Vespara Barrow (Trustee), David Herndon (Minister), Ward Kelsey (Treasurer) and Pat Schuetz (Secretary). Board members absent: Kathy Parker (Trustee), Bari Roman (Trustee). 2. INVOCATION David Dunn delivered an invocation, urging the congregation to generosity of spirit in a difficult time. 3. OPENING RESPONSIVE READING Brady Hunsaker led the congregation in the responsive reading of Blessed Are Those by John Buehrens, from the Unitarian Universalist hymnal. 4. HYMN The congregation sang When our Heart Is in a Holy Place by Joyce Poley, accompanied by Bill Larson on piano. 5. REMEMBERING OUR DEPARTED David Herndon honored the members of First Unitarian Church who have died in the past year: Margery Gulbransen Mary Heath Heath Lombard Ruth Mouley Earle Onque Peggy Oswant Keith Piper Faith Stenning Tom Hammonds
6. APPROVING THE 2014 ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES Brady Hunsaker introduced the current Board members. The congregation accepted as submitted the minutes from the May 2014 Annual Meeting. 7. BOARD PRESIDENT S REPORT Brady invited members to think about why they are part of this community. He noted that this has not been an easy year for the congregation and acknowledged the pain members are feeling at staff cuts. He acknowledged the good work and the contribution to our community of those staff members who will be leaving us: Jon Erik Schreiber, choir director; Celeste Taylor, social action coordinator; Molly Morrill, religious education assistant; Eva Beal, youth ministry coordinator; Luis Hernandez, Sanctuary Choir accompanist; and Alex Rose, whose responsibilities will no longer include office assistance. He expressed his confidence that by bringing our staffing in line with our reduced membership we have put the church in a better position to move forward. He warned, however, that reducing staff does not address the root of our problem, and that other changes will likely be forthcoming. He called the congregation s attention to the attendance figures and graphs distributed before the meeting, showing attendance declining among all segments of the congregation over the last several years. He challenged the members to better understand the reasons for the decline, and assured them of his confidence that we can improve our situation. He urged members to communicate with the Board, and listed several measures the Board has recently implemented to facilitate this, including a dedicated email address, pledging Board members to respond quickly to all communication. He encouraged members to read the Board meeting summary in each month s Chalice, and acknowledged with apology the delay this Board has incurred in approving meeting minutes so that they could be made publicly available. He invited members to suggest other means of improving communication between the congregation and the Board. He charged members in attendance to spread the urgency of our situation to members who were not at the meeting. He asked the groups and committees within the church to consider ways in which their own mission could be furthered or enhanced by a change in the way the church operates. He repeated that he does not expect an easy year ahead, but encouraged members to move forward in a spirit of hope and optimism. 8. SENIOR MINISTER S REPORT David thanked the members for their attendance at the meeting, and recognized the Board s hard work in guiding the church through a difficult year. He especially recognized Kathy Parker s service as Communications Director, noting that she is absent because her ankle is broken; Amy DeChicchis for her advice and steadiness as Vice President; and Brady for attentive, approachable and non-defensive leadership through a troubled year. He recognized the work of committees and staff members, including a large number of part-time staff, and acknowledged the congregation s deep sense of loss at the departure of those staff members whose positions have been cut from the budget.
He described a recent Pew Research report finding, across the United States, a general steady diminishment of affiliation with organized religion for the past decade. He noted that the phenomenon which has long been observed in mainline Protestant churches has now begun to affect Unitarian Universalism. Nevertheless, he recognized that our particular situation at First Unitarian Church is only partly the result of national demographic trends; our own values, and the decisions of our leadership, have contributed to the budget deficit. In our time of scarce resources, David will be taking a personal role in leading our congregation s social action, which he anticipates will have a different orientation. He expects that this church will emerge from the present crisis as an organization changed in significant ways. He promised to do all he can to lead the church into a sound path. Quoting St. Paul in 2 Corinthians, 4:9, he acknowledged that we are stricken but not destroyed. He reminded members of the church s strong roots and called their attention to the new opportunities opening up for leadership, noting several members who have already stepped up to offer help. 9. TREASURER S REPORT Ward Kelsey began by acknowledging the challenges that face us, and thanked several people for their help in bringing us whole through the past year: Rita Gates, our trouble shooter; Marlee Keffer, who has had to rise to new responsibilities as program assistant; Gordon Hargreaves, our assistant controller, who serves as our tax expert as well; Board trustee and assistant treasurer Bari Roman for her help with the operation of our accounting software; and Brady for taking a genuine interest in the financial reports. He noted the 2013-14 operating deficit of $35,000 as the starting point for this year s fiscal situation. He noted that the Board continued for many months to spend more than the church was taking in, in the expectation that pledge income would eventually rise. For a while that seemed likely, but by the end of 2014, with a year-to-year drop in membership from 400 to 360, and in pledge income from $460,000 $400,000, it became clear that the budget was unsustainable; to continue to operate the church at its current level of expenditure was unacceptable. Ward acknowledged the pain of the staff cuts, but affirmed that they were necessary. He noted that it will take about half a year to implement all the cuts, so the church will continue to operate at a deficit for some time. The one bright spot he could offer is that the finance committee has been very good at anticipating the future, so that we can be confident we know what is ahead. Turning to the balance sheet, he noted that a third of Marion Schnurer s significant bequest, held until recently in a money market fund, has been conservatively invested for income. He pointed out that about 10% of the church s general fund comes from such investments a significant amount, in the history of the church. He explained that although the church has a large amount of invested money, some of it must remain invested, according to the terms under which it was given, and only the income may be spent. Other gifts are meant to be used, particularly for capital projects; thus the church finds itself in the situation that, while the operating budget is extremely straightened, there is quite a lot of money available to be spent for capital improvements.
Finally, he recalled that at the town hall meeting last month there was a suggestion that the Board should have undertaken extraordinary fund-raising to fill the budget deficit. Ward pointed out that this is a bad way to run an organization, but noted that fundraising has its place. He mentioned in particular the income from the sale of Giant Eagle gift cards as the most pain-free way of raising money for the church and he urged people to buy them. 10. NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT On behalf of the Nominating Committee, Chair Audrey Masalehdan presented the nominations for the Board of Trustees and for the Nominating Committee. Nomination of Board members Amy Dechicchis, Brian Rohleder and Vespara Barrows are completing their terms on the Board; Tara Tappen has resigned. The Nominating Committee recommended the following nominees to serve on the Board for the period 5/17/2015 to 5/18/2018: Betty Duquesnoy, Joan Harvey Lotze and Rebecca Studer. The Committee recommended Bob Mitchell to serve the two years remaining of Tara s term. No other nominations having been received three days prior to this meeting, the Committee s slate was approved. Nomination of Nominating Committee members. Retiring members of the committee are Peter Karsten, Melody Platz, and Bob Sullivan. Audrey presented the following nominees to serve three-year terms on the Nominating Committee: Amy DeChicchis, Nick Izzo and Brian Junker. Election of Board and Nominating Committee members. Voting was conducted by paper ballot. Both slates were elected. Brady presented parting gifts to Amy, Brian Rohleder and Vespara Barrow. 11. RESOLUTION ON KHASSI HILLS Brady explained the resolution and answered some questions. Rob Schwartz moved the following: We the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh agree to affiliate with the Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council in support of our continuing Khasi Hills relationship. The motion having been seconded it was approved by acclamation, without objection. 12. NEW BUSINESS MR Kelsey rose to ask if some of the money earmarked for capital projects could be used to air-condition the sanctuary.
Peg Schmidt pointed out that if we are going to air-condition the sanctuary we should also install solar panels on the roof to offset part of the energy consumption. Peg also asked if we are looking at sources of funding other than the canvass, the investments and fund-raising. In particular she s suggesting a donation box in the lobby, to which non-members who attend concerts and other events at church could be invited to contribute. Brady suggested that the new Board would take these suggestions under consideration. Hugh McGough asked what the music program will look like, going forward. Brady explained the Board s thinking in its plan for restructuring music, and admitted that it did not yet know what the music program will look like. Emily Pinkerton will be meeting soon with members of the Sanctuary Choir to hear their thinking. David added that everyone involved in any music entity in the church will be invited to a meeting soon to discuss the future of this program. The Board s hope is that Emily will become our Director of Music, a position which has remained unfilled for many years. Alice Lieb asked about the decision to hire an interim Religion Education Director at an increased level of compensation while cutting other staff positions. Brady noted that the position of RE Assistant had been cut precisely so the budget could encompass a full-time Director, in the conviction that no one really qualified would accept the position on a part-time basis. Another member rose to ask about the hiring process, and Brady and David described and explained the decision, given short notice of Jen Halperin s resignation, to hire an interim rather than a full-time director. They identified the members of the search committed and described the search process, including the time-compressed decisions at the end in order to obtain the candidate the committee favored. Ebe Emmons urged the Board in future to engage the congregation in decisions like this. She also encouraged the Board to make the contents of the recent member survey more widely available, perhaps by empowering a committee of non-board members to help analyze the responses. Nick Izzo rose to ask about the future of social action in the absence of a dedicated social action director. He wanted a clear understanding that David is indeed expecting to lead this project. Brady pointed out that a smaller congregation needs to find means other than dedicated staff to get things done. David noted that he is trying to set up councils, such as Music and Social Action, to coordinate the work of paid staff with the work of committees, perhaps by identifying co-conveners, one staff and one member. He identified several church members who have recently stepped forward with an offer to assume leadership responsibility. Diane Anderson noted a two-day cross-denominational training workshop she recently attended on building inclusive churches. She and her partner were only the only Unitarian Universalists there, and they were not official representatives of this church. She urged an increased public presence for First Unitarian and felt we should have had official representation at this workshop. There was voluble concurrence from the members.
A member of the Membership Committee noted the 15 to 20 college students who attend our services regularly and she urged other committees to include them in church activities and the Board to include them in leadership. 13. CLOSING WORDS John Ballance spoke about community, loving and caring for one another, and helping one another in our spiritual growth. He urged us always to assume good intentions on the parts of one another, and expressed his conviction that we can change the world. 14. AJOURNMENT Brady adjourned the meeting at 2:47. Respectfully submitted, Pat Schuetz Approved by the Congregation, May 21, 2017