Conference Call Minutes: 08.06.08

CUUYAN Steering Committee (SC) Conference Call Minutes
Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Agenda:
Check-in, introductions
SC Covenant
SC Email Update
Appoint the Board of Trustees (BOT) Observer
C*UUYAN-GA Young Adult Caucus relationship
Bank account
Fall meeting
C*UUYAN’s relationship with the Task Forces formed at the pre-GA meeting
C*UUYAN-YAM (Young Adult Ministries) Office and C*UUYAN-UUA relationship

Present: Andrew Mertz (AM), Linnea Huston (LH), Tom Bozeman (TB), Sadie Kahn-Greene (SKG), Liz Weber (LW)

Decisions:
• Anyone can now email SC at cuuyan-sc@yahoogroups.com
• Karina Leppik reappointed for one-year term as Board of Trustees Young Adult Observer
• To ask the UUA to continue managing our accounts in a way consistent with tax law, but to ask for a written statement that the moneys belong solely to CUUYAN.
• Aiming for meeting Fri night (arriving with after-work flights), Sat all day, Sun afternoon and/or eve, probably in October

Action Items:
• Liz: Send out Code of Ethics (CoE)
• Everyone read CoE and “sign on”
• Liz: Notify Karina of reappointment
• SC will allocate funds and notify RF/DM by Sept 1st at the latest
• Question: Can BoT dissolve CUUYAN if we ask?
• AM will coordinate meeting date in Oct
• LW will email all TF conveners to begin conversation about TF-CUUYAN relationship
• AM verbal check-in about TF-CUUYAN relationship with Nattie.
• AM will copy binder from Fall 2007 meeting and email as PDF
• LW will send stuff from this year
• AM: personal commitment to contact Meadville about archives
• TB: working on going to GAPC meeting in Sept

Minutes
“Chalice” lighting
Introductions and check-in

Covenant:
• Respect
• Speaking from our own experiences; use “I” statements
• Assume best intentions
• Speak with one voice: take things to group, acknowledge that we hold the power of our leadership at all times.
• Address conflict directly and lovingly
• Abide by Code of Ethics
• If one must back out of a commitment, find someone else to follow through
• Put reply expectation in email subject if less than a week (default reply time: one week).
• If not able to use email, alert list or tell Liz so she can alert the list.
• Agenda items for calls/meetings submitted 1 week in advance, final agenda 5 days in advance.

• Executive session/concerns time available at each meeting/call (includes check-in and check-out).

Anyone can now email SC at cuuyan-sc@yahoogroups.com

Appoint the Board of Trustees (BOT) Observer
• We ask that reports be posted to list directly
• Concensus to reappoint Karina Leppik

Royal Forest and Danny Maitland join us for discussion on GA Young Adult Caucus (YAC) and C*UUYAN
• Royal will go to Boston for GA Planning Committee (GAPC) meeting Sept 11-12
• RF and DM shared some early visioning for GA YAC, including using meal times for YA connections
• RF/DM don’t know how many workshop slots the GA YAC will have, what’s up with the Fri night intergenerational worship, etc
• Programming: DM/RF want info from C*UUYAN; goal for YAC of empowering YAs and giving them a voice at GA. Workshop: Open dialogue workshop.
• How to get YAs into Caucus sessions? The needs of YAs will be different depending on what other summer conferences are happening.
• LH: One reason folks didn’t come to Caucus is scheduling (Same time every day is good, but 1 pm is a prime workshop slot—too much competition for attention).
• Financial/accountability: The funding source will lead to lines of accountability
• One workshop costs, three staff ($1000 each): estimate $3000-4000
• Money would be helpful, but the power of YA is that congregations want to hear from us
• SC will notify RF/DM of funding allocation decision by Sept 1st at the latest

Money allocation: SC will find out whether the Conferences TF is planning to host any summer conferences, and if so how much funding they expect to need from us; we will discern whether we ourselves will be hosting summer conferences; we will use this information to decide whether and how much money to allocate to GA YAC.
• AM: yes
• LH: agree, but want a more sound reason for having conferences than simply b/c the bylaws say to
• TB: agree
• SKG: where did money come from in the past?
• LW: we traditionally had $12,000 and 16,000 from the YAM office at the beginning of year
• Concensus for above allocation decision process? YES

Money: We traditionally had $12,000 and 16,000 for ConC and SC purposes, respectively. This money was held for SC at the beginning of the fiscal year. We have no money allocated to us for 2008-2009. We have no promises of moneys for coming years, but know that it’s possible to open that conversation again.
• AM: We need to find out whether the UUA BoT can indeed dissolve CUUYAN if we ask
• TB: Prefer to continue deeper discussion at in-person meeting

Bank account: The UUA treasurer found a problem with the way the UUA manages funds for C*UUYAN. As a sponsored organization, CUUYAN is considered an independent entity with a unique relationship the UUA, which has included use of the UUA’s tax ID number for C*UUYAN’s accounts. This is not allowed under tax law. The accounts are legally UUA accounts and we cannot have separate bank accounts like this that do not show up in our financial statements. This issue needs to be resolved ASAP. Our options include asking the UUA to continue to mangage our accounts (they would still be ours, untouchable by the UUA) or to set up our own independent accounts. If the UUA continues to manage our accounts, we will go through them to access our moneys, but we will not have to worry about having a treasurer, who can write checks, etc. If we establish independent accounts, they would be independent of the UUA, but it would take a long time and many steps to get a Taxpayer ID Number, become a recognized non-profit org, etc, and we would then need to have a designated treasurer, etc.
• AM: Would like to continue in UUA accounts, but would like a written statement from them that this is CUUYAN money, untouchable by the UUA
• LH: how did this happen? Why was it set up this way?
• LW: We don’t really know. It has been this way and comfortable for years, but the UUA’s financial advisor recently caught the situation.
• AM: It happened to us and another random organization
• LH: Is it hard to go through the UUA to get moneys?
• AM/LW: Not particularly
• LH: Then best seems to not start taking steps to become a non-profit right now b/c of the flux we’re in
• TB: agree
• SKG: agree
• Decision: To ask the UUA to continue managing our accounts in a way consistent with tax law, but to ask for a written statement that the moneys belong solely to CUUYAN. Consensus? YES
Fall meeting: I (LW) think a fall meeting would be invaluable b/c we can have face-to-face, deeper, longer conversations as well as get to know one another better so that our non-facetime work runs more smoothly.
• AM: fall meeting is invaluable and would also be easier, personally, than phone/email. I also support including TFs
• LH: ditto on TFs, but without losing our own time
• TB: yes meeting
• SKG: yes meeting in theory, but when and where?
• LW: Boston seems best, financially. Andrew, you had an offer…?
• AM: Could meet where I’m house-sitting through Oct, but Boston seems better financially.
• LH, TB, SKG: Boston
• LW: Andrew, will you meeting wizard for Sept/Oct weekends?
• LH: new job means difficulty with traditional work hours. Best is flying in Fri eve, back Sun night.
• TB: Doodle.ch is better than meeting wizard
• Aiming for meeting Fri night (arriving with after-work flights), Sat all day, Sun afternoon and/or eve
• AM will coordinate meeting date

Task Force-CUUYAN Relationship: While the TFs are looking within and beyond CUUYAN, having them under the aegis of CUUYAN will give them accountability and clout
• AM: I think the bigger TF should be supported by us, not under us. That will give them more clout b/c they have the backing of the larger group that created them. But not sure yet. Definitely need a relationship with them, though. Needs to be an open conversation.
• LH: Ditto. Undecided right now about what the relationship should be.
• TB: It would be up to them to decide whether they were under our aegis or not. Not sure if we have the authority to make that call. We need to have a conversation with them.
• SKG: Agree with Tom
• LW: I misspoke. Not that they have to “do what we say,” but that the pre-GA meeting was a CUUYAN meeting, so they are a CUUYAN-commissioned body, and could use the CUUYAN name for name-recognition, etc. Definitely needs to be a two-way conversation.
• TB: Needs to be a conversation. No dialogue so far, so it feels weird to “decide” how we think it should be.
• LW: Had suggested this as a way to begin the conversation, so we’re coming with one SC voice rather than 5 varied perspectives
• SKG: Say that “we have a relationship with the TFs b/c chartered the CUUYAN body,” as a way to begin the conversation about our exact relationship.
• CONCENSUS on that.
• LW will contact TF chairs.
• AM: Nattie Everett one of three conveners for “large” TF. Lives near-by, so offering to start check-in.
• LW: Let’s do both, written email to all conveners, and AM verbal check-in with Nattie.
YAM/UUA: CUUYAN is one of two Sponsored Organizations of the UUA. (YRUU is the other.) However, that relationship has never been clarified, leaving a legacy of confusion, assumptions, and often CUUYAN’s over-reliance on the Office. With both CUUYAN and the Office in such flux this past year, the relationship has gone from miscommunication to near non-communication.
• LW: I need to be in touch with the Office
• TB: What has been done to centralize archives/history?
• LW: Relationship has a few docs (Sponsored Org proposal and revision, staff-volunteer policy/covenant). General history is well-documented but not centralized. Meadville Lombard has (or had?) some of our archives. There was an Opus “how-to” binder that has been lost. Other minutes, docs, etc are available but not well-organized.
• SKG: Invite Office to part of Fall Meeting?
• LW: Traditionally, a YACMO rep has been present throughout meetings. We can discuss whether we would like to have a rep at the whole meeting or only part of it. However, I agree that having designated time in agenda for discussing our relationship is a good idea.
• TB, AM: Agreed. (LH had left the call.)
• AM: Request LW to send detailed notes from conversations with YAMO to SC
• LW: Was planning on it
SC commitment:
• SKG: What are expectations for SC members?
• LW: Monthly conference calls, emails, fall and/or spring meeting, any CUUYAN summer business meeting

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