Sponsored by the TUCW Committee on Ministries
Our TUCW Committee on Ministries (COM) is an elected committee under our Constitution. Our charter is to assist the Congregation in looking at how we are fulfilling our mission to Inspire, Connect and Act. Current TUCW Committee members are Tom Hearne, Chair, Marti Bishop, Randy Burnham, Charles Harrington, and Anita Pfluger. As part of our growing and learning we wanted to understand what other congregations are doing with a Committee on Ministry.
We decided to reach out to other UU Congregations in the area. We sent a letter to all the congregations in the district asking about their interest in meeting and what they would like to discuss. We received firm commitments from six congregations in addition to TUCW. We scheduled the meeting for Saturday, April 29, 2017 at the Meeting House. We covered four areas in the time we spent together: 1) introduction of the participants and how their congregation was developing a COM, 2) the concept and purpose of a COM, 3) COM models and basic organizational questions, and 4) COM policies and procedures.
Many participants indicated that the meeting would have been worthwhile if we had only covered the first topic. Sharing what was happening in each congregation not only provided information, but also stimulated discussion and ideas that were helpful to all attending congregations.
These six congregations sent 14 participants. Danbury sent one representative, others sent two participants, and all five members of the TUCW COM attended. This document is a summary of the introduction of each congregation. We will also provide the notes for each topic online and will notify everyone how to access these notes. We will continue to look for ways to communicate with each other to share progress and ideas.
1) 5-Minute Introductions of each group
- UU Congregation of Monmouth Country, Lincroft, NJ
- In the process of redefining ourselves
- Involved in developing plan with Board of Governors – call themselves a Co Com
- Every committee developed a 3 year plan
- COM – developing a grievance procedure, assessing volunteer program which is been ongoing for a year to assess who we are, and developing a procedure manual.
- Assessed two worship service program and went back to one service
- Completing a study of volunteers and will have recognition this year
- Strict confidentiality hindered people knowing what the CO COM was
- People are not finishing their terms and difficult to find people who have been with the church 10 years.
- Document created in 2006, committee created in 2003
- UU Fellowship of Huntington, NY
- COM goes back to 2004 and morphing from MRC to COM and now perceived as MRC again
- Working to go back to being perceived as a COM
- Have lost people in the past couple of years, so budget has suffered
- In a situation with tensions, and need to define the COM
- Need to rework what’s in our by-laws
- Congregation is 75 years old
- Minister suggested that the COM explore the last five ministers for patterns
- Two new members come on each year – two go off – appointed by ministers and approved by the Board
- UU Congregation of the Hudson Valley (Croton-on Hudson)
- Have 110 members
- COM formed end of 2005 at the end of a long part time minister
- Wanted full time minister – called full time minister who is now in her fourth year
- COM has five members – has transitions committee during the interim between part time and full time minister
- Minister needed COM and input from her supervisor each year for three years of preliminary fellowship
- Need baseline data for the congregation – 60% of surveys return and compiled results – asked about worship, RE, music, art, social justice – 70 questions – want to focus on a couple of items going forward
- Determined the need to focus on communication – held opportunities to talk to the COM – asked members to sign their input
- Members conference in if they can’t attend meetings
- Also holding potlucks to help people know who the COM is
- Small church and had conflicts, some very difficult – interim period was very bad – interim minister made a difference
- Finances are a problem with a small church – tension between minister and Board
- COM members are appointed by the minister and approved by the Board
- Unitarian Society of New Haven
- Have a new minister – emphasizing organic – felt a need to protect and support her
- Had a long term minister
- Have done the ministerial review
- Minister sets meeting and COM has followed her lead
- Have had no rules
- Have policy governance – also set up a right relations team
- Been very confidential
- About 300 members – helping minister understand
- Don’t have terms – don’t know how we are going to transition off the COM and bring new members on
- Two of the three attendees have been Board Chairs
- Board struggled with Policy Based Governance – Board has been having assessment meetings
- Need more connections – too siloed – minister learning how to be a minister
- May need to have meetings with Board, Right Relations, Management team to assess how we are doing
- Right relations focused on the relationships exclusively
- The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport
- Past two years helping new minister understand the territory
- Also involved in Policy Based Governance – in strict terms under the Carver model, a COM doesn’t exist
- Currently charged with reporting to the congregation on how we are doing with the mission
- This year we are concentrating on Connect – some things were granular – silos, committees not talking to each other
- Now at 492 members – may be down from that
- Committee members are elected in rolling five year terms
- Seen our role as being an ombudsman – a mirror providing the balcony view
- Had ministerial study in 2005 – found there was a need to be available to look at the congregation as a whole – to look at all the ministries in the church
- UU Congregation in Stamford, CT
- Congregation of about 100
- Had nine year minister, then an interim who was eventually called.
- This is first time the group has met
- Asked to serve by the minister
- Everything is in the formative stage – had been a committee to support the minister
- Christine a COM member in Westchester – struggled between push pull, the COM vs. the committee to support the minister
- UU Congregation of Danbury
- President of Board in 2005 – support vision 2020 effort – Had growth and vitality workshops that brought home that the ministry belongs to the congregation – 2/3 of the way between MRC and COM
- COM not active not because of ministerial search
- All the work that had been done fell apart – two Board members and two COM members looking to regenerate the COM
- Call the groups teams not committees
- New concept evolving – having a social justice council to bring what had been silos together – share look for synergies – now looking at council on ministries
- Strong Sunday services worship team – group went from two services to one and also overlap with social justice
- Team on COM and Board worked with all groups to define their mission – still struggle with what will it look like when we reconstitute the group.
- 150 members currently in the church
- Incoming Board President ran the 2020 Vision project – need to look at current bylaws
Please contact any member of the COM if you have questions or comments. We welcome your input.
Contact: The Committee on Ministries (COM)
CLICK HERE for Reflection on Mission, 2016 How We Connect
CLICK HERE for Reflection on Mission, 2016 How We Connect – Appendix
CLICK HERE for The Complete COM CON Seminar Minutes – April 29, 2017