At its July 24 meeting, the Governing Board approved the recommendation of the Edwin Whitney Trust Fund Committee to award $800 to Connor Filkins, a resident of Wallingford, Connecticut, a member of the First Congregational Church, UCC, and a student at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.  It also appropriated $3,000 from the Major Projects Fund for the purposes of a) installing a computer workstation and necessary software in the Historian’s office, and b) replacing the existing computer workstation available for guest users in the front office.

In late July the elevator failed a state inspection on two counts.  The emergency phone within the elevator was not functioning.  In addition, the inspector informed us that as of January 2018 the State had adapted a new elevator code that required seismic testing of our rupture valve.  The phone problem was quickly corrected, and the Board, in an effort to expedite performance of the rupture vote test, approved by e-mail vote (reconfirmed at our August 21 meeting) expending $2,000 from Major Projects to have a five-year safety test and an annual pressure relief valve test performed and to enter into an Otis Service Contract that will provide the Storrs Congregational Church with annual inspection and safety testing.  Unfortunately, the mechanic who was best suited to perform the tests was on vacation.  Consequently, they could not be scheduled until the week of September 17.  Following re-inspection, the elevator was returned to service.  Many thanks are extended to Duffy Brookes and Deborah Gacek, with extra special thanks to Peter Latincsics, for their efforts in resolving the elevator issues.

At both the July and August meetings, the Board devoted most of its agenda time to a “mini-retreat” to discuss and discern the forward path for the Governing Board’s attention for the remainder of this term.  In July Board members spent time reviewing the annual goals and open questions stated by the Board in the previous two years, as well as lists of “challenges” and “accomplishments” identified at a planning session conducted in June 2017 jointly among the Board, staff, and lead ministry coordinators.  The Board then engaged in three rounds of smaller group discussion, using a “World Café” format (for the prompting questions used, see Pastor Matt’s “Have a minute?” article in the late-Aug/Sept issue of The Carillon).  In August we continued the planning conversations begun at the July meeting, reviewing the conversation process used at that meeting and the resulting brainstormed list of Board focus areas and began scheduling agenda focus areas for the remainder of the term:

• September:  Budget; conversation to be facilitated by Pastor Matt and the Finance-and-Administration Committee
• October:  Mission Statement development; conversation to be facilitated by Stacy Malecki & Jan Castle
• November:  What would ‘success’ look like in the realms of participation & engagement?; conversation to be facilitated by Peter Baldwin, Annetta Miller, & Bryan Klimkiewicz
• December:  (no pre-scheduled topic)
• January:  Accountability & Evaluation – how have we done on past goals?; conversation to be facilitated by Laurie Brookes and others

As always, we are happy to hear your questions, comments, and concerns.  Do not hesitate to contact any of us.

Your 2018 Governing Board,

Dick Roberts (Chair), Laurie Brookes (Vice Chair), Peter Baldwin, Janice Castle, Josephine Evan, Wade Johnson, Bryan Klimkiewicz, Mary Lake, Stacy Malecki, Annetta Miller