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Christ Congregational ChurchSilver Spring, MD

Meeting of the Coordinating CouncilJune 25, 2018

Present:

Coordinating Council:Olen Stephens (Moderator)Kristen Brown (Moderator-Elect)Gwen Garrison (Past Moderator)Geri Brennan (Spiritual Formation)Spencer Clark (At-Large) (by telephone)Bud Dennie (Member Care and Fellowship)Susan Gray (Worship & the Arts)Sarah Ingram (Clerk) Adrianne Johnson (Congregational Giving)Dayna Brown Majarowitz (Mission & Outreach)Dan Pence (Congregational Assets)Dean Ripple (Treasurer)

Also present:Cory Gray (conducted tour of building’s infrastructure)Kristin Sundell (Outreach)

Opening Thought, Introductions and Prayer

Moderator Olen Stephens welcomed the members, thanked Cory Gray and Kristin Sundell for their presence, and explained that the opening exercise would be a tour of the building’s infrastructure.

Call to Order, Review of Agenda

Olen called the first meeting of the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Coordinating Council (CC) to order at 7:33 pm. Olen explained that the agenda would be adjusted to facilitate decision making and a variety of schedules.

Approval of the June 4, 2018 Coordinating Council Minutes

Olen asked the CC to approve the minutes from the June 4, 2018 CC meeting and asked for comments and corrections. Taking into account minor corrections, Gwen Garrison moved that the minutes be approved; second by Kristen Brown; passed unanimously.

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Action Items: Sarah Ingram reviewed the Action Items from the June 4th meeting: actions are either completed, ongoing, or not yet due.

Updates on Programs, Activities, Events

Council Coordinator Updates to Monthly Reports (Attachment A)

Update to Congregational Assets: Flooding of Social Hall ( Attachment B )

Olen outlined the events to date, including the work to do due diligence on scope and costs by contacting three companies and several member experts, in addition to the existing bid from Plumb Square Builders LLC. One company would subcontract to the same soil scientist but at a slightly higher total contract cost. Another company would focus initially on inspecting the operation of the existing sump pumps and lines; again, for a slightly higher amount. A third company could not visit and offer an estimate on a time frame useful for Christ Congregational Church (CCC). The companies and experts agree that the soil scientist analysis is the correct next step (assuming pumps are OK). The CC members agreed that due diligence was done and that Plumb Square is clearly the best choice.

CCC employees and member experts are confident that the existing sump pumps are operating as designed. They note that the firm that designed the building renovation almost twenty years ago determined that the social hall was sufficiently above the water table that no sump pump was needed for that location. CC members observed that there has not been leakage in the social hall except briefly after the 2011 earthquake.

Plumb Square would prefer not to go through a competitive bidding process at every step but CCC has not promised, given the amount of money involved. Olen noted that CCC’s insurance will cover repairing items like tile, paint and carpet, but will not pay for fixing the underlying causes of the flooding.

Motion to approve the bid from Plumb Square Builders LLC for the scope of work described therein, at a cost of no more than $10,000 (ten thousand dollars).

The motion was made by Dayna Brown Majarowitz, seconded by Dan Pence, and passed unanimously.

Status of Pledges for FY 2018 (fulfillment) and FY2019 (new budget)

Dean Ripple noted that the pledges made for FY2017-18 have been fulfilled at an unusual rate of nearly 100 percent. CC members agreed that that has not happened for a long time.

Olen shared Dave Main’s June 23rd report of pledging for FY2018-19: $648,307 pledged by 146 pledge units, which represents 6 fewer pledge units but an increase of $12,551. Dave estimates that there are, perhaps, 19 more households that might make a pledge.

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Building Tour

Cory Gray conducted a building tour for the meeting attendees, during which he provided valuable history and information, and answered questions. Among the many topics covered were electrical, HVAC, plumbing, building construction (original and the changes in 1957 and 2002), and the organ and its pipes. Cory provided valuable additional history about the basement, the sump pumps and the organ which will help the CC members address current challenges. Cory answered many questions and shared anecdotes.

Unspent Funds Requests (Music and Mission)

Olen introduced two different requests that had been submitted to the CC relating to the possible use of unspent funds from the FY2018 budget, and then led a discussion about procedures and protocols.

(1) Justice & Witness (f/k/a Mission & Outreach). Dayna explained that although J&W had expended the discretionary account (grants, etc.), it had underspent the program account (lunch and learns, etc.) by over $2,000. The J&W group asked to reprogram roughly half of the money to discretionary (split between the UCC Open and Affirming (OnA) Coalition and Interfaith Power & Light) and return slightly over $1,000 to the CCC reserve account. She mentioned that the J&W group was unsure whether it needed to obtain CC approval to reprogram money from the program bucket to the grants bucket but hopes to give grants to these groups given that CCC has historically done so. J&W has submitted a FY2019 budget with a smaller programming sub-account. Dayna noted the numerous recent unanticipated expenses for which the money might be needed (social hall, organ repairs, etc.) but hoped that at least some funds could be used for the two grants.

(2) Sam Wack resubmitted her request to the CC to reprogram the unspent music-related budget line items to provide her with additional FY2018 salary to reimburse her for extra hours. As of 6/13/18, Sam identified $2,525 that had not been spent for various musicians and for organ maintenance.

The CC members discussed the distinction between reprogramming to personnel versus non-personnel purposes, and the group reviewed the reasons the music director request had been voted down by the CC prior to the Annual Meeting. At this point in the CC meeting, the CC lacked a voting quorum. It was agreed that a virtual vote would be conducted concerning the reprogramming of a portion of the J&W unspent programming funds to the J&W discretionary spending subaccount. The group preferred to consider the two requests separately due to the complications around personnel procedures, contracts and salaries. It was also noted that the news about costly organ repairs post-dated the salary request.

Depending on the cost figures to handle the flooding and damage to the social hall and elevator, and a decision about the timing of organ repairs, the CC members expressed a desire to recognize, possibly through year-end bonuses, the extra effort that some staff have contributed to fill in during the Senior Pastor’s sabbatical and to manage and work through the

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flooding crises. It was agreed that the topic would be addressed at the July 23rd CC meeting when CC could better understand the reserve figure at the start of FY2019, the Retreat House Renovation (RHR) cash-flow, and the costs of mitigation and repair of the social hall and elevator flooding.

Action Item: All CC members should consider bonus ranges and possible recipients for the next meeting.

Some noted that the procedural manual being assembled by Gwen and Sarah should include the guidelines for when, and by whom, and how much, moneys may be moved without requiring approval by the CC or the congregation. Absent reallocation, any unspent money at the end of one year is swept into the budget reserve account for use (or reserving) during the next fiscal year. The group agreed that a current budgeting goal is to increase reserves so funds are available to partially mitigate the costs of crises like the flooding.

Action Item: Gwen will draft a protocol for Engagement Areas for moving monies between budget buckets (amount, buckets, approvals).Action Item: Olen will circulate a virtual vote on the J&W reprogramming of $1000 from the programming sub-account to the discretionary (grantmaking) subaccount. COMPLETED.Action Item: Olen will update Sam Wack on the status of her salary request. COMPLETED.

Social Hall Floor Remediation; Organ Repair; Major Maintenance

The flooding status was discussed, above. The organ repair is costly but may be able to be phased. Making progress on the list of Major Maintenance items will depend on the future discussion informed by the flooding cost estimates.

Other Items

Music Committee. Olen noted that Karen O’Steen has made significant progress re-establishing the Music Committee. So far, she has recruited Ingrid Baines, Rick Brush, Marti Hoffacker, Lynne Joseloff, Pader Maarbierg, Sharon Rising, and Jeanne Young. She hopes to add two more members, including a youth representative. The committee will look at both short and long-term issues, at budget structure and categories, and at developing operating guidelines.

Church space and political candidates. There was a follow-up discussion about the use of the church for activities that might conflict with the legal prohibition of support of (or opposition to) specific political candidates. At the last CC meeting the CC had moved to reject a request from a candidate to use space for a community meeting on an issue; the issue was consistent with church covenants but the involvement of the active candidate shortly before the election was considered inappropriate. This CC meeting, the CC considered the actions by an existing tenant who hosted a community discussion on a topic consistent with church covenants but

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invited as the guest presenter a prominent candidate, only days before the election. The tenant had not mentioned the involvement of a candidate when reserving the use of the extra meeting space for a “community event”.

The members of the CC agreed that clear guidelines need to be readily available for staff, members, tenants and requestors that lay out the rules for the use of church physical property and reputational brand, the difference between activism in the public arena and the legal prohibition against the promotion or opposition, directly or implied, of candidates during election cycles.

Action Item: Sarah will research existing CCC materials, gather example guidelines from the IRS, the UCC and other church organizations, and craft draft policy guidelines for consideration by the CC, no later than the September 2018 meeting of the CC (which follows the return of the Senior Pastor).

Focus Strategic Conversation

Calendaring. Due to time constraints, Olen deferred the review of the master 2018-19 calendar but urged all members to submit information for entry into the calendar to be reviewed at an upcoming meeting.

Action Item: All CC members will feed calendar information to Olen, Susan Gray and Sarah as soon as possible.

Digital Tools. Gwen reviewed Breeze tools for the newer members of the CC, especially tags, emails, forms, searching for people who might be interested in a volunteer opportunity.

Wrap Up: Action Items

Action Items from Prior Meetings Olen, Dean Ripple, and the Retreat House Renovation (RHR) team will discuss how to best

track RHR financing and reporting, and report back to the CC. ** This activity is rescheduled for after the construction bids are received and processed, and total cost and schedule are available.

The RHR Team will brief the CC at the June 25th CC meeting, on the RHR construction package, costs, schedule and financing. ** This is rescheduled for the July 23rd meeting to give time for the analysis of bids.

Gwen Garrison and Sarah Ingram will meet to discuss Gwen’s outline of refreshed authoritative documents (Constitution, Bylaws, etc.) and schedule execution of various materials, including a refreshed, accessible Operations Manual. ** Gwen and Sarah will tackle this beginning in July and report back to the CC in September.

Adrianne and Bruce , with input from Dean and Dan, will catalogue endowment and financial issues, and existing procedures, and bring the broad topic back to a future CC meeting. The

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CC will discuss how to assign issues for clear ownership. The CC asked Adrianne and Bruce to be prepared by late September.

Olen and others will consider how to leverage existing gatherings of young parents, teens and middle-schoolers to discuss visioning issues over the summer. COMPLETED

All CC members will consider the Visioning questions in Olen’s emails of June 5th (to CC) and June 7th (FYM) and feed ongoing thoughts to Olen.

New Action Items Olen will implement the CC approval to hire Plum Square Builders LLC. COMPLETED All CC members should consider bonus ranges and possible recipients for the next

meeting Gwen will draft a protocol for Engagement Areas for moving monies between budget

buckets (amount, buckets, approvals). Olen will circulate a virtual vote on the J&W reprogramming of $1000 from the

programming sub-account to the discretionary (grantmaking) subaccount. COMPLETED. Olen will update Sam Wack on the status of her salary request. COMPLETED. Sarah will research existing CCC materials, gather example guidelines from the IRS, the

UCC and other church organizations, and craft draft policy guidelines for consideration by the CC, no later than the September 2018 meeting of the CC (which follows the return of the Senior Pastor).

Adjournment and Prayer

Olen thanked the group for their contributions and adjourned the meeting at 9:43 pm. Dan led the group in a closing prayer.

Respectfully submitted by Sarah Ingram, Church Clerk

Attachments

A – Engagement Area Summaries – June 25, 2018B – Plumb Square Builders LLC – June 7, 2018 bid with addendum

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Attachment A

ENGAGEMENT AREA SUMMARIES – June 25, 2018

Mission & OutreachMonthly Progress Summary of Area

CCC Open & Affirming Committee members carried a Christ Congregational Church sign, along with nine (9) additional UCC Potomac Association congregations, behind a rainbow, “God is Still Speaking,” banner on June 9, in the DC Capital Pride Parade. Then, on June 10, L J Ingram, along with representatives of many of these same congregations, worked a booth for the greater UCC at the DC Capital Pride Festival. On June 24, L J Ingram will be speaking on “God’s Spirit Within Us,” during the Sunday morning ONA Worship Service at Bethesda UCC. 

Stewards of the Earth conducted its monthly Fair Trade sale. They were back in the lobby this month, which resulted in more people stopping by. They are preparing to document the purpose and benefits of the Fair Trade sale for the congregation in preparation for a congregational discussion in the fall, about whether it should be allowed to be routinely held in the lobby.

Stewards of the Earth also continued to maintain its small portion of the Justice and Witness bulletin board outside the church office, supplying new informational material about the climate, environment, and renewable energy every couple of weeks. This month, they also posted a certificate documenting that CCC is again in the top 5% of non-profit Equal Exchange (Fair Trade sale) participants.

On Saturday June 23rd, CCC members will participate in the rally and march organized by the Poor People's Campaign: A National for Moral Revival) will be joined by America's poor and impacted for a massive call to stand against systemic racism, systemic poverty ecological devastation, the war economy/militarism, and the distorted moral agenda of religious nationalism in Washington, DC. Several members have been taking part in 40 days of non-violent action in Annapolis as part of the campaign. 

CCC members have been actively advocating and protesting against the government’s separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border. A large rally is planned in DC for June 30th. 

The Justice and Witness Engagement Area held a meeting in June to determine final disbursements of discretionary Mission funds and programming funds. (see separate agenda item). The Racial Justice Circle also met in June. 

The Uganda Ministry Team supported Lois’s successful trip to Kobulubulu, Uganda to support women cassava farmers and children.

Volunteer Needs L J Ingram has reached out to Rev John Ahn regarding a Fall 2018 ONA Youth Retreat.

Youth and parents of youth are invited to contact L J Ingram to help coordinate this Central Atlantic Conference UCC Youth Retreat. A time and location has not yet been determined.

Submitted by Dayna Brown Majarowitz

Spiritual Formation

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Monthly Progress Summary of Area Thank you to Lindsay Vogelsang for her touching words of appreciation to this year's

church school teachers during worship on June 10th. Thank you for John Ahn's heartfelt words of appreciation for CYM parent volunteers

during worship on June 10th.  Thank you to Holly Massett, Larry Duff, John Malone, and John Ahn along with the

CYM mission trip kids for organizing and carrying out a successful hot dog, lemonade, and cookie sale on June 3rd to raise money for the mission trip. And a huge thank you to the congregation for supporting our youth--helping them raise about $500!

Thank you to Dayna Brown, Jessica Brown and Alison Petersen for facilitating a lessons learned meeting with the CYM youth on June 3rd to help inform planning to next year. And thank you to Dayna for documenting the results of those meetings!

Submitted by Geri Brennan

Security Grant TeamMonthly Progress Summary of Area

Update on Colesville Doors:--Playground side doors are installed and exterior will be repainted as weather permits.--Weather Strip for the inside seam on both doors is on order as is the hold downs to secure the push bar for each door.

Still exploring options on Locks. Reviewing CPA options on Cameras.

Future Activities for Council to Know about Security Team is meeting on Tuesday, June 26 to review and finalize next set of

implementation plans.

Volunteer Needs We need more people to sign up and help with Sunday service security support.

Submitted by Gwen GarrisonCongregational AssetsMonthly Progress Summary of Area

Flooding has been observed in the Social Hall since the Memorial Day weekend. The flooding worsened after heavy rains and caused damage to the flooring and walls. Currently, the Social Hall is unusable and requires water removal by vacuum each day by a crew of volunteer and paid staff. A plumber from Rommel was brought in to confirm there were no broken pipes. WSSC inspected the site and saw no evidence of water main breaks. WSSC also took a sample of the flooded water and tested for fluorine, which would indicate the water originates from piped (WSSC) water -- no fluorine was detected, so the water appears to be ground water. CCC is built on top of several springs and it is possible the paths of these springs have changed, causing the flooding. A study was recommended by Plumb Squares, a trusted contractor, to chart the water table and recommend potential remediation steps to prevent flood damage in the future. This recommendation was reiterated by Anna Kottkamp (environmental soils graduate student) and the price range for this type of study was verified by John Enagonio. John

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was solicited for potential companies who may provide quotes for studies to diagnose the situation. Three companies were contacted, two of which confirmed that a soil study would be the next step. One company actually endorsed the soil scientist that would be sub-contracted by Plumb Squares, saying this person is reputable with 30-years of experience in this area (which is important for soil studies) and further stated that if CCC has a good working relationship with our contractors, that this relationship and trust in the contractor is very valuable compared to searching for a new contractor whose work may not be as high of quality. Of the two other firms recommended by John, one firm would need to sub-contract a soil scientist as well. The third firm is a larger firm and is willing to potentially bid on this project but was unable to visit the site before the June 25th Coordinating Council Meeting.

Future Activities for Council to Know about The Coordinating Council needs to consider options in hand to address the water ingress

so that the Social Hall can be repaired and put back to use. Insurance will cover repair of the damage but not remediation of the underlying cause.

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Attachment B

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