On October 24, 2009, the NoVES Board of Directors met at the home of Mary Ellen and Andy Stanton. Present at the meeting were President Hank Gassner, Vice President Mary Ellen Stanton, Secretary Andy Stanton, Mary Bellamy, Marianne Moerman, Karen Raymond Hart and Leader Jone Johnson Lewis. Mary Herman from the Washington Ethical Society, who is participating in some activities with NoVES this year as part of her AEU Leader intern training, also attended. Treasurer Sven Sinclair and Carole Rubin did not attend.
The Board approved the minutes of the previous Board meeting and reviewed the To Do list. Among the items noted were that laminated name badges should be given to long-term visitors.
Jone then gave her Leader report. She discussed a proposal for the Leader and officiants to take training to be able to coach people seeking to get married. The Board agreed to this proposal. Mary Ellen, as officiant coordinator, will take the training first and then the other officiants will be invited to participate if the training proves worthwhile. Jone proposed renting space from Green Hedges during the week for Leader meetings with members and adult ed classes. The Board voted in favor of the proposal in principle assuming it can be worked out with Green Hedges. Jone mentioned that there’s a CD duplicator on sale that has a hard drive and can make three CD’s at a time. The Board discussed the fact that CD’s are much more widely used than the cassette tapes we are currently making and voted to purchase the duplicator if the money is available from one of our dedicated funds. Jone reported the National Leader Council’s decision that, in their national social justice work as Leaders, they would put a special public focus on LBGTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) issues in 2010 and have an educational focus within the NLC in 2010 to be ready for a similar national public focus on economic justice issues in 2011.
In Sven’s absence, Hank gave a pledge update. We now have $58,754 from 54 pledge units. The overall increase is due to a new pledge and increases in existing pledges. Mary Ellen noted that we have weddings scheduled, which will bring in additional funds. Jone gave a Learning Component, presenting some ideas based on a publication of the Alban Institute about dealing with difficult behavior.
Hank presented the president’s report. He reported that Iris Woodard has agreed to be festivals co-chair with Amy Anderson and that Chris Centner will not be Platform speaker chair next year. The Board expressed its appreciation to Iris and Amy for taking on this responsibility and to Chris for all the great work he has done. Hank noted that the Board gave email approval to a new contract for Lynn Konnerth, our DRE, and to moving Jone’s day off from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Hank mentioned the possibility of NoVES getting involved in fundraising for the Secular Student Alliance. The Board agreed to put an article soliciting funds for the Alliance in our newsletter and to solicit funds from the members at the Dec. 13th Platform.
The Board then addressed the issue of the NoVES survey. Alban Institute recommend that, rather than send out questionnaires, we could arrange five or six member constituted focus groups led by Alban trained volunteer facilitators who are not connected with NoVES. The groups could deal with various issues to determine what our members think of the Society. Mary Herman noted that Alice Mann from Alban will be doing a workshop at the NY Ethical Society dealing with congregational issues. If a contingent from NoVES attends her talk, we could perhaps discuss some of our issues with her. The Board will continue to consider how the NoVES survey will be conducted.
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