Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Global Executive Constraint

EL1                 The Senior Minister shall not cause or allow any practice, activity, decision or organizational circumstance that is either unlawful, imprudent, or in violation of commonly accepted business and professional ethics and the church’s Unitarian Universalist mission, values and ends.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Treatment of Parishioners (Members, Friends and Visitors)

EL2a               With respect to interactions with parishioners, the Senior Minister shall not cause or allow conditions, practices, procedures, or decisions that are unsafe, undignified, unnecessarily intrusive, or fail to provide appropriate confidentiality or privacy.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Treatment of Staff

EL2b              With respect to the treatment of paid and volunteer staff, the Senior Minister may not cause or allow conditions that are unfair, unsafe, discriminatory or undignified.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not:

 

1. Operate without written personnel policies that comply with accepted employment practices, provide for effective handling of grievances, and protect against wrongful conditions.
2. Fail to acquaint staff with their rights under these policies.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Financial Planning and Budgeting

EL2c               Financial planning for a fiscal year shall not deviate materially from the Policy Board’s Ends priorities or risk fiscal jeopardy.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not allow budgeting that:

 

1. Contains too little information to enable credible projection of revenues and expenses, separation of capital and operational items, cash flow, and disclosure of planning assumptions.
2. Plans the expenditure in any fiscal year of more funds than are conservatively projected to be received in that period.
3. Provide less for the Policy Board prerogatives during the year than is set forth in the Cost of Governance policy.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Financial Conditions and Activities

EL2d              With respect to the actual, ongoing financial condition and activities, the Senior Minister shall not cause or allow the development of fiscal jeopardy or a material deviation of actual expenditures from Policy Board priorities established in Ends policies.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not:

 

1. Expend more funds than have been received in the fiscal year to date, unless the debt guidelines in paragraph 2 are met.

2.      a.   Indebt the church in an amount greater than can be repaid by certain, otherwise unencumbered, revenues within sixty days without approval of the Policy Board nor

b.   Indebt the church nor enter into a contract that could indebt the church in an amount greater than 5% of the then current year's budget in any single transaction, nor greater than 10% of the then current year's budget in the aggregate without approval of the Policy Board.

3. Expend an endowment or designated funds other than for the purposes determined at the time of receipt or designation without approval of the Policy Board.
4. Conduct inter-fund shifting in amounts that deviate materially from the Policy Board’s Ends priorities.
5. Fail to settle payroll and debts in a timely manner.
6. Allow tax payments or other government ordered payments or filings to be overdue or inaccurately filed.
7. Fail to inform the Policy Board before any decision is made to use unexpected and undesignated income over $20,000.
8. Acquire, encumber, or dispose of real property.
9. Fail to appropriately pursue unpaid pledges after a reasonable amount of time.
10. Fail to aggressively pursue unpaid, non-pledge receivables after a reasonable amount of time.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Emergency Senior Minister Succession

EL2e               In order to protect the Policy Board from sudden loss of Senior Minister services, the Senior Minister must not fail to designate at least one other executive familiar with Policy Board and Senior Minister issues and processes.

 

      Accordingly, in the event of loss or incapacitation of the Senior Minister:

 

1. The most senior called minister on the staff will immediately assume Senior Minister responsibilities, until the Policy Board appoints an interim Senior Minister or until the return of the Senior Minister. The return date of the Senior Minister must be mutually agreed upon by the Policy Board and the Senior Minister.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Asset Protection

EL2f               The Senior Minister shall not allow the assets to be unprotected, inadequately maintained, or unnecessarily risked.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not:

 

1. Fail to insure against theft and casualty losses to at least 80 percent of replacement value and against liability losses to Policy Board members, staff, and the organization.
2. Allow unbonded personnel access to material amounts of funds.
3. Subject facilities and equipment to improper wear and tear or insufficient maintenance.
4. Unnecessarily expose the church, its Policy Board, or staff to claims of liability.
5. Make any purchase (1) wherein normally prudent protection has not been given against conflict of interest; (2) of over 1.5% of annual budget without having obtained comparative process and quality; (3) of over 3.0% of annual budget without a stringent method of assuring the balance of long-term quality and cost.
6. Fail to protect intellectual property, information and files from loss or significant damage.
7. Receive, process, or disburse funds under controls that are insufficient to meet the Policy Board-appointed auditor’s standards.
8. Invest or hold operating capital in insecure instruments, including uninsured checking accounts and bonds of less than AA rating, or in non-interest-bearing accounts except where necessary to facilitate ease in operational transactions.
9. Endanger the church’s public image or credibility, particularly in ways that would hinder its accomplishment of its mission.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Compensation and Benefits

EL2g               With respect to employment, compensation, and benefits to employees, consultants, and contract workers, the Senior Minister shall not cause or allow jeopardy to fiscal integrity or public image.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not:

 

1. Change his or her compensation and benefits.
2. Promise or imply permanent or guaranteed employment.
3. Plan and/or execute compensation and benefits plans and/or obligations that exceed available funding.
4. Commit to compensation obligation that exceed one year.
5. Establish current compensation and benefits that deviate materially:

a.       From the UUA guidelines for a church of our size in a similar geographic wage area.

b.      From the local market for the skills employed.

6. Establish or change pension benefits so as to cause unpredictable or inequitable situations, including those that:

c.       Incur unfunded liabilities.

d.      Provide less than some basic level of benefits to all full-time employees.

e.       Allow any employee to lose benefits already accrued.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Communication and Support to the Policy Board

EL2h              The Senior Minister shall not permit the Policy Board to be uninformed or unsupported in its work.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not:

 

1. Fail to submit monitoring data required by the Policy Board in a timely, accurate, and understandable fashion, directly addressing provisions of established policies.
2. Fail to inform the Policy Board of relevant trends, anticipated adverse media coverage, material external and internal changes, particularly changes in the assumptions upon which any Policy Board policy has previously been established.
3. Fail to advise the Policy Board if, in the Senior Minister’s opinion, the Policy Board is not in compliance with its own policies on Governance Process and Policy Board-Senior Minister Linkage, particularly in the case of Policy Board behavior that is detrimental to the work relationship between the Policy Board and the Senior Minister.
4. Fail to gather for the Policy Board as many staff and external points of view, issues, and options as needed for fully informed Policy Board choices.
5. Fail to provide a mechanism for official Policy Board or committee communications.
6. Fail to deal with the Policy Board as a whole except when (a) fulfilling individual requests for information, or (b) responding to officers or committees duly charged by the Policy Board.
7. Fail to report in a timely manner an actual or anticipated non-compliance with any policy of the Policy Board.
8. Fail to limit public statements about the official position of the congregation or Policy Board on controversial social, political, and/or congregational issues to what the congregation or Policy Board has formally and explicitly adopted as positions of record.  Nothing in this policy shall be construed to infringe upon the fundamental principle of freedom of the pulpit.
9. Fail to supply for the consent agenda all items delegated to the Senior Minister yet required by law or contract to be Policy Board-approved, along with the monitoring assurance pertaining thereto.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Ends Focus of Grants or Contracts

EL2i                The Senior Minister may not enter into any grant or contract arrangements that fail to emphasize primarily the production of Ends and, secondarily, the avoidance of unacceptable means.

 

      Accordingly, the Senior Minister shall not:

 

1. Allow grant funds to be used in imprudent, unlawful, or unethical ways.
2. Fail to assess and consider an applicant’s capability to produce appropriately targeted, efficient results.

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                Senior Minister Spiritual Care        

EL2j               The Senior Minister shall not fail to provide adequately for her/his spiritual care

Policy Type:               EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS

Policy Title:                “Endowment”          

EL2k                          To be determined                 

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Global Governance Commitment   

GP1                The Policy Board of the Universalist Church of West Hartford will act on behalf of the church’s parishioners to promote the accomplishment of the church’s mission and prevent unacceptable activities and conditions within the church.

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Governing Style        

GP2a              The Policy Board will govern with an emphasis on (1) outward vision rather than internal preoccupation, (2) encouragement of diversity in viewpoints, (3) strategic leadership more than administrative detail, (4) clear distinction of Policy Board and Senior Minister roles, (5) collective rather than individual decisions, (6) future rather than past or present, and (7) proactively rather than reactively.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. The Policy Board will cultivate a sense of group responsibility. The Policy Board, not the staff, will be responsible for excellence in governing. The Policy Board will be the initiator of policy, not merely a reactor to staff initiatives. The Policy Board will use the expertise of individual members to enhance the ability of the Policy Board as a body rather than to substitute individual judgments for the Policy Board’s values. The Policy Board will allow no officer, individual, or committee of the Policy Board to hinder or be an excuse for not fulfilling Policy Board commitments.     
2. The Policy Board will direct, control, and inspire the organization through the careful establishment of broad written policies reflecting the Policy Board’s values and perspectives about ends to be achieved and means to be avoided. The Policy Board’s major policy focus will be on the intended long-term effects outside the organization, not on the administrative or programmatic means of attaining those effects.
3.  The Policy Board will enforce upon itself whatever discipline is needed to govern with excellence. Discipline will apply to matters such as attendance, preparation, policy-making principles, respect of roles, and ensuring continuance of governance capability. Continued Policy Board development will include orientation of new Policy Board members in the Policy Board’s governance process and periodic Policy Board discussion of process improvements.
4. The Policy Board will monitor and regularly discuss the Policy Board’s own process and performance.

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Policy Board Job Description         

GP2b              The job of the Policy Board is to represent the parishioners of the Universalist Church of West Hartford in determining and demanding appropriate organizational performance.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. The Policy Board is the link between the ministers, staff and parishioners.
2. The Policy Board will produce written governing policies that, at the broadest levels, address each category of organizational decision.

a.       Ends:  Organizational products, effects, benefits, outcomes, recipients, and their relative worth (what good for which recipients at what cost).

b.      Executive Limitations:  Constraints on executive authority that establish the prudence and ethical boundaries within which all executive activity and decisions must take place.

c.       Governance Process:  Specifics of how the Policy Board conceives, carries out, and monitors its own tasks.

d.      Policy Board-Senior Minister Linkage:  How power is delegated and its proper use monitored; the Senior Minister’s role, authority, and accountability.

3. The Policy Board will assure Senior Minister’s performance (against policies in 2a and 2b).

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Agenda Planning                  

GP2c               The Policy Board will follow an annual agenda that (1) completes re-exploration of Ends policies annually and (2) continually improves Policy Board performance through Policy Board education and enriched input and deliberations.

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Moderator’s Role     

GP2d              The Moderator assures the integrity of the Policy Board’s process and, on occasion, will represent the Policy Board to outside parties.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. It is the responsibility of the Moderator to ensure the Policy Board behaves consistently with its own rules and those legitimately imposed upon it from outside the organization.

a.       Meeting discussion content will be only those issues which, according to board policy, clearly belong to the Policy Board to decide, not the Senior Minister.

b.      Deliberations will be fair, open, and thorough but also timely, orderly, and kept to the point.

2. The authority of the Moderator consists of making decisions that fall within topics covered by board policies in Governance Process and Policy Board-Senior Minister Linkage; except where the Policy Board specifically delegates portions of this authority to others. The Moderator is authorized to use any reasonable interpretation of the provisions in these policies.

a.       The Moderator shall preside at all business meetings of the church.

b.      The Moderator is empowered to chair Policy Board meetings, with all the commonly accepted power of that position (for example, ruling, recognizing).

c.       The Moderator has no authority to make decisions about policies created by the Policy Board within Ends and Executive Limitations policy areas. Therefore, the Moderator has no authority to supervise or direct the Senior Minister.

d.      The Moderator may represent the Policy Board to outside parties in announcing Policy Board-stated positions and in stating Moderator decisions and interpretations within the area delegated to her or him.

e.       The Moderator may delegate this authority but remains accountable for its use.

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Policy Board Member’s Code of Conduct 

GP2e               The Policy Board commits itself and its members to ethical, churchlike, and lawful conduct, including proper use of authority and appropriate decorum when acting as Policy Board members.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. Members must represent unconflicted loyalty to the interests of the parishioners. This accountability supercedes any conflicting loyalty such as that to advocacy or interest groups and membership on other Policy Boards or staffs. It also supercedes the personal interest of any Policy Board member acting as a consumer of the church’s services.
2. Members must avoid conflict of interest with respect to their fiduciary responsibility.

a.       There must be no self dealing or any conduct of private business or personal services between any Policy Board member and the church staff except as procedurally controlled to assure openness, competitive opportunity, and equal access to inside information.

b.      When the Policy Board is to decide upon an issue about which a Policy Board member has an unavoidable conflict of interest, that member shall absent herself or himself without comment from not only the vote but also from the deliberation.

c.       Policy Board members must not use their positions to obtain employment for them, family members, or close associates. Should a member of the Policy Board desire employment, he or she must resign from the Policy Board first.

d.      Members will disclose their involvement: with other organizations, with vendors, or with and other associations that might produce a conflict.

3. Policy Board members may not attempt to exercise individual authority over the organization except as explicitly set forth in the board policies.

e.       Members’ interaction with the Senior Minister or with staff must recognize the lack of authority vested in individuals except when explicitly Policy Board-authorized.

f.       Members’ interactions with public, press or other entities must recognize the same limitation and the inability of any Policy Board member to speak for the Policy Board except to repeat explicitly stated Policy Board decisions.

g.      Members will give no consequence or voice to individual judgments of the Senior Minister or staff performance.

4. Members will respect the confidentiality appropriate to issues of a sensitive nature.

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Policy Board Committee Principles

GP2f               The Policy Board may establish committees to help carry out its responsibilities. Committees will be used sparingly and ordinarily in an ad hoc capacity to preserve the Policy Board functioning as a whole and will never interfere with the delegation from the Policy Board to the Senior Minister.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. Policy Board committees may not speak or act for the Policy Board except when formally given such authority by the Policy Board for specific and time-limited purposes. Expectations and authority will be carefully stated in order not to conflict with authority delegated to the Senior Minis

Policy Type:               GOVERNANCE PROCESS

Policy Title:                Cost of Governance 

GP2g              The Policy Board will invest in its governance capacity.

 

      Accordingly,

 

 

1. Policy Board skills, methods, and support will be sufficient to assure governing with excellence.

a.       Training and retraining will be used to orient new members and candidates for membership, as well as to maintain and increase existing member skills and understandings.

b.      Outside monitoring assistance will be arranged so that the Policy Board can exercise confident control over organizational performance. This includes but is not limited to fiscal audit.

2. Costs will be prudently incurred, though not at the expense of endangering the development and maintenance of superior capability.

a.       For training, including attendance at conferences and workshops.

b.      For audit and other third-party monitoring of organizational performance.

c.       For surveys, focus groups, opinion analyses, and meeting costs.

Policy Type:               POLICY BOARD-SENIOR MINISTER LINKAGE

Policy Title:                Global Policy Board-Senior Minister Linkage

BML1             The Policy Board’s sole official connection to the operational organization, its achievements and conduct will be through the Senior Minister.

Policy Type:               POLICY BOARD-SENIOR MINISTER LINKAGE

Policy Title:                Unity of Control

BML2a           Only decisions of the Policy Board acting as a body are binding on the Senior Minister.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. Decisions or instructions of individual Policy Board members, officers or committees are not binding on the Senior Minister except in rare instances when the Policy Board has specifically authorized such exercise of authority.
2. In the case of Policy Board members or committees requesting information or assistance without Policy Board authorization, the Senior Minister can refuse such requests that require, in the Senior Minister’s opinion, a material amount of staff time or funds, or are disruptive.

Policy Type:               POLICY BOARD-SENIOR MINISTER LINKAGE

Policy Title:                Accountability of the Senior Minister

BML2b           The Senior Minister is the Policy Board’s only link to operational achievement and conduct, so that all authority and accountability of staff, as far as the Policy Board is concerned, is considered the authority and accountability of the Senior Minister. The Policy Board’s sole official connection to the operational organization, its achievements and conduct will be through the Senior Minister.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. The Policy Board will never give instructions to persons who report directly or indirectly to the Senior Minister.
2. The Policy Board will refrain from evaluating, either formally or informally, any staff other than the Senior Minister.
3. The Policy Board will view the Senior Minister’s performance as identical to organizational performance, so that organizational accomplishment of Policy Board stated Ends and avoidance of Policy Board proscribed means will be viewed as successful performance by the Senior Minister.

Policy Type:               POLICY BOARD-SENIOR MINISTER LINKAGE

Policy Title:                Delegation to the Senior Minister

BML2c           The Policy Board will instruct the Senior Minister through written policies that prescribe the organizational Ends to be achieved and describe organizational situations and actions to be avoided, allowing the Senior Minister to use any reasonable interpretation of these policies.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. The Policy Board will develop policies instructing the Senior Minister to achieve certain results, for certain recipients, at a specified cost. These policies will be developed systematically from the broadest, most general level to more defined levels, and will be call Ends Policies.
2. The Policy Board will develop policies that limit the latitude the Senior Minister may exercise in choosing the organizational means. These policies will be developed systematically from the broadest, most general level to more defined levels, and will be called Executive Limitations policies.
3. As long as the Senior Minister uses any reasonable interpretation of the Policy Board’s Ends and Executive Limitations policies, the Senior Minister is authorized to establish all further policies, make all decisions, take all actions, establish all practices and develop all activities.
4. The Policy Board may change its Ends and Executive Limitations policies, thereby shifting the boundary between Policy Board and Senior Minister’s domains. By doing so, the Policy Board changes the latitude of choice given the Senior Minister. But as long as any particular delegation is in place, the Policy Board will respect and support the Senior Minister.

Policy Type:               POLICY BOARD-SENIOR MINISTER LINKAGE

Policy Title:                Monitoring Senior Minister Performance

BML2d           Systematic and rigorous monitoring of the Senior Minister’s performance will be solely against only the expected Senior Minister outputs: organizational accomplishment of Policy Board policies on Ends and organizational operation within the boundaries established in board policies on Executive Limitations.

 

      Accordingly,

 

1. Monitoring is simply to determine the degree to which board policies are being met. Data that do not accomplish this will not be considered to be monitoring data.
2. The Policy Board will acquire monitoring data by one or more of three methods; (a) by internal report, in which the Senior Minister discloses compliance information to the Policy Board, (b) by external report, in which a third party selected by the Policy Board assesses compliance with Policy Board policies, and (c) by direct Policy Board inspection, in which a designated member or members of the Policy Board assess compliance with the appropriate policy criteria.
3. In every case, the standard for compliance shall be any reasonable Senior Minister interpretation of the policy being monitored.
4. All policies that instruct the Senior Minister will be monitored at a frequency and by a method chosen by the Policy Board. The Policy Board can monitor any policy at any time and by any method, but will ordinarily depend on a routine schedule.

 

 

Policy	Method	Frequency
Treatment of Parishioners	Internal	Annually
Treatment of Staff	Internal	Annually
Financial Planning and Budgeting	Internal	Quarterly
Financial Condition and Activities	Internal	Quarterly
	External	Annually
Emergency Senior Minister Succession	Internal	Annually
Compensation and Benefits	Internal	Annually
	External	Biannually
Communication and Support	Direct	Annually
	Inspection
Asset Protection	Internal	Annually
Senior Minister Spiritual Care	Internal	Annually
Endowment	TBD	TBD
Ends Focus for Grants & Contracts	Internal	Annually

 

Note: As ends policies are developed, they will be added to this list.