Woodside Task Force Update

Woodside Interview schedule

Group to Interview                 Task Force members                   Date

                 ABC & UCC                            Karen                                   UCC – June 9

                                                                                                                ABC – May 1

                       Staff                                 Miriam , Jack                          April 21

          Operations Committee                 Virg, Denny                            April 19

             Board of Directors                     Karen, Shelia                           April 26

          Personnel Committee                    Karen, Steve                            TBD

     Communications Committee             Jack, Denny                            May 5

                  Dick Lee                                Jack, Steve                              TBD

          Church & Ministry                       Karen, Steve                            May 6

        Outreach Committee                       Jack, Shelia                              May 3

             Christian Ed                               Virg, Steve                               May 13

Crafty Christian Kids                              Karen,Steve                                   April 28      
                 Choirs                                    Karen, Shelia                           Chancel,Folk – April 28

                                                                Karen, Miriam                        Chime – May 13

            Core Values                                 Shelia, Steve                            TBD

TBD – To be determined

Denomination representatives 

We will be conducting a 'Talk Back' session with ABC representative Larry Greenwood in the chapel immediately following the service on May 2nd. Thom Webster, from the UCC, will be meeting with the Task Force on June 10th to discuss our efforts to revitalize Woodside and offer his guidance.


Update notes

Minutes of May 5, 2010

Members present: Karen Eaton, Chairperson, Denny Dale, Sheila Smith, Steve Blinks, Jack LeSage and Virgil Cope

Absent:  Miriam Schaefer

Also present: Jane Richardson and Jim Richardson, by invitation.

The meeting was called to order at 6:10 and began with a prayer.

No one requested to speak in the open forum time.

The Minutes of the April 22 meeting were approved as distributed.

The meeting with the OSA Committee was discussed.  For details of the meeting, see the Task Force notebook.

The format of the Task Force notebook, as prepared by Miriam, was approved, with much appreciation.

We began a discussion with Jane Richardson concerning finances in general and with Jim Richardson concerning the Trust Fund.  Jane made the point that finances should not drive our processes.  Who we are and what we are will determine our future and our budget and our future.

Using zero base budgeting would require many decisions to develop a budget.  That approach may put too much emphasis on dollars and not on mission.  Historical and reality budgeting may inhibit dreaming by committees about what they want to be.  No approach is likely to be vastly better than any other.  In our current budget, very few dollars appear to go toward programming and our mission.  We employ staff to carry out our programs, but do not parse their salary by the programs.  We could break down the time of each staff person by contributions to various programs.  This might be useful as a test of how time is used, but it would be time-consuming.  It might also be used as a weapon against someone.

Trust Fund stability.  We stabilize the Trust Fund utility in four ways.  1) We use a 3-yr average as the basis for calculating the payout.  This smoothes out the market fluctuations.  2) By a mandated 5% payout from a typical 9% growth rate, we allow the balance to allow the Trust Fund to grow with inflation.  If we continue to use 6% or 7% payouts, the Fund will be eroded.  3) We direct the Citizens Fund managers to use a 40% bonds, 60% equities mix to balance growth and stability.  We encourage planned giving to build the Trust Fund balance.  We need to do more in this area.  The Trust Fund