 Thank you. Thank you ever. It takes a village to get a quorum. Yes. Alright, Carol Rowan and Jim Shuey, you put us over the over the mark. Thank you for that. Alright, so our um, and I will, when I'm done reading Monica, I'll keep track of folks again. I think Sandy and George Wysock look at this now we're going to be way over. We're just thank you everybody. Okay, so I'll try again. These are the words of Rudy Nemzer. He says you find them in congregations when you're lucky. You find them in other places too, I'm sure, though I mostly only know of them in the ecclesiastical varieties. These are the long haul people upon whose shoulders and pocketbooks and casseroles and daylight and nighttime hours a congregation is built and maintained even when the kitchens need to be cleaned and the cushions need restitching. They pay their pledge full and on time even if the music is too modern. They support every canvas, even though the sermons aren't always short. They care for the grounds and they come to the potluck. They teach religious education when there's no one else even though they miss going to service. Ask what they think of the minister or plans of the building renovation or the coral anthem or the program on Christmas Eve or the color of the classroom walls. They will simply reply individuals and fashions arrive and pass. This congregation, their community, will be here steady and hail for a long, long time. It will, of course it will, for long haul people bless a congregation with a very special blessing and they are the ones whom it gets to. So I think we have had the perfect example of long haul people this morning. Thank you for those who automatically sign on and come to parish meetings. Thank you to those who answered the call for quorum. It is really good to be together this morning. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you to everyone who joined and thank you to all who are helping run this Zoom meeting as we establish quorum and let everyone in from the waiting room. Just do a really quick agenda review. We do have several things to vote on. We will have a total of five votes for this meeting. We're approving the minutes from both the winter meeting in February and then our special parish meeting to, you know, to call our minister, Kelly AJ. So we have minutes from both those meetings and then we have candidates for both the FUS Foundation Board and the FUS Board and we have our budget to approve for the coming church year for the 2021-2022 year. And we have a very brief overview of a new team called the Healthy Congregation Team. I'm just going to introduce some of those concepts because it leads very nicely into the work that the relational covenant team has done in developing a new document for FUS, just about the agreements that we have with each other as congregation members. All right, we can move on to the rules or procedure. So this is yet again a virtual parish meeting held via Zoom. I hope we're getting a little bit better at this, but there's a lot of parts to work out every time. We do have quorum. Kelly, do we have a, do we have accounts? Do we officially have more than 71? Kelly or Monica? I may be able to do right now and I need to work in. I need to figure out who FUS ministerial surge team is. Is it Sandy? It's Chuck. Okay, thanks Chuck. Great. And do we have anyone joining only by phone? We'll need to know this for the for the votes. Is anyone just on phone that we'll need to make sure we get a voice vote for? We do not. Okay. All right, so voting. So again, you know, just I think I believe everyone here is a member as we as we've established quorum. We're going to use the same method for voting that we did for the for the special parish meeting. We've got we've got online forms all queued up for each vote. Please watch the chat. If it works for you to just click that link. It's a really quick way of tabulating all the votes virtually instantly. And it'll be a separate link for each vote. And if that doesn't work for you, we can also just we will also just pause to allow folks to vote by raising their hand on video as well, or by vote voice if that's needed. And for these votes, we're not we're not needing to get an exact count. We just need to know that we have a majority. So so hopefully that'll work just fine. And for voting or anything else, and for any of the other topics, please put any questions or comments in chat. And those will go just to the to the meeting host, and they will they will raise those. So any questions about the procedures as we move into our meeting. All right. So the first item on the agenda is to approve our minutes from the last two parish meetings. So the February winter meeting and the May 2nd special parish meeting. Are there any any discussion questions corrections from those minutes? So is there a is there a second to this motion? All right. Thank you, Nancy. All right. I'm going to paste the link to vote on this. If there's no other discussion, watch those votes come in. I just pasted the Google doc in again because someone came in after Terry pasted it. So if you can get in the chat, it's there again. Mark Nancy, are you struggling with that Google form? And I just wanted to mention again, you know, the form does let if you have two people on the same computer, it does let you just at the end just just click submit another response and the next person can vote. We've got got 47 responses, folks, a few minutes to figure out the form. June, I see your hand is raised. What's going on, June? We got it, by the way. Okay. Thanks, Nancy. Okay. Kathy, you're Kathy is the form not working for you? Right. The form doesn't work for me and I'm going to need to duck out early. So if it's legal, I'll vote yes in advance on all of the issues to be voted on. Okay. Thank you, Kathy. Okay. So I think, Terry, if you're okay with this, we can also take voice votes for anybody having difficulty with the form. I can track that. So this is the February, this is the minutes. And if there is anyone who needs to voice vote like Kathy just did, please unmute and let me know that and I will keep track of it and then I'll get that to John for the record. Yes. Both Alan and I need to voice vote. We're having problems getting and staying in. I saw that, Joy. Are you a yes for both? Yes. Thank you. Liza and I need to voice vote. We have an iPad and it's not allowing us to do your trick here. So we're saying yes. Yes for both of us. Thank you, Dick. I got Dick and Liza. And Sarah. I'm also voting yes. Can you hear me? Yep, I got it, Sarah. Thank you for that. Thank you. Marcy Bradley votes yes. Thank you, Marcy. Gotcha. Chuck evens and I vote yes. Tim Corden, I vote yes. Is he insanely the beers? Yes. I sent something at the bottom to Tom. I don't know whether that worked. Okay. I wrote it down and I'll get these, I'll get your names and your votes to John. Kelly, did you hear me? I did. Thank you, Tim. Did you get me, Kelly? I did. Thank you, Chuck. Everybody else okay? Terry, how are we doing on the go? Yeah, no, I think we're good. We've got all yeses in the online form and a couple of yeses except a couple of abstentions. So I think we have a clear majority. And I have a lot to add to that. 11 yeses. Perfect. All right. That is both a quorum and a clear majority. So thank you, everyone, for your patience with the voting. All right. Our next item is nominees for the FUS Board of Trustees and the Foundations Board of Trustees. I believe the Foundation members are up first. We can move to those slides. Yes, we have three candidates for the FUS Foundation Board. I hope you all have had a chance to take a look at the bios in the packet. We are fortunate to have folks with a great depth of both professional experience, related to money management, as well as a commitment to First Unitarian Society. We have two returning members. Connie and David are both returning to the board and Annette Helmer is joining. So are there any questions or discussion about the motion to approve these three members of the Foundation Board? I move that we accept them. Thank you, Rob. Is there a second? I think I heard Kathy along with several others, I think seconding. Kathy Luecker. I heard Rob first. Is there a second? Rob Savage and Kathy Luecker. Do we need any more seconds? Just if there are any questions just pausing if there are any questions or discussion and I will putting the link to the votes in the chat. I have I'm going to work on the assumption that the folks who voice voted for the minutes will also need to voice vote for the rest of our votes. So I will start by calling that list of names that just voted for the minutes while everybody else is using the Google form. Thank you, Kathy. I see your yes. Joy and Alan. Yes. Both. Thank you, Dick and Liza. Yes, for both. Thank you, Sarah, I think I saw you, Mal, the yes. I'm looking at you. Yes, for both. Thank you, Marcy. Marcy Bradley. Yes. Thank you, Chuck. Yes. Tim, Tim Corden. Yes. And Susie and Sandy DeBeers. Yes. Yes. Thank you, all. Is there anyone else who needs to vote by voice? That is harder to say than you might think. Thank you, Kelly, for doing that. And we will give the form just a couple more minutes. I think folks are still are still figuring out the online form. We've got about 15, sorry, about 53 responses. All yes. So, you know, we have a clear majority. We'll give folks just a few more minutes to vote. I might have accidentally voted twice, says Chuck Stone-Cyber. Okay. Thank you. All right. Does anyone, we do have a majority vote. Does anyone need more time? You can raise your hand if you're on video if you need more time. This is Ruth Arnold. We don't know how to move to the current vote. Oh, there's a new link for each vote. I will paste it again in chat. So if you still have a, if you still have a screen up with the previous vote, you can just close that and click there. There'll be a new link for each vote. Or just say yes and we'll, don't you? Yes. That too. Thank you. The waxlers need to vote yes on the second. Waxlers vote yes on the last. I thought you're relaying for someone else. Sorry. No, no, no. We voted on the first one and then the second one, we just couldn't get to the right link. All right. No problem. I got you, Bob and Lucy. So, Terry, that adds 15 yeses. All right. Great. That is unanimous for everyone who has voted. Thank you. So, there are 55 yes votes in the online form. All right. Moving on to the nominees for the board of trustees. We're delighted to have a member of the search committee move right on to joining the board for a three-year term. So Emily Cusick Putnam is a first candidate for the board of trustees and then also Ann Schaffer will be joining the board, a longtime member for a member of FUS for 21 years and has served in many roles. So, very happy to present these candidates. Is there, do we have a motion and second for these candidates to the board? I'm giving a enthusiastic for a second. Just Rob. Thank you, Rob. And if you needed a move, I'll do it. This is scale bless. Yeah, I think the nominations committee moves. I don't know. It's, it's a affirmation either way. And are there any questions on these, move to the vote. Any questions or discussion? All right. I will put that in the chat. Voice vote folks ready. I'll call your name again. Kathy Luker, I have you as a yes. I think you're still here. Right. Thank you, Kathy. Joy and Allen. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Dick and Liza. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Sarah. Yes. Marcy Bradley. Yes. Chuck. We're getting good at this. Yes. Tim Corden. Yes. Susie and Sandy. Yes. Yes. Dave and Ruth, were you able to vote or do you want to just do it by voice? I think we need to do this by voice. Dave and Ruth Arnold. Yes. Perfect. And how about Bob and Lucy? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Anybody else need to do it by voice? Since I don't think that I've been getting the way this is set up, I'll just do it by voice. Jim Jager votes yes. Thank you, Jim. It's great to see you. So, Terry, whatever your numbers are, you can add 16 yeses. All right. I think we have around 65 yeses. One abstention. I haven't heard or seen any no votes, so I think we have this motion passes. Terry, can we check one and Schaefer? I see that you keep getting kicked off and coming back on. Did you get a chance to vote? Okay. Thank you. Thank you to everyone for being here and thank you to the candidates as well. I know we don't get to applaud when we're not in the same room with each other. These are thank you all for your commitments to these three year terms to both of our boards. And I think it is. Oh, no. Budget and multiple on this. So our budgets are next here. Yeah, thank you, Monica, for moving on to the budget slide. So last week we had our financial forum. I hope everyone got a chance to view the video, kind of introducing this year's budget. Then we had a live forum that was primarily small group discussion, you know, a chance to have some discussion about how our budget relates to our strategic priorities to our mission and values as a congregation. So, you know, so I hope everyone has had a chance to review the detail if you wish to as well as the FAQs that were included in the meeting materials. The FAQs are responses from the from the board and staff on the questions that came up in discussion. You know, a lot of good material there. So I encourage you to read that if you have not. Are there are there other, you know, so we have a motion to accept the budget as presented of there were no changes that came out of the financial forum or the board discussion all week. So are there any other questions or discussion as we before we move to vote on the budget? Yes, I would like to be able to see the budget again while we're voting. Thank you. I'll second the motion. Thank you. It's Elizabeth. I have a question. Go ahead, Laurie. Just a question. Wondering what the contract running time is, sorry if it was in the details and I missed it, for the nursery as well as for the parking agreements. I'll just say that I think we hold gold and I just am educating myself about when those things are not to be changed but to be reviewed and listened and thought about more. That's all. Yeah, I think I'll let Monica answer. I think the parking is continually under review and I know Monica is in close contact with the meeting house nursery school. Monica, would you like to? Sure. Yes, we renew the contract. We review it both with meeting house nursery school and our our renters, our parking renters on an annual basis right around this time. So I believe it's July first that the contract technically renews. Thank you. I have a question. I wasn't able to make it to the the meeting last week. So I just wanted to know exactly what the where did it go funds transfers or is that from the the foundation? No, so we have two different funds or accounts that we pull from. One is our unrestricted cash reserves and the other are our donor and board designated and restricted fund. So the vast majority of the fund transfers are from the cash reserve, the unrestricted cash reserve, and then about $7,000 of the donor restricted funds are transferred to the operating fund to support the appropriate programs. Thank you. Any other questions for a move to vote? I think it's $450,000 you have an unrestricted funds. Where did that money come from? That's a great question. So some of it is remnants from the insurance, the hail damage insurance claim that we had. What was it three or four years ago now? And the rest is so we received PPP funds. Those were all the paycheck protection program funds were all utilized to support the operating budget these last year and some change. The funds that we didn't use because we received PPP funds helped replenish that the unrestricted cash reserves. Thank you. Going to suggest we put the voting thing in the cat so that we don't spend time figuring out how to get to it after all the questions are answered. I can do that. I have a question of Monica. It's Lori Schwartz. I was wondering if we're eligible for any of the new funds that are coming down the road very soon or have already come out regarding nonprofits that may have experienced losses. Do you know are you referring to funds from the state, Dane County or the federal government? I wish I knew. I've heard some talk about some and I haven't seen any specifics. Yeah, numbers for nonprofits, there are accountants. They were really great about keeping us abreast of changes with the PPP. So those are federal funds. I haven't heard anything about another round of PPP funds coming. We received two different rounds of that, the second of which was far more selective. So I'm not anticipating any more federal funds, but we would take it if it was available. Would I have monitored state funds that have been available in the last year since the pandemic hadn't benefited nonprofits and especially not faith communities? But if members ever find opportunities for additional funds, please send them my way. Again, I haven't seen anything that pertains to us, but numbers for nonprofits will let us know. But of course, as members, you're always welcome to forward us opportunities. You prompted my memory. The information did come from is it Madison Community Foundation person who they've been directed to try to administer and it relates to nonprofits that might not have as directly benefited as much in the past and that I heard it in relation to Madison, Starlings and an organization because certainly we were not basic needs. Thus, I mentioned it because I'm not sure if a church was seen as basic needs either that this was expanding nonprofits who lost funds and could show the reason for that. And it was going to be much more simple to apply. And I heard it referenced in regards to Joe Parisi. So that makes me assume that it's county. Yeah, that's great. Madison Community Foundation, I'll be sure to take a peek. Thank you for that. All right, just just give one quick bit of tech support. We are switching back and forth to vote. You know, it does take you to another program when you vote. So if you need to get back to the Zoom meeting, do whatever you normally do to switch between programs on your tablet or computer. So just so you know, we are we are leaving the Zoom application when we're voting. And we do have the if for anyone who's ready to vote on the budget, we have the we have the link to that vote up now. Are there any other questions specifically about the approval of our 2021 2022 budget? And feel free to vote however you can. I have I'm receiving a few votes in the in the chat to the person texting me feel free to send your vote that way. And also, you know, Kelly will go through the voice. I can do it again. I see your green vest. Thank you for that. Joy and Allen. Yes, yes. Dick and Liza. Yes, yes. I love the yes, yes. Okay, Sarah. Yes, yes. Thank you, Marcy. Yes. Chuck. Chuck Stone Cypher. You're still here. No, I'm sorry. Chuck Evenson. You're still here. All right, we'll come back to you. Chuck Evenson. Tim Corden. Yes. Susie and Sandy. Yes, yes. Dave and Ruth. There you are. Dave and Ruth. You want to unmute. There we go. I'll do the ask to unmute. Okay. And thank you, Liz. Kelly. So yeah, this is Janice Kordes. I need to voice vote. Perfect. Are you a yes. Yes. All right. Jim Jaeger. Yes. Thanks, Jim. Bob and Lucy. We did chat. You did chat. Okay. You were both a yes. Yes. All right. Dave and Ruth, they see you unmuted. Yes. Yes. Thanks. And then Chuck Evenson, I'm looking at you. If you're having trouble unmuting, you can shake your head or something at me. I already voted on the form, Kelly. I'm sorry. You did the form. Perfect. All right. All right. So we have, I think we have, I'm seeing all yeses, hearing all yeses. We have 57 responses, one, one extension in the online form. I think a couple others have voted via chat. Other meeting hosts, I think we had a few folks voting via chat. All right. So I think we have a, again, a clear majority. Thank you, everyone, for your patience and voting. It is an important vote. So you want to make sure we have everything recorded. All right. So I think we can move. So the, we have an approved budget for next year. And thank you to all who worked on this as well. I know, you know, we're doing, this is the end of a long process. So thank you to all of the staff and finance committee and everyone who participated in this process. Yes. Yay. Yay to getting through a pandemic also. This is, you know, we are thinking about many worst case scenarios a year and a half ago. And we've gotten, gotten through this very well. So thank you to everyone. All right. You can just move on to the next slide here. Just want to do a very, very brief, just kind of introduction to, to a team that will be new for FUS. This is just so the Healthy Congregation team. It's a new group that the, the board just adopted a charge to form this team at our last board meeting just, just last Wednesday. And it, this team will have, we're introducing it now because it relates very closely to the relational covenant work that they're going to spend the remainder of the meeting discussing today. And the Healthy Congregation team will, will have a broad remit to, you know, to educate and to, and to consult on a wide variety of issues related to communication in general, and specifically to, you know, to any conflict that, that comes up between individuals or groups in the Congregation, you know, to be sure that we're, you know, addressing issues and conflict in a way that's aligned to our values as you use and, and in line with the, you know, the, the principles that we're going to discuss later in the, in the relational covenant. So this, this small team will report to the executive team. So the ministers and Monica's executive director and the board president and president-elect. And it, one other, one other thing that the executive team as a whole will do, they'll, you know, also, also just help, help direct questions, especially if there's any kind of conflict involved, but questions, issues to help direct them to the right place, whether that's a direct conversation, you know, within a individual group or, or directing things either to the board, if it's policy related, or to the appropriate staff member or minister, if it's about an area of, it's within their, their program area, or to raise it further, if there is a significant concern that needs to have broader discussion within the congregation. It's another, it'll be a separate group beyond the board and beyond our existing program ministry teams to, you know, to help, help keep those conversations going and then to, and help the conversations happen in any, any healthy way. And I know this is, so Kelly, would you like to add anything to, to this just as, it was way of an introduction and it's just, it was just a brief overview, but sorry. What? Wait, what? Um, no, I think Terry's overview view is great. The one question that I've had from folks about this, so in case anybody's wondering, some of you have served on a committee on ministry in the past, which when we switched to policy governance became ministerial relations team. And that group sort of, you know, faded out about, I don't, time is a funny thing. I don't just say eight years ago or so. And so in thinking about how to move forward with that, Kelly and I both really appreciate this switch at the moment to a healthy congregation team instead of us trying to recreate a committee on ministry and figure out what is the work of that. This feels like the, the work that needs to be held right now. So know that the Kelly's are, are very much in favor of this team. And I'm trying to think of an example, I had a question come in in the chat, some examples of, of when the team would step in. I'd say, well, one, one very general issue, and you without getting really precise about content, you know, I think one thing we, we think a lot about and talk a lot about as a congregation, certainly as a board is, is about transparency. So if, you know, an individual has or group or whoever, you know, has a conversation about how was this decision made? Or, you know, how, you know, how did, how did something develop in the congregation? Or asking for, you know, maybe asking for kind of behind the scenes information, maybe asking for something more detailed in terms of, you know, budget decisions or, you know, asking for some kind of documentation. You know, this, this team would, you know, kind of help hold that conversation. And, you know, it could be, you know, it could be a group that might, you know, might deliver, you know, a some context around something like maybe there's a reason why something isn't, so maybe there's a reason why a particular question might have a confidential answer. Or maybe just a matter of education like here's where you get that information. Here, here's where that, that decision was made. Here's the background. Or in some cases, you know, I'm thinking about some of the listening sessions that the board has had about some of the bigger decisions about like the shape that the interim period took. You know, this could be another group who can help communicate and hold opportunities for discussion. If there are areas where there's, where there is some conflict or question and can help hold those conversations, you know, help be very hands-on without it necessarily always having to be the board or a minister or an individual staff member. It's, you know, it's a group that's going to be, you know, again, they're very closely connected to the board through the president, president-elect, and through the ministers and staff, you know, to have a just another group to help decide, okay, here's something we need to address. You know, what's the best way? Do we need to, you know, hold very public discussions? Do we need to have just follow-up conversations with the individual? It's just kind of a way of opening up that conversation so it's not someone just talking to a minister, just talking to the board president. You know, it gives a way of just, you know, bringing things to a whole group to make sure that there's a, you know, kind of a just transparency all around when an issue is brought forward. All right. And just just words of support in the chat. Thank you. Thank you for those. So I'm hoping, I've been hoping that we would have something like this to support our congregation. And I would say, so there's another piece to this as well that's still under development, specifically for the board. You know, one of the goals of having this team is to direct things to the board for discussion that are specifically about policy. And we're building out, we have a couple examples from other congregations where, you know, the governance team and board are going to be working on kind of formalizing that process. So, you know, so it's, if something is a board issue, we can know, have a kind of repeatable process for how that discussion would go, for how that potential change to policy or response to the request would go. And I don't want to take up too much time since we want to get to the relational covenant, but are there, are there other questions on the, or comments on the, on the healthy congregation team? Terry, could you repeat how that's selected and the makeup of it? I'm sorry. Well, so that is part of the detailed charge. If anyone, we will communicate that out more broadly. So there's a whole list of qualifications. It's, you know, basically someone who's been a member of the congregation for a while, not currently on the board, that sort of thing. You know, again, the idea is to kind of, you know, spread this discussion amongst multiple people and groups. So there's, you know, so there's increased transparency. Anyone interested in the details, feel free to, you know, to email me. And again, we'll communicate this more broadly. This was primarily just some context. So, you know, this is, this is in the works as we, as we discussed the relational covenant. How large do you expect the, this group to be, Terry? Good question. I'm not sure if it's in the charge. I, just a minute, I might be in here. I don't think we set a size. So again, you know, this was just, this charge was just adopted. So I think it's as large as it needs to be. I would imagine fairly small, you know, kind of like our, you know, personnel and finance committees, you know, they tend to be relatively small, maybe three to five people or something like that. Okay. Thanks. All right. Any other questions or comments? Okay. So yeah, next topic. I'm very happy to have members of the relational covenant team who did the work. Oh, Nancy had her hand. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. I think this question is to you, Kelly, because I guess I had missed the fact that the ministerial committee had ceased to exist. And my understanding of what it was doesn't seem to be related to a healthy, healthy congregation committee, like it was described here. So why do you and Kelly feel that this is where we need to be going and do you need a ministerial committee like you used to have? Great question. Thanks, Nancy. So part of the ministerial relations team was folks who had a relationship to support the called ministers so that if a problem arose in the congregation, there was a group ready to help us sort through that. That piece we see being with this healthy congregations team, folks who have a pulse on what's happening within the congregation, watching for issues that might be bubbling up. Kelly and I feel like we're going to be getting our support with our clergy coach. We'll be working with a clergy coach, both to develop our relationship, but then also to be that supportive place to help us sort through not just things between us, but with us and the congregation as well. So we feel like we're going to be able to get that support piece in a different way. And we're totally going to reassess this at the end of our first year. Thank you. Yeah. And I think it's really consistent in, you know, this approach is really consistent in the way that we've been assessing our ministry in general, where it's not about ministers as such, but it's about ministry. It's about how does everything fit together and, you know, yes, there are staff and ministers, but we're all involved in that. So I think that's, you know, we'll really put those discussions in a central place rather than, you know, dividing things up. You know, is this about a called minister or is this about another area of the congregation? That definitely sounds like a step forward. Thank you. All right. So we're happy to have the members of the small team who developed our relational covenant talk a little bit about their process and introduce that covenant to us. And just to queue this up, you know, we will vote on adopting the covenant in this meeting. And so we want to hear more about the process of its development. And then following the vote, you know, if, depending on how we're doing on time, you know, we had planned some small group discussion as well. So if there's still time left, we could, we will, you know, briefly break into breakout groups for a little bit of reflection on the, the principles in the covenant. So go ahead. I think we have at least one speaker. So handed off to whoever on the team is, is going to introduce this. Yeah, I think I was going to start. But because you've got the, that's better. Thank you. I've got, I've got a cheat sheet on my desktop and I couldn't get to it just so that I cover everything. We were going to tell you basically how, how we went about it and why, why it's being done. This is a written document to describe community expectations and serve as a blueprint for the community that's FUS. We really haven't had anything like that. Rather than a set of laws or rules, it's an ideal to which we aspire. And it's a statement that will hopefully be regularly used for individual and group self, self reflection and could be used as a replacement or in conjunction with the individual group specific covenants that people have been generating for each group. And it answers the questions, what is FUS now? Who are we as a community? And what do we value so that anybody coming in to, to the community could actually look at this covenant and see what sort of a people we are. It's planned to be adaptable over time and it's expected to be reviewed regularly to make sure that it still reflects the reality that is the changing scenario. The systems to implement the review are still being created, which you just heard about. It's still in flux, so nobody quite knows exactly how that's going to work. So this is only the start of the journey, but this is the step towards creating healthy congregation. And it's a way to bring the bond of union into action. We've had the bond of union forever. And really, there's no way, or it's just sort of sitting there up on the window and nobody ever really looks at it. So this is a way to actually bring it into reality. And it will act as a guide for congregational expectations and behaviors and gives an active voice and is a description for the use of healthy interpersonal practices. We expect that it will be used frequently before the congregation often. So it becomes part of who we are. So that might be in worship, small groups, governance groups like Board of Trustees, ministry teams. So it's anticipated that they'll be shared and discussed with new and prospective members. So the new UU congregation, it would be brought, I mean, new UU group, that would be introduced to them initially. And the goal is to have it become second nature and part of the congregation's self-image, understanding and identity. So that, you know, this is how we treat how we treat each other here. We, and you just heard from the Board that the healthy congregation team has already been approved. So that's part of it. And this is sort of the broad underlying blueprint for it. And I think Anne was going to tell you how they actually went about doing it. I hope Anne Schaefer is able to unmute. I know she was having some connectivity issues. So Anne, if you're here. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, good. Well, I will tell you the process that we went through. And the first thing, as you see on the sheet, is that we met to try to understand what is this covenant and why would we work on it? And Roger gave some background about his work with relational covenants in Appleton. And then we did research on other congregations that had relational covenants. And at that point, it became very clear to us, although these other covenants were very good, that we wanted to have one that specifically reflected our congregation. So in that end, we did congregational listening sessions at two different times to just gather your thoughts, desires, wishes, hopes and dreams for a relational covenant. So then we had all of this kind of stuff. And then Ava Rochester and I brought it together into the first draft of the document, which was a very daunting task, but very, very stimulating and fun. So basically what you see in front of us is what Ava and I did to pull all of your words together. And we paid particular attention to listening to our congregation. We didn't want just a generic document, but we wanted it to be ours and in our words. After we did that, we then we had two listening sessions to review the first draft and we gathered responses and reactions to that. And we also had it in the red floors for people to write to us, which a number of people did of their reactions to the first draft. Then Roz wonderfully pulled together the editing and the wordsmithing of the final draft to bring you to what you have today in front of you to vote on. Thank you, Anne and Roz. Any questions for the team specifically about the process or the document? And again, the full document is in the meeting materials. I encourage you to read it carefully if you haven't already. I do appreciate how collaborative this process was. We got to hear in our board meeting about the details of the development and it was so glad that so many people were involved in the listening sessions. Again, like Anne said, it's helpful if it's really ours. It can change over time. It's intended to change over time, but it's most meaningful if it resonates with our members here, our community here. And I wanted to say just an interest of time. It took us a while to get going today. I think we will just have conversation here. I think it's getting a little bit too late for breakout rooms. It's meant to be a living document and used widely, so there will be many opportunities to discuss. So let's just do a large group conversation here. I've got a question in the chat for the team. What surprised you most or what was most impactful to you in developing this? One of the things for me was, can you hear me? Yes. Okay. One of the things for me was how strongly people felt that they wanted to have positivity and joy in the document. That word in particular, joy, really resonated with people. So that was a happy surprise. I was really happy to hear, as we talked about this, people got excited about the fact that we finally had something that actually said who we are and that you could explain to people who walked in the door. So that was my take out. Hi, this is Becky. I was able to participate in the input sessions and just really appreciated how open the group, the planning group was to our comments and our ideas. I mean, none of us are exactly certain how to word such a document, but we had some really rich conversations, which are really valuable. Yes, we really did, Becky, that your input and that was really positive and influenced the document. I think we have a raised hand, Laurie, if you want to unmute. Yeah. I think Becky, I'll echo that. I felt this group listened and engaged very meaningfully in tough conversations. I just want to give a very specific example briefly. There are people that have left our church over and named the issue. For me, that often my struggle is race, but I've seen other people leave. How do we deal with harm and not making the victims of harm be the people educating others about that? The conversation made me feel included in this committee and the process as opposed to excluded. And one of the concepts that we need to avoid as a society of white supremacy is avoiding conflict and they didn't avoid conflict. They engaged people in meaningful conversation and the depth of that keeps drawing me personally in more to this community. And I want to recognize that, appreciate it and say that I hope that that's how we continue to engage each other. Thank you. Thank you, Laurie. Just another question from the chat. What influence do you think the creation of this during a pandemic has? I think the pandemic, my opinion is that the pandemic made us want to come back together in a better way than we had been before. Yeah, I would reiterate that. I think it gave time for self-reflection in a way and people thinking about what they really value about this community. I would just add that I think it gave us a pause that we needed to have a thorough reflection about the way we are with each other when we are in person. That's right. And the fact that we're in transition as well with the two Kellys, I think it really is an ideal time to do something like this. The pandemic gave us space to do it. Well, I think we did it well. I want to express appreciation for the directness of the language and the clarity of expression that's reflected in the in the relational covenant as presented. I think it's very clear and doesn't lead to much room for adverse interpretation. And I really appreciate the simplicity of the language. I have one suggestion. We can't see the people who are speaking except for Roz and Ann. So if you could please say your name before you make your statement, that would be lovely. I think we're going to go to speaker view also so we can see people as they speak. Well, one thing I would say about the language is one of the reasons that it's so clear and precise is my co-conspirator Eva Rochester. She doesn't just like not accept any shit basically. She just like, no, no, that's pretentious, that's this, that's this. And so I want to put a shout out to Eva for the language that we have. I have two comments. One is I want to be sure that people know that the other two people on the team that drafted this are the two youth members of the board of directors. And so they are really, really smart, no-nonsense young women. So they were absolutely a wonderful contribution. The other thing that struck me about this is I actually saw my words, my like my own words, and I saw other people's words. The group made a point of saying, this is actually our document. This is First Unitarian Society's document. It's not a boilerplate that we got from somebody. It is actually our words. And I could read in it words that I had heard from in the meetings that I attended. So they did an incredible job of really truly making it our document. And then the fact that it can, it's not casting concrete. You know, it's not a plaque that's going to go on the wall. It really is something that will be reviewed periodically as needed. That's right. Thanks for putting that so eloquently about the use of the language, Lorna, because as you said, it would take us 20 minutes to write a covenant if we wanted to just have basic generic covenant. And that's not what we wanted. So we took the time to hear from you. And I hope that we did listen and your words say to me that we did manage to hear some of the people that we really wanted to hear from. And it was really, it was a privilege to work with the younger members of the congregation too, because so often they get, excuse me, they get left behind. And they're not consulted with when we do things like that. And it was a total pleasure to work with them. Yes. And I would say, you know, if it was very nice to discuss this at the board meeting, you know, this has been such a collaborative process that we did, we did not feel the need to dive into, to changing words on the page. And we really just had a very nice discussion about, about the process and hearing, you know, hearing how much input there had been. And when the board, you know, voted to bring this forward to the congregation. And I thank you to, you know, to everyone who's participated in this, to everyone who attended those sessions. In the interest of time, I do, do want to bring this forward for a vote. If Monica, if you could share the, the motion slide, if, if someone from the team would like to, to make the formal motion to bring this for a congregational vote. I'll make a motion to bring it to a vote. I'm so happy to do it. Thank you. I'll second that. Thank you, Becky. All right. Thank you, Anne and Becky. I'm going to, I'm going to put the link to vote in the chat and we will of course call for those voice votes as well. Well, I would like to have a discussion before I vote. Okay. I have, I, I think it's a lovely document. I like it very much. My only question is why, under the very first category, oh, good. Now I can see it again. I wasn't, so the spirit with which we approach one another, the very first bullet is make a choice to remain in relationship in good faith over and over again, even as we disappoint. I was thinking that we don't want disappoint as the first bullet, that maybe we want to put that later in that list and assume and remember that all have the best interest that congregation at heart might maybe come first. That's my only, you know, that's a really small little tweak and not very, it's not even a criticism. It's just that my feeling is that we want to elicit people's relationality in a way that is positive first and then saying, well, of course, we're going to disappoint, you know, because we know we're all human. Thanks. Just let the committee respond. Just wanted to bring forward something we discussed in the board that puts a little bit of different framework, you know, as opposed to positive or negative, that it puts front and center that this is aspirational. We're not saying this is how any one of us could possibly, you know, relate to one another all the time. We know there is disappointment inherent in relationships and in communities. So putting that forward as the context, you know, I thought may hear that, you know, that this is something we aspire to. But I'll let the committee respond to that. We want to say what our aspiration is first before we say that, of course, it is an aspiration. That's my feeling was that let's say something that is the ideal first, you know, that we aspire to and then say, of course, we're never going to reach that ideal. And this is not a big deal. You know, if we decide to leave it this way, I understand why the committee might want to have it that way. I would love to hear what Ross and Anne have to say to that. Yeah, this particular point was one that was actually taken down verbatim from a listening session. And so it's I think it's a good example of the sort of genuine language from our congregation where it is in the order is very positive to me. It doesn't say that it's we are all about disappointment. I don't think it says that at all. I think it mentions that in our relationships, we do disappoint, but we stay in. And to me, that's the most positive. I would like to add the comment that I appreciate the forwardness of choice. I think the choice adds an initiative and a positiveness. Oh, yeah. Okay. Just a comment from the chat, even as we disappoint and are disappointed, suggestion to add those additional words and are disappointed. Just procedurally for this discussion here, I would say, again, I mean, it's intended to be a living document. And so anything we vote on, we, of course, can vote to accept amendments here. Again, had our time been managed a little bit differently, we were going to break out into discussions. But this is a very much a forward looking document. It will it will not be the last opportunity to look at the individual words. But so if there is something that someone wants to raise that you think is important enough that we want to amend and vote on that, if it's important enough that you want to take the time to do that, we can we can do so. I'm not sure if we would need to vote to amend at this point. But I would ask everyone to, you know, to just kind of prioritize, you know, if there are other discussions that are comments, great, but let's, let's, if you could state your, you know, state any requests, like if you do have a an official request that you would like us to change wording before we vote, let's let's put it in that framework. And again, I'd ask just, you know, from the I think from the board, from my understanding of the purpose of the document, and from the, you know, the spirit with which the board has brought this forward, you know, we're kind of voting on the the document as a whole the spirit of the document. So, you know, if there are changes, you know, let's please prioritize something that's significant enough that really changes the meaning of the whole. And I see at least one raised hand. Gail, did you have something? Yes, I would suggest we approve this as is because attempting to rewrite this in a Zoom meeting is going to take hours. And it's it's imperfect just like it says we will always be so let's say this is good enough for now. And if we choose to reorder the points in section one a year from now, maybe we can do it in person. So I move I move we accepted at somebody already moved, never mind. Well, that that's why I actually already voted yes, because I think it's the document is good as is it could always be changed, but we should move forward. But that's just my opinion. I second the motion. Can we have a motion on the floor that's already had us, though we could probably proceed with the vote, we're just having some discussion. Yes, I have a question. I've got a question. I don't know. Yeah, I'm moving. What is the relationship supposed to be between this covenant and the continuing bond of union? The reason I asked that is because I know for many of the older members of the congregation, the bond of union is very important to them. I've conversations I've had over the years. So is there is this a planting it? Is this just in addition to what is any thought given to that? This does not replace the bond of union. This is a supplemented addition. And I would say the healthy congregation charge as it exists right now says that, you know, that team will continually renew this and, you know, thinking at least a biannual review. But, you know, it's certainly a guiding document for that team, as well as other groups in the congregation. So, you know, it's a living document. And again, the current motion on the floor, whenever we're ready to vote, the current motion is to accept the draft as presented by the team. So if there are any motions that you feel are important enough to amend, we could address that. Otherwise, we can proceed to vote on the document as presented. Okay. And Terry, I think you already put the link in the chat. Not yet. Not this one. Hang on. Got it in there. Motion number. You have it in there. Oh, do I? Okay. You do. I think some of them have already voted. So I'm going to move into the voice vote. Joy and Allen. Yes. Yes, yes. Dick and Liza. Yes, yes. Sarah Stack. Oh, there I see you shaking your head. Thank you. Yes. Marcy. Marcy Bradley is still here. Okay. I'll take a look for him. I'm going to keep going. Tim Corden. Yes. Susie and Sandy. Yes. Yes. Dave and Ruth. Dave and Ruth may have... Oh, there you are. I see you. Are you a yes? You can just shake your heads, too. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Bob and Lucy. I don't see Bob and Lucy. Jim Jaeger. Jim, I see you, but we can't add Janice. Yes. Okay. I just unmuted again. If you need that, vote remains yes. Thanks, Jim. Terry, I have 15 yeses to add to your number. All right. And we have 51 responses that is... We have 49 yeses, two abstentions, and one no. I believe we have a majority vote. Thank you again to everyone who worked on this. And please watch for more opportunities to discuss this. This is just the beginning of beginning to use this document. Thank you. All right. So for our closing, I'm going to mute you. You'll have to unmute yourself in a minute. But for our closing today, we need to say a very special thank you. And that is to our outgoing president, Terry Pepper. So Terry came into this position of President-Elect during the first year of our interim process. Terry has served as President-Elect and then President of the congregation throughout the entire interim process. You would need a special someone to sign up for this job to be willing to help lead a congregation through a time of turmoil and transition, signing up for honestly, who knows what. And fortunately for us, Terry is fascinated by religion, by community, by how our congregation runs, and what would make it even better. In one of my first conversations with Terry, she said, oh, I love church governance. It's fascinating. I learn more all the time. Terry, I will never understand this. And I know that you were exactly the person we needed for this time. Thank you for your patience, your diligence, your persistence, your imagination, your belief in who we could be together. You've been creative and resilient. You have brought us together amidst differences in opinions and ideas of how to move forward. You have created countless agendas and power points. You have sat through hundreds of hours of meetings in person and in Zoom. You have helped hold it all together with humor and grace. And we will be forever grateful for your leadership over the past three years. You have truly made all the difference. Thank you, Kelly. And thank you for also continuing to laugh at my lone governance, too. Otherwise, it'd be way too serious. Thank you. And thank you for that list of things. And especially as the incoming nominating chair, I just really want everyone to know in all earnestness that this has been a rewarding experience for me as well. Yes, you're kind of signing up for a long list of tasks. But I've just gained so much more appreciation for all the people I've gotten to know better. You do interact with a lot of members of the FUS community, as board president, and such an appreciation for the staff as well. I know there are a lot of things that folks sometime assume the board is doing that staff and ministers are really supporting us and holding the space for so many things that we do here. And lastly, especially as we're in the final weeks here, I'm so excited to watch Alyssa Ryan Joy begin her role as president here. She has such a depth of experience in being member of this community. And even from a professional life, she brings a lot of language around inclusion and diversity. And I'm so excited for everything she's going to bring to this role as we as we enter this next year with our new ministry team. So and thank you. Thank you. Also, it's been a even through this transition through the pandemic, the chance to work so closely with Doug and Roger as well. They've been, it's been a great experience. So so thank you for those words. Thank you. So everybody knows we will be gifting Terry. We will be showering with her, her with gifts for both Terry and her long suffering. What is what is Rachel called herself Flofus or first lady first lady. So we're going to shower her and our Flofus in a in soon in a in a time soon. So know that that'll be happening on behalf of all of you. Thank you, Kelly. Thanks, everybody. That's our closing. Everybody enjoy this beautiful day. Thank you. Thank you for joining the meeting. Thanks for being here today.