Orientation for new committee convenors and other leaders

All on this page:

• Orientation Checklist
• Steps to making an event happen
• Financial Matters
• "Don't forget about the CUC!"
• Developing Effective Committee Meetings
• On Lion Shaving

Orientation Checklist

In establishing yourself in your new convenor’s role, there are a few small but key tasks that need to be taken care of. They are:

• Choose your signing authority (usually you) to approve all expense forms, and tell the treasurer who this person is.
• Make sure you know who your board liaison is (email the secretary if you don't know)
• If you need a building key and alarm code, you will need to contact the property convenor.
• Review your written materials and ask any questions of your outgoing convenor

If you have any questions, your outgoing convenor, board liaison, and committee members can guide you. We also have excellent resources in our library on committee work, and there are exceptional articles to be found on the UUA’s website, at www.uua.org. A good section to start in is http://www.uua.org/cde/handbook/index.html.

Steps to making an event happen

(select and copy the material below into your word processor if you wish)

Choose Date: __________________ and time _________________.

What space exactly will you need? (One room? The building? A different building?) ______________________________________________________________________.

Choose who will do each of the items to be done on this worksheet, and note it beside the task. This list is designed to accommodate everyone. Cross off any step that doesn’t apply to you:

Book event on Church calendar (phone or email office) _________________.

Submit to the newsletter (deadline is the 2nd last Sun of the month) _________________.

Submit to the website __________________.

Inform the childcare coordinator if needed (2 weeks notice) _________________.

Keep a list of people registered _________________.

Coordinate the setup team (will they need keys?) _________________.

Coordinate the cleanup team (will they need keys?) _________________.

Coordinate the team to run the event _________________.

Take care of extra publicity (posters/phone tree, etc) _________________.

Submit to order of service (deadline Thurs) _________________.

Will you need a second meeting closer to the time? If so, when?

Date: _______ Time________, to discuss _______________________________ _________________________________________________________________

Financial Matters

Forms used to claim committee expenses are found in the treasurer’s mailbox. They need to be filled in, with receipts attached, and signed by whoever your committee designates for approving expenses (the treasurer needs to be told who this person is). At each board meeting, the board approves the expenses, and then cheques are mailed out.

It is the responsibility of each committee to monitor how much they have spent and how much they have left. In unusual cases, committees can ask the board to approve more funds, but since there is no money set aside for this, the additional funds typically have to come from fundraising. If you are planning a fundraiser, be sure to communicate with the finance committee, so that there’s no overlap.

Your budget is for the year July 1-June 30. You will typically spend less in the summer, more during the rest of the year. Childcare for your meetings/events is the responsibility of your committee.

Your committee is responsible for submitting a budget, for the next fiscal year, to the Finance convenor (due January 31st of each year). The convenor will ask for it, and it is critical that you consider this request carefully. If you do not submit a budget, the Finance Committee will set one for you, and they don't know what you need nearly as well as you do. All budgets are dependent upon money raised in the canvass. Your budget may be trimmed as a result of limited funds--the Finance Committee will communicate with you regarding this.

We ask that, if you come to the end of the year and have money left, you don't spend it just because it's there. Rather, we work to be fiscally responsible and minimize expenses wherever possible. If you need supplies, by all means replace them, but coming in 'under budget' is a good alternative. Money left at the end of the fiscal year does not carry forward to the next year. The only amounts that carry forward are special funds that have been raised (youth, Partner Church, accessibility, etc.).

Looking to expand your resources?
Need info on national practices & plans?
Want to share our successes with the rest of the country?
Want advice from someone who has done your job before?
(Or is doing it now, somewhere else?)

Don’t forget about the CUC!     www.cuc.ca

Developing Effective Committee Meetings

* Develop an agenda for the meeting and share it in advance with participants.
* Ask that reports be prepared in advance in writing. If the business of the meeting becomes too extensive, written reports can help reduce the time needed for meetings.
* Schedule important items early in the meeting. Participants are usually fresh when you address these issues.
* Begin with a centering exercise, song, reading, or silent meditation.
* Consider the effect of seating arrangements, chairs in blocks, in a circle, or around a table. Be mindful of participants' proximity, so that people are neither sitting too close nor too far apart for comfortable interaction.
* Use methods that will allow committee members to participate. Occasionally, allow committee members to discuss in subgroups. Invite reticent members to participate and perhaps more importantly, invite reticent members to take responsibility for being sure that they receive a fair hearing.
* Committee members need to be conscious of the important roles they play in the group. Study the different roles people can play, analyze the roles each plays, and consciously choose roles that are helpful to the committee's process.
* Provide periodic opportunities for the committee's ongoing evaluation of its process with evaluation sheets, process reports, subgroup discussions, etc. Such evaluation is best done often, briefly, and well.
* The committee needs to be mindful of the needs of individual members. Participants need to get acquainted with each other as persons. Allow some time at each meeting for the development of feelings of interpersonal support within the group. If negative feelings develop, discuss them as openly as you can, trying to resolve them.
* Consider your committee's needs for greater flexibility or greater structure. Is your committee hindered by too strict adherence to formal procedures or would greater attention to formalized procedures make it healthier and more productive?
* When a decision needs to be made, ask whose responsibility it is. Is this question best decided by the chair, the executive committee, by another committee or subcommittee, or the whole
group? If the whole group, is it sufficiently weighty to require consensus? Will voting do? Is a formal vote needed to achieve validity, even if consensus has been reached?
* A committee's success is largely a reflection of the proportion of participants who take responsibility for its success. What proportion of the group identifies with the committee and its goals? While it is neurotic to assume that if the committee fails, it's your fault, it is equally ineffective to assume that the committee's ineffectiveness is the result of other participants' behavior. Rather than searching for someone to blame, energy is better spent asking "How is our interaction effective?" and "How can I add energy to what is effective and withdraw it from what is ineffective?"

On Lion Shaving

I want to talk to you about one of the first opportunities you’re going to get as a leader—the opportunity to expand and shape your group of volunteers. By “opportunity” I mean “difficult and frustrating task”. I hate asking people to volunteer. And I’m bad at it. When I approach someone to ask for help with a task I tend to leave the conversation having just joined a their committee.

So far as I can tell, everyone has trouble with this. At least, that’s what they tell me right before I wind up joining their committee. But I have had success in this area, and not just by popping out babies and holding them in front of me as a kind of protective shield. I’ve had some wonderful experiences of everyone pitching in and having a great time. I’d like to share two of them with you, in case you are no longer of baby-bearing age.

The first experience was when I was having trouble recruiting someone to be my greeter’s assistant when I was at the door welcoming newcomers. Everyone I could think of to ask either President, Treasurer, convening three committees, or a faster runner than I was. Finally, it dawned on me that this was a great task to share with the new people themselves. I picked up my phone list with dread. I absolutely hate phoning—I will force my teenagers to call for pizza while I hiss instructions into their ears, and I hate to ask people to do things for me (unless, of course, they are my teenagers). Phoning to ask people to volunteer is at the bottom of my list of activities, right below shaving wild lions, scrubbing out garbage disposal bins, and washing my car.

I was stunned by the joy with which the first volunteer agreed to come. Thinking that perhaps they were suffering from some strange kind of compulsive cheerfulness, I moved on to the second person—same thing. Delighted. I learned very quickly that I had discovered a pool of people who were waiting and eager to get involved. They would always end the conversation by thanking me for thinking of them, and telling me how much they were looking forward to it. My previous pool of volunteers typically ended the conversation by pretending they were on a cell phone going through a bridge and making static noises into the phone receiver. After that, I never had to spend more than three minutes recruiting a Sunday helper.

Now, I was in a great position—I knew every newcomer and they all knew me, and I had just the kind of job that appeals to a new person. You might be looking for someone to scrub out the garbage disposal bin. You might have a task too crucial to trust to someone you don’t know. But please remember—just because you haven’t met someone doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Ask your newcomer greeters. Ask your newcomer team. Ask Frances. There may be a Lion Hair Removal Specialist amongst us that you don’t know about.

My second overwhelmingly positive leadership experience that I want to tell you about was a meeting to plan a service. It happened in that quick space after services. I wouldn’t mind this so much if it really was a “quick space” after services. But so often these meetings last until I am so hungry that nobody can hear one another over the noise of me chewing on the table legs (I will hope you will assume this is because I am always pregnant).

This was the fastest and most efficient meeting I have ever been to. We moved quickly through the agenda, made decisions efficiently, each took a couple of tasks, and were out of there before I had even decided which table leg was most appealing. When the service finally happened, it was flawless, and I had several people come and tell me it was one of their favorites.

What was different about the people in this meeting? Other than myself, the oldest person in the room was seventeen. And I don’t think the efficiency was just because teenagers are hungry. I have had many occasions since then to learn about the talented and skilled youth and children in our congregation. Now, when I look through my directory for just the right volunteer, I always look to the children and youth as well as the adults—and not just for help with the dishes. Any idiot can wash a dish, but it takes a fourteen year old to run complicated electronics.

When you’re looking for a volunteer—think outside the room you’re in. Think beyond the leadership. Think beyond the people that you already know. Think beyond the adults. Think about the people that are waiting and hoping for you to ask them.