The WUUC Governance Document Library
A ‘Mission Possible’ Explained, in 5 easy Chapters
Introduction:
WUUC’s many programs, services and co-created events require a lot of ‘what, why, when, where and how’ components. These activities are created and implemented by WUUC volunteers, often overseen by a Committee or Team, with the support of the staff and leadership of our minister. Over the 30-year history of our church, we had not put into place a systematic sustainable process and infrastructure to keep our governance documents current, relevant and easily accessible by the congregation. Volunteers and leaders have gone through a long struggle of not having a current comprehensive library of the guides needed to do their work. So often a creative team, or committee had to make do with an old policy or set of directions that no longer apply to the here and now. Also, we did not have current Charters that describe the purpose and work of WUUC Committees and Teams, which would aid in the recruitment of new members.
In 2023 the WUC Board adopted an annual goal to: Organize, Update and Refine the WUUC Governance Document Infrastructure in a Sustainable Form. The Board appointed a Governance Document Team to spearhead the implementation of this Herculean multi-year goal.
Chapter 1
A board-appointed Governance Document start-up-Team was formed.
The Team Lead, Trina Roulet took on a church document archeologist role in excavating through 30 years of historical governance documents to have a starting point for the team’s work. The Team then began the ‘mission possible’ task of communication with every church committee, team and group to request updated structures of operations; Bylaws, Charters, Policies and Other Documents, framed within a system of renewal. It was as though the whole WUUC community quietly turned itself into a beehive, co-creating a backbone of reliable protected Governance Documents.
Chapter 2
After the first full year, the library of updated and new Governance Documents: Bylaws, Charters, Policies and Other Documents began to take shape. The Governance Team had to create a new process for Board review & approval of these documents. The Governance Document Team and the Board engaged members from all corners of the WUUC community for help in creating or reviewing and updating the needed governance documents. Suspense grew in wondering where exactly WUUC’s backbone of cyber-secure documents would live?
Chapter 3
Marcia Sprang was nearby and happy to help with her operating knowledge of WUUC’s cyber-secure choices. REALM was clearly the reliable safe choice and Marcia helped in setting up the home-base location of WUUC’s cyber fortress. Marcia’s support was like having Zorro in disguise coming to save the day, but Zorro can’t be kept in one place for very long. How were all the updated governance documents going to get to their new safe home?
Chapter 4
A new leadership position was confirmed and added to the Governance Document Team: WUUC Governance Document Archivist, with Gregg Schiller appointed. Gregg is storing originals of recently Board-approved policies, charters, Bylaws in REALM. These are accessible for viewing by Church Leadership. Once our archivist, Gregg secures a document in the cyber-safe home a copy can be found in the Governance Documents section of the WUUC website and Secure Site.
Chapter 5
Current membership of the Governance Document Team: Trina Roulet, Lead; Gregg Schiller, WUUC Governance Document Archivist; Jan Radoslovich and Azure Forte (Blue), at large.
The team can be reached at governance@wuuc.org.