On November 21, 2009, the NoVES Board of Directors met at the home of Mary Ellen and Andy Stanton.  Present at the meeting were President Hank Gassner, Vice President Mary Ellen Stanton, Treasurer Sven Sinclair, Secretary Andy Stanton, Mary Bellamy, Marianne Moerman, Karen Raymond Hart, and Carole Rubin.  Leader Jone Johnson Lewis also attended as did Leader Intern Mary Herman from WES.

After a candle lighting and go round, the Board approved the minutes of the previous Board meeting and reviewed the To Do list.  We agreed that the Board must work on creating a Platform Speaker committee, as this will be Chris Centner’s last year doing the task.  NoVES and Green Hedges have agreed that we will have classroom 10 in the main building for our use on Tuesday afternoons and evenings.

Jone then gave her Leader report.  She agreed with Mary Ellen’s suggestion to consider changing membership requirements so that applicants must attend at least three Platforms in order to have a good idea about us before they join.  Several Board members agreed with this suggestion but we did not take a vote.  Jone said that the NVC (nonviolent communication) Monday group moved to Sunday afternoon.  A Wednesday group might be formed that will meet at the Stanton’s.  Jone reported that she took facilitation training at the Brooklyn Society.  She recommends that committee chairs and others attend this training.  She will probably be going to Minneapolis for additional training.  She is working with Mike McManious and Bill Lewis to set up the new audio system that produces CD’s rather than tapes.  One member indicated that he would prefer if tapes could still be available.  The Board is delaying a decision on this issue to see whether we get additional requests for tapes.

Sven passed out financial documents and gave the treasurer’s report.  He stated that last year’s final figures showed that income was less than expected from pledges and Leader services and from the Sunday School since we agreed to drop the request for Sunday School fees/donations.  Expense figures were about as predicted.  Despite the drop in income, our overall balance sheet shows adequate reserves.  For the current year, pledge receipts and Leader services income for the first quarter were each $3,000 higher than they were for the first quarter of last year.  There was some discussion on further ways to publicize the fact that we have scrip for sale as a fundraiser.

Hank then gave the President’s report.  He is in the process of setting up a task force to deal with emergencies.  Hank noted that Chris Centner has agreed to become our liaison with the Secular Coalition.  There was discussion about NoVES members traveling to the December 5 workshop in New York that will be given by Alice Mann of the Alban Institute.  Hank mentioned that Ellen Dinerman agreed to set up a telephone tree for emergencies on an opt-in basis.  We discussed the possibility of a NoVES membership in the Coalition of Reason, a group founded by Fred Edwords.  The Board decided that we needed more information about the rights and obligations of membership before we agreed to become a member. The Secular Student Alliance was pleased with our GMU ad.

Jone led the Board in a learning component on the upcoming NoVES survey.  Our intention was to build consensus on various goals and components of the survey.  Jone mounted a fabric board on the wall and Board members wrote down their ideas regarding the survey divided in several categories, which were then placed on the fabric board.  The Board realized there was consensus on most survey issues. 

Mary Ellen reminded us that the Youth Group’s book sale is on December 13.  We discussed low Sunday School attendance and the Board agreed Mary Ellen will find out from the School what assistance from us may be useful.  We agreed about the need to regularly update existing and new Committee definitions.   The Board will meet again on December 19, 2009.

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