Board Meeting Highlights – April 21 2023
Highlights of KCC Board Meeting, April 19
Present: Board members – John Rothermich, Doug Dunlap, Peter Wood, Jennifer Chang, Brad Upton; Marci Roth; Executive Director – Liza Baer; Others – Miriam Hammer, Vicki Fields
Approval of March Minutes
Finance Report:
- On target for expenses at SCOL
- We have three months financial reserves
- Raise for bookkeeper
Service Coordinator Updates: (Miriam H.)
- Need more volunteers and more money for SCOL
- Need more volunteers for Portland Center – many older members are stepping down lately, e.g. Mary stepping down from leading the Children’s Program
- Khenpo’s visit – lodging needed
- Repairs needed at urban center – looking for a handy-person
Board Roles and Responsibilities – discussion of what “Board business” is and what it is not.
The following topics were raised:
- Board should limit work to only big picture tasks (oversight, monitoring), especially with such a small number of Board members.
- The new ED and assistant to ED can manage a bulk of delegation.
- How do we know what needs to be brought to the Board? Strategic planning, compliance issues, financial oversight, and emergencies are examples of issues that Board needs to deal with.
- Change board meetings to quarterly? Or monthly one-hour meetings?
- Folks would like Lama Eric to attend the Board meetings more often.
- Service Groups and Board – how does new ED fit in?
- Board could review the Box docs from SG leaders and bring up concerns with Liza?
Board Goals for 2023 – discussion and finalization:
- Monitor implementation of sexual misconduct policy.
- SCOL rental plan: Board will approve after the SCOL team creates the plan with some preliminary discussion.
- Develop better evaluation processes for Executive Director and Resident Lama evaluations.
- Incorporate “360” feedback.
- Recruit Board members – goal is for seven members.
- Conduct leadership retreat with Board / SGC / ED / RL – September, 2023?
- Ethical Conduct Policy – develop policy and implement through training and other activities.
- Implement Inclusivity Action Plan
- Identify specific items tagged for the Board
- Establish and monitor a committee to do this work.
- Conduct reviews of RL and ED no later than 2/1/2024 and maybe have less formal quarterly reviews
- Have Resident Lama attend board meetings quarterly
- Complete development of a new Strategic Plan – goal: September, 2023.
- Review and update Board member onboarding procedures.
- Monitor and evaluate KCC reorganization plan including the implementation of Service Groups.
- Executive Director role needs to be updated in KCC Bylaws – draft and approve language that describes the ED role and responsibilities for this purpose. John R. will take lead role.
SCOL Rental: (Vicki F.)
The following topics were discussed:
- John R. consulted with an attorney – KCC is allowed to rent to outside groups 50 days per year (no more than 15 consecutive days) and there can’t be profit, we can just cover operating expenses.
- Has to be rented out to other not-profit church organizations.
- Need to be careful to not act too fast due to difficulty finding cooks. Need to solve this problem. Could use a catering business.
- Discussion of rental fees.
- How to maximize use of SCOL for Sangha members.
- Will find out more about guidelines from consulting with attorney.
Resignations from Board: Marci Roth and Doug Dunlap will both be stepping down from the Board as of this April meeting.
