Ministerial Search Process
Settled Minister Search Process - update April 2012
At the April 29th Congregational Meeting, the congregation chose the following 5 people to serve on the Ministerial Search Committee:
Marcia Hackett
Tom Loughrey
Mary Lundholm
Sam Siegfried
Judith Stamper
The remaining 2 positions will be filled by appointment of the Board of Trustees at their next meeting.
ocuuc
org) , President
- 1. Nomination For Settled Minister Search Committee
- 2. Application for Membership on the Ministerial Search Committee
3. List of Characteristics of a good Ministerial Search Committee Member
Ministerial Search Survey Committee
(MSSC)
The year 2012 is the year OCUUC will formally begin its search for a new settled minister. One of the major tools the committee will use to entice prospective candidates to apply is a Profile of OCUUC. This profile will be established from data obtained from the Ministerial Search Survey (MSS).
Focus Groups asked each of us to think about the church – What kind of vision do we see for OCUUC? What kind of programs do we want? What kind of minister would be best for us? Focus Groups offered a discussion of specific, open-ended questions led by a member of the Ministerial Search Survey Committee (MSSC). Participation from the congregation enabled us to focus on the kind of church we want to become.
Our church is fortunate to have the Rev. Bets Wieneke as our ministerial settlement representative. She will be working with the Board and ultimate Search Committee which will be formally formed at the Annual Meeting in June. Our Interim minister, the Rev. Ed Brock gave Bets high marks for her expertise.
Chair of the MSSC is Barbara Schilling (msscocuucorg) .
You may email all seven members of the committee at msscocuucorg (msscocuucorg) .
Ministerial Search Survey
March 21, 2012
Members and Friends,
As you know, OCUUC is beginning the important work of selecting a new minister. Critical to that process is the completion of the Congregational Survey sent to every member and friend of OCUUC. Reponses to the Congregational Survey will be used as a snapshot of the congregation, and will help determine what qualities and skills will be required of our next minister.
If you have already returned your Congregational Survey, thank you! However, if you have not yet returned the Congregational Survey, won’t you please take a moment, RIGHT NOW, to complete and return it? EVERYONE’S opinion is important to the future of our church, and we need to hear from you. Thanks in advance for helping us with the survey process!
We have only received 130 surveys but we distributed 300 surveys. That’s not even half! Please help us get at least an 80% return rate.
If you have misplaced your survey and would like another copy, please contact me by email (MSSC
Barbara Schilling, Chair
OCUUC Ministerial Search Survey Committee
Interim Minster Selected: Rev. Edward Brock
The Interim Minister search committee, made up of Nancy Loughrey, Katherine Martin, and Debbie Siegfried, have worked with the leadership of the congregation to select an Interim Minister. At the Congregational Meeting on Saturday, June 11, President Mary Lundholm announced that the Reverend Edward Brock has been hired as the Interim Minister for Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church.
Most recently, Reverend Brock served as the Interim Minister at First UU Church of Austin, Texas. Reverend Brock completed his Masters in Divinity degree at Vanderbilt University. He was ordained in 1989 and served as minister of UU Church of Jacksonville, Florida for eight years. He served as the Interim Minister for the UU Society of Daytona Beach, FL from 1997-98. He then became the minister of the Edmonds UU Church in Edmonds, Washington for eight years. In 2009, Reverend Brock became the Consulting Minister for the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton, Inc. in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada for one year before moving to Austin.
Reverend Brock has studied with gifted teachers over the years including Rabbi Edwin Friedman, Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, Dr. Matthew Fox, Dr. Jeremy Taylor, and Don Richard Riso. Rev. Brock is a licensed psychotherapist in the state of Washington. He brings a family systems theory perspective to congregational life. Rev. Brock has been married 37 years to his wife Alphise. They are the proud parents of two wonderful daughters, Allie and Lily, both adopted from China.
The Interim Search Committee felt Reverend Brock was the best choice because he had asked a lot of questions about who we are at OCUUC before presuming he best knew how to be a good Interim Minister. This impressed the Search Committee tremendously. His resume and work in Austin, a congregation with over 420 Members (and 105 in RE) helped supplement his candidacy.
President Mary and the search committee have continued to answer his questions and they continue to dialogue with him. Reverend Brock will conduct phone interviews with the rest of the congregational leadership over the summer. He won’t physically arrive here until September. His first sermon is sometime in early September, possibly Labor Day weekend Sunday or the Sunday after. For pastoral care concerns, congregants can still get in touch with Reverend Karen through August 15.
To listen to some of Reverend Brock’s recent sermons, please visit the First UU Church of Austin’s website. Click the Play button in each gray bar to listen.
For more information about what an interim minister is and what they do, click here.
Welcome to Orange Coast, Reverend Brock!
What Is An Interim Minister?
And what do they do?
- assisting the congregation in claiming and honoring its past and in healing its griefs and conflicts
- illuminating the congregation’s unique identity, its strengths, its needs, its challenges
- clarifying the multiple dimensions of leadership, both ordained and lay, and aiding the congregation in navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition
- renewing connections with available resources, within and beyond the UUA
- enabling the congregation to renew its vision, strengthen its stewardship, prepare for new professional leadership, and engage its future with anticipation and zest
Minutes of the March 6 Town Hall Meeting
Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church
Town Hall
March 6, 2011
MINUTES
Bob Miess, Ministerial Settlement Representative (bobfloweringenterprisescom (bobfloweringenterprisescom) ), explained the process for finding a settled minister. He encouraged members to read the settlement handbook at http://www.uua.org/leaders/leadership/transitions. The Ministerial Settlement Representative will also meet with the Search Committee once it is selected, and once again before it starts meeting with candidates.
The Ministerial Search process is as follows:
1. The Ministerial Settlement Representative visits the congregation (because it is the
congregation that will decide whether to call a particular minister).
2. The congregation and/or the Board makes three decisions:
a. the Search budget (which could be between $8,000 and $12,000 over two years, not including moving costs for the new minister);
b. the compensation to offer the new minister (the District Compensation Consultant will help with this);
c. the Search Committee, which consists of seven people chosen because they are responsible, don’t advocate for a segment of the members but for the whole congregation’s needs, are fair and loyal to the entire congregation, will dedicate themselves to doing the job well, and can fully engage in an extremely demanding task involving 240 to 400 hours over 1 to 2 years (5 hrs/wk average but including several weekends and one full week).
3. The Search Committee works at understanding:
a. themselves, so that they can disagree deeply and still stay at the table; an all night retreat away from distractions is part of the process.
b. the congregation; the Search Committee will put out a survey to get a good picture of the congregation, and will also meet with focus groups. The Search Committee will also schedule a “Beyond Categorical Thinking” workshop, presented by the UUA; all members of the congregation are encouraged to attend.
4. The Search Committee puts together a “Congregational Record,” which is an open letter to ministers posted on the UUA website about who we are and what we are looking for, and a “packet” containing extensive information about the church (printed and/or online).
5. The UUA provides names of those who click on the Congregational Record to show interest in the job. No one is screened. Our Search Committee looks at the “Ministerial Records” of all those who are interested. The Search Committee and the ministers decide whether to exchange information packets. (About 50 to 70 congregations are in the search process every year, and about twice as many ministers are at least considering moving.) The Search Committee can also contact ministers and suggest they consider us.
6. The Search Committee narrows the list to 3 or 4, and spends a weekend with each pre-candidate, including having the pre-candidate preach at a neutral church in the area. The names are kept confidential, and it is very important not to spread around information about them. Anyone who hears any information should tell the Search Committee–and no one else. The Search Committee will talk with members of the ministers’ current congregation and check references given by the minister and also other references given by those references; this is done with the pre-candidate’s knowledge.
7. The Search Committee settles on one candidate they want to present to the congregation. On March 15, 2012, they make an offer to that minister. If the minister is willing, an agreement is negotiated, and then the Search Committee presents the candidate to the congregation. The candidate visits for a 9 day period, including preaching on two Sundays and having many meetings with the congregation. A congregational meeting is then held, and the congregation votes on whether to call the candidate to settled ministry; a vote of at least 90% is desirable. This vote will take place in April, 2012. The new minister would probably start in September, 2012.
If we were turned down by a candidate, we could go to a different candidate or do additional search.
The Search Committee will keep the congregation updated about where they are in the process.
There are no perfect ministers. A good match is someone we can grow with and work with.
The search process can be adjusted if needed; we can discuss that with the transitions director. Fellowshipped ministers have all agreed to follow the transition process.
Regarding the Interim Minister search, the Interim Search Committee is putting together the interim packet and will update the congregation about their process. The Board hires the interim minister, whereas the congregation calls the settled minister.
The job of the interim minister is to help the congregation prepare for calling a settled minister. The interim can serve for up to 2 years, and cannot become the settled minister. If the search process is not successful the first year, it might be possible to have the interim stay only a year and a half and try to call a minister again after 6 months, but usually they want a full year contract. Internal candidates or former intern ministers have to wait 3 to 5 years before they can be called to be the settled minister.
Comments from Scott Armstrong, Vice President Finance:
We are going to be hiring a new minister. The process is a courtship where we find the best available person who meets our needs. The candidates have choices and will be looking at the long-term prospects of the church. An important, but by no means the only, measure they will be looking at is the financial situation.
Karen has been here for thirteen years, and here is the beginning and ending information.
$6,000
| Members | Budget | Pledges | Pledge % | DRE Music Dir | Personnel Debt Pmt | |
| 1997 | 188 | $197,000 | $120,000 | 60.9% | ¾ | $106,000 $42,000 |
$1,055 line item the 1996 for “Decisions for Growth”
In Karen’s tenure we made significant investments in the building and grounds, added a second service to facilitate growth, and attempted a merger to grow.
$30,000
| Members | Budget | Pledges | Pledge % | DRE Music Dir | Personnel Debt Pmt | |
| 2010 | 220 | $274,000 | $180,000 | 65.7% | 1/2 | $212,000 $6,000 |
We had to close a $22,000 budget gap this year: no raises, reduced guest musicians, weeds in the landscaping because we eliminated the gardeners, additional fund raisers that have not happened. We are facing a $10,000 to $15,000 shortfall by June.
We are coming through a major recession, that has had a significant effect on us, but I am looking at the arc of my twenty years of financial positions in this church. A financially health church is meeting its member’s needs and expectations. We have not been meeting our needs and expectations because we have rarely reached financial health. We have been over 250 members several times over almost 60 years versus 220 now. We have had over 50 children in Sunday classes several times in the same span, versus 25 now. We have made major investments in additional facilities and classrooms such as Boag and Gillan but have never broken out into a substantial community presence. We are not yet paying fair compensation. We do not have the strong programs and community outreach that we desire.
We collectively need to figure out how to better meet our needs and expectations, so we will make the necessary financial commitment to each other. Our principles and values need to have a larger presence in Orange County. Intolerance and hate speech is becoming more prevalent and there needs to be a countervailing force. To have a minister we want, new pledges this year need to be $30,000 higher, and next year need to be $50,000 higher.
Dream Team Survey
Because of me OCUUC…without your caring and input, the board won’t know who the congregation would like to see on the Settled Minister Search Committee. We have two ways for you to tell us.
First, you may get a printed copy of the survey from the office. Second, you may fill out the survey on-line by clicking here.
Please review the following document to see the characteristics of a good minister search committee member
The process to be selected for the Settled Minister Search Committee is by nomination. You are welcome to nominate yourself. In fact, I hope you nominate yourself as this is a very personal decision. The nomination form can be found here and requires the signature of 10 members to affirm that they think you are a good candidate for the search. After the signatures are received, the nominee fills out a form explaining why they think they are a good choice. Those statements and photos of the candidates will be posted on-line and at OCUUC. All members of the congregation are asked to review the statements and vote at the congregational meeting in June.
Questions? Contact Mary Lundholm (presidentocuucorg) or any board member.
What Kind of Person Should Serve on the Search Committee?
Bob Miess, the Ministerial Settlement Representative, put together a fine outline of qualities of individuals to serve on the Search Committee.
Click here to view this important document. Here’s a sneak preview of the first quality:
The kind of person to seek:
1. One who has an overall perspective and commitment to the nature, purpose, and
activities of the congregation. Contrary to what might be expected, we do not
recommend that Search Committees be made up of representatives of special interest
groups within the church. This tends to create unnecessary conflict and to have people
looking for ‘one issue’ candidates. So instead of looking for “representatives,” we
recommend looking for “senators.”
Settled Minister Search Committee Form
Click here for the Nomination Form.
The nomination form for the Settled Minister Search Committee is available.
Include the person’s name at the top of the form.
By your signature below, you indicate that you feel the nominee would be able to complete the duties of the Ministerial Search Committee, and that they would be able to work well with other members of the committee and complete the tasks assigned to them.
UPDATE: You may also fill out this form online by clicking here.
Please submit the forms to Mary Lundholm.
Latest Update – February 2011
Our application for a trained and recommended Interim Minister has been accepted by the UUA. We now wait until April to receive a listing of available and credentialed Ministers.While we wait, Katherine Martin, Nancy Loughery, and Debbie Siegfried are preparing our information packet. They will also be conducting the interviews in April. Please talk with them if you have suggested interview questions. The Interim Minister will start this summer and be with us for one year.
During that year we will be conducting congregational interviews and collecting the information to determine the type and personality we want for an excellent settled minister to lead us for the next 10 years. Please make yourself available to attend the meetings or fill out the surveys so that your voices can be heard. As a board, we are encouraging 100% participation in this process. If you do not speak, we cannot meet your needs.
The first step is the meeting with Bob Miess, UUA Ministerial Settlement Representative, on March 6th. It is very important that you attend this important meeting. This is your chance to hear all about the process and ask questions of our UUA representative. If you have questions, please ask them at the meeting or ask a board member.
The second step is the selection of the Settled Minister Search Committee. This will be a nomination process by the congregation. Ten members must sign the nomination form for each member of the committee. Then the congregation votes on who will serve on the Committee at the Congregational Meeting in June 2011. Nomination forms will be available at the March 6th meeting or if you need time to decide, from Sarah or download from the website. Nomination forms will be due in May to be prepared for the June meeting.
The final step is a congregational vote of over 80% to call the minister. This vote will be at a specially called Congregational Meeting in early 2012. More information will come as we get closer. I am going to post the step by step process on March 7th to the website. It will be mailed to those who have requested to receive mailings.
Questions? See a Board Member!
Love and Light,
Mary
UUA: Video – The Interim Opportunity
UUA: Video – The Interim Opportunity
ocuucorg) . Thank you!Step By Step Interim Minister Selection Process
The governing board . . .
- Votes to hire an interim minister
- Submits an on-line Application for an Interim or Consulting Minister (Appendix A)
- Appoints an interim task force, often a board subcommittee, to identify and recommend to the board the appropriate interim minister
- Covenants with the departing minister around the manner and timing of departure
The interim task force . . .
- Readies an informational packet
The task force’s packet will include: several recent orders of service, several current newsletters, the annual report, budgets for the current and preceding years, the bylaws, a church directory, any current short- or long-range plan, the departing minister’s resignation announcement, the proposed interim contract, the names of District or UUA staff members familiar with the congregation as references, and information on the locale.
The prospective interim minister . . .
- Completes a Ministerial Record on the Settlement System
- Submits the Application for an Interim or Consulting Ministry Position
- Readies an informational packet
The minister’s packet will include: sermon texts, sample newsletter articles, perhaps a reflection on the role of the interim minister, the names of leaders of current and former congregations as references, and a photo that may be used for publicity purposes if agreement is reached
The Transitions Director . . .(UUA)
- Lists (usually) five appropriate ministers, making their Ministerial Records available online to the task force beginning in the last week of April. Specific date noted annually in application confirmation sent to task force in early April.
The interim task force . . .
- After studying the Ministerial Records, determines its interest in each minister, and delegates one member to call each to discover if interest is reciprocated
- Exchanges packets by express carrier or electronically with ministers in whom it is interested
- Reviews the packets and calls all references, including UUA District Staff of the candidate’s current District, whether listed as a reference or not. Questions appropriate for references and potential ministers are a work-in-progress. No list is available currently.
- Conducts an interview, face-to-face or by conference call, all committee members present, with each minister with whom there is mutual interest, reviewing the proposed contract as part of the phone conversation
- Decides upon its favored candidate and informs the minister of its decision. To insure adequate deliberation, we ask that no offers be made or accepted before noon Pacific time on Friday May 6, 2011.
Specific date noted annually in application confirmation sent to task force in early April.
- With the minister’s acknowledgement, calls additional references it may have turned up in speaking with the references the minister provided
- With the minister, executes and exchanges copies of the contract, subject if necessary only to approval by the governing board and a satisfactory criminal records background check (if not completed by the signing date)
- Conducts criminal records background check of the minister
- If desired, within the week brings the minister into town at the congregation’s expense; this visit can also include a search for rental housing
- Presents the minister to the board in conjunction with this visit, if any, or otherwise immediately
- Returns packets promptly (within one business day) to those not selected
The governing board . . .
- Satisfies itself that the task force has done an adequate job of checking reference and conducting a background check
- Reviews and acts on the recommendation, up or down
- If the decision is affirmative, approves the contract, negotiating within hours such points as may remain
- E-mails a copy of the contract to the Transitions Office
- If the decision is negative, directs the task force either to seek agreement with its second choice or to ask the Transitions Director for an additional list
The incoming interim minister . . .
- Once having the board-approved contract in hand, terminates talks with other interim task forces
- Contacts the departing minister to coordinates the “changing of the guard”
- Contacts the District Executive to begin a collaborative relationship
