by Pat Russo, WUU Board
In August 2013, WUU’s Board adopted the WUU Policy on Governance which is based on Dan Hotchkiss’s book Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership. This Board reaffirmed this policy in May 2015.
WUU Philosophy of Governance (Policy)
The Williamsburg Unitarian Universalist congregation elects a board to function as its governing body and a minister to serve as its spiritual, programmatic, and administrative leader.
Therefore, the WUU Board intends to govern primarily by
- Discerning and articulating the congregation’s mission and vision of ministry,
- Setting goals, making strategic choices, and ensuring appropriate resources,
- Creating written policies to guide the congregation’s ministry, and
- Monitoring and evaluating the congregation’s leadership including itself.
Policy governance utilizes an organized set of guiding documents (also known as Bylaws, Policies, Procedures and Charters) to support and guide our congregation as we collectively work toward accomplishing WUU’s mission and goals.
The Congregation has the responsibility to adopt WUU’s Bylaws which lay the congregation’s foundation as a legal entity. Bylaws are then augmented with Board policies which guide decisions and daily operations.
Periodically policies become outdated and need revision or retirement or new policies need to be created. Your current Board is in the process of ‘taking a step back’ and,
- organizing, reviewing, and updating, as needed, the current 30-35 existing policies,
- identifying gaps where a policy is needed and creating policy to fill the gap, and
- presenting the policies in a way that is easy for members to access on demand.