First Parish Bedford UU

How well the church runs and how well we use the time of our paid and volunteer staff is crucial to the quality of life at First Parish. Starting in church year 2008-9, First Parish adopted a new governance model, and is still in the midst of a transition to this new operational concept.  Our previous system of governance reflected how a smaller, pastoral church should be run, but didn't quite fit the needs of First Parish now that we are considerably larger.

Our new model aims to clarify people’s roles and further improve the strategic and operational effectiveness of the church. This three-tiered governance model includes:

1. A Parish Board to meet monthly on policy, long-term planning, and finance.
2. A Leadership Team headed by the senior minister to meet monthly to act on the day-to-day level decisions and church operations.
3. A Parish Council of committee chairs to meet quarterly to review budget reports, initiate figures for annual budget, and coordinate programs. The committees are clustered by related functions to better coordinate church activities.

The focus of the Parish Board is to deal with all matters having to do with strategy, policy, and the stewardship of church assets. The Leadership Team focuses on operational matters germane to the successful, day-to-day running of the church. The Parish Council supports operational efforts of the Leadership Team and provides a forum for coordination and communications.

Two internal studies formed the foundations for First Parish's governance changes:  the 2007 Planning Our Growth report, and the 2008 Sustainable Growth Team report.  Both of these reports may be downloaded from the links below.

Attachments:

POG_Report_Final.pdf	[Planning Our Growth report, June 2007]	516 Kb
SGT_Report_2008.pdf	[Sustainable Growth Team report, June 2008]	738 Kb