First Parish Governance Model
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 2008-2009, First Parish adopted a new governance model. 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:
- A Parish Board to meet monthly on policy, long-term planning, and finance.
- A Leadership Team headed by the senior minister to meet monthly to act on the day-to-day level decisions and church operations.
- 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.
Parish Board
Parish Board 2023-24: Sarah Dorer (President), Mark Bailey, Peter Cho, Victoria Gaw (Treasurer), Susan Lincoln, Alan MacRobert, Jenn McClain.
Bylaws
BYLAWS OF THE FIRST PARISH IN BEDFORD
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST
As amended November 6, 2022