Objective of Program Council:
To facilitate communication and provide a link between church committees, interest groups, and the congregational community as a whole.
Justification:
We believe that there is a great need for Program Council within our church. It has a place in our by-laws and is currently on the same level as the Board in our church flow chart. In light of these two things we are proposing a Program Council that will parallel the Board in structure and function. This will help to give Program Council the appropriate status in the church and authority it needs to accomplish its goals and help other committees do the same.
Purpose:
Program Council shall:
- Be the governing body of the Church in its programs, activities, and all matters that are not reserved to the Trustees (business, legal, and corporate activities of the church).
- Act in collaboration with the Long Range Planning Committee to facilitate the process of preparing the Long Range Plan.
- Maintain a list of active committees and interest groups, and the contact person for each committee and group, as well as a brief description of the committee/interest group. The list shall be posted in the back of the sanctuary and made available on-line (sans contact information).
- Gather annual reports from each committee and collate into a Congregational Annual Report each May.
Structure:
- Program Council shall be convened by the Chair Elect in conjunction with a Program Facilitator. The primary duty of the Chair Elect shall be to convene the meeting and set the agenda, predetermined by Program Council. The primary duty of the Program Facilitator shall be to keep meeting discussion on-task and to ensure that parliamentary procedure is maintained during church meetings.
- Program Council Board shall consist of representatives and delegates.
- Committees shall send a representative (not limited to committee chairs) to attend Program Council.
- Representatives are encouraged to attend all Program Council meetings, but will be required to report on committee activities at only one predetermined meeting per year.
- Six delegates (one from each program area) from the pool of representatives will be asked to volunteer to commit to attend all Program Council meetings for at least a year.
- A final delegate will represent interest groups.
- Committees shall send a representative (not limited to committee chairs) to attend Program Council.
- Program Council board will be charged with holding two types of meetings.
- Church meetings shall be used to facilitate communication between Program Council and the congregation as a whole. The first 2/3 of the meeting shall be used for agenda items, and the final 1/3 shall be an open floor discussion for questions, concerns, and comments.
- Quarterly church meetings shall be held Sunday after church, provided that there is no conflict with congregational meetings.
- Council Meetings shall be convened by the Program Council board for the purpose of facilitating inter-committee communication (e.g., announcements of upcoming events, planning needs, and dealing with organizational issues that might arise).
- Council meetings shall take place at least every other month at a time decided upon by its members.
- Church meetings shall be used to facilitate communication between Program Council and the congregation as a whole. The first 2/3 of the meeting shall be used for agenda items, and the final 1/3 shall be an open floor discussion for questions, concerns, and comments.
- All program meeting will be open to all interested parties.
- All other delegates and any interested member of the community is encouraged to attend all meetings
- In summary the program council board will consist of Chair elect, Facilitator, Six delegates (one from each program area), and the representative(s) for the interest groups.
Activities:
In addition to the activities stated above, Program Council will:
- Sponsor an annual program/committee fair to acquaint members of the congregation with the variety of committees and interest groups within the church. The goal of the fair is to promote membership on committees and build a stronger community within the congregation.
- Put together a congregational packet that will have a list of active committees, interest groups, and all other necessary information. This shall be available for all community members and new UU & U participants to encourage involvement within our congregation.
- Work with committees to create lists of duties, terms of service, and operational procedures.
- Work with committees to find a suitable chairperson when needed.
- Provide leadership training for committee chairs and interested congregants, including parliamentary procedure (for facilitators and committee chairs).
program council structure -- Mon, 23 May 2005 02:35:07 +0000 reply
Kyler, This is a well thought-through document. I have a question right off the top of my head: is the program council board the same entity as the program council? I may have more questions later. Thanks for doing this. Tippen
Clarification -- Mon, 23 May 2005 14:35:12 +0000 reply
Tippen, because there are so many committees and groups we thought it was impractical to ask every committee to be at every program council meeting. This proposed structure currently has program council meetings which are hosted by the program council board. So the answer is yes and no. If you are on program council board you are a part of program council but if you are in program council you might not necessarilly be on the program council board. I hope that helps. If you would like more clarification please let me know. -Alanna (amsteffe@purdue.edu)