Join the SAS Communications team for a light lunch on May 7th following the 11:00 am traditional service. During our lunch, we will look over the guiding principles that would govern the Leadership Board and take a peek at the new suggested administrative structure in graph form. The drafted guiding principles are below. Look them over and come prepared with questions. We hope to see you there!
Draft Guiding Principles
All references to the Church Council, Board of Trustees, Staff/Pastor Parish Relations Committee, and Finance Committee, in all congregational policies as of ____, and in all references to the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, shall be understood to refer to the Leadership Board beginning ____.
Once the budget is approved, those responsible (i.e., staff and team leaders) for the various ministry areas have the authority to spend their budget to align with the objectives for their ministry area approved by the pastor. No further approval is needed to access the budget in their area of responsibility.
The pastor is responsible for reviewing line items within ministry areas with the appropriate staff or team leaders for accountability from the staff and to the board.
Any member of the Building Maintenance Team has the authority to purchase supplies for building maintenance and improvement up to $50 without approval. The Building
Maintenance Team leader can authorize purchases for building maintenance and improvement up to $500. Purchases up to $1,000 can be approved by the pastor. Any purchases over $1,000 need Leadership Board approval, unless the expenditure is already approved in a capital expenditure line item in the approved budget.Any expenditure over $10,000 will require three bids unless a vetted contractor is preferred. Preference will be given to hire local companies offering competitive bids within 5% of other bids. Minority and women owned businesses should be given the opportunity to submit bids. If the expenditure is already approved in the budget and meets the previous criteria, there is
no further approval needed. The ministry team leader or staff member responsible for the purchase will provide documentation of the bids to the Leadership Board for purposes of a paper trail only.The treasurer must be consulted concerning any single purchase or expenditure over $10,000 for purposes of cash flow. The treasurer does not approve or deny purchases but rather confirms large purchases will not create cash flow issues.
The Leadership Board will identify the positions that are authorized, church-issued credit cards and will establish credit card policies and limits.
Church purchases should be made using sales tax exemption.
Expenditures, other than recurring bills such as utilities, need to be submitted to the Treasurer for payment or reimbursement by completing a disbursement voucher with the receipt/invoice attached. The pastor, leadership board chair, or ministry team leader whose budget funds are being used will sign the voucher as the approval authority. A person cannot approve funds to themselves or a family member.
The authority to hire and terminate employees of the church shall be vested in the Leadership Board. The pastor shall have the authority to advertise open positions and interview and recommend candidates to fill open staff positions. The Board shall have the sole authority to determine the number of staff positions, approve job descriptions for each staff member, and set the salary paid to each staff member. The Leadership Board delegates to the pastor the authority to supervise, discipline, and manage paid staff as outlined in the SUMC Employee Handbook.
The pastor and a Leadership Board representative will review all paid staff annually using the approval evaluation process in the employee manual dated ____. The pastor will meet with team leaders at least quarterly to review, evaluate, and revise, as necessary, the direction and focus of the team.
The Learning Tree Board is fully amendable and accountable to the Leadership Board and shall submit an annual budget and recommended policy changes to the Leadership Board.
The board recognizes and approves the Building Usage Policies dated ____.
The board recognizes and approves the Building Security and Key Policies dated ____.
The board recognizes and approves the Financial Control Policies dated ____.
The board recognizes and approves the SUMC Personnel Policies dated ____.
All meetings of the Leadership Board shall be open to the public, with the exception of any meeting or portion of a meeting in which a personnel matter or a matter of legal negotiations is considered. In those cases, the Board will transition into executive session. Minutes of executive session agenda items shall be available to all with the exception of those concerning personnel matters will be kept separately as part of the "S/PPRC" files.
Leadership Board members are nominated by a separate and independent Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development, chaired by the pastor, and elected by the Charge Conference as described in the BOD. The Nominations Committee will be responsible for developing new leaders and equipping them for future Leadership Board positions.
Due to Leadership Board's serving as the congregation's Staff-Parish Relations Committee, no immediate family member of the pastor or other paid staff person may serve as a member of the Board. Due to serving as the congregation's Board of Trustees, only Leadership Board members over the age 18 will have voting privileges in matters of property, incorporation, legal matters, contracts, insurance, investments, or other matters described in the BOD ¶ 2525--2551.