The Governance Transition Management Team (TMT), consisting of Melissa Howe, Gordon Hardy, and Jen Vandiver, has made good progress over the summer setting up multiple sub-teams, including 28 volunteers, to do the detailed work of proposing transition plans in different areas of church governance. We have the following teams up and running:

 

TMT Liaison	Governance Area	Question	Team Members
Melissa	Bylaw drafting and revisions	How do we revise our bylaws to align with the new structure?	Lisa Snellings, Trapper Markelz
Melissa	Ministry Team Structure	What is the role, structure and membership of the ministry teams?	Linda Dacey, Julianna Stockton, Brian Cali, Sally LeGore-Nusholtz
Jen	Board Structure and Roles	What is the structure and membership of the board and standing committees?	Pritesh Gandhi, Fred Johnson, Allegra Atkinson
Melissa	Personnel/HR	How will HR responsibilities be defined between the various entities?	Alison Harvey, Kevin McCarthy
Jen	Safety/Legal	How will safety and legal responsibilities be defined between the various entities?	Karen Carruthers, Beth Liao, Craig Sandler
Gordon	Facilities/IT	How will facility management responsibilities be defined between the various entities?	Howie Bernstein, Robert John, Chris Walters
Jen	Finance	How will finance management responsibilities be defined between the various entities?	Maggie Pax, Kyle Johnson, Ben Vandiver, Bob Heingartner
Gordon	Lay Leader Training	What should lay leader onboarding and training look like?	Glendalys Gandhi, Rosemary McCrudden, Majie Zeller, Kathy Blake
Gordon	Transparency	How can we ensure the congregation has visibility into the church decision-making process and can make their voices heard?	Robin Tartaglia, Jane Spickett, Meg Muckenhoupt

 

The goal is to implement the directional proposal for Follen governance that was approved at the 2025 Annual Meeting.

Each governance transition sub-team will be working on a common plan of action leading up to a joint workshop on December 8, 2025. Teams will review current activities in their area, assess gaps of current policies and practices, and then recommend new processes, policies, practices, and governance structures for their areas. Proposals will be reviewed and revised and then provided for full congregational input after church on February 1 and February 22, 2026.