Our mission is to review the current governance of Follen Church and listen for ways it might be improved. This month we have interviewed past lay leaders at Follen since the bylaws were revised in 2007. We asked about conflicts, successes, ideas for improvement, unresolved issues, and other thoughts.

Some common themes that we heard from our interviews with nearly 30 leaders included these ideas:

• Would it be possible to streamline governance to reduce complexity?
• How can we increase transparency from governance to the entire congregation?
• What if we had comprehensive training for every lay leader, including how to run a meeting and ways to handle conflict?
• Can we create more clarity as to who has decision-making ability in a variety of situations?
• Which tasks might be delegated to staff to save precious volunteer time?

Our next task is to meet with each of the seven action teams at Follen Church, explain our mission, and ask for suggestions. As always, we are guided by our faith, our values, and our love for this community.

Jack D., Simon H., Lisa S., Robin T., Jen V. — Governance Advisory Task Force
Email: governance@follen.org