Bylaws Update 2024

Purpose

Amendments to the church bylaws have been proposed by the Board and will be considered at the Congregational Meeting on March 24, 2024. A 2/3 vote of the congregation is required to adopt amendments to the bylaws.

Procedure

A Town Hall meeting will be conducted on March 17 to go over the proposed changes in detail. Any changes or additional amendments must be proposed and discussed at the Town Hall meeting to be considered by the congregational meeting.

An amendment to the Endowment Policy will also be considered at the Congregational Meeting. It also requires a 2/3 vote of the congregation.

Member-Submitted Amendments

Several members have indicated that they intend to submit amendments to the Board draft at the congregational meeting. The text of the proposed amendments and the procedure for considering them at the congregational meeting are described in this document: Text of member-submitted amendments

Outcome of Congregational Meeting

At the Congregational Meeting on March 24, 2024, the bylaws package was adopted by vote of the congregation with the inclusion of member amendment 1 (title of head OMC officer changed to COO) and member amendment 3 (refinement of responsibility for hiring and managing staff). Member amendment 2 (restrictions on publication of executive sessions) was not approved by the congregation. The new bylaws are now in effect and will be updated on the website soon.

The update to the Endowment Policy was adopted by vote of the congregation. The congregation also ratified the transfer of $120,000 from the Endowment Fund to the Capital Improvement Fund.

Information

You may read a summary of the proposed changes and the text of the changes (with embedded change tracking showing differences from the previous version) below. Printable, downloadable documents are at the bottom of the page.

Bylaws 2024 Overview Bylaws 2024 draft EndowmentCommitteePolicy2024