UUSD Executive Team

Our Executive Team is composed of  the minister and two to five appointed members who understand the culture of UUSD. The member appointees should have administrative experience, cannot be BOT members, and, preferably, are not serving in any other UUSD leadership position. The member appointees serve two-year terms.

Duties of the Executive Team

  • Initiate actions requested by the BOT.
  • Sustain current administrative systems.
  • Review and assess administrative effectiveness.
  • Maintain administrative continuity.
  • Rely on, work with, and support existing committees and individuals who have administrative functions.
  • Take responsibility for making decisions for the operation of UUSD.
  • Act as the primary adjudicator for conflicts in the operations of UUSD.

Current Members

  • Rev. Heather Rion Starr, Lead
  • Linda DeFeo
  • Judy Hayes
  • Ellen Lytton
  • Don Peterson

You may contact the Executive Team at ExecTeam@uussd.org.

Why does UUSD have or need an Executive Team (ET)?

The role of the ET continues to evolve.  ET’s role is, in part, to keep day-to-day operational issues (“the weeds”) off of the Board’s plate.  ET can serve as a central hub for coordinating UUSD Operations — not to control things necessarily, but to coordinate activities that involve or impact on day-to-day operations, especially when one or more Committees are involved.

“I also know that as a Minister,” says Rev. Heather, “I function best with a small team of people to help me think through things.  The ET at UUSD is essentially working with me to triage all the ‘randomnalia,’ that comes with being the Chief Executive Officer of UUSD.  That is important so that every little thing doesn’t become a bigger project than it needs to be.   An engaged ET can make handling day-to-day things much more seamless so that little things like a confusing, sudden rental request, a broken doorbell, or the need for clarity about insurance coverage of a newly-installed sculpture don’t become much more involved items on the Board (or any other Committee’s) agenda unless they really need to be there.”

What are some of the major administrative issues facing UUSD?

  • The need for organizational clarity about how things get done at UUSD, who-does-what and who-needs-to-be-involved-in-what

  • Technical support, day-to-day software/hardware/property management questions, and to whom to funnel those in ways that are both effective and support improved process in the future

  • Developing current, functional Procedural-Operational documents

  • Developing an electronic document storage system.