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Add or Change a Policy

Policy Approval Process

Policies are created and updated by the Board of Trustees. To facilitate policy work the Board normally appoints a committee to serve as the sponsor for that policy change. The sponsor moves the policy through several stages during the approval process: preliminary, feedback, recommendation, and approval.

The following instructions are for the Board appointed sponsor to follow as they shepherd the policy through the process.

Create a preliminary draft

  1. If this will be a new policy, download the template (Word).

    Tell the Administrator your preliminary policy title and ask for a policy number. If you have questions about how to fill in the template, refer to Using the Policy Template.
  2. To revise an existing policy, go to the Policies page and follow the link to the page for the specific policy. Download the policy as a Word document. Revise the Word document to reflect your changes.
  3. Change the version/date in the footer to be "Draft: " followed by an appropriate date.
  4. As part of your monthly Report to the Board, send your policy document to the Administrator with a request that the Board approve the preliminary draft.

Preliminary approval by the Board

After considering your preliminary draft, the Board will contact you with one of these messages

  • The draft has been accepted and will be posted for feedback from the congregation. The Administrator will post the policy to the Board News bulletin board and the Policies in Development page on the website.
  • The draft has not been accepted, and they will indicate what you need to change.

Get feedback

  1. During the 30-day comment period, you might receive suggestions and comments from members and staff.
  2. Consider every comment you receive and decide whether or not to incorporate the idea into the policy. Then, create a recommended version of the policy.
  3. For new and revised policies, have someone other than the current author proofread the policy.
  4. Change the version/date in the footer to be "Recommended: " followed by an appropriate date.

Recommend the policy

  1. As part of your monthly Report to the Board, submit the recommended policy with a request for the Board to approve the policy.

Approval by the Board

  1. The Board may decide
    • to approve the policy as written
    • to return the policy to you with an indication of what further work the Board wants you to do
  2. The Board notifies you and the Administrator of their decision.