As soon as the candidate minister accepts the verbal offer on offer day, the candidate may be turned over to the full negotiating team, which includes the designated search team member, one board member, and one other person (selected by the governing board). The negotiating team must hold the same confidentiality as the search team.
The ministerial agreement (i.e. contract) should have been discussed and any major sticking points should have been resolved in the pre-candidating phase.
The negotiating team and candidate should now go through the agreement in granular detail, so that all parties are in agreement prior to candidating week, and the revised document is ready to sign after a successful vote to call. This can take anywhere from an hour or two, to a couple of weeks.
- relocation costs should be discussed (as of 2018 this is now taxable income, and congregations are advised to account for the extra tax in their offer) as well as all pieces of compensation
- give plenty of time for discussion for any areas needing negotiation. Listen well to one another, and move forward toward a mutual resolution of the agreement and compensation.
- The Church Staff Finances team csf@uua.org can be a valuable resource for specific questions.
- Requesting major changes to the employment agreement during negotiations is rare and would represent a breach of trust.
See Also
Negotiating Team Member
The teams drafts a ministerial agreement and negotiates the agreement with the ministerial candidate after the candidate accepts the verbal offer.