Until quite recently there was no President at Olinda.  There was, instead, a 

Moderator, a title in use from the time of foundation of the Church in 1880.  However, it 

was decided, naturally with some reluctance, to fall in line with all the other UU 

Congregations in Canada and adopt the standard form and change Moderator to 

President.  So even though we have a long history, the current incumbent is in fact only 

the second President, and is indeed the first to enter office with that title. 

 

 The duties of the President are spelled out in the By-Laws.  Article VII (a) (i) 

states that the President shall “preside at all Congregational and Board Meetings and shall 

set the agenda for such meetings”.  One of the arguments for changing the title of the 

office had to do with that word “preside”, as by definition the one who “presides” is in 

fact the “President”.  The power of the President lies largely in the second part of the 

sentence quoted above which has to do with the setting of the agenda.  This is not to say 

that no one else has input in to the agenda but the President is entitled to the final word. 

 

 Article VII (a) (ii) declares that the President is “an ex-officio member of all 

Committees of the Board”.  In practice, the President does not attend all Committee 

meetings, but the possibility exists for her or him to do so.  It is probably a good idea for 

the President not to make a practice of regularly attending, because in the event of an un- 

resolvable disagreement occurring in a given Committee, the President would likely be 

called on to resolve the issue and that would be easier to do if she or he had not been a 

party to the original discussion(s). 

 

 Line (iii) of the Article requires the President to “report in writing to the Annual 

Congregational Meeting”.  This is an important duty as it gives the President the 

opportunity both to report and to reflect on what has happened in a given year.  The 

report is one of a series of reports in the Annual Report, but the only one that can provide 

an overview of Church activities, especially in terms of Policies. 

 

 The final sentence (iv) of the Article indicates that the President “shall represent 

the Church on appropriate occasions”.  It is not clear what “appropriate” means, but 

presumably this is a residual power that the President could exercise if deemed necessary 

by Congregation who felt the need to be represented in a public arena. 

 

 The Olinda Church has two leaders.  The spiritual leader is the Minister.  The 

administrative leader (for want of a better phrase) is the President.  The two leaders work 

in tandem with the shared goal of providing the best possible leadership for our beloved 

Church. 

 

Wilf Innerd (President).