Compensation and Staffing News
May 2021
UUA Office of Church Staff Finances Mission
Guided by the values of our faith,
we equip congregations for excellence as employers
and their staff for financial competence and well-being.
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New Faces in Church Staff Finances
Sarah Hickok

Sarah (she/her) is currently the part-time Production Specialist for UU World magazine. For the next few months, she's also working in the Office of Church Staff Finances as our Insurance Plans Coordinator.

Sarah is a lifelong UU, coming from a long line (4 or 5 generations, depending on who you ask) of Unitarian Universalists, and her “growing up” church was First Universalist Church in Rochester, NY. She is also a distant cousin of Susan B. Anthony. She has been active over the years at Arlington Street Church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading MA, and currently the Unitarian Universalist Area Church at First Parish Sherborn, MA, which she suspects holds the record for longest church name in the denomination, although she hasn’t done the research to prove it.
 
When Sarah isn’t at work or church, she knits, sews, sketches, Zentangles, and spends time with her 2 kids, ages 13 and 16. Sarah lives in Natick, MA, in a lovely little apartment overlooking Dug Pond. She just became a great aunt, which is not at all fair, although her great-niece is very cute.
Gloria Guldager ("Goo-layer")

Gloria (she/her) recently joined our team as Retirement Plan Employer Liaison. Her focus is on driving strong outcomes for participants and educating to ensure legal compliance.

Gloria began her career in non-profit professional theater and performing arts management. After taking a pause to raise her young children, Gloria served as the Business Administrator for the Unitarian Society of Germantown in Philadelphia (USG) for ten years, where she is also a member.
 
Inspired by our UU values, she strives to be an engaged and responsible citizen. Thus when the opportunity arose, she jumped at the chance to use her technology and data skills to support two political campaigns in 2020 to advance progressive values.
 
Gloria is thrilled to join the UUA Staff and is excited to work with representatives from UU congregations all over the country to successfully manage their retirement plans. As a former member of the Association of UU Administrators and with her experience at USG, Gloria will leverage her knowledge of UU organizational management and technology to create best practices, reduce friction in our systems, and find ways to best support our UU staff members in securing resources for retirement. 
 
Originally from the Midwest, Gloria currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two children. She enjoys long walks, yoga, sunny days, connecting with friends, and is especially looking forward to being able to travel again.
Which Rules for Which Plans?
Many of you recently completed the Benefits Tune-up Workbook and reached out to our team for clarifications. We've noticed that leaders and participants sometimes get confused about which rules apply to which plans. We understand how that can happen, especially since some rules are the same for all of our benefit plans while others are specific to the UUA Retirement Plan or Insurance Plans.

So we've created a chart to help you out – available below and as a full-page PDF on UUA.org. It doesn't cover all of the rules and requirements of our various plans. Nor does it make distinctions between the rules of our UUA Health Plan and those of our Group Insurance Plans (dental, life, and disability). But it should help you get a handle on the differences that tend to cause the most confusion.
Demystifying the Split Form
ERISA rules require that Employers track – and the UUA report – the amount of the UUA Health Plan premium funded by an Employer and the amount paid by Employees for themselves and their dependents. Our Health Plan auditors review this information, which is needed in order to satisfy Department of Labor filing requirements.

On our Required Health Plan Contribution Report page, you'll find a simple and secure online "Split Form" that makes it easy for you to send the employee names and premium breakdowns to us. Be sure to complete it monthly. Note that this form is only for Health Plan contributions; do not report premiums associated with Life, Dental, or Disability coverage.
Clarification: Blue Cross Blue Shield Notification
A number of UUA Health Plan participants have contacted us asking about a recent "Settlement Notice" email from Blue Cross Blue Shield. Please communicate to your staff that no one in the UUA Health Plan is eligible to make a claim (because our Plan is self-insured). The notification can be ignored.
UUA Office of Church Staff Finances
24 Farnsworth Street | Boston, MA 02210