Policy for Screening Pre-Candidates and Final Candidate
References
The Search Committee shall initially obtain from the minister at least three references for each congregation served. Where a minister has served in multiple interim ministries, and in the case of positions held more than twenty years earlier, two references per congregation may suffice. When interviewing these “named” references, the committee may ask them for additional “developed” references.
Once a minister has agreed to be one of the committee’s pre-candidates, and only with the minister’s permission, committee members will contact developed references in congregations the minister has previously served.
Once the minister has consented to be the committee’s candidate, and only with the minister’s permission, members will contact developed references in the congregation presently served.
Background checks
UUCM’s offer of employment is predicated on a successful Criminal and Sex offender background check, consistent with our UUCM Safety Policy.
After Salary and Ministerial Agreement terms are finalized, the candidate must release their signed agreement to a background check. The committee will then arrange with an outside agency to conduct sex offender and criminal background checks. Such arrangements may require the use of additional disclosure and authorization forms required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The following agency will be used to conduct the background checks:
Church Mutual Insurance Company’s Screen Now program, with services provided by ChoicePoint
3000 Schuster Lane
P.O. Box 357
Merrill, Wisconsin 54452
(800) 554-2642
http://www.churchmutual.com/
Further background checks may be conducted through local, state and federal law enforcement agencies as needed.
Referral to Board
Background checks will be conducted by the Search Committee and will only be conducted on the committee’s finalist. Once the recommendation is made, the results of the reference and background checks will be delivered to the Council president.