Sally Parsons and I were talking recently about her efforts to help register new citizens to vote.  Since October she has worked to help register over 100 newly naturalized citizens.  She has done this with several other volunteers working with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).  I asked Sally to describe the event.

Curious, I sat in on the oath ceremony. Those to be administered the oath sat on one side of the room, with their families and friends on the other. The ceremony started with a video of panoramic views of the American landscape and a sound track of “I’m Proud to Be an American.” After messages from the president and other officials, a clerk called the role of countries and asked each person from that country to stand and remain standing until all were on their feet.

As they took the Pledge of Allegiance, I slipped out to join my ICIRR colleagues who were readying the motor voter forms for the surge of families about to emerge with their citizenship certificates. We had been instructed to greet them all with a smile.

Rosa, the volunteer coordinator from ICIRR, was very organized and in control of her crew.  The volunteers, besides me, were Ian (newly citizenized himself), a young free-lance pastry chef from the Philippines and named after Ian Fleming; Bruce, an older gentleman who’s been doing this task for many years; and Debbie, a woman in her 30s who just started volunteering.

The doors soon flung open and the new citizens poured out. Rosa yelled, “Illinois to the right.” Most people dutifully turned as instructed. We handed them each an Illinois voter registration form and a pen. “Just fill out the highlighted lines. Any questions, come to me.”

It was all over in an hour. We all agreed this is an uplifting volunteer effort, assisting immigrants and refugees become U.S. citizens. It is also the one volunteer activity ICIRR conducts for which there is the greatest demand.  Oath ceremonies are conducted most days of each week, at two different locations.

If interested in volunteering, contact Luisa Sosa at lsosa@icirr.org. You will be contacted in a few weeks.

From Joe Romeo

We’ve now completed the first six months of our fiscal year and can give the congregation an update about how we are doing financially against our operations budget.  And the answer is, thanks to the congregation’s support, just fine. 78% of our $744,000 annual operations budget comes from members’ pledges, and our members did an excellent job of catching up on pledge payments by the end of December.  We have a couple of income items that are a little over budget (rentals, Serendipity) and a couple that are under budget (loose plate, lunch and coffee money), so on a total income basis, we are only $2,000 behind for the first six months.  But, if you are so inclined, please remember to bring some spare cash to Sunday Services to support both loose plate and your bagel/coffee habit!

On the expense side, we are close to on track as well.  Nearly ¾ of our expenses are to pay for staff, and that is generally expense we can plan for.  Why does such a high proportion go to salaries?  Our staff lead us and support our programs—Sunday Services, including music and Sunday School; our social justice programs; pastoral care; and membership programming; not to mention administrative tasks and taking care of the building. By having staff, our members can focus on doing good in the world.  We do need to watch every penny as unexpected expenses have come up.  And when a member of staff leaves, such as the recent departure of our capable part-time RE Assistant, we evaluate the position.  In this case, we will replace part but not all of her hours to help offset other modest shortfalls. Our projection is that, it will be close and we need to be careful, but we should be able to finish the year at the projected level of break-even.

We have two other “buckets” of money not included in the operations budgeting.  One is Endowment, which supports direct expenses for programs, educational opportunities, special projects and building enhancements or repairs through annual disbursements made from the UCE Endowment Fund.  And the other is the Capital Campaign, which will give us the opportunity to make expensive, much needed repairs to our beautiful and well utilized building.  But the operations budget is the beating heart of the church, and your support is much appreciated.  Questions?  Please contact me at Susan.L.Comstock@gmail.com.

By Susan Comstock

In 2019, UCE will be embarking on a capital campaign. A capital campaign is a focused effort to raise additional funding for specific needs identified by the church community (such as new facilities or significant repair to existing facilities).  Most congregations have a capital campaign every seven to ten years; the last campaign at UCE was ten years ago. We wanted to share with our congregation the steps we took over the last several years to arrive at the decision to engage in a capital campaign.

Initial Planning

In 2015, church leadership started evaluating the needs of our church building that exceeded what we could cover in our annual budget. We asked committees, councils, and individual members about their long-term vision for their work in the congregation and community, and then, what would make them more effective in pursuing that vision. We identified a variety of building needs, including:

• upkeep needs (e.g., resurfacing of the parking lot, roof repair)
• upgrades (e.g., remodeled kitchen, air conditioning the sanctuary)
• emerging needs (e.g., playscape for our youngest members)

After gathering this input from the congregation, a group of congregant and staff members worked to gather additional information about each potential project, such as options, costs, plans, and pictures. At this stage, the group determined that the next step should be to determine the feasibility of a capital campaign. With board approval, UCE contracted with Pratapas and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in capital campaign work, to conduct a formal feasibility study.

UCE formed a feasibility team to work alongside Pratapas and Associates. The team worked to refine the list of projects, to write a case for a campaign, and to survey the congregation. That final part of the study was the most exciting, because it connected us with you, the congregation!

The Feasibility Study: Asking the Congregation!

To determine the feasibility of embarking on a capital campaign, the study team reached out to the congregation in 2018 through newsletter notices, emails, phone calls, visits, and through a survey. During this outreach, we shared the purpose and need for a campaign, along with the list of tasks and projects developed with input from the congregation during the initial planning phase. You—our congregants—responded to questions the about strengths and weaknesses of the congregation, about the relative importance of each of the proposed projects, about whether you supported the idea of a capital campaign at this time, and about what you might consider giving to such a campaign. The Pratapas team analyzed and summarized the feedback, and presented the results to the UCE board and executive staff, and then to the congregation at a meeting on December 16^th, 2018.

During these presentations, we shared that the majority of UCE members’ responses were, “Yes!—we should proceed with a capital campaign.” We also learned from your responses during the feasibility study that we can expect to raise between $900,000 and $1,000,000 during the campaign.

Next Steps: Forming the Capital Campaign Team

With the blessing of both the board and the congregation, we are forming the team that will plan and execute the capital campaign in 2019.  Our campaign co-chairs are Martha Holman, Gillian Lawrence, and Dan Lawrence. The co-chairs will be working to build out the team over the next two months. Our preliminary timeline is to start the campaign in March and end with a big celebration in October! More details will follow about the team, the projects, the detailed timeline, and what you can expect as we move forward together to strengthen UCE and its mission. In the meantime, please let us know if you would like to be a part of this exciting team to help build our abundant future!