Quorum Needed for Special Meeting Vote on June 11
The Board of Trustees has called a Special Meeting on June 11, 2023, at 11:45 am to vote on the proposed changes to the bylaws regarding the Endowment Committee and Endowment Agreement. We need a quorum to vote, so please plan to attend!
If you are a voting member, you will be emailed the Zoom link and agenda. You may vote in-person or through the polling feature in the Zoom meeting.
Everyone is invited to attend the meeting in-person or on our YouTube channel HERE.
Proposed Changes to Endowment Fund Agreement and UCE Bylaws Slated for June 11th!
UCE members—we need you! Please come to the June 11th Special Meeting of the congregation starting at 11:50 am in the sanctuary to vote on proposed changes to the Endowment related sections of the UCE Bylaws including the Endowment Fund Agreement appendix.
Visit the UCE Endowment Page to read proposed changes.
The Endowment Fund is governed by the Endowment Agreement which sets the responsibilities of the trustees and the restrictions of the fund’s uses. The proposed changes will simplify and clarify confusing language, bring the mechanics up-to-date, clarify that the Fund is not a separate legal entity but a restricted fund of UCE, and allow for as many as five elected Endowment trustees compared to today’s limit of three. The changes will not loosen the Endowment Agreement or change the restrictions on how funds can be spent.
The Endowment Agreement has not been updated since 2005! To ensure smooth functioning of the Endowment Fund, we need this update. Please join us on June 11 at this meeting—we need your participation!
Currently the UCE Endowment Fund size is approximately $1.5 million and about 5% of the fund is distributed per year. Endowment trustees are elected by the UCE Congregation and manage the fund per the terms of the Endowment Agreement. In addition, the trustees may appoint Endowment Committee members to help get the work done but not to vote on issues related to core responsibilities.
The proposed changes are the result of two years of work by the Committee and a special Endowment Task Force. They reflect many years of Committee experience, congregational input, and legal advice from Kirk Hoopingarner from Quarles & Brady. In addition to proposed updates to the Agreement, changes to section VI of the Bylaws relating to the Endowment are also proposed. Other changes to Endowment policies and procedures (which don’t need to be voted on by the congregation) were also proposed by the Endowment Task Force and accepted by both the Endowment Committee and the Board of Trustees. Those include new procedures for making grant distributions and new financial procedures, as well as improved communications—more to come over the next year!
See Quorum Needed for Special Meeting Vote on June 11th in this newsletter for information about the Special Meeting.
Susan Comstock, Endowment Trustee, and Carla Williams, Board President
June 4th, 2023
Delighting in Our Gifts
We celebrate 100th Anniversary of the annual tradition of the flower ceremony, a cherished and uniquely Unitarian Universalist ritual, created by Unitarian Minister and founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia, Nobert Capek (1870-1942), to lift up joy in the midst of despair. Please bring flowers, whether from your garden or purchased, to add to our collective bouquet. If you worship online, please email a picture of a flower for your yard or wayside to agough@ucevanston.org by Friday of that week! Together we will take delight in the gifts we bring to one another.
This is also our annual picnic, so please bring a dish to share for after the worship service.
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, June 4th at 10:30 am.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Deborah’s Place.
From Sandra Robinson
Greetings from your Executive Operations Director
This has been a full month as we wind down the fiscal year. Please check your email as Vickie Doebele has sent end of the 2022/23 fiscal year statements. Our hope is that all or most of the outstanding pledge payments can be made prior to June 30. Thank you for your financial support and the gifts that you bring to UCE through your time, talent and treasure.
This past weekend Peter Mayer performed to an intimate audience. While the crowd was not 100 as we had worked for and hoped for, it was nothing less than warm and engaging. Peter played with such feeling and connected to the audience. Thank you for Marcy Hicks and Dave Schroeder, my dependable concert volunteers who checks attendees in and sold tickets at the door. A special thanks to Renee Hoff and Paul Alfassa for purchasing items for the café, set up and selling. I could not have done this concert without them.
Please note the “Hats Off” to our dedicated team of rummage sale volunteers who led us to a financial gain, grossing more than $10,000 over our budgeted $15,000 income goal. Our follow-up for improving the experience for all involved continues.
The lower level bathrooms are complete, with the exception of a cabinet to go along the west wall of the west bathroom. Because it is an old bathroom, several old pipes had to be cut off leaving unsightly pieces protruding from the wall. We will place a cabinet there to provide storage and create a more visibly pleasing space. New partitions were installed in both bathrooms that provide privacy as they go 6” above the floor. A handicap button was installed for easy access if one is in a wheelchair or on a walker. The east bathroom has a new countertop and beautiful deep porcelain sinks. Do check out the addition of accessible and inclusive bathrooms in our lower level.
The lawns are blossoming and creating joy as the summer approaches. You will notice a new bench by the tree on the west lawn that was donated in memory of Raissa Landor and her mother by Raissa’s daughters. This week, we added a bench at the front of the garden near the parking lot. The pathway from Greenwood and a bench in that location was a dream that John LaPlante had for many years, but did not quite live to see it happen. Once Rev. Wiviott returns we will have a dedication ceremony to name the bench in honor of John. In the Intergenerational Playscape, a birdbath is being added. Robb Geiger is installing the birdbath. A small solar disc will go into the center of the water to create a small spray of water. This will be a visual and auditory addition to our garden as well as a source of water for our many birds.
Robb Geiger, Greg Grabowski and I are meeting with a structural engineer next week to review a spalling and seepage issue we have been dealing with. I sent several photographs and electronic drawings that we hope will be helpful in identifying and repairing the problem. After July 1st,
Adam Gough will work with Robb to hire a firm to clean out the drain sewers and skim coat the parking lot. These are essential to prevent flooding, to protect the sewers and the surface of the lot which was done about three years ago now.
Rentals have been a challenge this year post-covid. Many organizations are not hosting large events. We have continued to host memorials, one wedding and music events, as well as our monthly Udumbara and Weavers Guild of the North Shore. Changes have been made to the website to bring more visibility to what we offer and I have sent marketing information to organizations and music groups. Rental income in this year’s budget was reduced by $50,000 to reflect the reality of the situation. I will continue to work hard as I have been to market our space and create value.
May 28th, 2023
Weaving Together Again
This all-ages worship we welcome back Rev. Eileen and explore what we can learn from the sabbatical time in the coming months as we weave ourselves back together again.
We will host an in-person and virtual worship service on Sunday, May 28th at 10:30 am.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 9 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note there will only be one service time so that we can gather together as a whole community of faith. You can still give to the shared offering through “text to give,” mail a check to the office with “shared offering” in the memo line, or go to our website and hit “give” on the upper right or click here. This Sunday’s shared offering recipient is the Neurodiversity Foundation.
From Susan Frances – Assistant Minister for Congregational Life
Dear Friends,
I’m sending out a big thank you to everyone who volunteered at any point during our week-long rummage sale event, from set-up to the very busy sale itself to clean-up. I have heard many stories of new members getting to know people and excitement about our revised and streamlined format that no longer involves every room downstairs. Thank you!
As often happens in life, joys and challenges are often intertwined within the same event. This is true for our rummage sale this year.
At the rummage sale on Friday there was an incident in which three customers shopping in the sanctuary were asked to leave the building and our security volunteers were called to walk them out of the building. Over this past week, I have talked with 11 UCE volunteers and 4 customers who were present that Friday. Relevant to this learning moment is that the UCE volunteers who I talked with identify as white, and three of the four customers who I talked with identify as black. In my conversations, I found everyone was willing to have the conversation with me, to share what happened and to share ideas about what we might learn from this situation.
There will be ongoing smaller conversations that will address what happened as we hone our processes and procedures for engaging with each other during the rummage sale and other events when we invite the public to join us in the building for large events, and as we engage with the three aims of our Anti-Oppression Task Force:
1. Expanding ownership of the anti-racism and anti- oppression work;
2. Power sharing; and
3. Radical inclusion and hospitality.
What I want us, as a community, to grapple with collectively, are the larger disconnects happening when we are engaging with someone who has an identity different from our own. During my conversations this week, I discovered two recurring disconnects.
The first disconnect was that most of the white volunteers I spoke with did not perceive of the situation as being related to race. They experienced the situation as having to do with a financial transaction and the customers involved happened to be black. The black customers I spoke with experienced the situation as being related to race.
The second disconnect is the disparity in experience based on what “calling security” meant. The white volunteers I spoke with knew that security was a group of UCE volunteers. The black customers I spoke with did not know that. For the black customers I spoke with, calling security meant calling the police, which, as we know from repeated public incidents, is an escalating scenario for someone who is black.
The entire event is more nuanced than these two pieces I am highlighting, but I believe these particular differences in experience that came across during my conversations are something we can ponder together. For me, these disconnections are a direct reflection of the US culture in which we live in. There are no ready-made answers for how to bridge these disconnections. I believe the answers lie in our ability to keep calling each other in. A key part to calling each other in is listening to each other’s experiences. Not tweaking the rules or fixing the processes, although those things can often have positive long term affects, but in trying to be open to hearing each other across our varied cultural and life experiences. Trying to bridge the gap in understanding and expectation.
One of the components to being called in is being able to hear the invitation to stay engaged in the conversation. And one of the ways to stay engaged is to stay present. And one of the ways to stay present, is to breathe – breathe through the desire to shut down or to move on too quickly. To breathe into being open.
So, I invite you right now to take a deep breath in and recognize the feelings you are having after reading about this. Take a few breaths as you acknowledge and hold those feelings. What you feel is what you feel, so honor that. As you exhale, silently name those feelings if you can.
I invite you to inhale again, holding those named feelings, and when you exhale, I ask that you let those feelings go for the time being. In their place, I invite you to inhale and feel a sense of curiosity about what brings us, you and the people with similar identities as you and also the people with different identities from you, what brings us as individuals with unique identities to a place of having different experiences in the same moment. As you exhale, let go of any anxiety or discomfort that has arisen.
I invite you to inhale again, this time with a sense of wonder. Wonder at the complexities of life, wonder at what we are capable of addressing if we are able to stay present and engaged. This is one of the learnings of being called in. This ability to stay present, to stay curious, to stay engaged in relationship with each other as we work through difficult situations. This is one component to how we call each other in, or maybe back in, to the work of being in relationship. I believe it is through relationship, through being able to share our experiences with each other, that we will find a way forward to transforming our own lives, our congregation, and our society into a truly equitable multi-racial community.
Yours in working toward transformation,
Rev. Susan
New Sanctuary Chairs Testing Outcome & FAQ
Thanks to the 106 people who tried out the chairs we were testing and provided us with feedback. The winner is the Lumin chair (white one with the orange cushion). Please keep in mind we will not be using those colors, those were only sample chairs. However this is not the end of the story. We listened to some of you who had further concerns and questions. Here are our answers and actions.
Wood Chairs
There were questions raised about why there weren’t any wood chairs in our group. During our extensive research we found wood chairs, however the majority of them were too expensive or too heavy (30+ lbs). We are trying to stay close to 12 pounds because we move our chairs so much. There is one chair style that is a more feasible weight (16-18 lbs). And it falls within our price range. So we’ve decided to bring that option back to ask your opinion, so you can see how you like it from the aesthetics, weight and comfort point of view.
Another Chair Testing Opportunity
We will be asking your opinion in a comparison of a wooden chair style to the Lumin style. We will be ordering each chair style with arms & without. Each will have upholstery/cushion on the seat and back. This will probably be in late June.
Why Do We Need New Chairs?
Our chairs are 55+ years old and are breaking. Over a 7 year time span we repaired (glued) 132 broken chairs. There were more broken chairs than that, but we couldn’t afford any more repairs. During Covid, two of our members assessed all of our chairs. At that time, there were 57 which were designated as broken and 30 that were broken beyond repair. Chairs break while people are sitting in them. Some people have gotten injured. For the safety of our congregation and rentals, we need to have safe chairs.
Difference Between Capital Campaign Funds and Operations Funds
Four years ago we had a Capital Campaign Drive to raise money for 10 projects that were chosen for repair, renovation or completion by our congregation. New Sanctuary Chairs was one of those projects. The Capital Campaign funds cannot be used for or shared with our Operations Funds, which go for annual operations such as paying staff, utilities and other maintenance items. The Operations Fund is supported by our annual Pledge Drive, where the Capital Campaign is done every 5-10 years. Each fund has a different purpose. If you have any questions or seek further information, contact any of the New Sanctuary Chairs Team members: Janelle Brittain, Kristin Larson or Carla Williams.