Hello UCE community,
I promised that I would update you more often, so, here we go…
1) The board has invited a group of church leaders to attend a Friday night, Saturday morning meeting called the “No Agenda” meeting on April 12-13th. This meeting idea came out of board discussions related to the interim self-examination led by Rev. Greg. A facilitator, recommended by our regional UUA office (MidAmerica), will lead us–her name is Karen Gustafson. She will help us explore several issues: how we relate to our ministers, how we relate to our staff (and vice versa in both cases), how we might discern if we are doing too much? We also want to discuss how we might decide which projects are closest to our mission and say “no” to supporting others. This is all part of the interim self-reflection. Greg and I assume that this will only be the first of these meetings with different leaders/congregants invited in the future. The larger congregation will also be talking about these themes over the next year. Greg has many activities planned. If you have any questions about this meeting—just ask me: figkerl@gmail.com
2) Search Committee: the same weekend that we’ll be holding the No Agenda meeting, the Ministerial Search Committee will be holding their retreat. This is retreat just for them. They will be led not by Rev. Amy Shaw, but by Lisa Presley from MidAmerica. Rev. Amy’s schedule was too busy for her to lead this retreat or to be our Transitions Coach. And, due to the reorganization of job roles at MidAmerica, Lisa Presley will no longer be our point person for transitions. After the retreat, our Search Committee will have a new coach. Christine Purcell will be our coach and she is a member of the Congregational Life staff who is coordinating transitions in the Southern, New England, and, as of now, the MidAmerica region as well. We look forward to learning more from the committee as they settle into their new role. They will be busy getting our Congregational record ready this summer and fall and I’m sure they’ll be sharing updates with you.
3) Budget: the board’s primary focus right now is the budget. As we find out how much has been pledged—we’ll be able to continue work on the budget. We are making reminder phone calls this week to folks who haven’t had a chance to return their pledge forms. If we get forms into the office a timely manner–the whole process is so much easier. Remember the annual meeting will be held May 19th. If you have questions before that, please email me. Sandra Robinson and Tom Ticknor have been holding information tables at the back of the sanctuary for anyone to ask questions about the budget. Again, ask questions if you have them.
4) Endowment committee: We are so lucky to have an endowment committee who handle all the applications for funding. They ask the applicants thoughtful questions and keep the proposals moving. They are also the stewards of our Endowment fund—trying to ensure that it performs well. With last year’s major gift to the Endowment fund—there are more applications and a larger fund to manage. But with this greater responsibility comes more joy as engaging programming, social justice projects and new additions to UCE (like the new teal hymnals) are funded. The board and endowment are working together to discern how the endowment funds should be used. We have guidelines, but the guidelines are open to interpretation.We are working together and will continue to do so. These are conversations that will be ongoing. If your group wants to champion and organize a worthwhile project, please do. The Endowment application can be found on the website>Members>Endowment.
5) Rummage Sale: if you are relatively new to UCE you may not know much about the Rummage Sale. It is one of our largest fundraisers and, more importantly, it’s a huge team effort. I have worked in the clothes department for several years (on and off) and I the people that work in that department have fun as we sort through with the mountain of old t-shirts, etc. that descends upon us.
Consider donating a couple hours of your time, bake a treat that can be sold in the café, or pitch in with the clean-up team. Every contribution matters. If you want to donate a large items that would require pickup—there are special directions, so pay attention to that. If you don’t have stuff to donate—ask a friend who might be downsizing or doing spring cleaning—offer to bring a couple boxes of their stuff to our sale. And then help us advertise the sale to make sure we “move” as much as possible. Those dollars turn into the programming that we all enjoy throughout the church year.
I will do another update soon. Thanks for reading and thanks for being part of our community.
Jeanne Kerl
President of the Board of Trustees