From EOD: May 15, 2020
I am pleased to announce that we were approved for a PPP loan in the amount of $72,012, which could be forgiven. This will not change the budget for 2020/21 as most of the payroll expenditures will be made for personnel from May 8 when the funds were deposited into our checking account through July 3 which completes the 8-week time frame we must follow.
I met this morning with CJ Presto, Accountant/former UCE Treasurer, and Vickie Doebele, UCE Staff Accountant, to document steps that are required for possible forgiveness of the loan.
We are carefully following the CARES Act guidelines. If the loan is forgiven, this help stabilize our financial position, hopefully preventing us from reducing salaries, requiring furloughs or making layoffs. If reopening is greatly delayed our 2020/21 budgeted amounts for our fundraisers and rentals will not be met and will result in not meeting our planned budgeted income. Loan forgiveness is essential to help us overcome this loss.
We have retained our staff during the closure period, including childcare, kitchen staff and lobby staff even though their services are not needed at this time. Our hope and intention is to pay these employees through at least June 30. If you are curious what the rest of us are doing as we work from home here are some highlights.
Liz and Steven Eason check into the church every other day and keep things clean. They are available for special projects when asked. They have changed light bulbs, cleaned the lower level, carried boxes up for Carol as she stocks the kitchen, and sorted through Fair Trade items for Joan.
Jessica Meis continues all communications, messages to members, newsletter and has kept the tracker for pledge drive, and does social marketing for UCE. She is currently working with our staff and board to organize the annual meeting on Sunday.
Adam Gough is visible to many of you as he is working on virtual worship services, pulling together and producing the combined recordings of the ministers, music and other worship components. Adam is working on a project with Board member George Monical and Brian Nielsen is helping congregants who are in need of tech assistance for worship, the annual meeting and other virtual meetings. He assists small group meetings with tech needs.
Vickie Doebele comes to the church two to three times per week to keep our books in order. Vickie provides reports to me and to committees and councils, as well as Endowment. She is currently working on pledge statements scheduled for mid-may so that members and friends can pay their 2019/20 pledges prior to the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Karen Mooney has stepped up immediately. The day she began work at UCE is the day we learned our member had become ill with COVID-19. She stayed until 9:30 that evening strategizing with Eileen and me, talking with health officials and making decisions about our closing. Karen has jumped right into social justice and membership efforts. There have been 11 people attending the virtual membership orientation meetings. She participates in some of the sunday worship services and helps extensively with pastoral needs.
Rev. Eileen Wiviott, Karen Gustafson, Vickie Hellyer and Gregory Shifrin work on sermons and music throughout the week to provide such meaningful worship on Sunday morning. Their contributions have touched the lives of many, not only in our congregation, but beyond. Typically, over 200 people attend the virtual service and several hundred throughout the week return to the website to view the service. Eileen continues to guide staff and lead our weekly virtual staff meeting, as well as pastoral care. Karen Gustafson is engaged in her interim work with regular communications to our congregation.
Sandra Robinson. I have been working on financial matters. Over the past month and a half I have filled out PPP applications, have prepared financial projections, and met with Integrated Stewardship Council, the Pledge Drive Team, and wrap up on the kitchen project. A good deal of my time aside from financial is spent with the Capital Campaign Implementation Committee. We are finalizing details for permits for the parking lot, drain sewers, electric work and a walkway from Greenwood to the building so that we can move these projects up to June. Johna VanDyke, Sandy Danforth and I are working on new shades and flooring for the wing and lobby floors.
Your staff is working hard to keep the church meetings, programs, and worship services going forward without a building. Stay well, keep distancing and stay connected. If you need assistance in any way, please telephone the church at 847-864-1330. The call is forwarded to Jessica Meis. If you have questions about my report please email me at srobinson@ucevanston.org
Sandra Robinson, Executive Operations Director
VirtUUal RE: May 17, 2020
This week we explore the theme of Thresholds using the metaphor a door to shelter. This week’s VirtUUal RE session on the homepage. Your family can do this together at your own convenience any time during the week. You can read the session here or watch the video here.
I’d love to hear from you about how your family would like to connect with UCE friends this summer and see what ideas they offer. Encourage creativity and think outside the box! Shoot me an email at kunderwood@ucevanston.org and let me know what comes up in your brainstorming.
Did you see Rev. Eileen’s storytelling video? Watch it here. If you would like to record yourself reading or telling a story that would be shared on our Facebook page and in our newsletter, let Kathy know. It would be wonderful to have a whole collection!
For middle school youth, learn about the Baha’I faith here.
High school youth can join a special youth Worship Without Walls Friday evening by registering here. And you can connect Sunday evening at 7 pm on Zoom. Look for an email from the advisors later in the week with info on how to join.
Of course, we also have our virtual worship service on Sunday mornings at 11:15 am. I continue to post ideas on the UCE Children and Youth Facebook page, along with some interactive things to share, so look for that as well.
For our theme of Thresholds this month, check out the Soulful Home family packet here.
The Non-Fiction Book Group will meet May 31 to discuss Charged: the New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon. Look for further announcements next week.
In Faith,
Kathy
May 17, 2020
We will host an online worship service on Sunday, May 17th at 11:15 am.
“An Adaptive Response to a VUCA World” – In this increasingly V.U.C.A. World – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous – we are called by our faith to adapt and respond with courage and resilience. This current reality invites us to more fully live our mission and to make the world whole, and serves as a powerful reminder that wholeness is co-created by our nurtured and nurturing spirits.
We will welcome new members in this service led by Rev. Eileen.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. If you submit a message by 11 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all! Note the 9:30 and 11:15 services are being rolled into 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 Poor People’s Campaign (click here to learn more).
VirtUUal RE: May 10, 2020
This week we explore the theme of Thresholds using the metaphor of a welcoming doorway. This week’s VirtUUal RE session on the homepage. Your family can do this together at your own convenience any time during the week. You can read the session here or watch the video here.
I’d love to hear from you about how your family would like to connect with UCE friends this summer and see what ideas they offer. Encourage creativity and think outside the box! Shoot me an email at kunderwood@ucevanston.org and let me know what comes up in your brainstorming.
Here’s a special treat for you: Rev. Eileen telling a story! If you would like to record yourself reading or telling a story that would be shared on our Facebook page and in our newsletter, let Kathy know. It would be wonderful to have a whole collection!
For middle school youth, this would be our “Lake Sunday” to visit a Native American place or invite a guest. Since we cannot do that, you can watch some videos on Native American life below. Next week, we will begin looking at the Baha’i faith.
- A 12-year-old Lakota Sioux boy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJapHc7B8Xs
- National Museum of American Indian Museum Virtual Tour – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFscvrkU1I
- American Indian Center of Chicago – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSoFuSQO98k
- Trickster Gallery in Schaumburg, IL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mieAXRWl6o or https://vimeo.com/193993912
- Crow Reservation House Tour – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKdRFdNzZMA
- News segment on poverty on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqr9xsUn-ks
High school youth can connect Sunday evening at 7 pm on Zoom. Look for an email from the advisors later in the week with info on how to join.
Of course, we also have our virtual worship service on Sunday mornings at 11:15 am. I continue to post ideas on the UCE Children and Youth Facebook page, along with some interactive things to share, so look for that as well.
For our theme of Thresholds this month, check out the Soulful Home family packet here.
Here’s the last week of Creating Sabbath Space from Soul Matters.
A new program facilitated by Robb Geiger, The Infrastructure of Morality, will continue on Wednesday evenings at 7 pm. Email Robb if interested so he can send you some info and the link to the program: rjg6177@gmail.com
The Non-Fiction Book Group will meet May 31 at 2 pm to discuss Charged: the New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon. Look for further announcements next week.
In Faith,
Kathy
Kitchen Renovation Update #3
Inside Our New Kitchen: Keeping Everything Clean
We want to share with you more fabulous features of our new kitchen. Remember our old cranky and cumbersome dish washer? It is now replaced with two (yes 2!) new commercial grade under counter dishwashers with a high temperature water pump that heats water & washes dishes in a 10-minute cycle (WOW!) It saves energy too.
Lots of Sinks!
This 3-sink combo allows us to wash large items according to health department standards. We also have drain tables next to it with compost buckets under it.
Additionally we have a dedicated hand washing sink (per regulations) and a separate prep sink which allows us to wash vegetables and fill water pitchers without being near dirty dishes.
Now prep and clean-up crews will have jobs that are cleaner, quicker and easier. So when we return to the church, be sure to volunteer for one of these teams!
From DLRE: May 10, 2020
By now, many of us have found a new routine with working at home or online learning, what people are calling “the new norm”. And yet many parents (and young people too, I’m sure) are still struggling to find the balance in holding the many threads of life they have between work and family time, partners and children, mental health and physical health, and many others. I am hearing that time to just be is hard to come by. For those with children and youth doing e-learning, the school year is coming to an end and with it the disappointments of missing out on musical performances, theater productions, sports, proms, and graduations.
And now summer is around the corner, although the cooler weather this week makes it seem a lot further away. Families are wondering what they will be able to do together, and what children and youth will have to entertain themselves without school and summer camps.
Typically, we would hold an all-ages RE program over the summer, with different adults or older youth offering an activity, social action project, or a morning of games. Now we find ourselves wondering what we can offer that families or the children themselves would be engaged in given the parameters we have. Not knowing if, or when those parameters might change complicates things a bit more too. Ask your family how they would like to connect with UCE friends this summer and see what ideas they offer. Think outside the box! Shoot me an email at kunderwood@uce.org and let me know what comes up in your brainstorming.
For now, look for this week’s VirtUUal RE session on the homepage. Your family can do this together at your own convenience any time during the week. You can read the session here and look at the links within it. Keep checking the UCE Children and Youth Facebook page, for other ideas to do for all ages and as a family.
Here’s a special treat for you: Rev. Eileen telling a story! If you would like to record yourself reading or telling a story that would be shared on our Facebook page and in our newsletter, let Kathy know. It would be wonderful to have a whole collection!
In Faith,
Kathy
May 10, 2020
We will host an online worship service on Sunday, May 10th at 11:15 am.
“The Good Enough Mother” – If you are or have a mother, you are probably aware of the mix of feelings that arise in the face of the cultural and commercial phenomenon known as “Mothers’ Day”. In these times of all-or- nothing contact between children and parents, let us take a moment to reflect on the cultural myths that color our expectations of these important relationships.
Please submit your Joys and Sorrows through this online form. We are finding some messages do not show up in the chat box during the service. If you submit a message by 11 am, we will try to read it that Sunday. Thank you for your patience as we are adapting to best serve you all!
Note the 9:30 and 11:15 services are being rolled into 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 Poor People’s Campaign (click here to learn more).
