At their first meeting of the new church year, members of the UUSM Board of Directors read statements from their new Board Covenant—developed during a June orientation. Because some members of the board are new, a quick orientation served to acclimatize them ahead of their upcoming retreat.
This past year, there were several calendaring snafus that could have been be avoided by improved church-wide calendaring. To that end, a Calendaring Session has been set for 12:30 pm, September 22, after second service. Nina Emerson will be inviting heads of committees to attend.
The new Finance Committee Charter was approved. It will be available on the UUSM.org website under “About Our Church.”
With the moving of Kit Shaw to Boston and the resignation of Gretchen Goetz from the Stewardship Committee, the committee is in serious need of new leadership. This call will be published in the Thursday Announcements. If you are interested in helping with this critical committee, please contact Jacki Weber, the board liaison to Stewardship.
Several members of our congregation attended a February workshop on Institutionalizing a Ministry of Generosity (IMG), focused on how organizations inspire generosity in their members—a willingness to donate their time, leadership, a welcoming spirit, money, etc. One way is to have well-defined volunteer roles. More specifics will be forthcoming as the board hears more from Developmental Minister the Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae.
The board had a short discussion on the need for the church to use apps for communication and donations. A first question regarding apps is “What is the goal?” Nina Emerson is an IT person by day, and has expressed a willingness to help with development. This is another issue for Rev. Jeremiah.
Before his departure, the Rev. Greg Ward submitted an 80-page draft Congregational Safety Policy from the Safety Committee. The board voted to establish a Congregational Safety Implementation Task Force and approved a charter for the group. One early step includes gathering information on training the appropriate volunteers. Dan Patterson has agreed to attend a meeting at Neighborhood UU that will include volunteer training. Eileen McCormack agreed to be board liaison for this task force and to write an article for the newsletter seeking applications for the three-person group.
Beth Brownlie will be the board liaison to the Lifetime Religious Exploration Committee. That committee will be meeting with DRE Cleo Anderson, to begin implementing directions developed at the LRE workshop June 2.
Norm Richey has been working with the Membership Committee. He enthusiastically presented information about a program developed by UU Dallas, called Faith Forward. It comprises several 1-hour “classes” over many weeks, designed to deepen our understanding of our faith and our connection to the church. The board voted to purchase the first 22 weeks ($750), using membership support funds. The goal of the program is to shorten the timeline as people transition from visitor to member to leader.
