PRESIDENT’S REPORT JULY 2022
PAM MCINTIRE
In the last month, several people have told me “Hope is a practice.”
UUCville is a sanctuary for hope. As we come together with a commitment to love and to express our love in action, we build a community of hope. We take a stand that we can and will make a difference in the world. I am hoping that our work in Developmental Ministry will place us in an even stronger position to care for each other and the world and to build hope.
As we move into our Developmental Ministry with Rev. Tim, I have been focusing on our Developmental Goals and considering how we will work on them. I hope everyone can continue to propose actions we might take related to all four goals as we continue this important work.
The first goal is to define a broad shared vision of our purpose. We can be a powerful presence in the world when we unite in a shared vision. How can we come together and see the big picture of who we are and the good we can do in the world?
The second goal is to be a more welcoming, inclusive and anti-racist congregation. Would it help to have trainings for the whole congregation on how to be more welcoming to each other, newcomers, young adults and people of marginalized groups? Could we have a leadership development program to foster more inclusivity? Could we look at the UUA secret seeker checklist to evaluate how we are at welcoming newcomers?
The third goal is to strengthen our Stewardship ministry. Our Finance Committee, our Treasurer, Kay Frazier, and our DAF, Sean Skally, have already started to envision a broad Stewardship ministry. We have a new Facilities Rental Task Force who will come to our July board meeting to give us an update. How can we learn about and support Stewardship ministry?
The fourth goal is to strengthen our internal processes and communication skills, build trust and be more functional. Some wonderful ideas have been proposed that might be big steps toward this goal: renewed covenanting, Caring/Friendship Circles, Elder Net/Service Sharing and expanding Covenant Groups. People have also suggested more fun/community building activities: Circle Dinners, Outdoor movie night at the church, guitar nights, potlucks, and park gatherings. Through the pandemic, our Communications Committee and our staff have made huge strides in making our communications more clear and accessible with: an updated website, using the Breeze system, Zoom and streaming, and with beautifully designed weekly emails. The board has worked hard to build trust with transparency, congregational conversations, Sunday service board welcomes, budget information on the website and budget information sessions. How can we make sure that we develop a culture where everyone feels that they have the interpersonal connections and information they need to feel fully a part of the congregation?
I look forward to exciting times as we generate ideas and put them into practice!
On another note, I want to again thank all the people who keep us going. Thanks to the wisdom and action of Sean, we survived the lightning strike. Thanks to quick thinking (and acting) members and staff, we survived the basement flood. Thanks to the hard work of the yard sale folks and the donations, it looks like we will have a fun and lucrative yard sale on July 23rd. So many other activities are happening,
I am glad we have the newsletter and website to keep up! I am glad we are together; it helps me keep the hope.
Pam