There will be a Board of Trustee’s meeting tonight (10/28) at 6:30PM. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. The link to the meeting can be found on our website. Please see below for the President’s Report.
President’s Report, October 2020
Two important things have happened since our Board Meeting in September.
On September 27th there was an online Congregational Meeting and we voted overwhelmingly in favor of changing the name of our church. This month the Board will appoint a New Name Task Force. This Task Force will design and implement the process of selecting a new name. During this interim period before a new name is chosen, we are using “Unitarian Universalists of Charlottesville” to identify our community.
On October 18th with great joy and enthusiasm, we formally ordained our Director of Faith Development as a UU minister. Congratulations to the Rev. Leia Durland-Jones, now our Minister of Faith Development. We look forward to many more years of wonderful and inspired service from the Rev. Durland-Jones.
The Board of Trustees will be holding its annual retreat on the 8th and 15th of this month. The Board will be discussing future plans and priorities for our church. One of those priorities is the continuing stewardship of our community in terms of both volunteer hours and financial stability. Rev. Linda will be holding conversations about stewardship with church leaders during the month of November in anticipation of a January presentation to the Board and March pledge drive.
Many thanks go out to the Glenn Short Trust Committee this month for the completed installation of the audio/visual equipment in the sanctuary. We are now able to live stream from the sanctuary. The GST Fund also allowed for the creation of a Church History Room in the Lower Hall of the building. The history files stored in the Mural and Blue rooms were moved into the new History Room where they will be preserved with the help of a very powerful dehumidifier! Of the original $287,970.00 in the Glenn Short Trust there is approximately $30,283.24 remaining with several projects still targeted.
It’s not just the inside of our church that is getting a makeover but the outside as well. Many thanks to Kay Frazier, Walter Hoffman and Sallie Kate Parks and the crew of John Nolan, Sean Skally, Bobbie Williams, Elizabeth Breeden, Josie Taylor, and Kate Fraleigh with Conrad Heins and Hank Mitchell for all the work around the church grounds and playground. The giant brush piles in the Summit House yard have been hauled away and the entire campus has been tidied in anticipation of the change of seasons.
And finally, as we look to November 3, the Board will be in discussion at our October meeting about how to best respond after the national election. We are already in communication with the Charlottesville Clergy Collective and Rev. Linda will lead a zoom Vespers for our congregation the evening of the election. No matter how the election unfolds, we must support one another and remain a strong community in these challenging times.