Summer is the Perfect Time to Freshen Up the UUCville Building! A dedicated group of volunteer painters were hard at work in July giving our downstairs a fresh new look.

We are in that in-between time of summer, where it can feel like our normal routines are disrupted. Kids out of school, people on vacation and out of town, some church activities on hold or in a different format (like Religious Education). And yet, so much activity continues at UUCville. Between our ministers and our guest preachers, there is always something interesting and though-provoking happening on Sundays. Most of our programs are continuing through the summer, including all of our important Food Ministry programs, which are the focus of our Social Action collection for July. Our Food Ministry includes the soup kitchen, food pantry (first Fridays), food-sharing Sundays, gift cards for church members on a tight budget, and supplies for feeding our PACEM guests. If you haven’t supported this collection yet this month, please go to the Ways To Give page of our website and look at the options for the Social Action collection.

The Board met in person in June, and welcomed our new members (Meg Dunham and Coretta Powers) and said thank you to our outgoing members (VP Bev Ryan and Achsah Carrier). I hope that Bev and Achsah found their Board service to be interesting and meaningful – I know we really appreciate all they have done for the congregation over the past several years. I’m so grateful to them and to all our Board members who have agreed to take on this leadership role in the congregation.

In June we also debriefed about our annual congregational meeting, held just a few days earlier. I wanted to thank everyone who helped plan and run the congregational meeting, and also thank our members, friends and supporters who attended. It is an important way for us to put our belief in the democratic process into action. I also wanted to highlight the excellent work done on the budget in advance of the congregational meeting by our Treasurer, Jimmy Gorham, and the Finance Committee (chaired by Donna Redmond). And they were able to craft a really well-supported budget because of everyone who pledged in March – thanks again!

At our June Board meeting we also organized the schedule for Board meetings and Executive Committee (“Exec”) meetings for the coming months. Exec (the ministers, President, VP, Treasurer and Secretary) meets 2 weeks before each Board meeting to set the agenda for the meeting. If you ever have an item you think needs to go to the Board for discussion or approval, please send it to one of the Exec Committee members at least 2 weeks before the Board meeting, so they can bring it to Exec for discussion.

If you are ever curious about what the Board does, please join us at a meeting. Most of our meetings are held on Zoom (usually the 4th Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm), and the schedule and Zoom link are on the website here.

Submitted by:

Carol Gardner, President