April 2021
President’s Report
Let me begin this month with special thanks to Kay Frazier, Walter Hoffman and the entire Garden and Grounds Committee and volunteers. Our campus is bursting with the beauty of springtime because of their tireless efforts. If you haven’t seen the gardens lately, I encourage you to walk or drive by the church or better yet, volunteer to adopt-a-plot or join in the fun during their Wednesday Weeding Party from 10AM-noon.
This month the Board held a special work session to discuss the future ministry at UUC. Our current Interim Lead Minister, the Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, has agreed to stay with us until July 2022. There are three different options for our ministry after that: continue another year with an interim minister, hire a developmental minister, or call a settled minister. The following chart shows a timeline for the three options:
The Board has decided we will pursue option 2, Developmental Ministry. We will begin the process of hiring a developmental minister with the understanding that if we are unable to find a satisfactory candidate, we will accept another year of an interim minister. The Board felt strongly that we are not ready to call a settled minister either this year or next and we do not wish to pursue that option at this time.
As we approach the end of this church fiscal year (July 1), the Board is preparing for our annual Congregational Meeting on June 6. The meeting will be held on Zoom and voting will be accomplished using Election Buddy which you may remember from our previous online Congregational Meetings.
At the June Congregational Meeting, in addition to reports from the President, Lead Minister and Treasurer, we will be voting on several elected positions at church. I am pleased to report the Nominating Committee has brought forth the following slate of excellent candidates.
President (two year term)–Pam Mcintyre
Treasurer (two year term)–Kay Frazier
Board At-Large (three year term)–Jim Gorham
Board At-Large (three year term)–Hayley Owens
Board At-Large (two year term replacing Pam McIntyre)–Dawn Dirks
Nominating Committee (two year terms) (choose 3)—Jude Bias, Marcia Brecker, Danny Gray
Personnel Committee (three year terms) (choose 2)—Bev Ryan, Steve Brecker
If you would like to learn more about these candidates, please click here.
There will also be two other votes at the Congregational Meeting. The first will be a vote on the 2021-22 budget. As you may know, the 2021-22 Pledge Drive concluded with a total of $466,448 in pledges and the Finance Committee is now creating a budget. The Board will review the proposed budget and present it to the congregation for a vote. The Board will provide copies of the line-item budget as well as a program budget well in advance of the vote. There will also be Q&A sessions with myself and our Treasurer, Stan Walker before the vote.
As a side note, earlier this year our church applied for a second PPP loan and this request has been rejected because of insufficient documentation. Currently the staff is gathering additional paperwork from UUA Healthcare and TIAA to provide more information to the lender and we are cautiously optimistic with this further information, the second loan will be approved. Additionally, the forgiveness paperwork for the first PPP loan has already been submitted and accepted and we are waiting on confirmation of forgiveness.
At the June Congregational Meeting we will also vote on the new name of our church. You can read more about our Name Change Discussions and see the results from the Name Change Survey here. I am grateful for the Name Change Task Force as well as the New Name Task Force for their many months of service. I am excited to begin this new chapter in the life of our church.
And finally a reminder, our church is still in lockdown mode and the building is closed to all but essential staff and workers. Please do not enter the church building without explicit authorization from a staff member.
In Faith,
Lorie Craddock
President, Board of Trustees