UUFA Leadership Retreat Highlights – Saturday, June 7 2014
13 leaders met Saturday, June 7th at the fellowship from 2-6 pm for our annual leadership retreat. It was a very productive meeting and here are some highlights about the aspirations we have for UUFA for the coming year.
• UUFA Mission Statement was approved and finalized. Thanks to the leadership of the Committee on Ministry and involvement from all members we have arrived at the following statement:
“The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens is a voice of progressive religious values in Southeast Ohio. We support each individual’s spiritual journey our environment and our world by promoting inclusive community, religious education and sustainable practices.”
• The Executive Committee will operate with co-presidents for the coming year. Paul Patton and Barb Harrison will share this role. The Executive committee has also appointed a member to serve as Parliamentarian. The purpose will be to have someone dedicated to ensuring that we are following our by-laws and in addition this year we intend to revisit the by-laws and work on updating, improving and changing if need be to reflect our growing congregation. Patrick Gordon has agreed to serve as the UUFA Parliamentarian. Members of Exec Committee are: Paul Patton, Co-President, Barb Harrison Co-President, Roberta Roberson, Secretary, Samantha Pattantyus, Treasurer, Jeremy Bowman, Natalie Barman, Sarah McGrew, and Jackie Warmke and Lois Whealey.
• The Committee on Ministry is excited to begin working in a support and guidance role for our new minister, Rev. Lynda Smith who will begin her position in August. In addition they will facilitate a 6 month evaluation of her work as well as an overall evaluation of lay leadership this year. COM members are: Jessie Roberson, Chair, Laura Mitchell, Marsha Nagy, Michael Pistrui and Daniel Williams. We currently have 1 open position on COM to be filled at the July executive committee meeting.
• Our Finance committee is hitting the ground running by continuing to follow-up with members regarding the pledge drive. If you have not yet had a chance to complete your 2014 UUFA Pledge Form please see a member of the group to do so ASAP. The finance committee will also collaborate with other leaders to engage in the planning for “Winter Break Away 2014” with a goal of raising $2000. The finance committee will also lead UUFA in planning for our Capital Campaign. Members of finance are: Sam Pattantyus , Chair, Sarah McGrew, Laura Mitchell and Jeremy Bowman.
• Religious Education – Jen Bowman has done an outstanding job in keeping the RE committee and program thriving this past year. While we are doing an excellent job with children’s RE we strive to include more adult RE and youth RE in the coming year. We have identified other members who are interested in assisting Jen on this committee . RE Committee members are: Jen Bowman, Chair, Natalie Barman, Daniel Ornstein, Jessie Roberson, Marsha Nagy (for adult Red) ,Erik Peterson (teacher), Elllie Andrews (teacher), Sarah Minkin (teacher).
• Programming – Our Sunday services programming committee continues to do an amazing job with services. The main need for this group is continued support in helping folks get seated at 11:00 a.m. for service. All leaders agreed that we will help with this effort each week. In addition the committee is always welcoming to new members to join them. Members of the committee are: Paul Patton, Chair, Roberta Roberson, Pat Gordon, and James Frame.
• Membership – The membership committee will focus on increasing the number of activities we hold for outside of Sunday service interaction. These may include; Round Robin dinners, game nights, movie nights. The group will collaborate with our members who take care of communications to ensure that member information is accurate on Elvanto. In addition we will reach out to members and friends who have stopped attending to see how they are doing. Membership committee members include: Michael Pistrui, Chair, Marsha Nagy, Sara Foster, Barb Harrison, and Jackie Warmke.
• Standing on the Side of Love (Social Justice) – There is no small order when it comes to the need for UUFA members to reach out to our local community this year. Under the leadership of Daniel Williams we will convene to begin addressing the following areas of need: Food security needs of our area; food pantry support and a monthly meal at UUFA; Address needs regarding those experiencing poverty in our area; active support of marriage equality issues in our state and nation; addressing needs of immigration reform needs ensuring the dignity and inherent worth of all. Members of the Standing on the Side of Love committee are: Daniel Williams, Chair, Barb Harrison, Lois Whealey, Don Shamblin , Heather Haught
• Endowment – Fundraising has been the greatest accomplishment this past year. A goal of $4000 was suggested for the coming year to increase our endowment. This committee according to our by-laws need meet only 3 times a year. We agreed that our Finance and Endowment committees need to meet together to share information. Members of Endowment are: Dru Evarts, Chair, Don Shamblin, Natalie Barman, and Sam Pattantyus.
• Facilities – This team has accomplished a great deal this year with the workdays to improve buildings and grounds. Specific goals for the coming year include addressing heating and cooling needs of the hall, finishing the deck and retiring our old boiler. Facilities will collaborate with other leaders to get our capital campaign started and needs identified. The most immediate item on facilities agenda is to complete the playground/bird sanctuary by August 3, 2014. A sub-committee was identified to complete this project including: Pat Gordon, Paul Patton, Michael Pistrui, Laura Mitchell and possibly Daniel Warmke). The overall facilities team includes: Pat Gordon, Chair, Sarah McGrew, Fred Snell, Daniel Williams, Mamerto Tindongen, Frank Myers and Kev Polk.