UUFP From Ken Goodrich
President’s Letter, 2007-2008
Dear Members and Friends—
I’m frequently reminded that
a major characteristic of the Hampton Roads area is a transient
population. Each year,
a good number of friends move away and with that, new faces and
families move in and new friendships form. In addition to Buffy and
Nick’s decision to depart the
Let me give you a brief
update on the steps we’re taking to find to find our next minister.
The Board established an Interim Task Force to seek an interim
minister for the coming year through the UUA’s Interim Ministry
Program. Interim Task
Force members include: Patricia Mosley, Alice Smith, Parker Stokes,
Judy Remsberg, and Lauren Fureymoore.
If all goes smoothly, we expect them to have a recommendation
for us by June.
We also want to begin the
search for a “settled” or permanent minister. At this year's Annual
Membership Meeting, per the bylaws, the Board will ask the
membership to pass a motion calling for the formation of a
Ministerial Search Committee.
Provided the motion carries, we will have Jennifer Slade, our
UUA Ministerial Settlement Representative, here on Sunday, June 22.
After the 2nd service, she will hold a workshop on
conducting an effective ministerial search and, in particular,
forming a good Ministerial Search Committee.
If you’re interested in being part of the intense process of
the ministerial search, please attend this meeting.
Shortly after, we’ll create the Search Committee and let them
get going—they’ll have a lot of hard, but rewarding, work in the
coming year.
At this year’s Annual
Membership Meeting, in addition to electing representatives to the
board and committee chairs, we have three important issues requiring
a vote. First is the
vote to establish a Search Committee, 2nd is passing the
annual budget (more on that below).
The 3rd vote is on the resolution to become a UUA
recognized Welcoming Congregation.
Becoming recognized as a
Welcoming Congregation is a goal and process that the Fellowship has
worked toward for several years. I look forward to a strong turnout
to support and celebrate taking this final step.
The resolution and a summary of the significance of the
Welcoming Congregation Program are part of this package; please
review these items and don’t hesitate to contact Lauren Fureymoore,
the chair of the WC committee, with any questions.
The budget for the coming
year represents the fruits of hard work by an unprecedented number
of volunteers. My
sincerest thanks to all who made the annual budget drive such a
success. In terms of
the budget itself, we didn’t fully appreciate the bargain Buffy’s
been giving us until having to face the UUA’s recently revised
ministerial compensation guidelines in preparation for seeking a new
minister (… has health care
gotten expensive!).
Fortunately, with your increased pledging, our programming also
remains strong in the projected budget.
Finally, looking ahead,
growth remains a priority and an exciting challenge.
At about 150 members, we're on the verge of going from a
small (<150 members) to a mid-sized (150-350) church.
We have most of the needs (expenses!) and ambitions of a
mid-size congregation but we need to add to the membership base to
support these. The
-
Ken