The President's Perspective

Getting to a building permit is an exercise in patience and is full of frustration for me. We continue to make progress at a snail’s pace. At this point, there have been so many missed expectations by both the city and our architect, I truly don’t feel confident in any promises. I do know the ball is back in the city’s court. We are waiting for a response to our fourth submission. I am committed to keeping everyone informed and…

March promises to be a busy month again with the kickoff of our annual operating pledge drive and hopefully some great progress on getting to construction. It is a great time to contemplate what it means to be in community and traveling our paths together. Our operating pledges are the annual commitments we make to the programs and impact of our congregation. It funds our staff salaries, routine building costs and all the programs we create and support. It only…

We had a growth spurt in December with eight new members. That is eleven since July. Welcome! We held a membership and engagement workshop January 20th with 14 people to talk about how we grow, and not just in numbers of members. Many great ideas and volunteers came out of the workshop. Specifically, Melanie Malaviya and Craig Preston are the new co-chairs of the (perhaps to be renamed) Membership Committee. They have great ideas; give them your support when they…

I have been reflecting on our Special Congregation meeting all month and want to say again how much I feel we are a great congregation together. I get too much credit for our actions – it is all of us that make it happen. When the Sanctuary Construction Committee decided to challenge everyone to pledge again for the new Sanctuary, we knew full well that we would collectively determine the outcome. We did! I know it seems like we are…

Our Special Congregation Meeting is Sunday, December 3rd after church. I am deep in the “sausage making” of preparing the information we will all need to make a good decision. We are all in this together, and I’m certain Sunday will be a great example of our democracy. Many of you have complimented me on my leadership style, but it is because we are a great congregation and we complement each other that it works. Regardless of the outcome of…

It is not all about the new Sanctuary! The OCUUC Board has been meeting monthly and talking about what it would like to see accomplished this church year (by June). We are energized by all the ideas and are using a tree analogy to focus our work. First the Branches – we would love to extend our visibility and welcoming to the broader community. Developing a marketing plan, a path to membership, and improved signage are all in our branches.…

We are in the middle of a very busy Fall, and I am excited about all the energy. It is a busy time! In the middle of it all, we are still trying to start construction on our new sanctuary. Despite our best efforts to reduce the costs, it is still going to cost more than we expected, a lot more. We need another $700,000 in pledges and authorization from the congregation to get to groundbreaking. It is not going…

I love Fall at OCUUC. Although our fiscal year started two months ago, it feels like a beginning. Rev. Sian will be back, our new intern, Wendy Karn, will be starting, and we have so many exciting events coming up. It will be busy, and we will use it to transform our lives and communities by living our Principles. That is our mission! We will celebrate transitions, explore new ways to make a difference, and enjoy being together. We will…

Tom and I had a wonderful time in Scandinavia. We are thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to travel at this point in our lives. It helps us learn so much about other cultures! It inspires me to see how other people do things and how they live their values. Here is one of my favorite pictures – it is how one Norwegian woman gets through those long dark winters! She knits tree sweaters. What fun! There were about twenty of them.…

I am really looking forward to this new year. While I will dearly miss Phyllis Daniel and Birdie Reed on the Board, we will have new energy with Emily Scherping and Eric Noël. Welcome! We have lots to anticipate. We will have a new intern, Wendy Karn, and I very much look forward to getting to know her and work with her. With very mixed feelings, we will have a big transition in staff with Beth leaving. We are all…

What a great Auction! It was super fun and raised more than $15,000, well above the budgeted amount. Thank you JoLynn and Debra, our co-chairs, the entire Auction Committee, and everyone else who contributed, bought, and helped make it happen. We are awesome! It truly takes a village, and this is one of the best examples of all the ways we make it happen. Tom and I are looking forward to returning to attending General Assembly (GA) in person in…

The Sanctuary Construction Committee finally received a bid from the contractor on Friday, January 20th. Unfortunately, it is $2.7M, substantially higher than the $1.8M we have authorized. Bad news. As was presented at the town hall meeting in January, the principal reasons for the increased bids are inflation and increased requirements from the city. The Committee has met twice now since receiving the bid, and has asked our architect to propose cuts that would bring us closer to our financial…