Dear Beloved Congregation,
This month has been chock full of milestones for our congregation! All four Sundays in June we worshipped together, in-person and virtually – after fifteen months of fully virtual worship. On June 6, we voted to call Rev. Randy Partain as our first settled minister on June 6, and just two weeks later we said goodbye to Rev. Joe at his last service with us before he heads to his next congregation in Massachusetts. In between those two milestones we celebrated and honored our Lancashire Building with a decommissioning service. Our final service for the month was planned by and celebrated our graduating seniors.
July will, hopefully, be much less eventful! We plan to continue our in-person, outdoor services (weather permitting). As we are between ministers, Allan Georgia is bringing us what looks to be a fascinating series of services – “Suppose God”. If you didn’t make one of our live services in June, and you are comfortable, I hope you’ll join us for an in-person service in July (bring your lawn chair). We know that people like to visit churches during the summer – so maybe invite a friend or neighbor, too.
Board Personnel News
June finds us with board changes. I want to thank Erika Brown, Steve Doell, Bob Horan, Wayne Jennings, and Cat White for their years of board service to UUCC as well their previous congregation. They have each been instrumental in helping us get to where we are today. Thank you. Each of you. We look forward to your contributions to our congregation beyond the board setting.
June also finds us welcoming new board members. At the May 23 annual meeting we elected Mark Assel, Kathleen Binnig, and Cliff Wire for three-year terms ending June 30, 2024.
The board held a special meeting on Tuesday, June 1 to elect officers for the 2021-2022 year. They are: Carol Gay, president, Amy Glesius, vice-president, David Kantor, treasurer, and Kathleen Binnig, secretary. In addition, Ray Gonzalez was elected to fill the role of past president (a mean feat since he hasn’t been president). The primary role of past-president is to be the liaison to what we’ve known as Leadership Council. We are thankful for that continuing board member, Tadd Pinkston, has served as the secretary of the board since reunification on Feb 1, 2019. After all that time quietly taking minutes at meetings he is happy to be able to serve the board and congregation in other ways.
Last, at the June 22 board meeting the board voted to appoint Laurie Albright and Lou Salza to fill our two vacant board seats. Each of these seats is for one year, one was open because of a departure from the board by Bob Horan after three years instead of the planned four (a reunification board thing – normally board terms are three years), and the other because I was re-elected as president so there is an open past-presidents seat (possibly confusing – for this year we separated the past-president seat from the past-president role).
Welcoming and Engaging Newcomers
The board spent some time at our June meeting learning about the plan our Marketing Team is putting together – including the fact that we will be running sponsorship spots on WCPN starting on July 5. This phase of marketing is aimed at getting our name and message out to the community. Marketing is getting our name out there – are we ready to respond?
The response to new people showing up to services or events is up to all of us congregants. Over the last year we have built a Connector team to individually help interested newcomers connect to the congregation. Our Membership Committee has at least two people at the Welcome Table at each of our summer services handing out nametags, greeting newcomers (and asking for information so we can add the visitor to our email list), and providing whatever other help they can. But they can’t do it all! We all need to welcome newcomers – make sure they have a nametag – and a chair if they didn’t know to bring one (extra’s available at the welcome table). Converse with the newcomer, ask if they’d like to receive our emails (if yes, visitor cards are available at the Welcome Table). Introduce them to other people. What would make you feel welcome if you were a newcomer?
The other side of this is making sure the things that you are involved with at UUCC are on our Calendar and are in our Weekly Update Email. Our WCPN Spot is directing people to our website – is your group’s information there? Is the event you’re helping with on it? If not, make sure to fill out the Website/Newsletter submission form – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJAkfhLTVyGiPXfFIBoURThCWdBo9CKyeAioYSy9ZaFwkAlw/viewform
We can do this!
In fellowship,
Carol Gay, board president