To Our Beloved UUFM Community,

In our ongoing commitment to keep the membership informed, the Board offers the following update after our most recent Board Meeting on July 20th at 6:30 PM:

 

HIRING AND TRAINING NEW STAFF

We have hired two new staff members this month! 

Hannah Morgan Phelps (they/she) joins us as our new Office and Communications Coordinator. Pastor Isa says that the training has been going well, and that they are doing great in their new role. Thanks to Marisa Larson and Susan Adamchak who helped with the hiring process, and Kathy Swenson and Lorn Clement who called references. 

We have also just hired a new Bookkeeper, Karen Schamel (she/her). Deep thanks to Dan Swenson for running the hiring process and Sandy Nelson for preparing the position for a new employee and being a part of the interview. 

The staff position of Music Director is next on the priority list. We have confirmed a team of people committed to updating the job description and overseeing the advertising, interview and hiring process. 

 

OPEN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

We also discussed some open leadership positions that have become increasingly more pressing to fill. The most urgent roles we need filled by volunteer members are the following:

Building Team

Formerly lumped in with grounds maintenance, it is becoming clear that this role needs its own lead. Something we are striving for with all of our key leadership positions is having a team of people – similar to what we have for our Board Chair, with outgoing and incoming people providing support  and assistance, respectively – tending to the role or task. You can find more specific information on what this would look like for the Building Team here. Dan Swenson and/or Mark Mayfield will serve as support to this team. We are looking for a Lead and an Assistant. If you are interested in either of these roles, please contact Pastor Isa at pastor@uufm.net.

Assistant Treasurer

Our current treasurer, Dan Swenson, will be finishing out his term at the end of this fiscal year (June 2024). He’s been in the role for six years and required by by-laws to step down.  In order to support a smooth transition and establish the Lead, Assistant, Support team for long-term sustainability of leadership for the role, we are looking for ideally two people to start training as assistant treasurer ASAP. The breakdown of the roles under this new structuring process is still being developed, so keep an eye out for more information soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about this role, please contact Dan Swenson at treasurer@uufm.net.

 

ALSOP FELLOWSHIP HALL REVAMP

If you haven’t been to the Zeandale building lately, you are in for a delightful surprise! Cybil Perkins, in honor of Dave Lambert, has performed a significant renovation to the Alsop Fellowship Hall, including professional upgrades to the wall paint and lighting of the room. The transformation is inspirational, and the Board put together a thank you card to Cybil for this gift in loving memory. 

Cybil’s efforts have inspired further consideration of the Alsop Fellowship Hall: how do we want to use this space? what further renovations or improvements might allow this space to better serve our mission and vision for our community? We approved a plan to facilitate phase 2 of the Alsop Fellowship Hall Revamp. It will start with a picture forming session to occur in August. All who are interested are encouraged to attend. You may contact Pastor Isa for more information.

 

CONGREGATIONAL BOARD TRAINING 

We are now providing our Board Members with a baseline of training to prepare and support them for the specific kind of work and challenges that Congregational Boards face. We started training in June, and the board continues to work its way through the Congregational Board Training offered by the Unitarian Universalist Association. We are following a schedule that is out of the order in which the modules are presented, but in service of the Board’s business and needs. We are all reading through the modules independently, and – to the best of our ability – are creating opportunities to discuss the content in small groups. We talked about how this has been going so far, and if there is anything we can do differently or additionally to improve accessibility, accountability and support for each other in working through and processing the training. We are committed to being fully caught up on all the trainings on the schedule through the month of August in time for our Board Retreat scheduled for August 26th, where we will provide an opportunity to process the content of the trainings further as a group.

 

On behalf of the Board with love and gratitude,
Emily Fraser, Board Chair