Committee Reports for the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year
ending May 31, 2010
Board Report
These are the main goals the board addressed the beginning of our work year and have been met as follows:
1-2 The Board developed a position and hired a RE Teacher and Coordinator,
3-We are still trying to get more people involved in various positions.
4- We have discussed and begun a “Needs Assessment-long Term planning Process.”
Penny has begun to develop effective communications practices, utilizing up-to-date technologies. She has held meetings and the Board conducts much of its business online.
Evaluation of Congregational
and Professional Ministry
April 2010
Evaluation conducted and report submitted by the Committee on Ministry
This year the UUFL Committee on Ministry (COM) is charged with evaluating the Ministry of the Fellowship as a whole as well as our professional minister. To fulfill this important obligation, the COM focused on assessing how Fellowship committees and our Minister are “actualizing” our Mission Statement as follows,
We come here to stimulate, support and empower each individual to honestly discover the spiritual, moral and intellectual qualities necessary to live and act compassionately within the interdependent web of the human family and the environment. (Mission Statement developed 1992)
In addition we looked at general strengths, weakness, and areas for growth.
The COM meet with the Board, Caring committee chair, parent representatives from Children’s RE, and the Program committee, and received written comments from the Membership committee chair. In addition, we provided a time for Fellowship members to meet with the COM as well as sending out an e-mail and making announcements at Sunday morning programs soliciting members’ input through contacting the COM directly or by mail or e-mail.
Evaluation summary:
Our professional Minister, Penny Rather, received overwhelming support and praise for her role in providing ministry to the congregation. Her Sunday morning worship services, adult RE classes, assistance with children’s RE, pastoral care, greeting visitors, liaison to the larger community and other religious organizations are seen as a key to our increased attendance at Sunday morning worship services by both members and friends, particularly at minister-led worship services.
Fellowship members and committees appear to be very satisfied with ministry in general, although specific groups expressed some significant accolades as well as concerns. Of particular note:
Children’s RE is very appreciative of Penny’s involvement with RE and would actually like to see her have a greater role in this area. They also value having a paid RE teacher. However, they would like to see more activities and focus on children and families within the Sunday morning service as well as other Fellowship activities. In addition, they would like to see more involvement with Children’s programming and activities by non-parental members.
The Board, Program Committee and Penny expressed a critical need for increased participation by members in taking on key leadership roles. There was general agreement that the Fellowship needs to be “looking outside the box” for creative, innovative ways of involving members in order to meet the managerial, organizational and leadership needs of the fellowship necessary for effective ministry.
Those responding universally endorsed continuing with our current Mission Statement. Thus, it appears our Mission Statement continues to be relevant today, almost 20 years after its adoption.
A more detailed summary, by question and respondent is provided on the following pages.
What does your committee do to meet the mission of the church as defined in our
Caring Committee (Sue Wedel) -
Generally, the Sue thinks this committee does very well with meeting the mission statement. The committee is charged with being compassionate and supportive – showing genuine caring, love, and honor. To meet this charge, the caring committee provides formal recognition of members’ achievements, joys, difficulties, concerns, sadnesses, and hard times; Sue feels they do well at this along with Penny. There is reciprocal sharing of members’ needs between Penny and the committee, as appropriate. Sue sees Penny as the committee “chief” and the committee as accessory to Penny; Penny is responsible and does well at getting a good sense of how to do what a church needs to do in the area of caring for its members, particularly with how and when to share sensitive information between the minister and the committee members. Penny feels they are partners and Sue states Penny is the leader of the partnership.
Program Committee -
Committee members unanimously stated they felt they tried to meet the mission statement and upon further reflection stated they felt programs (Minister- and lay-led):
1. did well at “supporting” and “empowering” – the “talk back” time is good for the empowerment aspect; increase of number of 20-something’s coming on a consistent basis seen as one measure of “supporting”,
2. generally did well at being “stimulating” but perhaps programs could take more “risks” – that is maybe be more challenging or “push the envelope” at times,
3. tend to not address morality in programs – perhaps there is a sense this is too uncomfortable/risky to tackle,
The fact that attendance in very good for Minister-led programs and attendance for lay-led programs has generally increased this year, is seen as an affirmation that Sunday morning worship services are meeting the
Membership (
Membership has a brunch at least once a year (twice last year) to introduce visitors and new members to each other so they can become acquainted with other visitors and new members and hopefully promote connections. Penny responds to all visitors and new members if they indicate they are interested in talking to her on the visitor cards. She's also very good at visiting with people that she hasn't seen before, even if they haven't filled out cards. Several times a year she schedules "learning more about UU's" get-togethers.
Children’s RE -
They feel the current programming does well at meeting the mission statement; that the lessons touch on all points of the
They think having a paid teacher is beneficial in meeting the Fellowship’s mission. This year, in an effort to foster improved participation and to keep the greater membership informed of RE happenings, the teacher has used phone calls and e-mail to provide summaries of prior classes, and reminders about upcoming classes/events; she has also made an effort to point out something special that occurred during a class to spark conversation at home.
They are appreciative of the time our Minister has spent with the children’s RE program – helping the teacher and parents with curriculum resources and meeting with parents at the start of the RE year in September.
They like having a children’s story as a regular component of the Sunday worship service and see this as serving to create a personal connection between the children and the minister/program leader; they also like having the children come in for the shalom circle at the end of the service.
They like having the children included through the story and shalom circle (as well as in other ways) in all Sunday programs (lay- and minister-led) as this adds consistency to the Sunday morning for the children
UUFL Board -
The board attempts to empower members by setting guidelines and policies rather than micromanaging. They have changed from a 7-member to a 5-member board, hoping to free up others in the congregation so that they (non-board members) can take on leadership roles in other specific areas of interest and need necessary to the effective functioning of the Fellowship. The board attempts to be spiritual leaders to each other and the congregation Through opening their meetings with a candle lighting and covenant statement and including a time for sharing of personal needs/cares, the board has bonded with one another, allowing them to work at fulfilling the mission statement amongst themselves and with the Fellowship as a whole. More specifically, the board sees evidence of meeting our mission through increased numbers of families and young adults coming to the Fellowship.
The board thinks our professional minister is doing a great job! They like her new schedule of coming up on Saturday and leading an adult RE program on Sunday morning before the worship service. So far, attendance at the AM adult RE has been as good as has attendance at the early Sunday evening meditation group which she leads on the Sundays she is in Laramie (the other Sundays are lead by member Catie Ballard). They have no complaints regarding our Minister’s ministry.
Where there is room for improvement and what more could your committee do in meeting our mission? And the minister?
Caring committee (Sue Wedel) -
One concern was communication – how they hear when somebody needs something and how the committee tells one another. The committee does not like to meet, using e-mail as their primary means of communication. Sue feels the committee needs to work on this area. The committee would like to work on building a caring community, meaning that we accept one another, being gentle and caring, aware that each person is very important. This may be a membership committee function or maybe the caring committee should be in a leadership role in this regard. Sue sees evidence of the Fellowship being a caring community when individuals step up on their own to help others.
Sue thinks it is important for the committee to involve the people who do things well and easily. There needs to be more awareness by membership that there is a caring committee. She would like the committee to find ways for people who are not comfortable being in a direct service role or are more reserved to be a part of a caring community.
Penny is aware of, and willing to train the committee in, a method for helping someone with a long term or intense need. The committee has not yet taken her up on the offer. From Sue’s viewpoint this training from Penny could be good for the committee and the fellowship.
Program Committee -
General concerns – there appears to be “apathy” among members based on the difficulty in finding individuals to take on leadership roles and to fulfill needed duties; this was also seen, perhaps, as a measure of satisfaction with how things are going, but also a reflection of the lack of knowledge and/or realization of what is needed from members in terms of general operation of this religious community.
Membership (
Children’s RE -
They would like to have the minister spend more time with children’s RE.
They would like more family worship services, including those put on primarily by the children themselves, but also family services planned jointly by the minister and the RE teacher and parents. They would like to have children included more regularly in participatory roles in the Sunday morning service such as doing readings, etc.
They are concerned about how to retain children in the RE program both with in a church year and over multiple years.
UUFL Board and Minister’s perspective –
Reduction in the size of the board has not resulted in others assuming leadership roles in other areas of the Fellowship.
They proposed facilitating the provision of childcare for adult RE and other Fellowship activities, perhaps through use of older youth/teens and/or assessing a fee for those utilizing child care for such events, if fellowship income/budget does not allow for covering this expense.
The board and our minister feel ministry is best achieved through integration – that is “shared or congregational ministry” rather than top down management by the board or the minister. A critical element in the realization of an active, vital church involves management and leadership in terms of policies, procedures, and finances – the day to day operations of any organization - as well as meeting program needs. The board and minister are struggling with how to meet our Fellowship’s need for management and leadership.
Adult RE (as assessed at the January 10, 2010 Sunday Program “town meeting”) –
Members stated they were concerned about the timing of many of the classes which are during the day on week-days (usually to accommodate Penny’s time in
Members stated adult RE classes that did not have enough attendance and were thus cancelled should be tried again at different time, as low attendance could be related to time of class rather than topic.
Members thought it important to find additional adult RE leaders (not just Penny). Catie Ballard has since agreed to facilitate the meditation group on the weeks Penny is not here.
In addition, Lisa Muller has agreed to help Penny coordinate adult RE programs
Committee Structure/Fellowship Organization (as assessed at the January 10, 2010 Sunday Program “town meeting”) -
Those participating in this program suggested the need for brainstorming about alternatives to traditional committee structure as the mechanism for addressing, organizing, and arranging church activities and management. They suggested the Fellowship should consider having only a limited number of committees (those deemed necessary for key aspects of the Fellowship’s functioning) and that meetings for these committees be quarterly or annually with the handling or more routine business taking place through “virtual” meetings/electronic communication.
Those participating also suggested the Fellowship explore the use of, and provide instruction in, online tools/technology such as online groups for discussion and for conducting routine Fellowship business and use actual meetings for the creative process.
They thought the Fellowship should review/evaluate Fellowship functions, activities, groups, duties, etc. and consider what could be eliminated or what needs to be added. We need to distinguish between time-limited activities vs. long-term commitments.
In addition, they felt it would be good for the Fellowship to explore what role it wants to see for itself in relation to the larger community (
What one (or more) thing(s) would you change about the UUFL?
Caring committee (Sue Wedel) –
Sue would like people to be more accepting of differences.
Personal comment from Sue: Giving should not be contingent on length of participation, depth of participation, but based on need. Lets just give…the more generous the better; we should be forgiving and generous and promote this.
Program committee -
1. Consider moving meeting time back to 10:30 AM for the Sept.-June services.
2. Try using more variety of presentation modes (media, dramatic readings, etc) both inter- and intra-worship service.
3. Try to deepen the involvement of the members we have.
4. Work on how to facilitate changing roles for members as their life circumstances/desires fluctuate allowing them to continue to still feel a sense of belonging.
5. Keep better records and foster a greater sense of institutional history.
Membership Committee (
Children’s RE -
They would like more fellowship members to be involved in RE classes and activities - not just the parents - as this helps the children to feel a part of the greater Fellowship community.
They would like childcare to be provided during adult RE and offered the idea of using older youth/teens in this role. They would also like to work on having more family inclusion at all levels of the fellowship.
UUFL Board and Minister’s perspective -
There is a need to get more people to step-up and lead, but they are not sure how to get this to happen. They are wondering if there are structural changes that could be made in order to facilitate the achievement of the necessary business aspects of running our church. Perhaps the Fellowship should consider fewer committees or committee meetings and more assignments of individuals/small groups to specific tasks.
They also thought the Fellowship should consider moving the Fellowship pledge drive to the fall, when attendance/participation in Fellowship Sunday morning programs and other activities is greater and when there is a sense of rejuvenation with the start of the more formal church year. In addition, consideration could be given to moving the church’s fiscal year to the calendar year to better align with a fall canvass.
Minister’s perspective –
Penny has discussed the concept of three types of church leadership: Congregation-centered, Board-led, and Minister-led. She promotes the concept of congregational ministry because ministers and boards come and go over time, while the congregation endures. Penny further states that congregational polity and research on successful, thriving churches supports congregation-centered ministry. With this in mind, she would like the congregation to take on a greater role with regard to children’s and adult RE, and to have a worship committee to assist her in creating meaningful, creative, stimulating Sunday morning worship services.
What is the most important reason you attend the UUFL?
Caring committee (Sue Wedel) –
We need a liberal religious institution in this community and it is a good place – it is a delightful place to meet people who can become good friends.
Program Committee –
Committee members said they attend the Fellowship for socialization, learning/growing, and intellectual stimulation.
Membership Committee (
She attends the UUFL to counteract/contradict all the religious teachings she was brought up with. The idea of being able to question those teachings is of primary interest to her.
Children’s RE -
Parents stated they attend in order to provide spiritual education and community for their families.
Do you think there is a need to amend or change our
Caring Committee (Sue Wedel) –
She is happy with the mission statement and would not want to help with changing it.
Program Committee -
The Committee likes our current Mission Statement and did not see a need to change it.
Membership Committee (
She is not sure if anything needs to be changed in our mission statement, stating that others more knowledgeable than her may have things they need changing, but she is not aware of any of those desires.
Children’s RE -
They like the mission statement.
UUFL Board -
They like the Mission Statement.
Program Committee
Our six member program committee this church year met once a month, planning for two lay led services a month and working with Rev Rather on coordinating all Sunday morning programs. We generally found, within our own ranks or from the larger
In addition to finding good speakers, committee members put together the orders of service for lay led Sundays and often took leadership roles during these services. Thanks to Clarine and Linda for making sure these orders of services were put together and run off, to David Perry who faithfully played keyboard almost every Sunday, to Jim Erdelyi who organized and superbly led our increasingly strong and vibrant choir, and to Jeff Lockwood, Nancy Lockwood, Catie Ballard & Bren Lieske, who led programs and/or took on leadership roles for services. We experimented with having a series of programs on the Welcoming Congregation. Though this started with good attendance, we decided to shorten the series because , for whatever reasons, fewer folks showed up as the series progressed. Several other Fellowship members not on our committee led or helped lead Sunday services. We are grateful for their contributions. We also appreciate the Green Sanctuary committee leading a program last fall and later this month.
The Fellowship voted last spring to have year round services begin at 10 a.m. Several of us would like to revisit this, with at least a discussion at the annual meeting.
It appears attendance is somewhat lower on non-Penny Sundays. As much as Penny's Sundays are rich and engaging, the lay-led programs are vital to our Fellowship--they are often a source of surprise, challenge, innovation, playfulness and unexpected blessings. This committee works very hard to make every Sunday a moving experience, and the committee doesn't in any way consider the non-Penny programs to be "fillers" or less meaningful.
Next fall (Nov-Feb) will be especially challenging as Penny will be gone on sabbatical. Members need to realize that we will be paying around $2,000 for four to six visiting ministers to fill in while she is gone. When we have to spend that much money, we strongly encourage members to attend and take advantage of hearing other UU ministers, and at the same time support our lay led programs.
Finding stimulating, appropriate speakers on lay led Sundays is always a challenge. We welcome members who have ideas for programs to please come to a meeting or speak with a committee member.
Submitted by Linda Goldman
For the program committee
Jeff Lockwood. Catie Ballard, Nancy Lockwood, Bren Lieske, David Perry
Membership Committee
The membership committee continues to function under the changes approved last year, outsourcing the Members/Friends and Visitors list to Cameron Wright, who keeps them up to date impeccably. The chair takes care of computer forms, meetings, minutes, greeters lists, visitors cards and packets, with the whole committee participating in meetings, and sponsoring the new members/visitors brunch, which was held in April, with approximately 25 adults and children attending.
A joining Sunday was held in May, and Nancy Fox, Jason and Claudia Edwards, Carolyn Thompson, Andi Noakes, and Laura Miller became members.
One of the most important jobs of the committee is to provide greeters for the Sunday services, so that all who attend are made to feel welcome.
Submitted by
Caring Committee
With the help of Fellowship Members the Caring Committee Members were largely able to fulfill our mission to honor significant events in the lives of our community members as well as to support members in times of stress. In this Fellowship Year we supported folks who experienced family deaths, longer illnesses, hospitalizations and surgeries. There were calls for flowers and sympathy cards. There were times when meal support was in order. We were also called upon to honor and celebrate members. One family started the adoption process and another had an adoption finalized.
We continued our effort to engender a caring awareness within the Fellowship of the needs of fellow members. In a number of instances the need to act was brought to the attention of Caring Committee Members by others who then acted as leaders in carrying out aid.
Caring Committee Members are Catie Ballard, Ralph Garrett, Donna Hodder, David Perry and Sue Wedel. Thank you all for the considerations you gave to others.
Respectfully submitted by Sue Wedel
Children’s Religious Education
This year in RE the children focused on inherent rights, and the difference between rights, needs, and desires. They explored families and what each member contributes physically and spiritually. They discussed the beauty and strength in difference and the beauty and strength in acceptance. They began regular outdoor classes on the Winter Solstice, and throughout the spring semester visited
Submitted by Sarah Norek
RE Teacher and Coordinator