Present: Bergen, Bloom, Dell, Gabrielsen, Halverson, Marrant, McGinnis and guest Jim King.
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Kris Gabrielsen called the meeting to order at 6 P.M. and introduced Jim King from the Atkinson Memorial Church in Oregon City. He has been a UUA member for forty years, working with different size congregations in many capacities – mainly administrative. He has come to advise us on Fund Raising and Stewardship.
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Jim considers himself a problem solver and gave us a great deal of helpful advice as well as leaving us with a number of helpful brochures and names of people to contact for specific problems. He emphasized that we need to avoid burn-out; not try to do everything at once, in other words prioritize. Growth not membership is most important and hopefully they will overlap. As newcomers appear we need to engage them within the first fifteen minutes as newcomers are looking for a community of like-minded individuals. This is more important than the sermon. Our strategic planning should include the following: Who we are, why we are here, where we are going, and what we can do. He told us not to be afraid to ask for money, encourage generosity. He suggested that we send out a quarterly statement to our Fellowship and Bev Halverson agreed that she would do that. At our Annual Pledge Drive we should follow up the pledges with a commitment reminder. (We did this for our pledge drive.) These two efforts on our part should help to keep the Fellowship on track financially.
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At this point Kris thanked Jim for his contribution to our Fellowship’s growth and opened our regular Board Meeting.
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All agreed that the October services had gone well. Attendance by children and adults was up. The plan for facilitators and greeters to serve for a month at a time is a success. Susan Marrant will design a greeter button to help identify them to newcomers. A story for kids, either by the speaker or one of our RE instructors, is something we should do at each service.
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Changing the time of our service from afternoon to morning has elicited a number of comments and questions. Tricia Crawford has emphasized the need for everyone to be heard. Another member asked for a vote on this by the whole Fellowship as the most democratic way to proceed. Leah Bloom wondered if the Fellowship would vote in the best interest of the Fellowship or just their own personal desire. Should we ask the Fellowship members who they think should make this decision: The Board or the Fellowship? Jim shared that to achieve a positive result on this kind of topic, an 85% or 90% vote in favor is necessary.
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A motion was put forward by Pam Bergen to ask the Fellowship at the November 2nd Service to vote on who will decide the time change – the Fellowship or the Board. Leah Bloom seconded and motion was carried with Susan Marrant abstaining. This will be a vote on the process. Beth Dell will e-mail the Fellowship about the November 2nd vote.
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Beverly Halverson reported that our income for October was $1485.41; expenses were $1782.80 (because we paid three months rent in October). Our cash on hand as of tonight is $7228.. Bernie McGinnis will work on getting a lawn sign for us to put up on our Service days near the Senior Center . It was decided to bring up the idea of giving all cash collected at our services to a charity of the Fellowship’s choice at a later date. Meanwhile work on a process to do it will be done.
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Our next Board Meeting will be held on November 19th from 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. at Pam Bergen’s house.
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Tandi Koerger sent Kris a list of Diversity Workshop suggestions. After considerable discussion it was decided to ask Gretchen Woods, minister of the UU Church in Corvallis , to speak to our Fellowship and to use the other people on Tandi’s list at other times. Kris recommended that we approach Greg Valentine about using Paul Blackburn’s questions for the Chalice Circles, to have a film series on diversity in the spring for the entire community or to hold a workshop for all those interested. Diversity training is a requirement for becoming an Emerging Congregation with the UUA. Leah Bloom will discuss the Chalice Circle involvement with Greg Valentine.
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Bernie McGinnis feels that we should have all those interested in becoming new members attend a class on UU Principles and History as a prerequisite to becoming a member. He also hopes to hold UUFM orientation meetings quarterly. Jim King mentioned how important it is to really celebrate new members. He suggested holding a party for them. Others suggested that we have a moment during our Service to welcome our new members.
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Bernie McGinnis’s Orientation Meeting on October 29th has a good list of attendees.
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Susan Marrant invited us to attend an ukelele group meeting at West Hills Congregation on November 5th.
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A Lifelines Ministry for our Fellowship was brought up by Susan Marrant and Leah Bloom. They have created a form for members to sign indicating their ability to help those in need. Tricia Crawford had met with Ellen Howard from Salem to discuss their Lifeline Ministry. Tricia shared this information with the rest of the group members, including Susan, Leah, Kris, and Nancy Nelson. We need to find out insurance liability for activities of this sort. Bernie McGinnis will do so. It was decided to have the group meet again to work out more details.
Kris adjourned the meeting at 9:15 P.M.