Author: Laurie Gauer
Dear LFUU Members and Friends,
I attended my 35th Annual Meeting of the Members of LFUU on Sunday! I also ran it. I couldn’t have done so without lots of help. I want to thank:
- Our Board members for their efforts to keep the meeting informative and democratic, AND relatively short: just under 2-1/2 hours, which hasn’t happened often!
- Marnie, who not only ran the Zoom and displayed our documents, but also took the minutes in place of Helene, our Board Secretary, who, on short notice, was unable to attend.
- Helene, who as soon as she knew she may not be at the meeting, proactively recruited Marnie, and sent the Board a contingency agenda that reassigned her meeting responsibilities and provided us with notes on what to say.
- Don, for his delightful and nostalgic slide show.
- All of you who attended and participated in our democratic process.
The minutes from the meeting will be emailed to everyone as soon as the Board is done reviewing and commenting, and edits are made. We’ll be asking members to review and comment, and those edits will be made. The Board will then vote to approve at our next meeting, which is June 17th.
For those of you who weren’t able to attend, I want to share my Report from the Board Chair, which are my reflections on the past year:
This was the second year of implementing the Board’s 3-year Strategic Plan. It was a year of transformation. Transformation of our structures: building and grounds, operations, and programs.
Transformation is one of our shared UU values. It means we adapt to the changing world. Not only does the world change, so do our members, and who our members are. So, our needs are always changing and our structures need to change to meet those needs.
One of the Board’s roles is to identify what structures need to be updated or created. Our goal in creating the Strategic Plan was to be proactive instead of reactive. Of course, things will still come up that we need to react to.
Some structures, like building improvements, the Board identifies with the help of a committee, then tasks that committee to create and implement. Some, like our new database, the Board identifies and creates with input from a committee(s), which then implements. Others, like last year’s new Privacy Policy, the Board identifies, creates, and implements. And then some, like our new Community Outreach and Social Justice initiatives, are identified, created, and implemented by a committee.
I’ve been pleased with the processes in these transformations. Though not perfect, they’ve been mostly democratic, flexible, and thoughtful. We’ve solicited input from stakeholders and sought guidance from resources. We’ve discussed and deliberated. We’ve created drafts and trials, edited and tweaked, shifted and evolved. And in doing so, we’ve tapped into the diverse skills, interests, and passions of our members.
During this meeting, you’ll hear reports about our structural transformations . . . and more.
In closing, I want to thank our dedicated Board of Trustees . . . and our members, for your vision and leadership, and for sharing your time, energy, and skills.
In Fellowship,
Laurie Gauer, Chair