What do you need? What do we need?

Dear LFUU Members and Friends,

Every Monday morning, I set an intention for my mind to start working on my theme for this message. To review and process what’s been popping up over the past week and find a passion, purpose, or pattern. By Tuesday a theme usually reveals itself. This week my mind suggested “needs.” Right after that, I received Matthew’s blog post that started with this  paragraph, which I decided confirmed my theme:

In Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series,

a tea monk and a robot wander the world asking, 

‘What do people need?’

 The answer isn’t a product or a fix. It’s a feeling. 

A sense of being heard, valued, and whole. 

Many of us long for that same feeling in our lives: 

a way to move through the world with purpose, integrity, and care.

That wasn’t random: The Monk and Robot series was what our Book Club had just read and discussed at our meeting Sunday evening. We chose it because last fall Marnie, Matthew’s wife, had used it for the basis of one of her regular programs on our monthly theme. Matthew and Marnie came to our meeting, which they usually don’t, because they had read it. During our discussion, I brought up a tenet of Non-Violent Communication (NVC), which many of us have studied or are familiar with: “We believe that all our actions — anything anyone ever does — are attempts to meet needs.” What do you need? What actions do you take to attempt to meet them?

What else regarding needs happened over the week that led my mind to that theme?

Over the weekend, I was reflecting on how the Fellowship evolves based on members’ needs. One of our former members bid on and won items on our Online Silent Art Auction. He had quit the Fellowship before I joined in 1990. I had heard it was because it had become too spiritual for him. Perhaps others had felt that way too, because when I joined it was not spiritual at all: even saying “god” was taboo. The last couple of years, members have expressed interest in exploring spirituality, so we’ve been experimenting with some spiritual programming. What needs does the Fellowship meet for you? What needs could Fellowship do better at meeting for you?

Of course, the auction was a large part of my week. We ran the auction to meet the following needs of the family of founding and now deceased members, Jo and Lee Hermann: give those who knew Jo and Lee the chance to own a memento of them, avoid having to sell the items themselves, and help the Fellowship. We agreed, because it helped us meet our needs to help them, expand our community contributions, enhance our programming, and endow our reserve fund, which took a hit when we met our building repair and maintenance needs last year. (FYI: I will give a report on the auction, which we’re still wrapping up, at our Annual Meeting.) Can meeting your needs help others meet theirs? How might that play out within our Fellowship community?

At our Board meeting last Thursday, we set the agenda for our Annual Meeting, which is on Sunday, May 4 during our regular program time. As a lay-led, volunteer run congregation, we have many needs to fill, so we added a plea for volunteers to the agenda. We also discussed whether we want to conduct a skills/interest survey at the meeting so that when we have a specific need, we know who to call. We decided that is best done online via email, so watch for that in the near future. What needs do you meet for the Fellowship? What other Fellowship needs could you help meet?

I was supposed to bring a draft policy of what decisions need a congregational vote versus a Board vote to that Board meeting. After doing research on governance on the UUA website, I thought it best not to draft a policy, but instead lead a conversation at the Annual Meeting to get input from the congregation. The Board agreed, and Dan wisely suggested that we discuss and come up with possibilities to bring to the meeting. Which we did and will. We also discussed whether these decisions need a consensus, simple (51%), or super (66%) majority vote. The UUA encourages a super majority, which requires in-depth discussion to weigh competing needs and ensures broad support of the decision. We agreed. What happens when there are competing needs? How do we reach a super majority?

That’s a lot of questions and I have a need to know how your answers! So, if you want to meet my need, please reply directly to my email, gauer_mn@yahoo.com, with your thoughts.

Yours in Fellowship, Laurie