As a lay-led fellowship, we value voices from a wide spectrum of topics and views, and we love hosting guest speakers in person or virtually via Zoom. If you know someone who might make a great speaker, please contact a member of the Adult Program Planning Committee. If you are interested in being a guest speaker at Lake Fellowship, please read on.
Who We Are
Lake Fellowship UUs is a small, lay-led congregation, established in 1960. We meet in an adorable little A-frame in the woods in Shorewood, west of Excelsior and Minnetonka, surrounded by big woods and wildlife. Some of us are spiritual, some of us are not, and many of us are still figuring it out. Many of us are engaged in social justice matters and causes, while some of us prefer to help in other ways. All of us are bound together in covenant through shared UU Values.
Voices We Seek
Attendees at Lake Fellowship enjoy a wide range of program topics running the full spectrum from secular, spiritual, social causes, science (TED talk'ish), current events, etc. We welcome experts, teachers, wonderers and wanderers. We invite well-formed thoughts that challenge our perspectives, and love any opportunity to engage in discourse and discussion. Like many smaller UU groups, we subscribe to the Soul Matters Sharing Circle materials and follow their monthly themes each year. These flexible themes help guide our program selections and also serve as great jumping off points for our speakers.
In-Person or Virtual
If you're local to the Twin Cities area or will be passing through, we'd love to host you in-person. If you're out of town, out of state, or just snowed in, we're happy to host you virtually via Zoom. Since Covid, we've been operating hybrid-programs that allow both speakers and visitors to join us in-person or over zoom.
Sunday Program Protocol
We meet every Sunday, after Labor Day and before Memorial Day, and with a 1-2 week break around the winter holidays. We start our Sunday programs at 10:30, and after some brief opening words, the main portion of the program usually lasts about 45-60 minutes, including any time for Q & A, discussion, or activities. Guest speakers don't have to speak for that long, but that's generally what we're used to. One of the aspects of our smaller group that most people appreciate is how easy it is to speak up and be heard. So, if you welcome it, we'll be happy to discuss and probe whatever topic or idea you'd like to present, and, fair warning, we can be a little difficult to stop! ;) We offer a $150 speaker honorarium.
After the main program, we open the floor for announcements, and close with Joys & Concerns (a check-in of sorts for anyone and everyone). While that concludes the program itself, we often stick around for more conversation and sometimes share lunch together, like our Soup Sundays.
Check out our calendar to see which Sundays are currently open. The placeholder "Sunday Program" typically means we're still looking for a speaker.
Audio/Visual
Since we run hybrid programs, we do everything through our custom A/V system. This includes a projector and a screen, microphones, a camera, and a laptop connecting all of it. Speakers may, though need not, present slides, videos, or music as part of their program. All media must be submitted to the Program Planning Committee well ahead of the program, mostly to make sure we can make it work with our set-up. Google Slides or other web-based presentations (Prezi, Canva, Markdown, etc.) tend to work better for us than PowerPoints or pre-recorded presentations. We have one microphone for the speaker and one to pass around in the audience. Virtual visitors may also voice questions and comments.
Interested? More Questions?
Please contact us with any other questions you have, or to inquire about speaking with us.