The BoT has been keeping things humming along; working with Rev. Terry & staff, providing worship services and a robust Faith Formation program while still doing our best to function safely during the ups and downs of a pandemic. I want to thank the board members, other leaders, and our members who continue to show up and participate with their time, talents, and financial support to keep our community thriving.
The BoT has also been working on a few things to prepare for the future. We’ve met with New England Region UUA representatives and leadership from other regional congregations to discuss board structure and leadership engagement. The BoT is looking to create a new board leadership format which is leaner, more efficient, and hopefully more inviting for future SUUS leaders.
We have just kicked off our contract minister search. Contract minister search and hiring is a function of the BoT who puts together a small search committee to prepare our Congregational Record (job posting), recruit and interview candidates, and make recommendations to the board for hiring. The BoT decided to use the same search team as was proposed last year, but not implemented due to keeping Rev. Terry on for another year: Gary Feder, Scott Swenson, and Sue Schaedler. We invited Scott to help represent Faith Formation and families with children, and he has been involved in multiple SUUS search teams in the recent past. We are working to have our Congregational Record ready to publish on the UUA portal by the end of this month. We are hoping to hire a new contract minister to begin working with us starting August 1st. If anyone has any questions or wants to provide any input to the search team, please contact any of the search team members.
Rev. Terry will continue to be with us through June, we will take a little break with no Sunday services from July 3–24. Services will resume on July 31st.
We will continue to meet on Sunday morning over zoom only through February but will be working with the SUUS Covid-19 Protocol Team and the Worship Team to hopefully resume in person and zoom multi-platform services in March. More to come on that. Keep an eye on your weekly news for updates.
Please save the date for a “Looking Forward to Our Future” town hall meeting after the service on March 6th. Updates will be provided on the items mentioned in this article and will also include an update on the progress of our Vision Fund management, and an overall financial update looking ahead to the next fiscal year’s budget. Please plan to attend and take the opportunity to ask any questions you may have or provide any comments or concerns. It will also be a time to take a breath and thank our leadership and members for all we’ve accomplished thus far.
In Faith,
Sue Schaedler, President BoT