(This is the first post from Kathy Ludlow, who is First Unitarian’s Board Moderator for the 2018-2019 church year.)
Greetings and Welcome as we begin our new church year!
At the September 16 service, Board members lit the chalice and were acknowledged by our congregation. If you were there, you probably recognized many of our faces. A full roster of Board members is on is on the Board’s web page (complete with a picture!). I am grateful to all who serve on the Board and would like at this time to welcome our newest members Mindy Clark, Ryan Deibert and Barbara Morrison.
It was heartwarming to be in front of you all on Sunday and recognized formally by you and our ministers. I am sure my fellow Board members felt similarly. It is an honor to serve you all.
Our current Board has already begun its work, with a multi-day retreat in August and our regular September meeting. (By the way, regular Board meetings are held the first Thursday of each month and are open to all congregants. Our next meeting is on October 4.) An important accomplishment that I want to share with you is that this early work of the Board has already led to the setting of the Board’s 1-3 year goals:
- To continue to work on issues of Power, Privilege and White Supremacy Culture that includes, in addition to educating ourselves and examining how these issues affect the work of the Board, taking action to educate and engage the congregation on this important issue.
- Support our Executive Team* to work toward an Annual Fund Drive that fully covers the church’s budgeted expenses by the 2020-2021 church year
- To review and possibly recommend changes to the bylaws as they relate to Ministerial Relations Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the size of Board
- Insure that current possibilities for development on our current campus receive thoughtful consideration and appropriate Board review.
- Create a Senior Ministerial Transition Team to educate the Board, create a timeline, and an education plan for the congregation.
1-3 year Board goals set priorities for the upcoming year and recognize that important goals require work in the current year and can require work into future years to be achieved. The goals need to be aligned with the Church’s larger 5-year goals.
Goal 5, Create a Senior Ministerial Transition Team, will no doubt raise interest and questions for many congregants. Bill Sinkford has stated on a couple of occasions in the last year that he has begun planning for his retirement from First Unitarian Church and that this transition could occur in the next 2-3 years. Senior ministers are called by the congregation and much work will need to be done by a future search committee tasked with the important work of identifying church priorities and conducting a search. The Board has important “early” work to do in the areas of education and planning, however, and this is the underlying need recognized by this goal.
As always, if you have questions or comments, you can email us at board@firstunitarianportland.org.
I look forward to seeing you all in church . . .
One more day to serve.
One more hour to love.
One more minute to praise.
For this day I am grateful.
If I wake into the morning sun,
I am grateful.
(Mary Lou Kownacki, b. 1941)
In Gratitude,
Kathy Ludlow
Moderator First Unitarian Board of Trustees
*The Executive Team (or ET) includes our Senior Minister, Bill Sinkford; Associate Minister, Tom Disrud; and our Church Administrator, Kathryn Estey.