By Jessica O’Brien
Last Sunday we held our spring Congregational Meeting during which we passed a Bylaw change to uncouple the Board positions of Vice-President and Chair of Personnel, as well as hearing from the Minister, myself as President, and Dave Banks going over the new budget for 2019-20. It was a short and sweet event. Here are highlights from my report:
A lot has happened since last fall! Lola Warren initiated and has led our new Hospitality program, and it’s been great! We hope you will all continue to be involved in making Sunday mornings welcoming to all who come through our doors. This is who we are as UUs as articulated in the first bullet point of our mission. Keep up the good work!
As of 2018, WUU is a partnering congregation with the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy in our effort to embody UU values within our state—another Mission goal. This organization advocates economic, social and environmental justice in Virginia’s policies and practices.
In the fall, we were informed that WALT’s leadership over the previous few years had not been able to avoid incurring financial losses. After much discussion, the Board decided that our sponsorship of WALT or WLT—the Williamsburg Learning Tree—was no longer in alignment with our mission and vision, and as a result, the Board determined not to fund WALT into the next year. This was a difficult decision as WALT had been our baby. But the baby had grown and needed to leave the nest. WALT has found a new home at the Jamestown 4H Center.
Following the goals of our Strategic Plan 2018-21, the Board has initiated several other efforts. One is the Safety Team. After the James City Police evaluated our safety and security situation, a new Safety Team moved forward to make WUU safer. This is ongoing.
To address another Strategic Plan goal—that of improving communications—the Breeze software program has been rolled out in order to link members with the information you need. Have you accepted the invitation to join Breeze yet? Breeze is the go-to place for the contact information of members and friends alike as well as calendar information. And more will be added to Breeze over time.
In the office, the new Administrative Assistant is getting up-to-speed. Have you met our new staff member, Rachel McCabe? She is adjusting well and is a real resource in the office.
Under the leadership of Linda Lane-Hamilton, we have an excellent leadership development training plan. Listen to its goal: as part of the “arc of faith development, the Leadership Development program provides WUU members with the knowledge and skills to engage others in meaningful service that helps realize the UU vision and values personally, in our congregation and in the world community.” What an impressive goal! Does learning more about leadership at WUU call to you but you’re not quite sure? Take advantage of this training. There will always be opportunities to expand your reach at WUU. Contact Linda.
This spring and summer the Board is in the process of renegotiating leases with our three tenants, beginning with the Church of God who use the Sanctuary and other spaces on Saturdays. The Fah’s House lease with the Quakers and the use of Parker House by the Greater Williamsburg Outreach Mission (GWOM) will be reviewed over the summer as well.
Joe Cross, our Facilities Manager, created an impressively comprehensive report on the maintenance and updating needs of our physical systems. The expanded WUU building has been getting a lot of use—both by our members and outside groups. Now that we have some experience with our new space, we are looking at the use policies with an eye to improving scheduling and maximizing availability.
These are a few of the initiatives the Board and staff have been tackling this past year and will continue into the next year.
By the way, we all have an opportunity to participate in the UUA General Assembly later this month, even if we can’t make it to Spokane. One event that is really worth listening to is the Ware Lecture, which will take place on Friday, June 21st at 7:30pm. Come to WUU and watch the Ware Lecture with your friends. We’ll stream it onto our screens. The speaker this year is Richard Blanco. The UUA site states: “Selected by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco is the youngest and the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role.” An email will go out from the WUU office with an invitation to gather at WUU for this lecture. (Addendum: it turns out that the Ware Lecture is at 7:30pm Pacific time. We’re hoping to be able to stream the lecture some time on Saturday rather than gathering at 11:30pm to hear it live….)
Jessica O’Brien