Sep. 27, 2022.
By Susan Bennett, President, UUCF Board of Directors.
As the new congregational year gets into full swing I want to give you an update on what UUCF’s Board of Directors is focusing on for the coming year. But first, I want to share some reflections on the state of the congregation.
We are pleased to see so many of you re-engaging with UUCF after the last few challenging years. It has been good to gather on Sundays and see so many familiar faces and also greet newcomers. We still have a robust online attendance at services and it is wonderful that we can expand our community in that way. It is exhilarating to see so many children back on campus and to see the Sanctuary Commons once again buzzing with engagement on social justice issues, such as the UU the Vote campaign and the Teaching Truth banned book campaign. The Inquirer’s Series has begun and has been drawing crowds of newcomers after Sunday services. We truly are welcoming everyone forward!
Since it’s been so long since we have gathered in such numbers, I find myself feeling out of practice in greeting newcomers, so I am working on reminding myself what it was like the first time I walked into UUCF, over 20 years ago. I was nervous, unsure if this was the right place for me and feeling vulnerable. I got up after service and stepped into the Commons, where so many people were speaking warmly and enthusiastically to each other and I felt unsure of how to engage. Just as my introverted self was about to make a dash for the exit, a lovely man named Bruno Walker greeted me and asked about me and my family. It made me feel welcome and I have tried over the years to pay that kindness forward, to make a point of scanning the Commons for others who are new and welcoming them to this wonderful faith community. It’s a small thing, it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort, but if we all feel and act as if we are welcomers, then we truly make this a welcoming community to all.
So, besides being thrilled by the activity and engagement at UUCF, the board has been busy the last few months holding a board training, a board/Coordinating Team (CT) retreat and clarifying our priorities for the congregational year. We have identified seven areas of focus for the year, with each area of focus having a subgroup of the board created to lead on that area. The areas of focus are Living the 8th Principle, Financial Sustainability, Revitalizing Performance Evaluations, Deepening the Potomac Partnership, Reimagining the Annual Meeting, Communications with the Congregation and Reflection and Visioning.
- The Living the 8th Principle group is focusing on how the board can support the anti-racist, anti-oppression work of the congregation as well as examining how we might make our governance more intentionally anti-racist.
- The Financial Sustainability group is building on the work done last year, examining how we can benchmark our progress and be as creative and innovative as possible in finding long-term solutions to our financial challenges.
- The Performance Evaluations group is using the excellent report on evaluations created last year by the Program Evaluations Committee to explore how we can make ministerial assessments, CT assessments and board self-assessments more useful and more spiritually focused.
- The Deepening the Potomac Partnership group is exploring how we can increase awareness and participation in the partnership at UUCF as well as looking for new opportunities for collaborations among the three UU congregations: UUCF, Cedar Lane and River Road.
- The Reimagining the Annual Meeting group is looking at ways to make the annual meeting more inclusive, accessible and more spiritually oriented.
- The Communications group works to facilitate and improve communications between the board and the congregation.
- The Reflection and Visioning group is exploring new ways to generate out-of-the-box thinking within the board and to aid in our long-term visioning work, including time in our meetings for regular reflection on how we work together.
Please reach out to the board at board@uucf.org with any questions, comments or ideas about any of this work or anything else.