Hallie Bowie, President of the Board of Trustees (she/her)

Summer is usually a quiet time at UUCA, but that is definitely not the case this year! The Board agenda was so full in June that we held two meetings!

Here are a few of the things your Board of Trustees, staff, and committees have been working on:

Stewardship of our church grounds: The Stewardship of the Earth committee has created a comprehensive grounds plan that will help our church property create habitat for pollinator insects and other wildlife, as well as draw down carbon from the atmosphere. We have started with a pollinator garden near the entrance to the parking lot. You can read the full plan here: https://uucaearth1.wordpress.com/comprehensive-grounds-plan/

In addition, the food justice ministry is continuing their great work in our vegetable gardens, and we are working on addressing the weeds in the memorial garden and other beds.

Fairlawn Village Preschool presented the board with their plan for receiving students in the fall, which includes having half as many students as they have had in the past and not using areas of the church outside the preschool hallway. The board decided that having preschool classes in the building would not affect our decision about when to resume services at the
church, and would not otherwise put members of the congregation or staff at undue risk, so the preschool will resume classes in the building in the fall.

The board has adopted a plan for safely having small gatherings outdoors at the church building. Gatherings are limited to 10 people, need to be scheduled with the church office a week in advance, should be held outside, and will need to include practices such as taking temperatures of attendees, wearing masks, and physical distancing. Dan Marksz & Brittany Gustavel have been working hard on preparations. If you would like to organize a gathering at the building, please contact Carolyn at the church office for full details.

Getting ready to welcome Rev. Kate: The board is in the process of creating a Transition Committee, which will replace the committee on ministries during the interim period. This group will provide support and advice for Rev. Kate as she gets to know our congregation.

Aligning Board positions with our strategic plan: Did you know that each of our trustees has a focus area? Some of these have had titles that didn’t reflect our mission as a church, or how they have been functioning in recent years, so we did some re-naming. Here is a list of our trustees with their updated titles:

Deb Lemire- Social Action Trustee
Laurel Winters- Stewardship of the Earth Trustee
Alease Vaughn- Intellectual & Spiritual Exploration Trustee (includes RE, Worship, & Music)
Kyle Jozsa- Loving Community Trustee (includes outreach as well as connections within our congregation)
Dan Marksz- Building & Grounds Trustee
Bay Gaillard- Recording Secretary
Cir L’Bert Jr- President Elect
Hallie Bowie- President

All of this is in addition to our continued work on Racial Justice, Immigration, the Community Meal, and more. While we are not able to meet in person as usual, our work together is needed more than ever!