November 10, 2009

Wy'east Board Minutes for November 10, 2009 --

Present were Alex, Karl, Tode, Susan, Elizabeth, and Mark.

The October minutes were corrected, with the exception of the misspelling of one name.

Susan's ministerial report:

The Wy'east Membership Committee met with people from the Eastrose UU congregation, and it was a good, lovely meeting.

The Membership Committee will now be called the Connections Committee, and we all agreed that was a good change.

Two FUNdraising events are now in progress (December and March), and that's great that they're happening.

Annie is working on how we greet families new to our Religious Education program. She is setting up an RE table and bulletin board every Sunday. There is an RE service project, where our kids will be making some little things to sell to us on Sunday mornings -- the proceeds of which will go to support the 13 Salmon day shelter for homeless families. Susan and Annie will be meeting monthly to track on Annie's accomplishment of the goal's in the Director of Religious Education contract we have with her.

The Children's Quilt project is underway, with Janelle in the lead.

The covenant creation process is well underway, and what gets compiled from the congregational feedback will be shared with the Board at the next step.

The singing before worship that has been instituted has been well received.

The canvass process for 2010 is already under discussion, which is good.

There needs to be an upgrade in how we handle having departed members from Wy'east be removed from the membership rolls, because, among other things, we otherwise continue to pay unnecessary dues to the UUA based on their continued presence with us.

There is a congregational certification process with the UUA fairly soon, which needs to begin to be addressed.

Susan is also wondering whether or not our newest members are receiving subscriptions to the UU World.

Susan has been in touch with Gene's daughter. There is a new phone number for Gene, and Susan intends to visit him within the next week or two.

Bruce has again expressed interest in creating a spiritual retreat at Camp Adams, and Alex will follow up with him on this.

We are in the process of offering the TransActive group meeting space during our hours at the Senior Center. That looks good from our end so far, but we are waiting to hear details from Janelle. She and Mark will also connect about someone/s leading a Sunday morning service this Spring.

Issue: some congregations have their fiscal year coincide with the calendar year. This would mean some big shifts for Wy'east, for instance when we do our canvass. We will look at this issue further down the road, but not for this coming calendar year.

There is a move by Barbara to create a category called Honorary Wyeast Members, but this needs to be looked into further.

We are now scheduled to offer Eastrose's Cole Porter show as a fundraiser on March 6th.

Susan will be leading a Path to Membership Class on December 6th and December 13th, and a Greeter Training on November 15th, all with the Connections Committee hosting, providing lunch, and childcare.

Susan is looking at teaching her Five Questions Class in February, and is looking for suggestions as to where and when.

Our attendance at Sunday sevices is up. We're often having close to 50 adults.

There are currently two fundraisers scheduled: a swing dance evening on December 4th, and the Cole Porter show on March 6th. Other fundraising possibilities later on are a piano show by Ellen Godula, an evening of Comedy Sports, and a garage sale.

The plans for the Thanksgiving Luncheon for thirty seniors from the Hollywood Senior Center and thirty Wyeast adults and kids on November 22nd are moving ahead.

There is a question about what our dog policy should be, as this issue has been raised by someone coming on Sunday mornings with an assistance dog. Is there anything we should be doing in regard to this. Alex will be checking in with the dog's owner.

Another question is whether we need to have a policy about kids running around in the Senior Center after the service. The thought is that an article in the newsletter would be a good place to begin to address this issue.

The consensus is that the best hours for the TransActive board or staff to meet at the HSC might be from noon to 2:00 PM.

There's the issue of making sure the worship services have a sufficient enough spiritual/religious/ethical content (particularly as we get into trading services with other small UU congregations). It is considered that this item is the job of the Worship Committee.

Under long-range planning, there is the desire for us to have a music director, a choir, and our own building.

For phone service, we will be heading in the direction of using Google Voice, which turns phone messages into text.

Anders, Tode, and Mark will be meeting after Thanksgiving on beginning to look at upgrading the website.

The next Board meeting will be on Tuesday, December 8th, at Tode's.