The Owen Brown Interfaith Center (OBIC) is the home for the UU Congregation of Columbia and Christ United Methodist Church. We, as congregations, own OBIC corporation, which, in turn, owns the building.
We, the OBIC Board, feel that OBIC is, and can be, much more than just a building.
In the last year, the OBIC Board has gone through a strategic planning process and has restructured the management of OBIC 🏢. With the hiring of Kevin Buker, OBIC’s new, and very effective executive director, to manage the building, the OBIC Board is now in a strategic role, as opposed to an operational management role.
Our new Vision and Mission for OBIC:
OBIC Vision: The Owen Brown Interfaith Center (OBIC) provides a setting that fosters collaborative interfaith community.
OBIC Mission: OBIC supports the missions and visions of the owning congregations through strategic management of its resources and creates shared space where people of diverse faith traditions, worldviews, cultures, and races work together to serve the greater community.
The 👶🏽👦🏽👶🏻Cradlerock Children’s Center 👦🏽🧒🏾👧🏼 will be moving out of OBIC due to their need for additional space during 2026. This is both a loss of one of our tenants and an indication that OBIC has been an effective incubator of a very worthy organization!
With their exit, we will have space to rent, which again is both the bad news and the good news. It presents us with a decrease in revenue when they leave and an opportunity to reinvent part of our space utilization.
This is the purpose of this memo. 👉 We, the Board of OBIC, would like to solicit input about what you, the owners, would like to see as clients/occupants of the building, as well as specific recommendations of particular potential clients.
📌 The OBIC Board will have a retreat in early 2026 to consider these and other issues. Please talk with an OBIC Board member or send thoughts and/or suggestions to me (Charles Scott): cscott@loyola.edu.
Charles E. Scott UUCC member and OBIC Board Member
Thank you Scotty! I would just like to add that serving as a member of OBIC’s Board of Directors is one of the most effective things you can do to ensure that UUCC stays thriving and healthy. It is a powerful act of stewardship, and also helps us to maintain our community with our Methodist congregation neighbors.
Beginning this year, the Nominating Committee of UUCC is recruiting candidates to fill vacancies in UUCC’s five OBIC board positions. There is one current vacancy, and one that the congregation will vote to elect in June (to start January 2027). Please come talk to one of the Nominating Committee members, or email us at nomcomm@uucolumbia.net if you might be interested, or have questions.
One Comment
Laurie Coltri
Thank you Scotty! I would just like to add that serving as a member of OBIC’s Board of Directors is one of the most effective things you can do to ensure that UUCC stays thriving and healthy. It is a powerful act of stewardship, and also helps us to maintain our community with our Methodist congregation neighbors.
Beginning this year, the Nominating Committee of UUCC is recruiting candidates to fill vacancies in UUCC’s five OBIC board positions. There is one current vacancy, and one that the congregation will vote to elect in June (to start January 2027). Please come talk to one of the Nominating Committee members, or email us at nomcomm@uucolumbia.net if you might be interested, or have questions.