It is the start of a New Year. I stopped making resolutions many years ago, instead it’s my cue to review, plan, and make new goals. In lieu of yearly resolutions, I shifted my paradigm, to become resolved that when I fail or fall short, I’ll get back up; to master the art of the restart, regardless of the time of the year. I am excited as my new organizer, a “Passion Planner”, arrived today, I am switching back to pen and paper as something is lost in process when I use digital organizers – it feels less meaningful to me. As a congregation we are also in the reflection and planning phase, we will come together this week to have our Congregational Visioning and Budget meeting.
On January 9th the Board of Trustees held its regular monthly meeting at OBIC (click here to review minutes of past meetings). All members were present including two guests, Steve Parr and Terry Paul. In preparation for the meeting we reviewed the initial draft budget for FY2018-19, as a significant portion of our meeting was spent discussing the budget, preparing, and planning for the upcoming Congregational Visioning and Budget meeting. Congregational participation and feedback at last year’s meeting was very beneficial to the board, we discussed best practices and ways to maximize our time together this year.
Under the leadership of Frank Hazzard we are embarking on a strategic planning endeavor. If you’re looking for a casual way to learn more about this effort, or any other topic relevant to UUCC, you can take advantage of his “walks with the president.” Check online or in the order of service for more details. As a board we reviewed our Mission, Vision and Covenant and in the process realized that by making any changes prior to completing our strategic plan we were putting the cart before the horse. Furthermore, we wanted to create more time and opportunities for congregational feedback by incorporating Mission, Vision and Covenant discussions into our strategy planning; as a result we will postpone any further work until the completion of the planning project (currently projected for the end of our fiscal year).
Winter not only brings a time of reflection and planning but with cold and flu season is also reminds us of the importance of selfcare. My father was a diver, as a teenager he was a life guard during the summer, his skills advanced to becoming a rescue and recovery diver, and in his professional life he used these skills to work on underwater projects for Lockheed Martin. My dad extrapolated these experiences to teach me the importance of self-preservation. There is a name for this in the diving world; its’s called AVIR syndrome (aquatic victim instead of rescuer syndrome). The same philosophy that is taught when we fly – put your mask on first – then help the person next to you. In life guarding the bright red buoy is thrown out to the person in need, to give that person something to hold onto and keep them afloat. The person that is drowning is panicking and can unknowingly pull down the person trying to help. So that, my friends, is my long way of saying, take care of yourself. We cannot help each other unless we are individually strong. Take care of your health, your spirit, and needs and together we will do great things.
In community,
Katja Fort-Rhoden
Secretary
UUCC Board of Trustees
One Comment
Becky Reese
Katja, Thanks for sharing the board’s message! I really appreciate the communication.
Actually, doing strategic planning without first getting a clear sense of who we are as a community and what we need/want/and aspire to through a visioning process is putting the cart in front of the horse. (In other words, doing strategic planning first is completely backwards.) I’m in favor of planning, and I know that the board will do so in concert with listening to voices of our members. On the current path, you’ll need to emphasize flexibility and the opportunity to significantly shift direction if the plan turns out to be out of touch with the future vision/mission/covenant that emerges from the congregation at large. We have a lot of new(ish) members and we have not had a process to deeply engage them in expressing their desires and vision for our congregational community yet. There hasn’t been a recent process for doing so among longer term members either. The meeting on Sunday is useful, but it will still include only the small subset of the congregation that is available and willing to participate in the meeting. I’m sorry that I will miss it. (As well as the Care and Feeding of Volunteers workshop next week.)