UUCSC Annual Committee Reports, 2007

Committee on Ministry

The CoM this year has consisted of Linda Whyte Burrell, Harry Buffum, and Penny Hall. We have met with the minister once a month to discuss her work with the congregation, serving as a liaison between the congregation and Betty. Our job is to minister to her and the congregation by helping to keep the lines of communication open.

Things are running smoothly, even though Betty has had increased family responsibilities this year. She communicates openly with the congregation about her situation, and continues to carry out her ministerial duties with enthusiasm, providing worship services, pastoral care to individuals and families, outreach to the community, and support for UUCSC committees and activities. She responds with great empathy and flexibility to tragic events in the congregation, as when, with very short notice, she organized and gave a meaningful service to help to deal with our loss of Sue Velicer. Betty always has coverage when she is away, so that the congregation is taken care of, and she will continue to communicate her plans for ministerial coverage in the future. She is also able to take care of herself, balancing the professional, personal, spiritual, and physical aspects of her life. As for the congregation this year, UUCSC has been welcoming and integrating new members, small group ministries are thriving, committees are active, and worship services and other UUCSC events are lively and well attended.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Whyte Burrell, Harry Buffum, and Penny Hall

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Minutes of previous Annual Meeting

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County Congregational Business Meeting - June 4, 2006
American Legion Hall, 1958 Kingstown Rd., Peace Dale, R.I.

Confirmation of quorum: by Jane A. Smith, Clerk with 40 members in attendance.

Call to order: by Rich Evans, President at 11:39 a.m.

Minutes of June 5, 2005 Meeting: Motion by Linda Whyte Burrell to approve the minutes was seconded and the motion carried.

Annual Reports: Motion by Louise McLeod to approve all reports, seconded by Ann Seemann. Motion carried.

Budget for 2006-2007: Motion by Nick Smith to approve the budget, seconded by Joan Patterson. Jeff Berry of the Finance Committee addressed a question about the pledges. A second appeal on May 21st resulted in additional pledges and a handout was available indicating committed pledges of $87,817.00 and he noted that pledges are still being received. Also, as for the $8800.00 in projected donations, we have received a commitment of $3740.00. Rich noted that the budget calls for $9000.00 in fund raising. Motion carried to approve a budget of $107,891.00 in expenses with a deficit of $3201.00.

Outgoing Officers: Rev. Kornitzer led the congregation in thanking the outgoing officers Tom Patterson, Finance Chair and Jane Smith, Clerk.

Election and Installation of Officers: Joan Patterson, Chair of the Nominating Committee, read the slate of candidates: Rich Evans, President for a one year term; Kathy Swink, Vice President for a one year term; Virginia Carter, Trustee for a two term; Charlie Donnelly, Trustee for a two year term; Jeff Berry, Finance Chair for a one year term; Winnie Bennis, Nominating Committee for a three year term. The Clerk's position is open. Joan called for nominations from the floor three times and hearing none, instructed the Clerk to cast one vote for the slate, she did so and the elected officials were installed in a ceremony led by Rev. Kornitzer.

Other Business: Linda Whyte Burrell, Land and Building Chair, presented the annual report of the Land and Building Committee.

Motion to Adjourn: by Ron Marcy, seconded by David Crockett. Motion carried.
Meeting Adjourned: at 12:16 p.m.
Respectfully submitted: Jane A. Smith, Clerk

Attachments: Meeting notification including the Agenda, Report of the Nominating Committee, Annual Reports of the Minister, President, Director of Religious Education, 2006-07 Budget, and Minutes of June 5, 2005. Committee Reports, Income Summary as of June 1, 2006, sign-in sheet.
Webmaster's Note: Not all Referenced Attachments are included in this on-line document.

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Finance Committee

Income - FY2006-07 18 May 2007

The congregation has been fortunate to have had an excellent year in terms of fiscal performance. Income has exceeded budget in the classes of Pledge, Plate and Non-Pledge Collections, and Fund Raising. This should turn a projected deficit of approximately $3200 into a healthy surplus, providing cash reserves essential to our efforts for FY 2007-08.

Pledge and Donation Income
Pledge Base bookings:	$92,737 (no change from last month)
Projected collectable portion (97%):	$90,197
Portion collected on-year (96%):	$86,589
Portion to be collected late:	$ 3,608
Past-year late collections:	$ 5,439
Total projected FY06-07 Pledge Income:	$92,028
Total projected Donations:	$ 4,450
Projected Pledges plus Donations:	$96,478
Budgeted Pledges plus Donations	$91,090
Plate and Non-Pledge Collection Income
Projected Plate (cash only):	$ 3,650
Projected Non-Pledge (checks only):	$ 2,000
Fund Raising Income: The congregation augmented its income stream with a series of activities which brought the members and friends together in a spirit of teamwork and fellowship while taking care of the essential business at hand.
Auction - Net Income, after expenses:	(Est.) $13,000
(includes donations, bar receipts, instant gratification table, art raffle).
As usual a large segment of the church community contributed to the success of the auction, as donors, workers, and buyers. The labors were superbly organized by co-chairs Virginia Carter and Anne Alper. Everyone appeared to enjoy the evening as well. An art portfolio raffle organized by Barbara Pagh, and contributed to by many of the artists among us, brought in $1825, included in the net total above.
Underground RR Performance:	(Gross income) $ 1,119
Rev. Betty Kornitzer took the initiative in lining up Marcia Estabrook in a one-woman portrayal of Ellen Craft, a fugitive slave circa 1855. This was presented at Church of God and attracted an near-capacity audience.
Other Fund Raisers combined total:	(Gross income over) $ 1,000
Virginia Carter, Cindy Berry, and Joan Patterson joined in organizing a Book Sale, held in October at the Legion Hall. Alongside was held a Bake Sale, composed of donated baked goods; and Richard Oneto organized a Yard Sale outside, all for benefit of the Congregation. A host of members organized a Coffee House event on a Sunday morning to start the church year.
Stewardship drive for FY 07-08 Pledges:
In January, Karl and Anne Seemann, Richard Oneto and I attended a Ballou-Channing District canvass/stewardship workshop led by Jerry King. Some of the ideas presented helped to frame our annual pledge canvass, held in March 2007. The canvass was chaired by Karl Seemann, with help from Erin Goodman, Anne Seemann, Lou and Jane Rubenstein, and Guy LaTour. By all measurements, this was a resounding success.
Status as of 6 May 07:

	Units:	Dollars:
Responded:	87	(booked) $102,642
Pending members:	5	(projected) $    1,700
Future projected pledges:		$    2,000
Projected FY 07-08 Pledge Base:		$106,342
Collectable Portion of FY 07-08 Pledges:		$101,025

Appreciations – I would like to thank Ron Marcy, Treasurer, for maintaining a careful watch on the congregational bank account. Ron has been a valuable consultant for me in the service of this position. Betsy Gordon has served the congregation well for the past two years as Collector and deserves a thank-you from all of us. Dave Hurdis has kindly agreed to continue in this role and has picked up the responsibilities smoothly. Rev. Betty and President Rich Evans made themselves available at committee meetings to keep us on track. Virginia, Joan Patterson and Tom Patterson helped me to get pledge status reports out to the membership. Finally, I want to thank committee members Ron, Virginia, Cindy, and Tom for serving with me and helping to keep the fiscal affairs in order.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeff Berry
Finance Committee Chair

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Land and Buildings

The Membership Committee was very happy to have 2 new members join us this year – Eileen DeMaio and Judy Frederick. They joined with Gerre Alderwick, Charlie Donnelly, Peter Himmel, Barbara Pagh, Charlotte MacLean and Val Follett to round out the team.

Highlights of the year:

• Charlie ran a small group on our Seven Principles that was well attended.
• We wear purple nametags so people can find us.
• We changed the Path to Membership classes from “required” to “highly recommended” before joining, to give some leeway when needed.
• Gerre wrote up a “Path to Greater Connection” to include in our Visitor Packets.
• Judy has accepted the challenge of Hospitality helper requester/organizer.
• The newsletter arrived at our homes very late at least 2 times this year, raising the question, “Could we have it emailed to us in addition to the mailing?
• We suggested a “20 minute no business talk time” at the end of service so we could all spend some time greeting newcomers or other people we don’t know very well.
• Our numbers continue to climb, as shown by the following data from our last three Certifications of Membership:

• We are seeking a new Chair for the coming year.

Respectfully submitted,

Valerie Follett Membership Committee Chair

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Nominating Committee

Land and Building Committee

The Land and Building Committee searches and explores options for a future home for UUCSC. For virtually the entire seventeen year history of our congregation this committee - with some of the same folks - have called and received calls, walked and read and met to meet our goal of finding a "home of our own". Many near misses have occurred. Ideal locations. Ideal prices. Ideal sizes. Until now, what has appeared to be ideal has not come to fruition. The committee is very optimistic that "fruition" is near. There is a parcel that looks very promising. We continue to look at every other option that comes to us, because we don't know which one is the one for us. Please keep on talking, looking and calling us.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Whyte Burrell, chair

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Membership Committee

The nominating committee has met a number of times and has asked many people to serve on the governing board of the Congregation. We are presenting these names for your consideration:

• President - Kathy Swink, for a one year term, beginning June 2007.
• Vice President - Amber Kelly, for a one year term, beginning June 2007.
• Clerk - Cindy Lewis, for a two year term, beginning June 2007.
• Trustee - Ed Burrell, for a two term, a beginning June 2007.
• Trustee - open position.
• Finance - open position.
• Nominating committee - Anne Alper, for a three year term, beginning June 2007.

We will continue our search for the two open positions.

Joan Patterson,
Chair

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Publicity Committee

Members:

• Elizabeth Donovan, Chair
• Marie Younkin-Waldman joined the committee this year and was very helpful with her enthusiastic ideas. We met on an irregular basis but stayed in touch via email.
• Clyde Scanley and Alice Buckley have recently offered their photography services to the committee; both took photos at the auction.
• Louise McLeod has agreed to learn the basics of sending in the weekly service announcements and I have the template and instructions to do the weekly OOW and insert so that either of us could take a week off if necessary.
• I have asked a couple of people to consider joining the committee.

Accomplishments:

• Submitted weekly service announcements to the South County Independent, Narragansett Times and Chariho Times.
• Laminated mini Wayside Pulpit messages (designed by Worship Committee) and had them posted at URI.
• Had several photographs published in local newspaper.
• Marie and I both had opinion pieces mentioning UUCSC published in the SC Independent.
• Created forms and a timeline for major event publicity as part of a project to put together a publicity guidebook.
• Publicity for performance by Marcia Estabrook. Initiated interest for article written by Doug Norris of SCI.
• Auction Publicity, including paid ad. Created three panel screen display that can be reused each year to illustrate ways in which congregation can participate. Alice Buckley painted signs for the front of Kinney Bungalow. Maintained contact with David Crockett, supplied photos and copy for website. Submitted to local newspapers a Thank You letter to merchants, performers, etc.
• Created an archive of photos that can be used in the future

Submitted by Elizabeth Donovan

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Worship Committee

The Worship Committee is constantly concerned with intensifying the atmosphere of spirituality in our services. We are conscious that starting on time and not going on too long are important issues. The announcements have been abbreviated (maybe not enough but we try), the sermon is now at the CENTER of the service, and Joys and Sorrows (newly renamed) placed AFTER the sermon. We want to include the congregation in the “toning”, and we are extending the signing to the Call to Worship (thank you Marie and Amber).

Instant services are "in the barrel" for emergencies. We now have a template of our liturgy available for guest ministers and worship leaders.

On July 8 (rain date 7/15) we will again have a Worship Service followed by a picnic with Nancy Dean and Brian Maynard as hosts. Four services are planned for August.

We had 15 lay-led services since last September. From within our congregation, we can thank the following:

Sally Barney (Youth), Linda Whyte Burrell (twice!!!!), Deanna Camputaro (with drummers and dancers twice), Charlie Donnelly (with Marcia Estabrook), John Glasheen, Steve Harrison, Peter Himmel, and Tom Magliocchetti.

UU guests from outside our community: Rev. Stephen Lansdale (pulpit exchange), Eva Marx (with Rich Evans), and musician Matt Meyer. Non-UU guests from outside: Ek Ong Kar Singh Khalsa (with our Common Ground), Gerhard Muller (Baha’i) and Sculptor Mimi Sammis.

Feedback on any of this is welcome.

Helene Gersuny, Chair Worship Committee

Members: Steve Harrison, Amber Kelley, Kathy Swink, Marie Younkin Waldman and Rev. Betty Kornitzer.

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Social Action Committee

This has been a year of both continuity and transition. There are several programmatic areas that have been carried out for some period of time and remain hallmarks for the congregation and the community. For several years, UUCSC has functioned with a very active committee and a broad range of activities.

Our mission as a congregation is to:
provide a sanctuary for spiritual discussion and a force for social justice;
build closer bonds between members, and
deepen our spirituality as we work to create change in society.

We started our year with a Social Action Service on August 27, an interactive intergenerational service downstairs with a cafe motif and food and drinks. Most of that service was music and singing, lead by Nick Smith and Linda Wells. It turned out to be a harbinger for the URI fall Honors Colloquia on the Songs of Social Justice that gave us great energy. A new brochure not only listed our activities but also gave some perspective on our commitments to individuals, community, state and nation. Further, we developed a Monthly Social Action Calendar (Please Post on Your Refrigerator) to invite and remind participation.

Local:

• Welcome House: We prepare an entree or complementary dish for Welcome House for the 2nd Wednesday of each month. A few persons have prepared a “reserve” meal frozen in case that we may lack a meal occasionally. Approximately 25 members have maintained this commitment over the year.
• Free Trade Coffee; has been enjoying by many members through 3-4 distributions from an East Providence distributors, which strengthen coops and growers in Latin America and Africa with fair Trade, organic products.
• Each month we have urged persons to read an article in the UUCSC Living More Simply and UUWorld, then put one idea into practice.
• Carol Driver reported that approximately 30 persons monthly sign the Amnesty International Letters; 32 persons had signed that organization’s statement "The America I Believe In".
• In October, the Chair gave a Sermon: entitled Home (land) Security: A Behavioral Guide on How do we shape and control our culture to meet our UU principles? We reinforced an idea from Rev. Betty’s citing of St. Francis: "Preach the gospel always, when necessary use words." He cited Thomas Jefferson's "The earth belongs to the living" and that we can reclaim consistency by following the examples of our UU brethren, Emerson, Channing, and Theodore Parker. Our society demands of us as UUs to create change and provide opportunity for our brothers and sisters. We need to socialize our young to be advocates and change but our best model is to do it ourselves and preach in and by our behavior.
• Mary Finnegan and Russell Stokes have monitored UUCSC's engagement with an interfaith Habitat for Humanity project, which still needs $600 to complete our pledge of $2500. This project has been dormant this year but there are indications that action may be immanent.
• Religious Education: For the third year, Social Action Committee members have been the teachers for RE during RE's Second Teaching Interval. This important element in our program is to: a) enable parents to participate fully in the services and sermons of the congregation, b) involve “older” members in cross age activities, and c) bring Social Action perspectives to the curriculum. There was a particular emphasis on teaching about Africa because so many of our members have direct involvement in work in varying parts of that content. Carol Craig is bringing materials developed by our children to Kenya this summer.
• Rich Evans raised the subject of our community collaborators and mutual participation particularly with the South Kingston Justice and Peace Committee, led by David Floyd. They have talked about the advantage of a purchase of equipment that would facilitate the showing of movies by that group; after some discussion the Committee voted unanimously to donate our $100 to SKJAP, facilitating a movie series in South Kingston.

State:

• The Journey Home March from Westerly to Providence in support of the $50 million Dollar State Bond Issue had a significant participation from our congregation. Taylor Ellis, Guy LaTour, and John Glasheen marched the entire distance and approximately 12 other members marched 5-10 miles on varied days. Our lead packed the South Kingstown Town Council meeting to demand their greater attention to affordable housing. The passage of this Bond by the legislature and then by referendum was a significant event.
• Members attend the Tues. Sept 19 Right to Vote speaks at Westminster Unitarian Church in East Greenwich in favor of the referendum to allow former felons on probation to vote.
• Rhode Island Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice was lead by UUCSC leadership and participation by many members. In a fall meeting that body endorsed the political action that lead to local activities and resulted in the bond being passed, along with action to secure the vote for former felons on probation.
• To act locally on the Housing agenda, we provided leadership to the South Kingstown/area VoteYESon #9 Committee. We carried out a complimentary outreach and contact program, asking all candidates for local and state office to publicly endorse the Housing Bond. We collected information on and monitor/ attend all local/regional candidate forums to asks questions about commitment to the bond issue and hand out contact materials plus organize a letter-to-editor campaign for local papers. We targeted community Events for handouts become engaged in GOTV (Getting Out The Vote).

Based on our very successful 2006 election effort, RIUUSJ held it annual meeting in March and endorsed two initiatives: OneRI and Sustainability/Heating Assistance. We are urging congregation members to also join the RIUUSJ to rally a significant number of UUs to make a difference politically in the state. Our expectations: It would "cost" members approximately 1 hour per week for a period of approximately 4 months. It would involve 3 meeting (the Membership meeting to chose a legislative focus, and 2 local meetings with one's Senator and Representative); all other will involve calls or letters as follow-up to those same representatives. WE KNOW PARTICIPATION CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE; we as many persons to join in our collaboration and continue to make a difference. After discussing strategy, we decided to call each member and friend of the congregation to personally reach out to them to invite them to join us. We also will continue to increase awareness of the RIUUSJ effort and our collaboration with other groups. We want to Change the culture of the State by attending a meeting with your Representative and Senator for less than an hour per week over a few months, persons can impact the State and act on our 5th Principle. Act now!

 RIUUSJ is drawing up a list of committees and lead participants on Global Warming, Green Congregations, sustainability, etc. in each UU congregation in the state. The first “UUs Becoming Green” meeting is being held on June 3rd at Westminster at 6:45-9:00. Please join with us. Also, Put on your calendar for Friday, June 8 "Designed for Life-How to Bring Sustainable Practices to Your Community" - Johnson and Wales Inn in Seekonk from 9-2.
There is a larger vision emerging for the role of RIUUSJ: Given the range of environmental initiatives in each congregation; it would be useful if we could find ways to cooperate and collaborate to become the first “Green State” for UU congregations as the leadership step for a "Green State" as a whole.

National:

Guest at Your Table: our efforts realized $1268+ for the UU Service Committee and included 9 persons whose contributions enabled them to become members of UUSC. The amount raised was 3+ times the amount given annually in the same period each of the past 5 years! Many thanks for your generosity. John Glasheen has consented to become the local representative for UUSC as one element in the job of Social Action Chair. We hope this communication will open more opportunities for the UUCSC community to participate in Service Committee activities and projects.

 There was considerable discussion on the New Orleans Partner Church Network (FUUNO). Our role is not clear at the moment, but is complicated by the lack of clarity from New Orleans First Parish. Lisa McHenry and Kathy Ogni maintain contact with this network but a more specific and elaborate role for the conregation has not been clear.

Anti-War: While RIUUSJ has a focus on the State of RI, it is the only statewide contact point for UUs; therefore, it has played an organizing role for those UUs who oppose the war in Iraq. Approximately 10 UUCSC members joined other state UUs in the protest in Washington D.C. in March.

John Glasheen, Chair

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Common Ground

The Common Ground Committee is the subcommittee of the Social Action Committee that is specifically devoted to opposing racism and raising our awareness of our interconnectedness to the rich diversity of people and cultures in the world.

This year our focus has been on exploring and celebrating our connections with Africa. We continued to raise money to send girls to primary school in Mali through a program of Plan International. In September Sue Velicer’s Effective Solutions women’s networking event contributed $1570, for 50 scholarships, and in December some UUCSC members gave scholarships as Christmas presents, bringing the total to 85, for girls to attend primary school.

In the winter we planned and taught a series of RE sessions on Africa. Our theme was connecting to people in Africa, understanding what life is like for children in various parts of the continent, realizing we are part of the same human family. Deanna Camputaro, Pam Santos, and Carol Craig all had their own African experiences to draw on and share with the children, and other committee members and parents volunteered as well. The children saw photos and art, played games, made art, heard stories, made friendship bracelets, and collected school and first aid supplies for Carol to take when she returns to Kenya this summer.

When we discovered how many people in our congregation had connections with Africa, we decided it would be fun to get together and hear about them. So in March Pam and Gene Santos hosted a potluck at their house, which was a great success.

Our Journey toward Wholeness service was April 1. Our speaker was Ek Ong Kar Singh Khalsa, an American Seik who lives on the Guru Ram Das Ashram in Millis, Massachusetts. He spoke eloquently about experiencing the God in all and the essential unity of all things. The music from Mali and Latin America throughout the service was provided by Deanna Camputaro’s energetic group of student dancers and drummers from Central Falls High School.

Penny Hall, for Common Ground

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