The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica

Featured Articles - June, 2005

Budget Problems, Building Approvals are Major Concerns at Annual Meeting

Meetings on Sunday afternoons are tough, especially, it seems, when they are held on a warm Southern California spring day. That was certainly evident at our 78th Annual Congregational Meeting, which started late because a quorum of members had not arrived even 10 minutes after the 12:30 p.m. meeting start time.

When a quorum finally was present, the business of the church was brought to the congregation for review and approval. To start, the officers nominated for 2005-06 oneyear terms were introduced and the congregation voted their approval. Carol Kerr has again been elected President. Charles Haskell was elected 1st vice president; Ron Crane 2nd vice president; Carol Agate, treasurer; and Melinda Ewen, secretary. New Members-at-Large are Marv Pulliam, Peter van den Beemt, and Pat Wright. S. J. Guidotti and Victor Paddock were elected to the Nominating Committee. Next, revised bylaws were approved.

Then began a review of our past year and a look at our future. The Rev. Judith Meyer opened this part of the meeting recognizing the energy of the church, represented in part by the emergence of two new programs in the past year, the Small Group Ministry program as represented by the Covenant Groups, and the Telephone Outreach Program that stays in touch with members who may be alone or frail and feeling isolated. Judith thanked all who have volunteered their time, skill and faith for the church. She identified some of the tangible achievements in her ministry over the last year and thanked the congregation for providing her with time off this fall to focus on a book of her sermons and to re-energize for the following year.

Carol Kerr reflected on congregational meetings of the previous year, acknowledging and appreciating disagreements that are part of the democratic process important to this church. She asked that all of the congregation support our future and embrace the construction dust that will be part of that future. Carol Agate presented this year’s preliminary operating statement. It forecasts an operating shortfall of almost $20,000 at fiscal year-end June 30. Carol indicated that pledge receipts and other contributions fell short of the 2004-05 estimates. She noted also that supermarket scrip earnings, though small, fell short of estimates and asked members to simply provide the church office with their supermarket card numbers and the church will start receiving contributions.

Warren Mathews’ financial forecast presentation alerted the congregation to the need to look seriously at strengthening our financial future. He walked us through the steps taken to make up a $35,000 shortfall in the 2005-06 budget, including Charles and Christine Haskell’s volunteering to assume responsibility for office work that had been previously done by a paid assistant; a one-time reduction of the staff compensation adjustment; and a one-time withholding of religious education and office equipment funds. Revenue enhancers to zero out the shortfall included raising facility rental fees and an additional major fundraiser.

Warren said the stretch that balanced the 2005-06 budget is not sustainable, and he told the members present that they should start now to think about longterm solutions to maintain a balanced budget. He suggested three possibilities: (1) Maximize fundraising activities; (2) Solicit volunteers who do the work that paid employees now do; and (3) increase individual pledging “to a level that will support the kind of church we all want.”

After Warren’s presentation, and a vote to approve the budget, the members heard first from Ron Crane, Capital Campaign Chair, who noted that we have received so far over $380,000 in pledges toward our goal of $1 million. Alison Kendall, Building Committee Chair, then reported that the new plans will be presented to the Santa Monica Building Commission on June 15. She hopes interested members will write letters to the commission and also come out on the 15th to support the project. She presented a Proposed Parking Plan to the congregation for review and vote, saying parking was the biggest issue for the city of Santa Monica. The congregation voted to approve the proposal.

Raffle winners were announced, the meeting concluded, and we went out into the sunny Southern California afternoon.

— Nels Hanson

This New Stewardship Yahoo Group May Transform and Strengthen Lives

Join the movement afoot to strengthen our community in ways we've always hoped.

“Stewardship begins when a first-time visitor arrives at church, becomes a member and extends throughout the life of the congregation, including estate planning and bequest options. Stewardship is an essential ministry of the church, an integral part of congregational life . . .” writes Michael Durall, author, “The Almost Church.”

The Stewardship Committee is interested in using stewardship’s tools—service, community and charitable giving to transform lives. Inspired (and in some cases, agitated) by Michael Durall’s book, the committee and friends who joined us for a book discussion on May 11 came up with a number of initiatives to undertake in coming months.

Interested in finding out more? Join a new Yahoo Group and keep abreast of what’s happening. No need to join a committee. No need to make a commitment. (Unless you want.)

It's easy to join. Simply visit the stewardship website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uusm_stewardship and click on “Join this group” in the upper right-hand corner. There you can register for Yahoo Groups (if you haven't already) and then sign up for uusm_stewardship. You can receive posts as they are sent, or in daily digests (when there are multiple posts in a day, you'll receive them all at once), or never. Then when you visit the page, you can see the conversations that have taken place and a calendar of upcoming stewardshiprelated activities.

If you don't have e-mail, but you're interested in stewardship's work, please call me.

— Jacki Weber

Small Group Ministry -- View from the Inside:
How did the program come into being at UUCCSM?

It all began when Intern Minister Stefanie Etzbach- Dale got the green light from the Rev. Judith Meyer to explore interest among the congregation. Stefanie’s intensive research ensured that we would have a solid foundation for the program, and Small Group Ministry (SGM) has become one of the important legacies of her tenure at our church.

After assembling the pieces from her research efforts, Stefanie started with a small group of church members, explaining the vision, purposes, and structure of SGM as it is followed throughout the UU community. Those interested members became the core group to finally launch SGM at UUCCSM.

Covenant Groups, per se, are the tip of the SGM iceberg and they are the operating units and the raison d’etre. However they would be unable to function effectively if it weren’t for the preparation and ongoing work done by the Covenant Group Implementation Team (CGIT), the core group started to launch SGM and the committee that now sustains it.

The CGIT, after a month of “learning” meetings and armed with a stack of paperwork, met as a task force to shape and define covenant groups for UUCCSM and give them form and life. The CGIT took the blueprint and began planning, trying new ideas, learning, and fleshing out our program.

The rest is history. Two new Covenant Groups are underway and the initial two are still meeting. More new groups will form in September. The program is alive and well, and the CGIT is the invisible hand at work behind the scenes to ensure the continuing success of SGM at our church.

For example, the CGIT has developed and/or assembled the following items:

• materials to explain the SGM process and benefits
• methods and policies to build new groups
• policy manuals to guide the facilitation of groups
• resource guides for facilitators
• presentations to the congregation and interested parties
• consistent presence at coffee hour with an information table
• circulating team members available to discuss covenant groups
• monthly newsletter articles to inform you of SGM’s progress

We are actively looking for additional members for the CGIT. Contact Marv Pulliam.

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