Rick is honored and excited to be under consideration for the Nominating Committee. A member of First Church since 2004, he has enjoyed serving on the Membership Committee since 2005, including as past Chair and Co-Chair, and he serves as a coffee host, substitute usher, and welcome desk volunteer. He feels he learned a great deal while serving on the Intern Committee for several years, as well as from the young people of the church when he taught 6th graders, as well as 8th and 9th graders, in the RE program. The Young Adult group also enriched his life for many years. Because of these experiences, he feels especially connected with a diverse range of folks in the church, and hopes these relationships will help him in his work on the Nominating Committee. He usually attends second service with his lovely wife Krista, although they normally leave their cat, Neah, and fish, Big Red—the other members of their family—at home.

Rick is the founder and principal of Engaging Every Student, an organization that develops resources designed to engage learners of all ages through a wide variety of mediums, including active, visual, and hands-on learning. He is the author of several books, including The EverGreen Twins® Activity Book and his latest, Marco the Molecule. Rick also created a multimedia presentation about the fascinating history of our church that we share during Path to Membership classes. A version of the presentation and his short written history can also be viewed on the church website.  Rick has been a passionate educator and developer of educational resources for over 18 years, having taught nearly every grade and subject, preK-12, as well as adults. He holds a M.S. in Education from the University of New Haven and a B.A. in Geography (Honors Scholar) from the University of Connecticut.

Rick hopes his background as an educator, writer, and creator of clear visuals and multimedia content will help with communication between the Nominating Committee and the broader congregation. He also hopes his openness to input and passion for the continual improvement of the church will help him to identify and select outstanding leaders. Most of all, he is looking forward to the prospect of working with all the exceptional members of the Committee, including several he has had the pleasure to serve with in the past.

Rick and Krista also enjoy exploring the outdoors, tennis, gardening, reading, and hanging out with friends and family. They both feel so fortunate to be part of such a loving, open-minded congregation, with individuals that support each other in their spiritual development and make the world a better place. Watch for them at church and say hello!

Laura Milne (Board of Trustees)

Laura Willingham Milne has been a member of 1st Unitarian Church for over 7 years. Originally a native of Los Angeles, Laura relocated to Portland with her husband, Paul, and daughter, Sarah, in 2004. Within weeks of settling into their home in NW Portland, they found their way to First Church where Bob Schaibly was speaking as guest minister. They were hooked from their first visit and have found their spiritual home in our Church.

Laura has a unique mix of for-profit and non-profit experience in both paid and volunteer positions. While living in L.A., Laura worked for Russ Reid Company as a senior account executive. Russ Reid is the nation’s leading agency providing direct response fund raising for non-profits. Her experience includes work for World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, and Los Angeles Mission. More recently, Laura was the Director of Operations at the Idea Agency in Wilsonville. The Idea Agency provided direct response radio fund raising services. Their clients included Portland Rescue Mission. In both of these organizations, Laura loved serving non-profit clients while working under the discipline of a for-profit business.

While undertaking graduate studies in Gerontology at the University of Southern California, she completed a detailed business analysis for an ailing non-profit continuing care retirement community. Her recommendations focused on documenting and securing the organization’s 80 year history of providing charitable care for impoverished seniors, clarifying and marketing its identify as a non-profit, improved financial management practices , and marketing and fund raising recommendations.

Laura also served as a member of the advisory board of directors for the Arthritis Foundation, Southern California Division.

Locally, Laura has served on the board of directors for Chapman Elementary School Foundation where she ran the successful Family Campaign. Laura documented the entire process for the Foundation in order to provide a roadmap for future Chapman fund raisers. Laura also serves as an occasional volunteer in the 13 Salmon Family Shelter.

Laura has a particular interest in the challenges that the Church is faced with: the complex intersection of providing spiritual sustenance with the need to have strong business practices. In other words, how to have a heart, nurture the heart and have self-sustaining methods and results.

Laura grew up in San Gabriel, a largely Latino neighborhood near East L.A. She received her bachelor’s degree from Scripps College and is fluent in Spanish. Laura was loosely raised in the Presbyterian Church and occasionally attended an activist Episcopalian congregation in Pasadena. When she arrived at First Church, she knew she had found her home.

As a co-chair of the Nominating Committee this past year, I have been excited to see our committee devoted to transparency in our work, and also in developing ideas for paths to leadership at First Unitarian Church. This is in addition to our primary mission and important hard work of identifying, interviewing, and arriving at a slate of candidates for the Board and Nominating Committee of our church.

My interest in serving on the Nominating Committee comes from a long-term relationship with First Unitarian Church.  I came to First Unitarian Church with a young family in 1994 and joined a year later.  Prior to that I had grown up in this church in the 1960s and 1970s.  I’ve sung in First Unitarian Church choirs since about 1997.  In addition to serving on the Nominating Committee for the past two years, I have also served as president of the Chamber Choir, been a member of the Music and Arts committee, and have been the joys and concerns facilitator for both the Unitarian and Chamber choirs.  I have also assisted with Nova Choir productions, fundraisers, and trips, the Christmas Pageant, been the volunteer coordinator for the Monday night music supper, and volunteered for many church fundraising events.

Professionally, I am a hydrogeologist and enjoy my work as an environmental consultant.  As a co-owner of a business, I am sensitive to the need for strong leadership during both good and tough economic times.

I love hanging around home with my family, and when the weather is nice I like to get outdoors.  I enjoy biking, photography, learning history, genealogy, and watching the Portland Timbers—rain or shine.

I have been a UU from the time I was a teenager when my parents joined All Souls UU Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. I joined the youth group, then known as LRY, and attended many of their activities. After college I joined First UU Church in Cincinnati where I was a member for over 15 years. While there I served on the Buildings & Grounds Committee, chaired the Annual Fund Drive for two years, was an advocate for a number of years, sang in the choir, served on the board for two terms and chaired the board for two years. I also served on the Ministerial Search Committee.

I’ve been attending First Church in Portland since I moved here from Cincinnati three years ago and joined shortly thereafter. In addition to singing with the chamber choir, I became an Annual Fund Drive advocate two years ago and am now serving on the Stewardship Committee.

I met my wife, Mel Downie Robinson, at First Church Cincinnati in 1999 when we both sang in the church choir. We remained friends for years, then the friendship turned romantic in 2008 and we were married by Bill Sinkford last year at First Church.

My professional career has been in architecture and in the development of housing for the disabled and homeless and recently in website and software development. I have had my own architectural firm for over 20 years and am principal in Avila Architects, LLC. I am also a principal with Creative Housing Resources, a development company that concentrates its work in housing for the disabled population. In addition, Mel and I co-own a software development firm, Counterpoint Data Services where I am the Director of Operations.

For over 15 years I have been serving on the board of Tender Mercies, an organization in Cincinnati that provides housing for formerly homeless persons with a history of mental illness. I served as the board chair between 2008 and 2010.

I am excited about the possibility of serving on the church’s board because the UU faith and both churches have been such an important part of my life. I would like to continue to give back to a church that has given me so much. I believe I bring the right types of organizational skills that will be of benefit to the board. As a previous church board member and as a board member of a non-profit, I have an understanding of the governance, financial and political issues that face churches and believe I will be able to contribute to the health and well-being of First Church.

In 1991, my husband John Hutzler and son David moved to Portland and began attending First Unitarian Church. I became a member of First Church in 1992 and shortly after that agreed to chair the Intern Minister Committee, where I had the privilege of working with Marilyn Sewell and other committee members to help select and support three of our wonderful Intern Ministers. I’ve co-taught an Adult Programs class and taught for two years in the Children’s Religious Education program. I served as a member of the Board of Trustees for six years (2002-08).

While on the Board, I chaired its Communications Committee and led the Congregational Covenant Committee in an inclusive process that produced First Church’s written behavioral covenant. For the past three years, I’ve enjoyed being a member of the Nominating Committee and recently joined the Board’s Ad Hoc Leadership Development Committee. I continue to sing with the Chalice Choir. I love this community of faith and appreciate immensely the gifts of inspiration and grounding you’ve given to me and my family.

I was thrilled to be appointed to the Board in January to fill a vacancy, created when my predecessor, Kevin Lawson, advanced in his studies to become a Unitarian minister and needed to resign. I am now standing for election to that position.

I have been blessed by my nearly 9 years of engagement in many of the opportunities offered by our church. Immediately upon arriving in Portland, I joined the church and the Unitarian choir, traveled to Cuba, Carnegie Hall, and Budapest to visit our partner church – twice, the second time on our choir tour to Eastern Europe. I have also been on the membership committee, chaired the nominating committee, co-chaired the Annual Fund Drive, and am currently co-chair of the Alliance. I have been an advocate for a number of years and I volunteer in the church office.

Prior to my years in Portland, I enjoyed involvement at First Unitarian Church in Cincinnati for some 25 years and “came up through the chairs”, having been president of the board, chair of the finance drive and the annual auction, member of a ministerial search committee, and church treasurer.

Also in Cincinnati I was pleased to serve on a local school board for 10 years and to manage the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati (UC), following a variety of other management and sales positions.

My education includes a Masters degree in Public Administration from UC and a BA from Stanford.

2011-2012 Nominating Committee
From left: Jean Omelchuck, Eric Terrell, Wendy Rankin, Linda Fitzgerald, Cathy Couch, Teri Martin, Jan Holibaugh, David Livermore and Roberta Mansfield.

The goals of the nominating Committee are to:
• Identify and recommend a slate of individuals to serve in leadership positions on the Board of Trustees and Nominating Committee
• Foster transparency and engagement of the congregation throughout the process and at the same time
• Assure confidentiality and respectful communication in all our work

Transparency

At the nomination committee retreat in June of 2011 members identified their commitment to transparency and formed an ad hoc committee to draft recommendations to promote openness and facilitate understanding of the work and processes of the nominating committee. The goal of the ad hoc committee was to draft procedures and practices that will foster communication and build and sustain the trust of the members of our congregation while at the same time maintaining the essential confidentiality of the tasks necessary to perform the primary work of the Nominating Committee, i.e. identifying and recommending leaders for the church. We strive to enhance congregant understanding of the Nominating Committee processes and engage congregants in choosing potential leaders for our church community.

Submitting Names for Consideration

The Nominating Committee is always seeking names of potential leaders to serve on the Board of Trustees and the Nominating Committee. If you, or anyone you know might be interested in being considered for service, please send your/her/his name and contact information to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bylaws related to Nominating Committee

Article V
Nominations

Section 1. Nominating Committee. A Nominating Committee shall be elected by majority vote at the Annual Meeting. The Committee shall consist of nine voting members, three to be elected each year. Members of the Nominating Committee shall be precluded from being nominated to or serving on the Board of Trustees during their term on the Nominating Committee. Members of the Board and Staff may not serve on the Nominating Committee. Terms shall be for three years. Members of the Nominating Committee may be reelected without limitation on the number of terms the member may serve, but shall not serve more than two full consecutive three year terms on the Nominating Committee. In the event of a vacancy, the Moderator shall
appoint a member until the position can be filled at the next Annual Meeting.

Section 2. Nomination for membership. The slate of nominees for positions on the Nominating Committee is prepared by the Nominating Committee and presented to the Board Secretary at the same time as nominations for the Board of Trustees are submitted (see Section 5 below). Nomination may also be made by petition (see Section 6 below).

Section 3. Officers. The Nominating Committee shall elect its own chairperson.

Section 4. Procedures. After consultation with the Board and ministers, the Nominating Committee shall establish and publish procedures to fulfill its duties .

Section 5. Slate of nominees. After consultation with the Board and ministers, the Nominating Committee shall have final authority to determine the slates of nominations for the members of the Board of Trustees and the Nominating Committee to be elected at the Annual Meeting. The Nominating Committee shall submit these slates to the Board Secretary not less than sixty nor more than ninety days prior to the Annual Meeting of the voting membership.

Section 6. Additional nominations. Additional nominations for the Board of Trustees may be made, with the written consent of the nominee, by a petition signed by not less than five percent of the voting members, and filed with the Nominating Committee not less than thirty days prior to the annual meeting. Additional nominations for the Nominating Committee may be made, with the written consent of the nominee, by a petition signed by not less than five percent of the voting members, and filed with the Nominating Committee not less than thirty days prior to the annual meeting. The Nominating Committee shall publicize petition procedures and shall provide the appropriate forms. Such publication shall occur on or before the time the slate of nominations is presented to the Board Secretary.

_______________________________________________________________________ 


Did You Know?...
The Nominating Committee is charged with creating a slate of candidates for the Board of Trustees and for the future Nominating Committee, which is presented to the voting membership in conjunction with the "Annual Meeting." First Church now "votes by mail" which constitutes the Annual Meeting.