Greetings and Welcome
Our Annual Fund Drive (AFD) has begun. Everyone on the Board is grateful to this year’s AFD Co-Chairs : Laura Jones & David Livermore. If you have not met them, please visit them after service each week at the AFD table in Fuller Hall or check out their great welcome video. By now you have have received your pledge materials in the mail. Please make the time to review the materials carefully and pledge generously before November 11!
At our October Board meeting we had a “generative” discussion on the topic of generosity. We worked in pairs and talked about generosity and how we determine our church pledge. We considered several questions including:
How do you decide your annual pledge?
Is pledging ever a spiritual process for you? When it elevates beyond just “money” what is going on for you?
Are you comfortable encouraging others to be generous to the Church? What gets in the way for you to encourage others?
How do you think race, class, gender, age, education, family giving habits, influence your giving?
Board members are committed members and pledge generously within their means. But that doesn’t mean these were easy conversations! Some really great stories came from the discussion, however. For some, giving to a church was much a part of family upbringing and although it can create financial strain, is never in doubt. Another shared the intense gratitude that comes from being fortunate to give meaningfully to worthy causes such as our church. For others, our church is the hub of our social justice work and living out our values. And our Sr. Minister, Bill Sinkford said it best “giving to the church comes naturally as part of the practice of gratitude”.
The Board and ET (Executive Team)* completed the Annual Assessment of the Ministry of our church. It reflects many wonderful accomplishments from last year and areas for continued work in the future. This is helpful as we consider our generosity this year. You can read the report here.
The board and the Nominating Committee recently met together socially, getting to know each other better and exploring ways to help support each other’s work. One topic was recruitment of new board members for next year. The Nom Com is beginning their work of identifying folks who wish to serve our church as board members and of interviewing and vetting them for possible inclusion on the ballet next spring. If this is of interest to you or you know someone else who would make a good board member, send those names to Linda Craig – lindacraigpdx@gmail.com or Steven Storla – srstorla@yahoo.com .
The board will hold a fall forum on November 4th. We are hosting a 45 minute gathering following each service. There will be good food, a brief introduction and an opportunity to chat with board members to find out more about why we serve on the board and our work this year. Bring your curiosity and your questions for a casual conversation. Child care will be available during both sessions. We are hoping you will join us and extend a particular invitation to RE parents and young adults. We’ve scheduled the sessions directly following each service to make this event accessible to our busy members.
As always, if you have questions or comments, you can email us at board@firstunitarianportland.org.
I look forward to seeing you all in church . . .
In Gratitude,
Kathy Ludlow
Moderator First Unitarian Board of Trustees