Committee and Interim Minister’s Report, May 2017

Adult RE

Animal Ministry Committee

The Animal Ministry did not meet in May and has nothing new to report for this month. We plan to take off the months of June and July, when members are not readily available, and resume meeting again in August.

Anita Grossman, Chair

Building & Grounds Committee

The Building & Grounds Committee met on May 3, 2017.  Members present were John Logue, Shannon Edwards and Carolyn West. Discussion of future work included:
1. Finish painting the outside of the RE wing.
2. Moving bricks
3. Cleaning out the janitors closet in preparation for remodeling of that area to turn it into a restroom.
4. Door on display case
5. Signage for outside of building
6. Upgrade of electrical outlets in kitchen and social hall.
We are trying to work around projects so as not to interfere with Building Renovation.
Carolyn West, Chair 

Building Renovations Committee 

Caring & Hospitality Committee 

CYRE (Children & Youth Religious Education) Committee

  • The CYRE Committee met June 3, 2017, for our Annual CYRE Planning Retreat.
  • Our CYRE Planning Retreat included:
    • CYRE Chair opening. Morgan Gauthreaux Hanes and Lilith Hudson will be recommended to the Board to serve as co-Chairs.
    • Brain stem storming sessions.
      • How do our activities and CYRE events reflect our UUCC Mission?
      • Social action activities for our younger (pre-K through elementary) members. Visit the Family Shelter with the Youth Groups; help with river clean-up; place sticker on drains; visit a nursing home/senior care center; make sandwiches for Food Not Bombs again; collect cans for CANstruction.
      • Outings for pre-K through elementary. Edventure; park where families who are Muslim play on weekends (to get to know our neighbors); Columbia Marionette Theater.
    • Boston Heritage Trip fundraisers. 2018 is a Boston Trip year and we are $6,000 short of being able to send our youth to Boston. We have several fundraisers planned and tentatively scheduled.
    • We are continuing to actively recruit OWL participants and discussed different formats for presenting OWL. We need at least 4 more OWL Instructors and our volunteer training budget is short this year. Talk with Keitha or Stephanie if you are interested in taking the training to be an OWL instructor and for a list of upcoming trainings. We also discussed advertising and reaching out onto the local community to let them know about this vital Our Whole Lives offering. Providing OWL classes is an integral part of the Welcoming Congregation criteria and we need to redouble our efforts to support this program.
    • We discussed our 2016/2017 goals and developed our 2017/2018 goals. Our goals for 2016 – 2017 were:
  1. Have more informal gatherings.
    • We did not meet this goal this year.
  2. Participate in the Capital Improvement campaign.
    • Our families all contributed to the activities around our Capital Improvement Campaign.
  3. Increase attendance in our program.
    • Our year started out slowly with low attendance but we have steadily increased the number of children and youth joining our CYRE Program this year.
    • We have a healthy number in attendance now and we are seeing an increase in interest in our program via social media and other outreach efforts.
  4. Continue to improve service opportunities for our youth.
    • Our pre-K through 5th grade students made sandwiches to serve at Food Not Bombs.
    • Our youth participated in service projects at Howlmore, the Family Shelter, and Carolina Wildlife Rescue and several of our children and youth participated in the Pride Parade.
    • Some of our youth, led by Sophia Storlazzi Johnson, advocated for elephants at the Ringling Brother’s Circus.
  5. Increase our youths’ CON attendance.
    • 5 of our youth attended the Fall CON at the Mountain.
    • 7 of our children and youth attended the Congregational CON at the Mountain.
    • We sent 9 youth on the Boston Heritage Trip thanks to the dedicated energy of our parents and the youth who worked diligently to raise the funds that allowed our youth to attend.
  6. Utilize website to generate interest in our faith and draw families and young people to our congregation.
    • We have maintained our CYRE pages and kept them up-to-date and relevant throughout the year.
  7. Improve our use of social media to attract youth and families to congregation.
    • We have posted CYRE activities on our Facebook page with regularity this year and have seen increased interest in our program as evidenced by comments the number of shares our pages have generated.
  • Our main 2017/2018 goals are:
    • Host a joint community activity with other religious communities.
    • Increase participation of our children and youth in our worship services.
    • Improve our fundraisers.
  • Other efforts that we will continue in 2017/2018 include:
    • Increase the number of youth on our CYRE Committee by 2. Lilith Hudson and Emerson VanDenBerg are our two active youth members.
    • Send post cards to children and youth who haven’t been in a while to let them know we miss them and would love to see them return.
    • Continue K – 5 CUUBS group.
    • Increase and improve our presence on social media.
    • Continue efforts to increase CYRE attendance.
    • Continue work on our interfaith library (building it into the current efforts at stocking and refurbishing our Library.
    • Update the CYRE library in the DRE’s office.
    • Host 3 informal gatherings for parents and children/youth to encourage community building and family participation in all aspects of congregational life.
  • Our next meeting is our Annual New Teacher Orientation and Curriculum Planning meeting scheduled for Saturday, August 26th.

Respectfully Submitted,

Keitha Whitaker, Chair 

Denominational Connections

Endowment Committee

Finance Committee

Governance and Structure Ad Hoc Committee

The UUCC Governance and Structure Ad Hoc Committee met May 24th 2017.

  • The Committee is currently working on its final report to the Board for the June Board meeting.
  • We will accept comments through June 9, 2017. Please direct your comments to uukeitha@gmail.com. Thank you.

For reference, our current governance and structure can be found here:

Some of the other resources we have used in our research include:

Respectfully Submitted;

Keitha Whitaker, Chair

Green Sanctuary Committee 

Interim Minister

Good Board Members,

For worship services, I preached on Easter Sunday, and I took part in the multigenerational worship service on April 23rd honoring Earth Day, which was very well-received. I also officiated a Child Dedication. My service on April 30th focused on Holocaust Remembrance Day. This was followed by the Crafters Faire. But I wasn’t really able to take part, because of several conversations with other people. On May 7th, I preached about how one person can make all the difference. I then took part in part of the Adult RE course led by Don Cooper; it was their session on Confucius. Richard McLeod will preach May 14. On May 21st the CYRE team and I will have a bridging service for the children and youth who “bridge” from their current age group on to the next. We will also thank CYRE volunteers. For that service I will use readings from Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke. On May 28th I’ll preach about Confucius. I will also preach on June 4th, the day of our Annual Meeting. June 25th will be my last Sunday in UUCC’s pulpit. I will be taking the month of July as vacation time. [Note added later: our Candidating Week will be June 11th – 18th.]

On April 18th I met with the Pastoral Care Associates team. They and I are continuing to attend to the pastoral care needs of the congregation as they are made known to us. And on the 19th I met with the board. On the 20th I attended my interfaith theology book group. On the 22nd I attended the rehearsal for the Earth Day worship service. On the 25th I attended the ad hoc committee on governance and structure. On the 27th I met with the Transition Team. On the 28th I attended September Set. On the 29th I attended the installation of the Rev. Lori Hlaban in Beaufort, SC. This past week, I worked from home to attend to my search for a new interim position. But on Committees night I attended the ARE, Finance, and Worship meetings. I have had meetings, phone calls, and emails with UUCC members, friends, and visitors. Tonight I will meet with the building renovations committee. Tomorrow night I will attend a meeting about the budget. I’m recalling that the total of pledges received for the new fiscal year is approximately $15,000 more than last year. I am very proud of our congregation and its leaders.

I was unable to attend the choir luncheon due to a previous commitment, and I will be unable to attend the church picnic due to a previous commitment. On May 23rd I will be on an interfaith panel about UUism and LGBT rights, sponsored by “Openings” which will take place at the Washington Street Methodist Church. I will attend the budget hearing on May 31st, the Ramadan dinner on June 2nd, and the CYRE retreat day on June 3rd. I will officiate a wedding on June 10th.

I continue to advise and support the search committee, and check in with staff. And I coordinate with committee chairs, the choirs, song leaders, chalice lighters, sound room support, and Share The Plate speakers. I have been submitting my materials to the newsletters, eblasts, and orders of service. Please keep me posted as to joys, concerns, and milestones, yours, and those you know of in this congregation. And thank you so much for your work for our board and our congregation.

Rev. Jennie [“It’s a privilege to be here.”]

Leadership Development Committe

Membership Committee

    • Discussion and comments on New member Dinner and Service
    • Announcement of finance committees new minimum pledge for members
    • Review, comments and suggestions for annual report before sending to Phil
    • Spring Picnic at Suzi’s house- discussion for when to hold make up picnic. Suzi would prefer to wait until Fall
    • Beginning on July 1st Don Cooper will head up the greeters under the membership committee.
    • The membership committee will meet with our new ministerial candidate on Thursday June 15th at 2 O’clock at Patty Drews house.
    • Discussion beginning to transfer chair from Patty to Buzzie and Nancie.
    • Visitor Orientation May 21st then July 16th
    • June 7th next meeting/ committee night

Patty Drews, chair

Personnel Committee

Publicity Committee

Shared Ministry Committee

Discontinued during interim period.

Social Action Committee

Ramadan Dinner – was held June 2 and was considered a tremendous success. This function was in collaboration with the Atlantic Institute and was attended by approximately 80 people. Dr. Akif Aydin of the Atlantic Institute told us about his Muslim experience in America and also explained about Ramadan. This was followed by a Q&A after which we dismissed to Iftar or breaking the fast after sundown to a wonderful feast of specially prepared chicken provided by the Atlantic Institute and salads, vegetables, and fresh fruit shared by members of UUCC. WLTX was present for the entire event interviewing me (Linda McLeod), filming the presentation, and the food and fellowship. They did a nice clip on their 11:00 news show that evening giving UUCC recognition for our community outreach.

T-Shirt Sales – we continue to do well selling our Standing on the Side of Love t-shirts. Our original order was for 35 and when we had only 6 left we ordered another 15. At this point we have only 11 shirts left. We are taking special orders for long sleeve shirts which sell for $25. We will not do another order until September in anticipation of the Pride Parade and fall events. The shirts that are left are now available by contacting the Social Action email address.

Banner – is now proudly hanging on the main entry to the church. Thanks to Bill Dolley for his efforts to take care of putting it up for us. We have had a call from Trinity Episcopal men’s group asking about the smaller sign in the front yard before we put up the banner wanting to know the details about it. It has also been noted that there is a small sign at the corner of Rosewood and Woodrow. WLTX did take a picture of our banner while they were here.

Seeds of Hope  – will begin June 18 and Bauer Westeren will take care of scheduling and reporting once again this year. At this time we only have had two people volunteer to serve but are hopeful that will change. This year we are offering the opportunity to sign up on our webpage or by email with Bauer. The selling season will run until August 6th.

Welcome Dinner for Reverend Jeff Liebmann – will take place Wednesday, June 14th at 6:30 pm. This will be open to anyone who has questions for Reverend Jeff about Social Action or is interested in our Social Action Committee. We will be serving sub sandwiches and are asking our Social Action Committee members to bring salads and desserts.

White Supremacy Teach-in – is scheduled for the July 23rd worship service. We will follow the advice of the UUA format however we will adapt it to fit our own worship service. We will have three speakers from our church, Laura Hartwig, David Crockett, and Judith Turnipseed each speaking approximately seven minutes. Laura is managing this program and working with Richard McLeod to make it a complete worship service. There will be music and meditations included and it will follow our regular worship service format. Laura has put a great deal of research into this and we are optimistic that it will be a enlightening learning experience for our church.

Nagasaki Day – August 9 – We will be supporting activities recognizing Nagasaki Day on August 9 with a talk presented by journalist Dan Zak, author of “Almighty: Courage, Resistance and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age”. We will partner in this event with groups such as Sierra Club John Bachman Group, SRS Watch, and Carolina Peace. More details will follow.

Pride Parade – the date will be Friday, October 20, and this will be the first ever night parade. Jeanette Walton and Grant Seuser will chair this once again this year. We are looking for new ideas since this will involve lighting up our float and our walkers. We expect this to be a great parade with fun new decorations. We have already reserved our float from Southeastern Float Company and have chosen the same float that we used last year. We found that particular float to be the right size and also easy to decorate.

Farewell – this will be my last Committee Report as I pass my duties on to Laura Hartwig as Social Action Chair. It has been a great honor to chair this committee and I have truly enjoyed each activity and am very appreciative of all of the support given to me by everyone. I will continue to be an active member of the committee as I assist our very capable new Chair. I know you will all give her the wonderful support that has been given to me. Many thanks.

Technology Services Committee 

Transition Team

Worship Committee

. . . Rev Jennie will be in the pulpit June 4 and 25, reserving the June 11 and 18 services for the new minister candidate. Julianne Lepp of a Wisconsin UU church will be here July 2, Tammy Bersherse of Appleseed Law July 9, Stephen Robinson on July 16, the Social Action Committee White Supremacy presentation July 23, and Ty dePass of the Community-based Research and Education Organization on July 30.

. . . It was recommended that in order to control announcements from the pulpit entries be included in church publications detailing the process: “Attention committee chairs: The Worship Committee has again been discussing guidelines for allowing the making of announcements during the Sunday service. The need to be limited is essential to contain the length of the service and to allow the expedient dismissal of the children to their classes. Any announcements your committee has should be included in the Order of Service, the Unigram, website, Facebook, and/or on posters/flyers in the building. Announcements made from the pulpit are discouraged and forgetting to place it in established media is not an excuse for a last-minute rush. If you believe a pulpit announcement must be made for a particular reason, make a request to the Board member of the day by placing the announcement in the notebook outside Andrea’s office to be picked up before the service. It must be written in advance and be very brief.  Generally the announcement will be made by the board member and not the individual submitting the announcements. Rare exceptions will be at the discretion of the board member. The Worship Committee thanks you for helping us to make our worship services run more smoothly and on schedule.”

. . . The Worship Committee Annual Report has been completed and submitted to the Board

Richard McLeod, Committee Chair