Dear FUUSE Friends and Members,

The Board, after serious consideration, has voted to continue the job share of the Director of Religious Education (DRE) position for the upcoming church year. This decision has been made with the support of the Personnel Committee, the Minister and the Religious Education (RE) Committee.

A good deal of legwork, discussion and planning by Linsey-Jean Francoeur and Emily Samuel and the entire RE committee preceded the discussion and vote in our meeting. The RE committee chair and a member of the committee have met with the board, and outlined the specifics of what a shared DRE position will entail moving forward.

It is important to note that the sharing of the DRE position is a revenue neutral decision. As hours allocated to the DRE position are not being increased the budget is not impacted. 

The job share idea originally grew out of the existing DRE’s need to reduce her hours. The decision was made to ask Emily Samuel to share the position of DRE due to her strong background in religious education with her previous UU Church and her committed support of the RE committee.  Also, Emily has RE experience specifically with older age groups; the Board and RE Committee see this experience as an asset which will strengthen this area of our RE program.

The RE Committee has a specific plan in place which delineates how tasks and responsibilities will be shared between the two DREs. The skill sets of the two DREs compliment each other in a way that all feel will be of great benefit to our RE program at FUUSE. Please watch for an upcoming communication from Alex Allen, the RE committee chair, outlining that plan in detail.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact a Board member or a member of the RE Committee.

Board Members
Cliff Sinnott cliffsinnott@gmail.com
Jan Stephens janetstephens30@gmail.com
Karen Patnaude kpatnaude11@comcast.net
Holley Daschbach peacecat123@yahoo.com
Jim Webber sagesinbloom@gmail.com
Dan Garvey dcgarvey@gmail.com
Dawn Huebner dawnahuebner@gmail.com
Bert Lamb alamb@pobox.com 

RE Committee
Alexandra Allen, RE Committee Chair amallen@cityyear.org
Sarah DeWitt sarah.m.dewitt@gmail.com
Michele Mainz michelemainz@gmail.com
Jessica Michelsen michelsens@comcast.net
Ann Palma annpalma@ymail.com
Anne Tufts  annieot@hotmail.com

12th Annual Church Retreat - Still time to sign up !!!!
Applications for the Church Retreat on Sept 6-8 are still being accepted. Fifty people have signed up and we are hoping some more people will attend.  The deadline for deposit has been extended (despite what the form says) so you can fill-in the application and send the deposit or all the full amount. 

This year’s retreat will be the weekend of September 6-8  at Camp Huckins on the shores of beautiful Lake Ossipee.  

Those who have been to earlier retreats know what a wonderful time is had by all. For those who haven’t been in the past, prepare to be wowed by the variety of workshops, activities, and just plain fun to be had from the Friday evening through Sunday Service and lunch.There will be: Inter-generational workshops, children’s workshops, adult workshops. Do you have a workshop you’d like to offer?

We will sleep in rustic cabins, swim, walk in the pine woods, have camp fires, talk, play on the sports field, go fishing, eat in a communal dining hall, maybe even dance!
The weekend provides a great opportunity for FUUSE members and friends, new and old, to connect with each other. You can follow this link to print an application and mail it in. Click here.

If you have further questions or need more information please contact:
Anne and Tony Tufts, at annieot@hotmail or a.tufts@comcast.net

Online Giving
FUUSE has a payment platform for online giving called Tithe.ly. We like all giving, no matter how you donate, but online giving is especially helpful to FUUSE for several reasons. It helps us:

• Save time and money because we don’t have to endorse checks and take them to the bank, or manually enter hundreds of details.

• Reduce errors because of less entry and handling.

• Increase the security of your gift as we are not having to handle cash.

• Keep income flow more level, so that it’s easier to meet current obligations of our day to day overhead, year round.

Our new system, "Tithe.ly," is easier to use than our previous online partner, Mogiv. Tithe.ly also costs FUUSE less in processing fees. And it has much better tools for the office to give you assistance if you need it.

If you are willing to give online donations a try, here is how to get started. 
Start payments through Tithe.ly. Go to the web page https://fuuse.elvanto.net/pages/donate

1. Click on the link that says To download a copy of FUUSE Online Giving Notes and Tips, click here. and follow those instructions.

2. Be aware that you can create two separate schedules of future donations, one for the Annual Fund, and another for the Capital Campaign.

If you have any questions or concerns, call or email Yvonne at office@exeteruu.org, 603-772-4002.

Here are the Annual Meeting (June 2, 2019) Documents with:

Agenda, Draft Minutes (of two meetings) and Nominations

Here are links to several budget documents for the close of FY 2019 and budgeting for FY 2020.

• FY 2019 Budget Detail Report
• FY 2019 Budget Report Notes
• FY 2019 Budget Report Statement of Activities
• FY 2019 Budget Profit and Loss Summary

And here is the link to the Annual Report 2018 - 2019 of FUUSE leadership, committees, groups, activities and events and more:

        Annual Report 2018 - 2019

The Buzz (of Announcements) Before the Hum (of the Singing Bowl) is a new initiative to coordinate a 5-minute period of announcements prior to the start of Sunday Services.

Each Sunday, beginning at 9:25 AM, one of four designated people will make announcements about FUUSE activities and events from the front of the Sanctuary. A musical riff will signal the start of The Buzz. If you come later than 9:25, please, enter quietly so those who wish to hear the announcements may do so. At 9:30, Kendra will ring the singing bowl (The Hum) and our service will begin. Announcements about FUUSE activities and events must be submitted in writing in advance to Dawn Huebner (PC Chair). Please keep your announcement brief (aim for 30-seconds), and submit it by Wednesday for announcement the following Sunday. Submissions may be made through  Chms (formerly Elvanto) by clicking on this link, or given to Dawn in person.Announcements are only for FUUSE-related activities and events. No personal or political announcements, please.