A Message from the Board of Trustees
Great conversation about Growing into Our Mission

More than thirty of us gathered for a conversation about how to put our new mission statement into practice at FUUSE on Saturday, February 10th.  Led by Rev. Kendra Ford, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Jane Oldfield Spearman and Nominating Committee Chair, Denise Short, we used an interactive agenda featuring small group work and full group discussions.  First we appreciated current activities and practices that reflect the four parts of the Mission: Build a Caring Community, Ground Ourselves Spiritually, Pursue Justice in the Larger Society, and Work to Heal the Natural World.  Next we discussed what helps and what hinders us as we live into the Mission and listed areas of interest for further consideration such as resource constraints, programming, communication, volunteering and sustainability of our management structures. Near the end of the gathering, congregants reflected on their initial hopes for the session and left a legacy for the entire society to ponder.  

Here are a few of the immediate results of the Growing into our Mission Gathering: efforts are already underway to complete a congregant handbook that includes descriptions of our many committees and groups and how the work of each one connects to the mission of the Society. The Board is working very intentionally to welcome people to into all phases of the process of building next year’s budget so that there is greater understanding of the competing needs we must address and their costs; the Membership Committee is acting on suggestions they heard to enhance the welcoming process for newcomers.  Stay tuned for more reflections on how we are streamlining our structures, improving communication and building awareness of how our mission guides our church activities.  

You can download a full report of the proceedings of the Feb 10th "Growing into our Mission" by clicking on this link: Growing into our Mission or help yourself to a copy in the Community Room over the next several Sundays. If all else fails, ask scribe, Jim Webber, for a copy.