Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of UUCR was held Sunday, February 26, 2012 per the UUCR Constitution, a quorum of the membership being present. The Nominating Committee recommended  an a slate of candidates for the church year 2012-13, which begins on July 1. The Committee's nominees for members of the Board were unanimously approved by the membership as was the nomination-from-the-floor of Annie Simpson.  The Board for 2012-13 will consist of the following members.  

President - Tom Day
Vice President - Keturah Collins
Secretary - Paul Cohen
Treasurer - Paul Baumgartner
Members - Caroline Ewart, Judy Helmich, Maggie Mack, Jeff Schatz, Annie Simpson

Terry Mitchell, and Tracey Sopp will join Bob Anthony and Judy Fincher as Members of the Nominating Committee.  The Nominating Committee will continue to look for a fifth member as well as an at-large member for the Leadership Council and propose them to the membership at the May fiscal meeting.

We are a volunteer organization.  I want to thank the Nominating Committee for their hard work in presenting developing their slate to present to the membership, those who helped organize the Annual Meeting, and our wonderful youth for preparing lunch  so that we could begin the meeting promptly at one o'clock.   I also want to thank member Annie Simpson for volunteering to join the Board.  Following the meeting one member volunteered to be proposed as the fifth member of the Nominating Committee.  There still remains a wonderful opportunity for a member to serve as an At-Large member of the Leadership Council.   As a final reminder, the Stewardship Campaign begins in March and our annual fiscal meeting to approve next year's budget will be held in May.

Sincerely,

Paul Cohen, President

Message from Paul Cohen, new UUCR Board President

It's official.  Last Friday, Tom Day, Keturah Collins, and I joined your board.  I relieved Terry Mitchell as your President and Tom replaced Mary Howard as your Vice President.  Both of us can not thank Terry and Mary and outgoing Board Members Bob Anthony, Eileen Roehr, and  Leslie Tyson enough for the great job of leadership they showed this past year.  We are fortunate Terry and Mary will remain on your Board for another year to help make a smooth transition.   
 
At our July 11 Board meeting, we will renew our Board and Staff covenant and focus on religious education, hiring the interim RE director and planning for the search for a permanent RE director.  The other big task to accomplish this summer is finding a permanent administrative person.  We are working with Reverend Gingrich to examine position descriptions for sister RE churches and collect valuable insights from Erin regarding her administrative support needs for our mission programs (worship, RE, pastoral care, and social outreach) and important enabling programs such as finance, facilities, communications, and membership.  Our goal is to define this position over the next few weeks and the amount of time it will take to do what we expect in the way of administrative support, and then have a permanent administrative person on board by the end of the summer.  Meanwhile, we are fortunate to have Jennifer Vail to ably fill in until we find the right permanent person.  
 
 In August we will hold the annual Board retreat to lay out our vision and plans for the coming church year.  Many of the congregation attended General Assembly and are collecting their notes on what they learned and how we can carry these insights to the congregation as a whole.  They will be presenting their ideas to your Board prior to our retreat.  If you have suggestions about topics your Board's retreat should cover, please send them to Tom Day and me before the end of July.
 
Sincerely,
 
Paul Cohen

Two Years in Review - Terry Mitchell, Board President

It seems like just yesterday I was reading Ed McClaran’s words in his final column as President, “I can’t believe how quickly the last two years as your president have passed,” and now I am saying the same thing.  And Ed was so right when he pointed out what a privilege it was to be UUCR’s President.  It was great fun for me (at least 95 percent of the time).  We accomplished a lot: bid goodbye to longtime co-ministers; were stirred and sometimes angered (in a necessary way) by an interim minister; and welcomed, ordained, and installed our bright, young, and sometimes irreverent current minister.  We built, dedicated, and so happily occupied our new east wing (and once again rejuvenated what is now called the west wing).  We said goodbye to our long-time Religious Education Director and Office Administrator, and will complete transitions to successors in the coming year.  We celebrated our 40th Anniversary as a congregation with special services and parties.  And we adopted our first 5-year strategic plan and made major strides in satisfying some of its commitments and goals.
  We still have much to do.  Our strategic plan lays out many more ambitious goals.  We have given much to our members and to our community, but there are many more people for us to reach with the worship, music, education, and other programs of the “best church in Reston.”  I appreciate all the support you have given me, the Board, the Staff, and UUCR in the past 2 years.  Thank you!