Upcoming Birthdays
February
February 10 Laura Chilkott
February 12 Nancy McCormick
February 15 David Lang
February 21 Al Fregin

March 
March 3 Sharon Herr
March 6 Amber Smith
March 8 Pat Gadbaw
March 9 Katy Baker
March 11 Dana Jacobsen
March 19 Laurel Moehring


 

CO-PRESIDENT’S ARTICLE

Semi-Annual Meeting, January 20, 2019 Summary of Fiscal Year to Date

It’s been an eventful six months for the Community Unitarian Universalist Church at 403 West Street, New Smyrna Beach as we’ve worked toward making this building into a real church home and becoming part of this community.  

Co-Presidents
In June you voted to embark on a totally new concept of Board leadership – co-presidents.  For the past six months this new collaboration has gone through both successes, trials and tribulations.  But it survives and is becoming a good working relationship.  Connie and I come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives.  She is a long-time church member and I am a relatively new comer.  We bring to this joint leadership position different attributes and strengths; different foibles and flaws.  These differing points of view, hopefully, make us stronger.  I do know one fundamentally important thing, we are united in our love for this church and our desire to help it achieve success, for it to grow and to thrive.  

The Board 
The Board is the brains of this church.  Everything in this Semi-Annual Update results from discussions and/or approvals at Board meetings over the past six months.  The Board has made new policy decisions regarding the display and distribution of campaign materials on church property and what is acceptable as an annual pledge contribution.  A policy book and the meeting minute books are maintained by the Board secretary and kept in the church office.  
Committees are the workhorse of any church, but especially for a lay lead congregation.  In September a Committee Workshop was held to offer support and to request committees hone their mission statements.  Individual board members now attend meetings and act as liaisons.  In the past six months some committees have flourished and others struggle.  When the same people have to serve on several committees due to lack of participation, this is what occurs.  Those diligent volunteers are spread too thin and get burnt out.  Everything in this update was initiated and implemented through the hard work of either an unnamed individual and/or an unnamed committee.  If you cannot identify yourself as being a contributor to this report and you want this church to survive, I urge you to get involved.  

Advertising
Advertising has played a big role in the increasing attendance in our church.  The FY 2018/19 Advertising Budget was substantially increased for just that purpose.  Many of the events in this report were promoted either on social media, on the radio, and in print advertising/fliers or all three.  Over the past six months we’ve utilized both paid advertising and free press releases in local and regional publications.  This fall our church brochure and flier were reprinted with updated information and pictures.  In an attempt to monitor which form of advertising successfully brings in visitors, our sign-in sheet was redesigned to capture “how did you hear about us?” information.
 
Attendance
Our Sunday services/speakers have been of a consistently high quality, and we are becoming better known in the community.  This accounts for the 73 visitors who have signed our book over the past six months.  Of the 19 Sunday’s total attendance information was recorded, we’ve had 557 people enter our doors and averaged 30 people each service.

Our physical space
Inside - Having a handicapped bathroom has always been at the top of our priority list, but it is now being vigorously pursued due to the personal requests of several of our members.  We want our church and its facilities to be accessible to everyone.  
Our building’s electrical system has been updated and is now much safer and much more user friendly with the addition of new outlets and circuit breakers for the foyer, sanctuary, and kitchen.  When you enjoy that cup of coffee on Sunday mornings, long-gone is the worry that two coffee pots plugged into the same outlet will blow a fuse.  

Through the hard work and expertise of a lot of dedicated people, we now have fewer “technical difficulties” for our on screen presentations on Sunday mornings and at special events.  This results from many volunteers’ hours of honing our system.  And thank you to those who pulled and untangled wires while crawling around in the hot cramped ceiling.  Kudos to you who have spent time evaluating the condition of the inherited electronic equipment to establish prices and for your continuing sales efforts.  We also thank those folks who have either taught, learned, or are teaching the proper use of the AV equipment for presentations.  

In September the Board designated uses for the two small rooms.  The old AV room is now our new church office and we are working to make it a suitable place to store our records and conduct our business.  It has been improved.  Remember when we had to pull the door shut so visitors entering the foyer weren’t greeted by a dark, gloomy, scary black dungeon.  Now when the office door is left open visitors are greeted by a newly painted white room, illuminated by light shining through a window (a window, by the way, many did not even know existed).  

Our back room will eventually become the children’s space.  In that effort your Board is talking about contemporary safety issues – background checks for teachers, glass doors to provide maximum visibility; etc.  We’ve retrieved long stored children’s religious education material and are evaluating it for current usefulness.  

Outside
We’ve benefited from free grass cuttings.  Volunteers have raked our yard several times.  We’ve pulled weeds, pruned vegetation, and added foliage.  Because New Smyrna Beach is a Monarch Butterfly City, we started a butterfly garden.  Our building now has rain gutters and rain barrels so we can economically and environmentally water in the dry season.  The old, rotten wooden picnic tables were refurbished.  The shed was sprayed for an ant infestation and the church interior/exterior for fleas.
 
And because we have respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, we’ve begun our pursuit of achieving Green Sanctuary Congregation Certification by using recyclable or compostable products and becoming more energy efficiency.
 
Raising Funds
Some of our ideas to raise funds have borne fruit and others have not; but we’ve tried, and we’ve learned from each experience.  We wanted to build a brick path to enhance our exterior and to honor founders/friends, and members.  This project did not stack up because the construction cost was not conducive to making a profit.  We’ve explored renting space in our church to host special events; but after evaluating our competition we concluded our church needs significant improvements to be competitive in that market.  Our silent auction is ongoing and has had some success, so much so that future profits are earmarked for funding smaller church improvements.  Online sales efforts were scaled back due to the lack of a person to provide oversight.  Electronic equipment sales continue and have resulted in some profit.  In-house refrigerator magnet sales are ongoing.  Bake sales have brought in some dollars mainly because all UU’s love to eat.  

Outreach
Community Participation – We’ve been a part of the Interfaith & Community Night (Daytona Tortugas), NSB Police Department Toy Drive, Interfaith Meeting at Florida Hospital, Methodist Church Thanksgiving Meal, and the Volusia Pride Fest.  A church delegation attended the installation of Reverend Kathy Tew-Rickey, UU Church, Ormond Beach.  Our chosen outreach program is Cudas Unhooked – and in the past six months, we’ve attended their open house and meetings, hosted a fundraiser, become involved in their mentor program, and contributed to their scholarship.  Our help for HUM (Halifax Urban Ministry) continues; the collection box is located in the foyer.  

Events for our congregation and the community – There have been a lot of these: the First Anniversary Celebration; pot lucks; November Art & Music Festival benefiting Cudas; Reiki Healing Orientation; Hobby Club; Women’s Healing Circle; Labyrinth Walk; Book Club; Dream Circle; Tibetan Buddhist Lama talk; Constitutional Amendments Meeting; and contributions to the UUA Chalice Lighter Program.
 
The Bequest
In late September we learned of the Carlyn G. Hamilton/Carl J. Covell Trust Disbursement benefiting our church.  In October the Board voted to use this gift to help pay off our balloon mortgage.  On December 31, 2018 we were gifted with a check in the amount of $24,006.65.  In January the Board voted to use a portion of our savings to completely payoff our mortgage.  But there is still much to do - to survive, this church needs both money and participation.  I conclude with this -- 
If you are proud of this church, become its advocate.
If you are concerned for its future, share its message.
If its values resonate deep within you, give it a measure of your devotion.

This church cannot survive without your faith, your confidence your enthusiasm, and your participation.
Its destiny, the larger hope, rests in your hands.  

Kathi Smith
Co-President