March PruComm meeting report

Last night wasn't exactly a marathon meeting (thankfully) but we managed to conduct a lot of business, and we saw a lot of foot traffic. Highlights included:
- The Future Ministries Task Force made its first monthly report, and having met with Rev. Merritt earlier in the afternoon, the members of the Task Force were meeting with Reverend Schade while the PruComm was also in session (a few people even performed the miracle of being in two places at once!).
- Two expenditures from the Heritage Fund monies donated in honor of Dr. Peter Levine were approved: (1) the purchase and installation of a plaque to commemorate our parish's formal vote to become a Welcoming Congregation to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people (Dr. Levine had been the chair and passionate advocate of this effort); and (2) the purchase of automatic external defibrillator (AED) equipment and institution of a training program to be able to respond on site to cardiac arrests.
- An expenditure out of the Organ Fund was approved, to match contributions from the operating music budget, so that necessary maintenance can be performed on both our grand Steinway pianos and on the organ itself.
- Jesse Anderson was appointed to serve as Chair of the Denominational Affairs committee (a standing committee at First Unitarian that has lacked an active membership in recent years).
- A presentation by Marjorie Ropp on the activities and the mission of the Center for Nonviolent Solutions induced the PruComm to endorse the idea of establishing a relationship between First Unitarian and this educational resource center located in Worcester; the task of investigating appropriate ways of funding an "institutional membership" in the CNS was referred back to Finance Committee.