June 21, 2010 PruComm meeting actions

On June 21, the Prudential Committee met at 5pm (to accommodate the UUA's exit interview about Rev. Merritt's time with our church, which we reconvened to conduct at 7pm).

Among the regular business this month, we received our first report from Cindy Cordova, chair of the Religious Education Futures Task Force. This group of five is working on issues of staffing and transition in the RE program following upon the happy news that our DRE, Sierra-Marie Gerfao, has been accepted to commence her studies for the ministry at Yale Divinity School. Sierra-Marie will continue to serve as our full-time DRE for the coming year (2010-2011), but where we go from there in RE is wide-open. Cindy's initial report included two actionable recommendations: 1) that the RE Committee at First Unitarian recruit an infusion of enthusiastic talent and humanpower, on the order of 7-10 additional members beyond its current two members; 2) that a DRE Search Commmittee should be formed by September to initiate the process of searching for Sierra-Marie's successor (prospective date of hire = August 2011, or as soon as possible thereafter). The Task Force will continue to work through the summer investigating alternative staffing models, and what their associated costs might entail.

PruComm also received a "final" report on the Strategic Planning work that has been accomplished since February 2009 by the members of Vivian Shortreed's ad hoc committee. This report included recommendations that the Lay Leadership Council take full responsibility for carrying the new goal-setting and planning processes forward; that the recently approved Vision 2015 statement be incorporated as a priority in all aspects of church work and decision-making; and that another strategic planning group be composed in 2013 to take stock of where we are by then, and consider what else needs to be built into the planning for the transition beyond Rev. Schade's tenure as our Eleventh Minister.

Finally, the one actual decision made at the June PruComm meeting: a motion was approved unanimously to allocate the entire $275 remaining out of the May 2 "local charities" plate collection to the Regional Environmental Council of Central Massachusetts, specifically to support YouthGrow program, which employs and provides leadership training to urban youth, while teaching them to practice organic farming techniques in Worcester's community gardens.

PruComm may come together to meet again in July and/or August to stay on top of other pending matters of concern and interest (-pace of summer fundraising, decision on when to go-ahead on the hiring of a RE Youth Coordinator, introduction of our new Intern Minister). Potential agenda items for Executive Commmittee review should be communicated to davidspanagel@comcast.net by July 13 (and/or August 10) for consideration at these extra summer committee meetings of the leadership, if they are deemed necessary.