NEWS FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Thank you for your participation in the Congregational Annual Meeting. You voted into office the following volunteers to serve the congregation starting May 1st. Please thank these members for their willingness to serve when you see them.
Endowment Committee: Carol Baxter, Paul Ward, Lauren Furst, Frank Smith, Dick Hattwick
Nominating Committee: Chari Campbell, Barbara Hatzfeld, Pam Hughes
Board of Trustees: Peter Koos, Vangie Gruen, Coleen Conway, and Chris Juhl as Trustees, Rhonda Kessler as Clerk, Jesse Walters as Vice President, and Suzanne Schluter as President
There are two vitally important discussions that were not on our agenda for the annual meeting – our Covid-19 response and our upcoming Ministerial Search.
Our Covid-19 Response
In regards to our Covid-19 response, we are at a time of great change. The UUA has stopped, as of January, offering nationwide pandemic mitigation strategies for congregations. A few weeks ago, the CDC announced an entirely new community assessment system with new metrics for visualizing the risk of the disease in any given county. The State of Florida last week moved from reporting cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on a weekly basis to reporting conditions only once every two weeks. The CovidActNow website, which our own color system is based on, may soon be changing from its five color system to the CDC’s new three color system.
Our Reopening Task Force has continually monitored and responded to the pandemic and our changing circumstances as a congregation, proposing five incremental amendments to its building use guidelines, which the Board adopted, since the guidelines were enacted back in May. The changes mentioned at the state and federal level will now require a significant (if not complete) overhaul of the pandemic use guidelines and we are looking for community input as we adapt to these changes as a congregation.
There will be a survey sent out to congregants in the next week or two, asking questions about how you attend services and how our Covid guidelines may impact your decision making. Please help us by filling out that survey when it arrives. Secondly, our Reopening Task Force meetings are open to the public. The next one will be on Thursday, April 14th at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom. I encourage you, if you have input to share with the taskforce or are interested in the deliberative process that group goes through, to put it on your calendar to attend.
Our Upcoming Ministerial Search
Over the next two months, we will also be addressing our upcoming Ministerial Search as a congregation, in preparation of calling our next minister for August 1st, 2023. There will be a series of cottage meetings as well as at least one special congregational meeting to make decisions and invest a ministerial search team. More information about those meetings will be coming in the next couple weeks.
Please have patience with us, with our process, as we have a lot of heavy lifting to do and a lot of time sensitive but deep conversations to have as a congregation. This busy time falls in April, when one Board is handing over to the new, and in May, when our new Board meets as a body for the first time. This spring will be a busy time at 1stUUPB!
The 1stUUPB Board of Trustees meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm via Zoom. All meetings are open to the public. To join, go to our website 1stuupb.org and click on the green “1stUUPB Zoom Meeting” button. Our next scheduled meeting is on April 19th.
Contact the Board
The Board now has an official email address where congregants can reach out to the trustees. If you are unable to attend our monthly meetings you may submit a statement through the email address to be read as part of the Public Comments section of the agenda.
Feel free to reach out!