President's Message March 2010

Congregational Survey

On page 6 of this issue of The Call you will find our UUCUV Vision Statement that the congregation approved in 2005, two years before our Strategic Plan was adopted. Both documents were written following a period of tremendous transition for this congregation, as we moved from a part-time to a full-time ministry.

Five years have passed since that vision was articulated, and more than three since the Strategic Plan was laid out, wherein it was stated, “All plans are constantly changing, whether they be the plans of individuals or of organizations. All plans must adapt to changing circumstances or become irrelevant.” The Board feels strongly that now is the time to revisit the premises expressed in those documents, to determine their relevancy to our current circumstances.

To that end, the Board is working with all the committees, and in particular with the Committee on Ministry, to construct a survey for all congregation members and friends; those who are currently active, and those who have chosen in the past few years to distance themselves from our UUCUV community. We are hoping to get a better sense of the answers to the same three questions that guided the construction of the Strategic Plan: Who are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?

Clearly one of the main assertions in the Strategic Plan was that we would contruct a new building. Are we still moving toward that goal together? What kind of congregation do we need to be in order for that to happen? What needs to be happening?

For this survey to have any validity, we need responses. We have not yet determined exactly how the survey will be getting to you, but by whatever means, I am asking you, please, take the time to respond. Rev. Barbara Child, who served as our interim minister prior to Rev. Bruce coming to us, said in her report on The State of the Congregation “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. Are you content with that? If not, what steps will you take to change it?” In order to answer these questions, we need to hear from you!

Joan Nierenberg, President