Newsletter

I have two important issues to address in my note to you this month. The first is to let you all know that our office administrator, Ellen Wool, will be leaving her position at the Fellowship on April 7. I'd like to thank Ellen for her 10 years of service to the Fellowship and wish her well as she starts in the office at Habitat for Humanity. Ellen's departure means that we will all need to pitch in and pick up the many balls that she has juggled for us all these years. It also means that we will need to be patient with each other as we learn new ways of doing things.

Second, this month and on May 1, we will live out one of the most important tenets of our Unitarian Universalist beliefs, that of our radical congregational polity. Polity is a fancy word for governance. We do not have anyone over us to tell us how to operate our congregation. It is the members of the congregation who call their minister, vote on their budget and contribute the funds to implement that budget. And so, it all rests on our shoulders. Over the years members of this congregation have turned more responsibility for programming over to staff and more of the daily operations over to a paid accounting service and an office manager. This was often necessary as our needs became more complex. Yet it can also be dangerous as we forget that it is we and only we who create this community of ours. When hired people do the work, it becomes easy to start thinking of the Fellowship less as a community being constantly created by the people and more like as a fast food restaurant that we stop by on Sunday mornings, when the menu looks appealing.

What we are trying to do here is very counter cultural; we're trying to create a place where we celebrate our differences and everyone has a voice. With that voice comes responsibility. On the island that he grew up on, Alastair MacIntosh tells how the economic ideas of the people changed over time. He says that when he was young, fishermen returning from the sea would drop off a fish at each house on the way home, knowing that when they were in need their neighbors would provide for them. He describes this as a system based on reciprocity the community gave to sustain itself. Then when more products started being imported to the island they would trade their fish for goods. The economic process shifted to a barter system, people gave expecting something in return. Then a fish packing plant opened up on shore and fishermen began selling their fish for cash and buying what they needed, often off the island. This move to a cash economy ended all sense of economic support of the community; it was everyone for themselves. People stopped taking responsibility for the community and the community began to unravel.

The kind of reciprocal relationship speaks directly to our principle of interdependence. Each of us supports and is supported by the other. This means in the work that we do, and in the contributions of money that we make to the Fellowship. Without this reciprocal relationship, the project fails. Last month I led a "Welcome Wagon" event for three new UU congregations. At the end of the event one of the participants said, "I've been holding back really supporting my new congregation — waiting to see if it was going to make it. Now I realize that I need to participate fully and be part of helping it succeed."

Each of us is part of helping the mission of the Fellowship succeed. Pledging to our annual operating budget is one way each of us helps. This month we will continue to process begun by the pledge drive. On Sun., Apr. 3, the Sunday program will explore what our budget should represent and what direction the congregation wants our programming to take during the next year. This is necessary as several of the key areas emphasized over the years cannot be funded with the current amount of contributions, in spite of many generous pledges that resulted in an increase of almost 8 percent from last year. Unfortunately, that increase does not meet the level of the deficit budget approved last year. The board, who as our representative body will craft the budget, needs more input from the congregation to draft it. Of course the final say comes from the members, who vote on the budget at the May 1 congregational meeting. It is our responsibility to be at that meeting so we are contributing to the creative process at the center of our free faith.

Please let your board members know about your desires for the direction of our Fellowship. Please continue to participate in this process. They want to represent each voice fairly and accurately as they make the difficult decisions regarding how to apportion the funds we have for our programs.

See you on Sunday,

Brian

Throughout this year, we have engaged each other in conversation about what we value and how that translates into visions for our Fellowship. Together, we've embraced a new model for a Director of Youth and Children's Ministries. We've redefined our expectations for our office coordinator. We've articulated a plan for fairly compensating all our personnel. We've nodded assent about the value of our ties with our partner church and the opportunities afforded by our district and our national association. And so far, there has been much agreement.

I suspect that may often be the case when program areas are considered one at a time. We extract one tile at a time from a pile and polish it with care until it is brimming with possibility. Then we place it in our mosaic and start in with another piece. Eventually, we find that the tiles are too many to fit in the frame we have built. And so it is with our work this year. While it appears our pledge income will be up almost 8 percent, it will not be enough to cover all the visions we have expressed. We have, until now, considered program areas in isolation. We must now weigh them against each other and search for our greatest common values, our greatest common goals.

The board began this exercise in late March, returning to our mission statement to guide us: "We are a caring community of diverse individuals who come together to provide an environment that nurtures and educates our children, stimulates the study and practice of ethical and liberal religious ideals, supports the creative spirit in us all, and demonstrates concern for the environment and the broader community." As we move through April, we will ask all of you to help meld our various visions into one common, attainable vision. Please show up. Form an opinion. Share your thoughts. Participation is at the very heart of who we are and how we operate as a religious community. The questions - and the answers - belong to all of us.

Brenda

Will all committee chairs with active committees please submit an annual report to the Fellowship office by Monday, April 4. Please contact Brenda Witherspoon if you can not have it in by that time.

The annual meeting of the UU Fellowship of Ames is scheduled for Sun., May 1. We need a quorum of 20% of active Fellowship members to vote. Agenda items include: presentation of annual report, election of members for the Board of Directors and the nominating and endowment / acquisitions and disbursements committees (see next column), consideration of bylaws revisions, and consideration of the 2005-06 budget.

President: Brenda Witherspoon, renewed term, through 2006

Vice President: Sue Ellen Tuttle, renewed term, through 2006

Past President: Rich Van Valin, renewed term, through 2006

Co-Treasurers: Joan Mathews and Mary Richards, renewed term, through 2006

Secretary: Trevor Nelson, new term, through 2006

Board Members :

Barb Abbott, starts second two-year term, through 2007

Wayne Beal, continues two-year term, through 2006

Peggy Earnshaw, continues two-year term, through 2006

Leslie Hanft, continues two-year term, through 2006

Janet Klaas, starts two-year term, through 2007

Ken Lane, starts two-year term, through 2007

Nominating Committee, all one-year terms

Joe Eisenmann (first year)

Ann Pierce (second year)

Liz Weber (second year)

Endowment

Phil O'Berry, starts five-year term

You are encouraged to register for and attend this year's PSD Conference, held in St. Paul, MN, April 8-10. Come join in experiencing our broader UU community.

Flyers and registration forms are on the pamphlet rack in the Fireside Room. The conference is April 8-10 at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel in St. Paul, MN. Unity Church-Unitarian in St. Paul is hosting this event.

Please contact Sam Wormley if you are interested in attending or have questions.

First Friday Family Fellowship Fun has been rolled into Wellspring Wednesdays for April and May. Join us at 6 PM, Apr. 20, for a meal and board games during the interim week between class sessions. Call the office by Mon., Apr. 18, to be part of the food count.

Potlucks will be held April 15-17. Please contact Bobbie Warman, if you would like to attend or host a potluck. We need hosts!

Rose Slivka wrote in Craft Horizon: "The poem for which time is primary and the thing for which space is essential complement each other.  The object is the visual metaphor, the poem its audible one. The object provides thereness, a physical place. The poem breathes and gives voice, singing and chanting the metaphor, the image."

Jean Hagert Dow

In March, WOW will meet on the 3rd Monday, Apr. 18, at 7 PM in the tower room. To join us, or for more information, contact Lynn Avant or Carole Kazmierski.

UU Women's Book Group will meet Mon., Apr. 4at 7 PM  in the UUFA Tower Room. We will discuss Unless by Carol Shields. Ours is an open group, and we welcome new members at any time.

Meetings are held the first Monday of each month. Please join us in our lively discussions.  Barbi Greenlaw.

5/2/05 Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni

6/6/05 In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien

The Memorials and Gifts Committee has been established by the UUFA Board of Directors to compassionately assist individuals and families in the UUFA community to memorialize and honor their loved ones through gifts to the Fellowship. In addition, this group will assure that long range plans of the UUFA buildings, grounds, and programming needs are met appropriately through these memorials and gifts. Contact the UUFA Office or any of the four memorials and gifts committee members for guidance and help in this process. Lynn Avant; Kay Berger; Lynne Van Valin; Susan Franzen.

Each week, half of our Sunday offering is shared with a non-profit agency in recognition of our place in the greater community. The organization chosen for April is Story County free dental clinic.

Reminder: If you want your Sunday offering check to count toward your pledge (either operating budget or building fund), please write that on the memo line of your check.  Any undesignated checks will be counted 1/2 toward the operating budget and 1/2 toward the charitable organization of the month.

This group will meet Apr. 5 & 19 from 7-9 PM at the Fellowship. New members are welcome.

April is RE (religious education) month! We invite everyone in the congregation to stop by our table which will be set up during April. While there you can, review our brochure for next year, look at curricula for next year, review and/or update your child's registration form, and sign up for volunteer opportunities such as teaching on Sunday mornings. You may want to know more about what teaching in RE entails, and I invite you to visit a classroom, or several classrooms and watch the present teachers in action. You may find a certain age group appeals to you more than another. Think about asking a friend or partner to teach with you. Starting in September our 1-6th grade classes will focus on Jewish-Christian teachings, earth centered spirituality, UUism, and women in UUism.

This month in children's RE (1st-3rd) we're exploring African religious traditions. We hope to do some drumming and dancing and learn from people who have been to Africa. We finished with our focus on Islam for the most part although some of us have crafts to finish. African religious traditions are many and varied and not easily categorized. From my limit- ed knowledge I understand that a sense of community and kinship is an integral part of almost all of the traditions, as is a strong connection with the earth. Many contemporary Africans practice Christianity and others practice Islam. Some have meshed either of these with tribal religions.

Dates to remember:

April 2 — Boston task force meeting at 10.

April 17 — All congregation service.

April 27 — Coming of Age forum at 6:30.

I will be out of town attending the professionals' retreat and the PSD annual conference from April 6-10. Please contact Sharon McGuire, RE chair, with questions.

Benette

Stop by the RE table to review curricula, sign up to teach in RE classes, update registration forms, or ask questions. Your help with the children and youth of the Fellowship is much appreciated.

Coming of Age youth are collecting cans and bottles on Sun., Apr. 10, to help fund the Boston Heritage Trip. Bring your cans and bottles to the lower lobby on  April 10 or sign up for afternoon curbside pick up. Your donations are appreciated.

The Coming of Age youth group has raised $8,135 towards their $12,000 goal for the Boston Heritage Tour this summer. These funds will be used to charter a bus for the trip and to cover meal and lodging expenses. Look for upcoming fundraisers, including:

• T-Shirt Sale — to wear and show your support for the Coming of Age youth
• May 8: Mother's Day Lunch - Treat your Mom on her special day.

We appreciate the support of the congregation and ask that you continue to assist us to reach our goal. Check out the following web site for more information and updates about the trip: http://www.bostonorbust.blogspot.com

The Nursery needs YOU!  We need adults to be substitute nursery volunteers during the 11:00 services. We need 4-6 people for each service, so that volunteers can take turns. If you like to play with blocks, sign up in the Nursery or contact Bonnie Bowen or Benette Sherman at the Fellowship.

Dianne & Dick Mumm for help with newsletter labels.

Joan Mathews, Jean Dow, Ginny Huntington, and Roger Berger for minding the office while Ellen was on vacation.

Art Exhibition Committee: Contact Ellen Wool, 292-5960, Jean Hagert Dow, or e-mail to uufa@uufames.org.

Caring and Human Concerns Committee: Coordinates the caring efforts of the congregation during members' times of personal crisis and celebration. This includes visits and phone calls; sending flowers, cards and food; transportation or emergency help with child care or grocery shopping. The committee will also provide a list of individuals or agencies helping with a specific need. Please call Trish Strah or Lynne Van Valin if we can assist you.

Social Action & Responsibility Committee — Environmental Action 7 PM, Mar. 16. All are welcome.

Archives Committee: Please contact interim chair Susan Franzen.

Historical Jesus Group meets the 3rd Sunday of each month at 7 PM. Please call Marty Helland for specifics. The group is reading In Search of Paul by John Dominic Crossan.

Morning Meditation meets regularly each Tuesday and Thursday at 7 AM in Fellowship Hall for a 40-minute sitting session.

UUFA Recorder group rehearses Fridays at 1:30 PM in Fellowship Hall. Please contact Peggy Earnshaw for more information.

The next meeting of the Partner Church Committee will be Tues., Apr. 5, 7PM, in the UUFA Library. Topics — partner communications, sharing church history, plan for display of gift plaque, ground work for covenant. New members are always welcome.

The UU Women's Writing Group will meet Mon., Apr. 11 at 7 PM in the Tower Room. Please submit your writing to the email list a week or more before that date so the group can review the writing. We plan to do some writing exercises during our next few meetings. Be prepared to be spontaneous! Future meetings will be the second Monday of the month. Contact Barbi Greenlaw.

Future meetings: The board has revised its meeting schedule for the rest of the year to work around Wellspring Wednesdays in April and May. The new dates are April 20 and May 25.

March meetings: The board met twice in March, once to handle routine business and once in a budget workshop with members of the Finance Committee.

RE position: During these meetings, the board endorsed a new vision for RE professional staff, approving a 40-hour position, Director of Youth and Children's Ministry, covering nursery through high school.

Library Endowment: The board heard a proposal for a library endowment and instructed the existing endowment committee to continue the conversation with the Bergers to work out the final details.

Budget: Because budget requests outpaced growth in projected income, the board discussed how to best balance our fellowship's various interests and agreed to continue the conversation with the congregation at large before recommending a 2005-06 budget.

Thanks to Tom Muhlenbruch, we now have current published lists of materials in the Dustin Berger Memorial Library! We have lists by author, by title, and by accession number. They are in a binder on the library shelf. Give it a look. There's some clean-up to do, but it's a wonderful start!

We continue to have work sessions in the library once a month. And we're also open for committee members, if this appeals to you as a way you'd like to support the fellowship. Our next committee meeting is Sat., Apr. 9 at 9:30, and the work session is from 10:30 - 11:30. Hope to see you.

Items most needed include canned vegetables, protein beans (pork and beans, baked beans, chili beans, etc.), canned soup, boxed meals, rice, boxed potatoes, stuffing, crackers, and spaghetti sauce. We also need diapers (sizes 4, 5, and 6). For more information, please call Alissa Stoehr, MICA Food Pantry Coordinator.

MICA is looking for volunteers to help in the food pantry.  We need help stocking shelves, bringing over donations from our storage area to the pantry, and filling bags for families.  If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Alissa Stoehr, MICA Food Pantry Coordinator.

Cooks are needed through Spring and Summer for the Emergency Residence Shelter for the homeless. For over 18 years, this Fellowship has cooked and served meals at the ERS on Tuesday evenings. Thank you to all who have participated.

A sign-up sheet is at a table near the membership table, or please phone Dianne Mumm.

We are serving fair trade coffee every Sunday now.  For additional information, see the coffee table.

Heart Politics—an affinity/action/reflection group of UUFA members and friends—meets every Sunday at 4 PM in the Tower Room. We support and nurture each other in our personal joys and challenges, individual efforts at community activism, and spiritual growth. The meetings are open to anyone who's interested, and you are invited and encouraged to join us! For more information, contact Marcia Brink.

Last month in this Corner, I appealed for your help in revitalizing our environmental action group. I also sent postcards to more than 20 members of the Fellowship inviting them to a meeting to discuss environmental concerns and activities in the fellowship and the community at large. The invitations were sent to members who have indicated on pledge cards that they were interested in environmental issues. Two people showed up, Ken Lane and I .

Ken and I talked about the Green Sanctuary program that was started about two years ago and ideas for projects that originated with that effort. A few of these ideas were the "green" bulletin board in the fireside room, removal of invasive species from our grounds, construction of rain gardens to better retain storm water from our roofs and parking lots, the dream of a green roof on our new addition, infusion of environmental education into our religious education curricula and Sunday morning programs, and community outreach.

Mary Doud, Ken Lane and Lynne Van Valin worked diligently to get our green sanctuary program approved by the UUA at the national level. Ken Lane built a movable bulletin board and new topics of environmental interest were changed every month or two. Creating new displays depended on one or two people, who eventually ran out of materials and energy. So, it is not surprising that the "green" board has been usurped for other uses.

Last spring, Ken Lane, Fritz Franzen, Chad Eells and I cut buckthorn from around the parking lot and in back of the building. Although progress was made, we were not able to finish the job. Other ideas have remained as ideas for lack of interested individuals to carry them out. Many of us practice outreach by joining environmental organizations and a few of us volunteer to help restore prairies, sample water, and pick up trash.

Protection of the environment is one of our UU principles and, if we did a poll among Fellowship members, most would agree that this is an important principle. Yet, it seems that most members of this Fellowship don't consider environment to be a high enough priority in their lives to attend planning meetings, let alone carry out those plans. Like all important causes, environmental activism requires commitment and perseverance at whatever level you choose to work. I am concerned that environmental activism in this Fellowship will not survive without new leadership and new followers. Are you ready to step up?

Almost 50 UUs marched and rallied for peace in Ames on March 20, the second anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. Our youth groups were especially well represented.

Ames was one of more than 700 communities in the country and dozens of cities around the world that held similar events on March 19 and 20. Together, we are calling for the U.S. to end its occupation in Iraq and our militaristic foreign policy and to divert military resources to social, economic, and environmental challenges. Thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who, in one way or another, expressed your support and concern. — Marcia Brink.

********************************************

Become a more effective advocate for social change. Are you feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of economic, environmental, social, and political challenges we're facing? Do you want to improve your effectiveness as an agent for social change? This event is for you: April 17, IAF congregational informational meetings, 12-2PM, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames.

What's this about? On January 30, Beverly Reddick spoke to our congregation about the IAF (Industrial Areas Foundation), a grassroots, long-term, broad-based approach to community organizing for creating social change. In February, 50 people from seven faith communities in Story County met with Paul Turner, organizer with the Des Moines IAF affiliate, to explore the idea of using IAF as a vehicle for improving the effectiveness of grassroots organizing in Story County. Paul met with us again in March for some coaching in community building.

The next meeting is critical. The success of IAF's approach to community organizing relies on strong commitments of participation and support from faith communities. Why might UUFA want to make such a commitment? What would it entail? What would it mean for individual members?

Paul Turner will answer these and other questions at congregational informational meetings on Sun, Apr. 17. The first will be from noon to 2PM at UUFA. (If you can't make that event, you have two other opportunities: from 2:30-4:30 PM at Bethesda Lutheran Church, and from 5-7 PM at St. Thomas Aquinas.)

In loving community,

Marcia Brink, Co-chair, Social Responsibility and Action Committee.

The Time is Now! — Pledge Drive  Update

While we are still accepting pledges and gifts, we take this opportunity to thank individuals who gave so much time, effort and enthusiasm to the success of the Spring 2005 Pledge Drive. Through their efforts, we can all look forward to a good year together in '05-'06. More than 90 percent of our budget comes from this one campaign, so it is clear how very important it is to the future of our UU community.

To a large extent, what we are and what we can do in the next year is dependent on the success of the pledge drive. Thanks to many generous individuals, we expect to exceed last year's campaign total! Still, we face some challenges in reconciling our wants and needs with our resources. In the coming months, our leaders and staff will provide opportunities for us to consider how we care for each other and the larger community in the context of our financial giving.

Special thanks to:

Coordination: Ginny and Stu Huntington, Liz Weber

Data management, receipts, pledge envelopes: Dorothy Lewis

Publications and packets: Lynn Avant, Karol Crosbie, James Pritchard, Jane Vallier, Liz Weber

Presentations: Joanne Barnes, Peggy Earnshaw, Stu Huntington, Shaun Keister, Ken Lane, Doug Marek, James Pritchard, Joan Mathews, Mary Richards, Liz Weber

Phoning, follow-up: Bobbie Warman, Susan Franzen, Ginny and Stu Huntington, Mary Richards, Liz Weber

Pledge tracking: James Pritchard

Minister:
Office Manager
E-mail address:
Interim Religious Ed Director
Custodian
Youth Coordinator

President:
Vice-President:
Past President:
Co-Treasurers:
Secretary:

Brian Eslinger
Ellen Wool—office line
uufa@uufames.org FAX:
Benette Sherman
Isaiah Cunnally
Benette Sherman

Brenda Witherspoon
Sue Ellen Tuttle
Rich Van Valin
Mary Richards & Joan Mathews
Lynne Van Valin

292-5960; 292-8929 (direct)
292-5960; 292-0456 (fax)

292-5960
292-5960
292-5960

BOARD MEMBERS

Barb Abbott (2005)
Wayne Beal (2006)
Peggy Earnshaw (2006)
Leslie Hanft (2006)
Dallas Thies (2005)
Fred Vallier (2005)
Nancy Schroeder-RE Rep
Carter Slagell (Youth Rep)