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From your Board of Directors and from me, thank-you to everyone who helped make this year’s May 19 annual meeting a success! Of our 340 Fellowship members this year, 115 attended the Annual Meeting either in person or online, fulfilling the requirement for a quorum of voting members – 85.

Those present and voting affirmed the Board’s management of Fellowship finances, and approved three changes in the UUFC Bylaws: formalizing the Committee on Ministry as part of the bylaws (111 yes, 2 no), removing the language of “Business Manager” and replacing it with “designated staff” (110 yes, 1 no) and adding language to Article 7 on Indemnity, “except in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct (113 yes).

In a straw poll to discover perspectives of Fellowship members on the proposed changes to the UUA Bylaws, Article 2, which includes changes to the current Principles and Sources, 78 of those present and voting indicated support, and 28 indicated non-support. This information will inform our delegates to the UUA General Assembly in June, where voting on this proposal will take place. The Fellowship does not instruct its delegates on how to vote, but we do provide as much information as possible for each delegate to vote in the best interests of our congregation and of the UUA.

In addition, we thanked outgoing Board members Carl English-Young, Scott Bruslind, and Jema Patterson, and outgoing nominating committee members Ann Marchant, Jed Irvine, Priscilla Galasso and Bonnie Morihara.

By voice vote the following leaders were elected for the 2024-25 year:

They join continuing directors Mary Craven, Gavin Araki, John Bailey and Jack Elder.

Nominating Committee: Heather Thomas, Kris Egan, Kimi Mayo, Jim Good

Committee on Ministry Chair: Mark Aron

Personnel Committee Chair: Elona Meyer

Financial Oversight Council Chair: Russ Karow

For all the next year will bring us, we are ready and moving forward – thanks to all of you.

By the time the Annual Meeting comes around, we’ve once again nearly completed another year in the life of the Fellowship. This is no small thing, especially considering the lingering effects of the pandemic and the state of the world in general. There have been days in the past few years when I truly wondered whether we’d be able to keep this community alive and well. But we have! And we have so much to be thankful for, most of all each other and our shared commitments to being a UU congregation.

I sometimes fantasize about what it would look like if EVERY MEMBER came to the Annual Meeting, every year. What it would be like for ALL of us to gather to acknowledge and thank each other, to discern together what our next priorities are, what the world is now calling us to do. Can you imagine? To think together about how well we’ve lived into our mission. To discuss together needed changes. To encourage one another to stay together and keep going– to trust that what we do here makes a difference. I know that in the real world only some of us will gather. I understand that people have many different ways of being part of the Fellowship, and that not everybody is able, or available, or all that interested in how our small local democracy works. And yet – don’t forget that the life and future of the Fellowship do depend on those who gather – who elect new officers, who affirm that those folks willing and able to serve are living up to our ideals, who hear and take to heart all of our challenges and successes in the past year.

The religious life is nothing if not a life of making commitments. To the many, many of you who do so – some for many years and some just now beginning – my gratitude is deep. I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting on Sunday (May 19) – in person or online – as we do this beautiful work that belongs to us all!