Notes and Next steps from 12.7.14 Meeting

General ideas:

• Reach new members like in Clarksburg
• Greater UU participation in UU circles
•  Social outreach of some sort – scouts, etc – “were here and we can do this” in general
•  What happens to make our dreams feasible?  More space, more money?
• Catch 22 – need more members to keep the space, the space can’t necessarily hold more members
• “Feasibility Matters”
• Homeostasis plus: We can sustain ourselves in excess of turnover (10% per year expected in this area)

 Things we already do:  How do we enrich them? THINKING ASPIRATIONALLY

Worship

•  Full time preaching ministry (3x/mo)
•  And/or consistent, high quality worship
• Guest speakers
•  Music director
• Alternate or special services, not on Sundays
• Services at different times and different formats to meet different needs and schedules

RE

• One of our greatest assets
• RE Director
• Staff particular programs: Coming of Age, Our Whole Lives, youth group (programming for after 7^th grade)
• Find ways to make worship accessible to people who are teaching RE (podcast entire service)
• Teacher training

Property

•            Well maintained, clean (professional housekeeping), attractive property
•            Driveway – get a new estimate for different options and make decisions from there
•            Using property more often for churchy gatherings
•            Non worship service programming (coffeehouse, book clubs, movie night, etc)
•            Expanded occasional parking
•            Gardens to produce food – give food to food bank, offer community garden plots
•            Landscaping to be pretty, cutting garden
•            Memorial garden
•            Buildings are energy efficient, solar panels (could even pay for roof)

Ministry of Fun

•          Campfires (as allowed, firepit okay), barbeques
•          Saturday night functions
•          Youth social activities, lock ins
•          Movie nights
•          Circle Dinner
•          Brew our own beer
•          Off site social activities

o   Approach area restaurants for banquet rooms

o   Happy hours

o   Connect with Germantown Sportsplex or County places to do hiking, soccer, etc, 5K

Member care

•          Succession planning
•          Volunteer training
•          Make the caring we do do more visible
•          Caring committee for those who need additional support, recognize life events
•          Membership coordinator/coordination
•          System for fostering volunteerism in an effective and fun way

o   Volunteer Worksheet Suggestion

Outreach (us making the world better)

• Pick 2-3 community organizations to support with charity Sunday, social justice projects with kids/families, do other things with them to connect
• Social action in the community

Evangelism/ marketing (reaching out to get more members/money)

• Connect with other churches, community groups
• Adopt a road?
• Wear shirts at community events

What’s next?

Figure out where the energy is behind the ideas

• Volunteer planning
• Prioritization and Strategic Planning – what do we do now?  What’s in 5 years?
• Put a $$ on the items
• Create a new organizational structure that works, then prioritize, then pay?
• Including volunteerism (how can we let someone get the full picture of what the volunteer opportunity is really like?)
• Volunteer fair
• Along with pledge drive?
• What’s our mission?
• Action items: What are the committees like and what do they do?
• How to prioritize?  Prioritize these through:
• Survey on back of OOS and survey monkey to prioritize from this list (Adam and Alyssa)

·         Small incentive like $5 starbucks or amazon through our link

Attending: John Laughlin, Dolges, Julie, Jeff, Helen, Haegers, Michael Y., Colin, Anneke, Barbara, Jim, Dick, Chris, Adam S., Kathy B., Jim W., Karen, jp, Liz and Dave