UUFC President’s Letter November 30, 2024
Dear Members and Friends,
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, and Christmas is approaching fast. Amanda and I are planning a Holiday Party for December 21 to celebrate Yule and Christmas. Long-range weather sites predict warm, maybe misty evenings that week, so we’ll plan to have it outside. Look for details, including the “Carol-oke” sing-along, as well as some chances to reflect on the old year and hopes for the coming year as longer days welcome new growth.
Don’t miss our December 8 UUFC Business Meeting. Your voice counts as members and friends, but your vote counts, too, as members who choose our new Board of Trustees. We will talk briefly about our accomplishments over the past year, our current Strategic Planning Path Forward, our 2025 Budget, and especially about the strengths of this fellowship as we prepare for the coming years. Don’t forget to email [email protected] BEFORE December 8 with the name of your proxy if you cannot attend this meeting as a voting member of the Fellowship. Only members can accept your voting proxy, and they can only accept one proxy vote to cast along with their own. Our slate of Officers and Board Members is running unopposed, and the deadline for nominations has passed, so we look forward to accepting the new slate, led by incoming President Amos Jones, by acclamation.
Speaking of members,we now have 74 of you, as well as 71 friends. That may be a record number of members for our Fellowship. To check for yourself, review our new History Project Binder, now available in the library. It includes lists of past board members, notable events, traditions, special projects, bylaws, mission and vision statements. You can find a summary of our history on our website, uucolumbusga.org. (Did you know that if you search “UUFC,” you get the “Ultimate Fighting Championship”? How opposite is our mission?
Financially, we are doing well. Our 2025 Budget requires some increases to include more funding for children’s and youths’ programs and increases in our insurance coverage. We have spent some money over the past year to add wheelchair access to a restroom, to do some painting and redecorating, to add a stove to the kitchen, and to make some improvements to our grounds. Take a look at our Bee and Butterfly area, our new block retaining wall along the north side of the building, and our beautifully updated Meeting House. We have a new pickle ball court in our north parking lot as well. Get those rackets out and practice up for spring. It’s something all generations can do together.
But we must stay safe, too. Do you know where all the First Aid kits are located? Judy Barnett is working on a plan for emergencies. Her committee is designing a safety plan with a team to help carry out emergency steps in case we need them. We will learn about this plan in January.
We also have some long-range plans in the works. Is it possible that we moved into this new location ten years ago this coming March? On March 2 we will celebrate with a First Sunday Potluck Anniversary Party.
If you have forgotten how dreary and damp our winters are, don’t forget to appreciate the bright lights and bonfires and the friendly gatherings everywhere, especially here at UUFC. Come to Discussion Group. Sit with someone new at First Sunday Luncheons. Meet up with a new member at a free Schwob School of Music concert or go to hear the Bob Barr Community Orchestra (sometimes directed by our own Whittaker Locke). See a play. Go out to dinner or lunch and invite a member or friend. Join Meditation and Buddhist Studies and the Friday Lunch Bunch Zoom group.
You are the most interesting/entertaining people I know. I don’t really appreciate this until I have the chance to sit with you and talk for a while. Cold weather offers this chance for camaraderie. We had perhaps the first ever kids’ movie night in the Meeting House a couple of weeks ago. We had the rare opportunity to host an international icon who was featured in a social justice documentary that we viewed with him in Grace Hall. These are events that bond us through common experiences.
We need camaraderie now more than ever. So much seems to have changed in our country and in the world, and yet, here at UUFC, things are moving forward. We’re meeting together, having fun, enjoying meals, learning, playing, talking, looking after each other. That’s our promise to each other as a community. Help us to keep it.
Let’s get together over the winter and make new friends. I’m thankful today for every single one of you.
Happy Holidays to you all.
Connie Ussery, President,
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbus, Georgia