other futile things that we will abandon by the end of the month! I wish you success, but I don’t shame you for failure. We all count our successes and failures secretly to ourselves. There is one thing that we can all strive to do and that is to be kind. True kindness in all things is seldom achieved.
However, our church community excelled in kindness in three ways this holiday season. We provided gifts for the children in the Texoma Family Shelter and shifting from clothing to food, Marion coordinated church members as they provided finger food for the Shelter’s Holiday Open House. Jim Runnells delivered the gifts to the shelter. They are always so appreciative. We also provided for our church needs with items for the Giving Tree. We distributed the Help cards to those needing services in our area in Oklahoma and Texas. We are truly a kind community. Our kindness has been a frequent observation by visitors who say that there is a warmth and a feeling of inclusion that they feel when they come here. May we always strive to be kind.
I wish you a 2023 that is everything you could hope for and more!
Each month, I will give highlights from the board meeting.
At our December board meeting, we accepted Dick Powell’s resignation and welcomed Carole Harner as our new treasurer. Carole is no stranger to that position, since she held it years ago. We will miss Dick as he has moved to Plano to be able to take care of Carol, but we can be confident that we are in good hands with Carole. We have been fortunate to have people in our congregation capable of handling this critical position. Thank you, Dick, for your self-less work and thank you Carole for agreeing to take the treasurer position. Also, thank you, Carol, for your work on the caring committee and the Aesthetics committee. We will miss your cheerful attitude and artistic touch. For those of you who don’t know, Carol designed the cover of the Caring Cards, then Doug added the lettering.
Since Carole Harner is on the Nominating Committee and people who are on the board or on the Committee on Ministry can’t serve on the Nominating Committee, she resigned. The board will be seeking new members for the Nominating Committee.
We also accepted the resignation of Elle Dyer as RE teacher for the children’s program. She has taken a new job that makes it difficult to also manage the RE instruction. We can all be very proud of the work Elle has done. She alone has grown that program. Now, David Dyer has taken over the instruction. We are grateful for both of them. While I am sure that the program will continue to grow under his leadership, he has asked that we seek a new person for that position.
Amy, Marla, and I attended an online course for Lay Led UU churches and gained some insight on how to make things better. Amy attended the Leadership section; Marilyn attended the Family Worship section (RE) and Worship sections; and Marla attended the Worship section. Mostly, we found that we were doing more than the others, especially small congregations, but found some ideas to incorporate. We will be conferring with those teams and you may see some future changes.
Marla forwarded a notice from the UUA that proposed replacing the section on principles and sources. Don and I will serve on a task force to evaluate that proposal and present at the February board meeting. [Ed. Note: Details about replacing the section on principles and purposes is available on the PDF version of this month’s newsletter.]
Work to repair the garages and add new siding has begun. Amy has inventoried items in the garages and she and Jim Holmes will coordinate selling, donating and/or disposing of some of the items stored there that aren’t needed. No personal items should be stored in the basement or garages unless first cleared by the facilities chair, Jim Holmes.
Marilyn Alexander, president
