Fred Hulting, Board President

Last Sunday we held our annual congregational business meeting.  You can access the agenda and all of the meeting documents here.  Attendees heard from the President, Minister, Treasurer, and Council about the activities of the past year, and took the following actions:

• The congregation approved an operating budget for the 2021-2022 church year, with total expenditures of $428,000.  The new budget is a 7% increase over this year, driven by increases in health and retirement benefits for the staff, and some added costs to reopen the building.
• A capital budget of $32,000 was also approved, which will fund upgrades to the audio and video systems in the sanctuary to enable multi-platform worship (in-person and online).  About $25,000 of that amount will need to be raised to fund the video portion of the system.  More details on the system, and how you can make a donation to support the project,  will be published next week.  Questions about the project may be directed to Rev. Lisa Friedman, or to our Music Director, Paul Winchester.
• The congregation elected new Board Members:  Fred Hulting as President and Becky Halat as Vice-President for one-year terms; and Jeff Adrian, Janna Sundby, and Brian Zais as new Trustees for three-year terms.  Also elected were new Nominating Committee members Lori Arnold, Sharon Charles, and Kathy Stuebner (1 year terms).

The 2020-21 church year was remarkable, and I encourage you to read all the details in the annual report. We not only responded in amazing ways to the tragic events in our world, but we managed to thrive in many areas, bringing innovative ideas and new energy to many areas of our ministry. I expect that next year will be remarkable in its own way, as we return to the building but not to the “way things were.” We will create a new multi-platform ministry with Sunday services and other programs available both in-person and online. We will carry forward our momentum for social justice.  And we will draw new energy from being together in person.