From Our President Archive
“People volunteer because they believe in our future together.”
I am in Woods Hole, MA, where I grew up and have such a fond attachment to. I have a major interest in our family home, which is rented, but the house includes my grandfather’s apartment where Ned and I stay.
I have been thinking about our volunteers, which almost all of us are and without whose help the church could not exist. So why do people volunteer? The following comments are not my words but I like them and hope they can apply to our congregation.
“I believe it’s all about shared ministry; people can grow spiritually as they share their gifts with others. Everything we do is a form of ministry. Instead of trying to get people to do all the things that need to be done, we need to get in the frame of mind that what we’re here for is to minister to and to serve each other. People need to be invited into ministries of leadership and service. And I believe that people volunteer because they believe in our future together. People don’t give to need, they give to vision. Asking someone to do it because we need to fill this slot is not as powerful as saying ‘You understand where this institution is going and we want you to play a vital part in its future.’” (Source unknown)
How can we show our appreciation? Myriad ways are possible and not all ways work for all people but expressing our appreciation in words and writing is heartfelt. In years past David Olson held a volunteer appreciation lunch in the garden of his home. In years past there has been a Volunteer of the Year. Maybe we can find a way to start a new tradition. I think we need one.
The Board will be having its retreat on September 12. The day will include an exploration of Right Relations in the morning facilitated by Rev. Dr. Jonipher Kwong of our Pacific West Region’s Congregational Life Staff. We will explore creating a covenant of right relations for our congregation and building a right relations team to help us with conflict resolution. The morning will be followed by a working lunch dedicated to goal setting based on the 12 Statement of Wishes for UU Santa Monica that were developed as part of the Board’s exploration of Policy Governance, but the aspirations would apply whether or not Policy Governance is adopted. The afternoon will focus on plans for the Board with the recommendations of the Committee on Money. Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels will facilitate that session and will bring his own experience to the issue. We are hopeful that our work will energize and focus the Board for the coming year. We are grateful to Kim Miller for providing her law firm’s board room as the venue for the retreat.
The Board will host 2nd Sunday Supper in September with a comfort food theme as we ingather for the coming year. Come and sample some favorite family recipes.
Remember to thank and hug a volunteer. A self-hug is OK too.
— Patricia Wright
Get a Taste of the UUA Gen- eral Assembly on August 9
This year’s UUA General Assembly (GA) in Portland, OR, from June 24 to 28 was a great experience for the 23 of us, including seven youth, who attended from UU Santa Monica. It was even a momentous experience because it coincided with the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples filled the stage in the auditorium to celebrate.
Seven of us were delegates, our allotment based on the size of our membership. As delegates we attended the business sessions and exercised our right to vote on the Statement of Conscience, which is Reproductive Justice, and three Actions of Immediate Witness: Support the Black Lives Matter Movement; Support a Strong, Compassionate Global Climate Agreement in 2015, Act for a Livable Climate; and End Immigrant Child and Family Detention Now.
The Opening Ceremony on Wednesday night with its Banner Parade was a moving experience. Our youth carried our banner.
GA with almost 5,000 attendees is a grand undertaking by the UUA. As with any undertaking there are lessons to be learned, and our very own Kikanza Nuri-Robins was there to help the trustees’ transforming governance committee look at ways to be more efficient and more inclusive in the decision-making processes.
Our group managed to get together a few times, one to have beer and pizza on Thursday, and again on Friday with the youth to plan our GA service on August 9. I asked our attendees to share the workshops they attended. Here’s a sampling: “Creating our Legacy, Building our Future: Planned Giving Made Easy”; “Faith in the Margins: First Century Guide for the 21st”; “From Transaction to Transformation: Building a New, More Generous Way”; “Year Round Pledging: the Next Big Thing”; “Empathy and Connection through Compassionate Communication”; “Finding Our Way Back to Right Relationships”; “Creating New Ways of Reflection and Learning about Israel/Palestine”; “CommUUnity Activism in a #BlackLivesMatter World”; “Detroit — the new Selma: Inequality, Our Water and Our Human Rights“; “Partnering to End the New Jim Crow”; “Commit2Respond: Advance the Rights of Climate-affected Communities”; “A Way Out of No Way: Living Legacy Project, UU History & Heritage Society”; “Sanctuary Is More Than a Building: Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition”; “The Fires of Ferguson Still Burn Within Our Hearts”; “Developing Spiritual Leadership and Culture for Collective Liberation”; “Using Investment for Social Change”; “Restorative Practices: Tools for Healing.”
My big takeaway: We are together in the good work that we do, and we are together in the struggles we face. We’ll recreate a bit of our experience at our “Reflections on GA” church service on August 9. Tempted? GA will be in Columbus, OH, in 2016 and New Orleans, LA, in 2017.
— Patricia Wright
Vienna to Portland, Via Vassar
have been and will be traveling a lot so this month’s article is a bit of a travelogue! On the Saturday after the Annual Meeting, I left for wedding festivities in Vienna and Hungary. The daughter of my longtime friend, whom I consider my sister in spirit, chose Koszeg, Hungary, the birthplace of her mother, as her destination wedding location. We flew to Vienna for a few days of festivities and then to Koszeg for a few more days of activities before the wedding itself. Ned could not come because he was still teaching, so my daughter Diana and her boyfriend Nick were my companions. In both Vienna and Koszeg, I needed to use my German, which was essential and fun. I was a German minor in college and spent time in Germany as a technical exchange student. Following the wedding we rented a car and drove to Budapest and Prague, returning to Vienna 13 days after our initial departure.
I returned to conduct the first Board meeting with our new Board and our summer minister. We have energetic and talented Board volunteers this year and I believe good things will come.
On the Thursday after the Board meeting, I flew to New York and then took a train to Poughkeepsie to attend my 50th reunion at Vassar College. We were the featured Landmark Reunion. After much preparatory brainstorming, I conducted a technology panel with classmates and Vassar’s Chief Information Officer commenting on the past and future direction of their fields, which were physics, medicine, journalism, and education. The event was declared a huge success and I was pleased with the level of interest among my classmates.
I am now back and very jetlagged with traveling to General Assembly merely a week away.
— Patricia Wright
Participate in Shaping the Future of our Church
This month I want to focus on plans for the coming year, both fiscal (FY) and calendar. Our fiscal year runs from the beginning of July 2015 to the end of June 2016. By definition, a fiscal year is a period used for calculating annual financial statements. It’s when we vote on our budget and write our Annual Reports to the congregation. It’s when we think of and plan for the time ahead of us. I articulated plans in my Annual Report from the President and here is a summary of events that I hope will be well attended by the congregation.
General Assembly (GA) 2015, June 24 to 28 in Portland, OR. GA is the annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and it is rich with resources and experiences. Our particular flavor will be “Ponderings on Tap,”, an end-of-day gathering to relax and gather ideas to bring home to our congregation. In addition to the YRUU group and chaperones, at least 10 members of our congregation will be attending GA so far.
July 11 and 12 will be a weekend with Dr. Kenneth Brown from the Pacific Southwest District (PSWD) of the UUA. PSWD consists of 50 Congregations in Arizona, Southern California, and Southern Nevada, and Ken brings a wealth of expertise. He will host a Saturday half-day workshop on “Choosing a Future for Governance in the 21st Century for UUs.” The workshop is open to the entire congregation. It is an invitation to discuss how we choose governance and how it affects our organization and mission. It will be followed by a Sunday sermon titled “Choosing a Future for Unitarian Universalism in the 21st Century.”
A World Café sponsored jointly by the Board and the Committee on Ministry is scheduled for October 3. It will be facilitated by Mary Mackenzie, a highly skilled Nonviolent Communication (NVC) facilitator and co-founder of NVC Academy. This day-long event will be open to the congregation. A World Café is a structured dialog that engages people in simple questions that matter.
The Committee on Money (Co$) convened in November and presented the results of its research and recommendations on five points in a report to the Board and the congregation. The Board will be considering the recommendations in the coming months and holding meetings with the congregation for discussion, consideration, and action. There will be a Town Hall meeting in the fall, initially to focus on the recommendation of an endowment.
Our congregation has a beloved tradition of marching in the Gay Pride parade, this year on June 14. It is my hope that we can also host a UU booth next year at the Gay Pride festival that spans several days. It will require organization and staffing and I am willing to spearhead that effort.
There will be more to come from our beloved community as the year evolves, and the ideas will come from all of us.
— Patricia Wright
Our Budget, Simply
I have mentioned “Ponderings on Tap” at General Assembly before. I just want to remind you of the program now.
There will be a UU Santa Monica (UUSM) presence at GA this year — the youth and their accompanying adults (I wouldn’t call them chaperones), two Board members so far, our summer minister, and various additional church members. I would love to know who you all are so that I can let you know where we can gather at the end of each assembly day. A daily gathering is optional, of course, but first evening’s beverages — on tap or not — are on me! I want to hear feedback about your day and especially any ideas to bring back to our congregation.
Now about that budget: Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels wrote an article about his church’s budget in the April newsletter of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. I loved the simplicity and straightforwardness of his article and asked if I could use his “template.” Here is my version for us (amounts are rounded).
December is the month when UU Santa Monica starts to create our church budget for the coming fiscal year (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016). The Finance Committee creates a draft. The Board approves the draft at their April meeting. All church members approve a final budget at the May congregational meeting.
You’re welcome to learn as much detail about the budget as you like. Here are some highlights that all church members need to know.
Our projected annual expenses for the coming fiscal year are $592,000. By far our biggest expense is staff. We spend about $421,000 annually for a full time minister, full time Director of Religious Education, part time preschool teacher, two full time and one part time office staff, part time Director of Music, part time music accompanist and choir section leaders, and two part time sextons. Everyone is paid fairly. Full time staff also get paid time off, medical insurance, and retirement benefits.
The other $171,000 of our expenses goes mostly to the building and administration overhead, and programs and denominational support.
Our projected income is $547,000. About 70% of that comes from member pledges. Almost 15% comes from renters. We plan to take about $45,000 out of our savings (unrestricted funds) to pay for the rest of our expenses.
It is unwise to continue to erode our savings as the work of the Committee on Money will attest, so very quickly now we need to increase our income by increasing pledges and growing our membership. Reducing expenses would require cutting staff. But cutting staff would reduce our ability to increase membership and do our good work — so that’s not a desirable option.
We need to invest our time, energy, and money in strategies that will help us sustain and grow our membership and increase our pledges. Now’s the time to make that happen.
— Patricia Wright
Hail to Our Volunteers
All hail the volunteers, and it’s a lot of us! I want to express my appreciation to all the volunteers who work so hard for our congregation and the wider community, and do so much good in so many ways. I’ll just mention a few that I have experienced recently. On March 7, I went to the Empty Bowls Luncheon Benefit, my first, and the second hosted at UU Santa Monica. That “simple meal of soup and bread” was an amazing array of gourmet soups, and you could eat an unlimited amount for a donation that included a handmade bowl. The hard part was choosing amongst so many (empty) beautiful, handmade bowls that symbolize the hunger still present in our affluent community. The proceeds went to end hunger and food insecurity locally.
Nothing can beat food and good company, hence my enthusiasm for Dining for Dollars (D4$)! The team did an amazing (and I can only assume exhausting) job of recruiting donations — scheduling them, executing the two silent auction Sundays, figuring out who won, and collecting the money. As a result, over $30,000 was added to the church coffers.
And there are so many more volunteers both sung (choir!) and unsung for which we are all grateful!
I recently had a conversation with Ken Brown of the Pacific Southwest District (PSWD) staff. I am interested in the topic of changes in the religious climate, namely the old way of religious life dying and a new way taking shape. Rev. Bijur talked about this in her March newsletter article and in her February month of sermons. Ken put it in the context of our pluralistic and diverse post-modern world. Our religious institutions need to reflect that world. Unitarian Universalism is one of the few traditions that can welcome that diversity and we have the history to prove it. I cannot do the topic justice, so I look forward to Ken coming to speak to us. It should be an interesting sermon taking us from our past and going forward into our future.
— Patricia Wright
Please Join Me at the UUA General Assembly
I am very appreciative of the wonderful job the board (including President’s Spouse) did in sponsoring and cooking for February’s Sweetheart Chili Second Sunday Supper. A wonderful array of chilies, breads, and desserts was devoured by the equally appreciative guests and there were many. Special thanks to Beth Brownlie for being the lead organizer and to the unknown person who washed out Ned’s big chili pot!
I was absent because I was in Birmingham, Alabama for my 5-month-old granddaughter’s baptism, which took place at the Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. Vivian James Wright wore a christening gown originally worn by Ned’s mother’s grandfather, born in 1866. The gown was lovingly restored by Vivian’s “other” grandmother. The gown was also worn by my daughter Diana, who was dedicated in our church in 1985 and by my son Will, who was dedicated in the Harvard Square UU church in 1981. Both wore it “out of the box”! The Harvard Square church (First Parish Cambridge) owns the Dummer 1695 christening bowl that is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Jeremiah Dummer was THE silversmith in Boston before Paul Revere. If a church member is planning a dedication, the bowl is retrieved from the museum and used in the ceremony. Between the bowl and the vintage garment, it was quite an event.
I have received a mid-February update on General Assembly 2015, which takes place this year in Portland, OR. The dates are June 24 to 28. General Assembly (GA) is the annual meeting of our Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). To learn more, check out www.uua.org/ga I am planning to attend and the YRUU youth in our congregation are planning to attend. I hope to organize a daily “Ponderings on Tap” where we can gather at the end of the day’s events to share a brewskie, glass of wine, or beverage of choice and share impressions of the day. I hope you will consider joining us. There are various ways to make it affordable and it is meaningful and fun. I would love the company.
— Patricia Wright
I am reading “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, a seminal African novel set in Nigeria and written 50 years ago. I was inspired to make a vegan African stew for our Board meeting, which had a very full agenda and needed full stomachs.
As always, Cynthia’s “Splinters” column appears in this newsletter and the minutes are on the membersonly website, but I wanted to share the Board’s Statement of Wishes for Policy Governance. Creating the Statement of Wishes kicks off the next step in the investigation of Policy Governance, which is the formation of a Governance Task Force (GTF). Once chosen, the GTF will create a vision statement for the governance process followed by a series of sessions for the congregation at large and for specific groups of leaders. The wishes are:
1. Inspired, energized leadership focused on UU Santa Monica mission.
2. Clear policies that allow Board, staff, volunteers, and congregation to own and act on their responsibility, power, and authority to make decisions.
3. A mission-based budget that reflects UU Santa Monica’s deepest values and aspirations as a community.
4. Increased participation and leadership from volunteers who have freedom to move forward with good ideas, and are free to do the good work they want to do.
5. Clarity of authority, responsibility, and accountability, especially for what decision-making belongs to Board of Directors, Minister, Church Administrator, staff, and committees.
6. Improved ability to manage and navigate conflict and disagreement with dignity, compassion, and respect.
7. A clear appeals process when a decision is challenged and a clear end to the appeals process.
8. Increased focus by Board and staff on responsibilities that are truly theirs — the work only the Board or staff can do.
9. Increased ability of leaders to focus on the future and the possibilities and potential rewards of change.
10. Service as a Board member as energizing, fun, inspiring, and transformative; a wait list of qualified, interested volunteers.
11. Organized, comprehensive, broad policies that are defined and redefined as needed.
12. Efficient decision-making.
I have begun another class of mindfulness meditation at UCLA. My class is a continuing session for those who wish to go deeper. Our leader, Diana Winston, chooses the focus for each class but we get to give input in the final meeting of the previous class. This time the subject is “Change, Impermanence, and Letting Go!” With meditation it is important to practice consistently, i.e., every day in some way, and sometimes I don’t find the time to do so. Ah, I am human.
Our family subscribes to “The Economist,” a hefty weekly magazine published in London. In the issue titled “The World in 2015,” I was struck by an article (p. 133 if you have the magazine) about the return of nine-to-five — bye-bye to the long-hours culture, hello to changing how we live and work with vacations, holidays, time with family, and time to engage in other activities. But: “Type A personalities (and most of them will remain that type) will start doing things in addition to the day job. … Some will do aggressive volunteering and compete to change the world more successfully than the next guy.” I say bring them on!
— Patricia Wright
Church Governance
Happy New Year! I’ll start with a remembrance of things past. Almost 15 years ago, on the eve of the millennium, there was a New Year’s Eve party at the church. That party was planned and executed by Ray Goodman and me. Ray, along with Joe Engleman, came to the December Board meeting (see Cynthia’s “Splinters” article) and we reminisced. I recall the millennium occasion was a grand party, blessed with the spirit of community and anticipation of what the millennium would bring. Y2K turned out to be mostly a nonevent and now 1½ decades later there remains a souvenir of the party — one bottle of champagne at Ray’s house.
The holiday season isn’t such a big deal for our small family (and I like to keep it that way) but there are two traditions that we cherish that we have been celebrating with friends. One is the Winter Solstice and the other is Twelfth Night, the Epiphany, but we call it Three Kings. On the Solstice we don antlers to honor the animals and gather outside to pay homage to the four directions. Our “high priest” is an astronomy colleague of Ned’s and so we have added the fifth “up” direction. It’s theater that we have been celebrating for years and we love it. On Three Kings, at the end of the feast, we bring out the galette des rois. Whoever gets the piece with the hidden bean is a king, and we actually pick three kings. Another tradition of the evening is a game called Snapdragon and it goes like this: Put raisins in a dish and pour a few spoonfuls of brandy over them. Put the lights out, ignite the brandy, and while it is burning snatch a raisin and as you put it in your mouth make a wish. It will be granted in the next 12 months, so they say. I wish! Our tree remains up until January 6. I have always liked easing out of the holiday season.
I look back on a few of the events that I attended in 2014 in my role as president. I might have attended them anyway, but I hadn’t in the past. One was a dinner at Turning Point. The other was the Annual Awards Breakfast of the Westside Shelter and Hunger Coalition. Both made me even more aware of the work being done by so many to help our community.
Then there are the recent marches for justice for all. I was especially impressed with the peaceful march in
Washington, DC, on December 14. My friend who attends Neighborhood Church in Pasadena related a sermon that emphasized that it is relationships that will bring peace and understanding. I do have goals for this year and they have to do with peaceful living and building relationships within our pluralism. Oh, and I am going to try to overcome my fear of kayaking. Any suggestions? It’s not a fear of water. It’s a fear of not trusting myself to be able to steer a boat — no metaphor intended.
— Patricia Wright
My biography for my Vassar College landmark reunion and my UU Santa Monica newsletter article were due on the same day. Rev. Rebecca suggested I submit my biography to the newsletter and I am happy to do so. Here it is…
I was a mathematics major, a random choice except that growing up in Woods Hole, MA surrounded by scientists made me unafraid to study mathematics. I wasn’t an amazing student but I did get an “A” in differential equations, which served me well for my first job interview. I took one of the first computer classes at Vassar, taught by an instructor from IBM. My first job was as a computer programmer for a Professor of Oceanography at Harvard. I was asked to solve a differential equation in my interview while he looked over my shoulder. I got the job, which may have more to do with my shoulder. About 5 years after graduation I decided
to pursue a Master’s Degree in applied mathematics. I got my degree from Tufts University in 1975 for nothing more than the cost of the stamp on the envelope of my application! At Tufts I answered an ad to translate German papers in acoustics. Noise exposure is now a subject of my passion in our noise-polluted environment.
I met my husband, Ned Wright, in Cambridge at a party given by a mutual friend. Ned and I married in 1978 and our son William was born in 1981. Shortly after William was born, Ned was lured to the West Coast by an offer
of tenure in UCLA’s Deptartment of Astronomy. So we moved and it’s been great. I took a year off from working to be a mom and to get acclimated to Los Angeles. It’s a funny feeling to leave your geographic past behind.
After the year off, I took a job in the defense industry doing algorithm development. Our daughter was born in 1985 at my ripe old age of 42 and I continued to work. Following the initial foray into defense I took a job with a transportation software company, which came in handy because our client was New Jersey Transit, and we went to Princeton for Ned’s sabbatical at the Institute for Advanced Study. Then back to L.A. for high school and college for the kids. William went to Harvard as Ned had. Diana went to Vassar!
I continued to work in the defense industry at Top Secret level until getting laid off about a year ago. I now work
independently and acquired a software client when Ned took a sabbatical in Baltimore this year.
Our son married in 2012 and we have a beautiful 2-month-old granddaughter, Vivian. Diana lives in booming downtown L.A. and is an inspiring comedy writer and director. I am healthy for my age and am now the President of the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.
A highlight of the past year was 7 days on a 55 ft. catamaran in French Polynesia with 4 Russians, 2 Ukrainians, 1 Turk, 4 Americans, and 1 drone. My mother is well at 99 and I hope the same for myself.
— Patricia Wright