UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF WHIDBEY ISLAND
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P.O. Box 1076, Freeland, WA 98249 360-321-8656

CALENDAR

AUGUST 19 SERVICE
Wes Veatch, our speaker for August 19, is a retired minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In 1999, Wes and his wife, Joyce, moved to Whidbey following an 11-year ministry in Anchorage, Alaska. Wes chose to include in his ministry reaching out to friends with AIDS and was invited in 1994 to be the full-time chaplain of the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association.

UPCOMING SERVICES Services begin at 4 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran church. Children's religious education and child-care are provided during the services unless otherwise indicated.

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PERSEID METEOR SHOWER OBSERVING PARTY AND BARBEQUE!
On Saturday, August 11, the year's most fantastic display of meteors will be grace Whidbey Island's skies. Casual observers can spot 50-60 meteors per hour in an average year. All are invited to come to a party at the Hiltons' to observe the cosmic show. Party starts at 6 p.m. with a potluck supper and barbeque. Bring swimsuits and towels, food to share, table service for your family, comfortable reclining chairs (for sky viewing), blankets, jackets (for late evening/night comfort) and of course, musical instruments. Call Craig C. or Rosie H. for information or directions.

CHAMBER MUSIC TO BENEFIT UUCWI
7:30 p.m., Friday, August 31

This time the concert will consist of music by the great 19th Century composer, Johannes Brahms. The Trio No. 1 in B - major for violin, cello, and piano, and the famous "horn" trio, Opus 40 for violin, French horn, and piano will make up the program. Guest artist, Michael Graef of Vancouver, will join members of the Chaminade Trio - Peggy B., violin, Carol G., cello, and Nola A., piano. This is some of the most glorious chamber music ever written for these instruments. Save the date. Suggested donation $10-$15.00. Our last recital was a sell-out, so get your tickets early. Call Anne W.

SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE REPORT
The Social Action committee met on July 16 and is putting together a plan to make "service our practice." Action plans of other UU congregations were reviewed and the committee hopes to bring choices of targets for social action before the congregation in October. Review of surveys collected indicates a high level of individual participation in social causes which gives high hope that our congregation will work together on social action. Board President Bill G. was present and offered support from the board for a commitment to social action as a congregation. Kathy C. was elected chair. The next meeting is August 7, 7:00 p.m. at Kathy C.'s home. Please plan to attend and bring your ideas and support for this important part of the UU mission. If you have questions, please call.

BUILDING BRUNCHES
The Building Committee is pleased to announce a series of four "Building Brunches," to be held on the second and third weekends of August. These brunches are an important part of our ongoing process of gathering the information required to build our church.

The purpose of the brunches is to gather in small groups (up to 12 members) to consider the needs as expressed in our June visioning meeting. Each group will review the needs and consider the following question for each expressed need: "What would I want an architect to know about this need?" The answers to the question are called requirements. There may be many requirements driven by a specific need.

For example, if the need were: "The church building should be designed to accommodate weddings." Some of the answers might be (remember that our audience is an architect):
· The acoustics should be excellent.
· The bride and attendants should have a medium to large room to dress in.
· There should be a quality sound system.
· The seating capacity should accommodate a wedding party of 150.
· The kitchen should be of commercial quality.

The brunches will be held at 10:30 a.m to 1:00 p.m. on the following days:
Saturday, August 11
Sunday, August 12
Saturday, August 18
Sunday, August 19

Please call the hosts to reserve the limited space available and get driving directions. We are hopeful that one of these four days will accommodate everyone's schedule. However, we realize that August is a popular month for traveling and other activities. Therefore, we may schedule another brunch or two later on if necessary.

But for now, look at the dates above, determine which date works the best for you, and call the host to reserve space. Your participation is the only way that the Committee can work effectively on behalf of the congregation.

P.S. Finally, the Building Committee has been very busy this summer with meetings, work parties, touring other facilities, and more meetings. You can watch our progress here: http://www.whidbey.com/uucwi/committees/bc.html

ADULT PROGRAM INITIAL MEETING POTLUCK

Come to talk and plan for Adult Programs in our church at a potluck lunch at our land, 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug 26. Bring food to share and ideas and resources. You can join the new committee if you want to at least come and share your ideas. Call Sarah R. if you intend to come.

CAPITAL FUND COMMITTEE REPORT
The Board has established the Capital Committee as a standing committee. Craig C. and Peggy B. are the co-chairs. Preliminary planning is underway to conduct a capital fund canvass in the coming church year. The timing of the campaign has not been decided.

A successful campaign will jump start other funding sources both within the UUA universe, and outside (such as banks). Lenders almost always ask for the results of a capital fund canvass to measure support for a building project. Craig and Peggy have both been involved with very successful capital campaigns at Edmonds and Bellevue (that resulted in new facilities), respectively. They are confident that UUCWI's coming campaign will be a great success.

And! Peggy and Craig are pleased to announce that two anonymous UUCWI members have stepped forward to donate a total of $20,000, to ensure that the church can proceed to the architectural stage of the project when appropriate. Generosity such as this is most appreciated and portends well for the coming campaign.

"Soapbox" is on vacation this month!

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BILL'S BANTER
"Congregational Polity, Part I"

During the upcoming year, we are poised to begin a process of considering what it is that ties us together as a community and how best to be together in trusting and supporting relationship. In the vernacular, this is referred to as "a discussion of congregational polity." It is a process that the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) three years ago asked all 1000+ member congregations to undertake or renew. For us, this is an opportune time to have this discussion without further delay so it might inform us as we go about visioning and funding our first church, attempting to build a successful relationship with our second minister, etc.

The vehicle established by our Pacific Northwest District of the UUA (PNWD) for facilitating this process is called a "Congregational Covenant of Right Relations Workshop." Our last Board of Trustees recommended and the congregation renewed a goal that this workshop be a high priority during the coming year. We called the PNWD and invited them in for that purpose. They responded with a recommendation that the PNWD CONTACT Team facilitate a conflict assessment with us prior to conducting the Congregational Covenant of Right Relations Workshop. At its first meeting, our new Board of Trustees agreed to that recommendation. The following is an effort to describe the assessment process which is now tentatively scheduled to occur on September 14-15. I intend to describe in more detail the covenanting process in a subsequent column.

Anne Heller, our District Executive, and others at the District level are aware that the past year was one of both growth and ferment for us. No doubt we did have sharp differences on pivotal issues and lingering effects may exist. The assumption is that an outside voice, gathering history, information and opinions, and providing an evaluation and recommendations (which the board may or may not choose to adopt), would pave the way for the covenanting process to follow. The assessment focuses on who we are as a group, where we need strengthening, and where we might need healing.

Anne voiced the opinion that for us to now attempt to enter into congregational covenants without first having the sort of conversationprovoked by the assessment process would be "a big mistake." The assessment process is supposed to help us name some of the more important things we should consider including in our covenant. Lest we feel singled out as some kind of extraordinarily "dysfunctional congregation," I am told that the District is moving towards including the assessment as a recommended precursor to the covenanting process in every case. It certainly does not stop me from seeing us as a model small congregation in many respects.

The District CONTACT Team members assigned are Sherry King, a Vancouver, B.C. therapist with over 20 years experience at this, and Dr. Bruce Davis, a physician from Seattle who retired several years ago to attend divinity school and pursue his advocacy of 'voluntary simplicity." Both are very highly respected. I have asked our own Sarah Richards (a true peach, as we all know) to work with them in organizing the process. Before we begin, the District team will make a detailed presentation to the Board on how the process is done. Next, an effort will be made to solicit the deepest reflections of everyone in the congregation in a series of small group conferences. Those who cannot attend will be asked to reflect in written questionnaires. At a later date, the Team will return with their recommendations which are presented at a structured meeting with us lasting 1 to 1 1/2 hours in which everyone is invited to speak and reflect on a printed report. To the extent we wish it to happen, monitoring of steps to implement all or parts of the report can occur. Since confidentially is maintained, I am unable to inquire into the specific experiences of other congregations. However, examples of recommendations made elsewhere include suggestions that bylaws be re-examined, that a vision statement be developed, that an administrator be hired, that specified persons participate in mediation, that certain practices relating to internal communications be adopted, that meetings in private homes be discontinued.

Even though the District is providing $200 in support, the Board still has some financial considerations to weigh as the process is turning out to be somewhat more costly than originally anticipated. Assuming we go forward, widespread congregational support and participation is essential and I would like to ask for that.

Sidebar: I am pleased to announce that Dr. Sharon Parks, Associate Director of the Whidbey Institute, has agreed to facilitate our new board retreat scheduled for August 19. We will focus on setting priorities for the forthcoming year, learning to work with each other in respectful and honoring ways, and how to best assure that our volunteer work for the church is truly a joyous occasion.

A JOYOUS EVENT TO INAUGURATE THE NEW CHURCH YEAR!
Please plan to celebrate the beginning of our new UUCWI year with an intergenerational service and salmon bake/potluck at our church property on Sunday, September 9. Come reconnect with friends, old and new, and with the land. We hope this will become a cherished tradition. More details in the next newsletter.

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