By Ellen Newberg Volunteer Coordinator

At KUUF, volunteerism is one manifestation of our ministry to each other, our community, and our world. Currently, 108 of our 197 members volunteer in one or more capacity—55%.

In all, there are almost fifty committees and activities that operate with volunteers from the KUUF community. Hence, since volunteerism is so important to our community, a Volunteer Coordinator position has been created. It’s staffed by volunteer (naturally) Ellen Newberg who welcomes your willingness to become involved, or if you’re already involved, to become even more involved!

Currently, a volunteer database is being created, thanks to computer maven Arlis Stewart. It lists the names of everyone we know of who is currently volunteering, and in what capacities they volunteer. A wonderful tool, it provides the names of all the people who volunteer for each specific committee or activity, such as all the Special Music volunteers.

It also provides the names of committees and activities in which each person listed is involved. Once the database is as current as we can make it, it will be available to the Fellowship as a resource. In the near future, watch for a volunteer recruitment questionnaire and take the opportunity to tell us about the volunteer activities you want to continue, or about the new ones you want to try.

It’s a great way to meet other members of the KUUF community, and volunteer involvement makes participation in the Fellowship much more interesting and rewarding. 

• Thursday, July 28, 6-8 p.m. KUUF exclusive shopping night 
• Friday, July 29, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., public shopping
• Saturday, July 30, 9am-2p.m., Markdowns and other bargains 

By Shawn Ultican Past President

At our Annual Meeting on April 17, the congregation approved a budget that was balanced based on some cuts to services that we’ve previously paid for. These include reduced childcare staff and cleaning services.

The budget also relies on increased fundraising efforts to meet a challenge from Reverend Don. Seeing the budget constraints we’ve struggled with, he has very generously offered to reduce his salary by 5% in the coming year, if the congregation shows their commitment and support by increasing pledges by 5%.

To make this budget work, we’ll need help from members and friends to give a little bit more of either their time or financial support.

To provide childcare with adequate supervision, we’ll need a volunteer to assist our Childcare Coordinator, Genevieve Emmett, for about two hours on Sunday morning during service.

Those who are willing to help care for our youngest children, please contact Genevieve at childcare@kuuf.org. It probably will be most helpful to Genevieve if she has a few people who are willing to help one Sunday each month, so she can rotate volunteers. This also helps the little ones, since they will be more comfortable with a familiar face.

Our cleaning services budget was cut from 6 hours a week to 3 hours a week. This means that the staff from Kitsap Mental Health will not have time to do some of the things they’ve done for us during the past year. We’ll need volunteers to sign up for the following tasks:

• Cleaning sanctuary and education building kitchens, including washing dishes, cleaning counters and other surfaces, and mopping floors.
• Vacuuming and cleaning surfaces in the admin building, and lower level of the education building.
• Cleaning sanctuary front door windows.
• Sweeping sanctuary/admin building decks.

We’re still figuring out how to coordinate volunteers for cleaning, and will provide more information soon.

We put a lot of time and energy into planning our annual budget and deciding how to spend our money, but not as much planning goes into raising the money needed to support our budget and help reach our financial goals. During the coming year I’ll be work- ing with other members of our com- munity to help coordinate our fundraising efforts.

In challenging times is often when communities come together to support one another. Each of our individual contributions of time or money may be relatively small, but together they can make a world of difference. You can make a meaningful difference right now, by considering how to help support our Fellowship in the coming year.

Shawn Ultican Board Past President

At our annual meeting on April 17, the congregation made the following decisions. In the coming year we’ll be continuing our social justice theme of “serving the poor and homeless in our community.”

Three members were elected to serve on our Board of Trustees; Peggy Kent, Redge Campbell, and Carolee Effron. And two members were elected to the Nominating Committee; Stella Cole and Alan Searle.

The Charitable giving recipients in the coming year will be; Bremerton Foodline, Thursday Lunch at KUUF, Central Kitsap Food Bank, StandUp for Kids, Kitsap Community Resources, Hospice of Kitsap County, Kitsap Safe Schools Network, Pen- insula Community Health Services, Kitsap Mental Health Services, KUUF's Partner Church, Habitat for Humanity of Kitsap County, and the Illahee Forest Preserve.

After much discussion, the congregation also approved a balanced budget. To make this budget work, we’ll need both additional volunteers to help with some services that we’ve previously paid for, and additional energy put into fundraising efforts. These two topics are discussed in greater detail in the article, Opportunities to Help Support KUUF.

We also voted to authorize transfer of $4,000 from our endowment earnings to the ministerial search fund. And the Board was authorized to sell the rental house, for a price that at least pays off the mortgage and covers the costs of sale, with any profit going into our capital improvement fund.

If you have any questions about these items, please contact our Board of Trustees. Our e-mail address is board@kuuf.org.

By Eric Jensen New President of KUUF Board of Trustees

With our yearly democratic showcase barely behind us, we have the opportunity to review the operational structure of our organization well in advance of the next Annual Meeting. The goal is to improve coordination between organizational elements, focus efforts toward our mission and our democratic agenda, and clarify roles and responsibilities. It is especially important to establish healthy guidelines prior to hiring a new minister.

First, we will resurrect the Fellowship Council. Our bylaws state that the Council is composed of all standing committee chairs or designated representatives and the Vice-President of the Board.

The Council will “serve as the communicating, coordinating, and calendar-scheduling agent of the Fellowship.” In addition to improving coordination, the Council should provide an opportunity to reflect whether our collective actions support our mission.

Next, the Board will be initiating a review of our bylaws. Do our bylaws provide for a committee framework that focuses efforts? Do we have healthy delineation between the roles of lay- leadership and the Minister? Do our bylaws prepare us for successful ministry? . . . probably not.

Finally, the Board will initiate recommended changes to the bylaws for consideration at the next Annual Meeting. We can look forward to our next minister knowing that we are preparing for a successful partnership; one based on clear delineation.

By Karen Leader Scott and Shawn Ultican

Every year there is a time when KUUF members gather to conduct the business of our community at our annual congregational meeting. This year the meeting will be held on April 17, starting at 11:30 a.m. This is an opportunity for each KUUF member to give input into key decisions affecting the future of our fellowship, including the following:

• Our annual operating budget is front and center at the meeting, and the Board and Finance Committee have worked hard to craft a proposal that meets the needs of the fellowship with the funds available. This budget needs your approval. There are difficult choices yet to be made, so please add your voice to the discussion.
• Election of new KUUF Board members is also part of our annual meeting. Every year three members of the nine member Board are elected, for a three year term, to replace those finishing their service on the Board.
• A proposal to sell our rental house is also under consideration. Its sale could potentially help relieve some financial stress of the fellowship, but there are also some expenses involved. The Board wants to know what our members think of this proposal.
• We will be selecting the twelve organizations to support through our monthly Charitable Giving program. See nominations on page 5 of The Candle. 

A quorum of KUUF members is needed to validate our decisions made on the items above. We need your help to make this happen. A written announcement, meeting agenda, and proxy ballots will be mailed to all members. Please bring a potluck contribution of finger food to the meeting.