The Stewardship Steering Committee is very busy organizing the Annual Stewardship Campaign. This group of people has committed many hours to ensure we have the most effective pledge drive possible. Please make sure to join us at the Hilltop House in Los Alamos for the All Church Dinner on Saturday, March 15th. This will be the kickoff event for the Annual Campaign.
Our church building is in bad shape and we do need to put money into the capital reserve fund for major expenses we can see coming to keep a roof over our heads. The Building Our Future Task Force has been extremely busy on our behalf studying what to do to get more space. This is a very knowledgeable and competent group of people who are not leaving a stone unturned to get at the facts of what is needed and how we can proceed in the future while considering the financial burdens of the different options. The board has authorized the expenditure that is needed to get estimates and opinions from experts. I have been most impressed with the way they have attacked the problems they are trying to solve. I hope all of you were able to come to at least one of the town hall meetings they held in February where people could ask questions and discuss the ideas the task force presented last fall. I am glad for civilized discussions where people listened to each other and weighed all the ideas presented to determine what the consensus is. Everyone was listened to. Your questions were answered honestly and if the task force members could not answer any questions, someone will look into it and will get back to you when they can. If you could not come to any scheduled meetings and you would like to discuss the issues with someone, feel free to approach any member of the task force with questions and ideas.
We have now a new Janitorial service. I hope you can discern an overall improvement in the cleanliness of the building. The new janitorial company is from Pojoaque and consists of a group of young people who have done a wonderful job of getting the place cleaned up.
Of all the years John and I have come to the UU church, Marge Agnew in particular, and many others have provided the music on Sundays and for special occasions. All the musicians have been wonderful and we are so grateful for the pleasure they have provided us. One of the problems we will face as we contemplate whether to go to two services is: how do we deal with the music for two services. Is this too great a burden on the volunteer musicians who so graciously volunteer Sunday after Sunday? How do we solve this problem? Do we hire music personnel?
And there are other needs. Therefore I would ask every member and friend of the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos to be as generous as possible during the next fund drive. We can do a lot together if we get the fiscal resources we need to make our church first rate. Read the article by our steward, Robyn Schultz, in this edition of the VOICE for information about the stewardship campaign.
Now a personal bit of information. As most of you know, my hip decided to dislocate as I was undressing the week before Thanksgiving. I was in a brace for eight weeks to give the tissues a chance to heal. That did not work. On January 28th the hip collapsed while partially dislocating again. The doctor recommends surgical repair which I will undergo March 31st. I hope that will fix the problem.
I will do my best to continue to be your president and do a lot of the work on the computer and by phone for a short period after the surgery. I hope to be up and around soon after March 31st so that I can come to the church for meetings where my presence is required. It is just a bit of a setback and I will get over this as well. Please have patience for the hopefully short time I will be out of commission. Thank all of you for your support. I will need it.
Mia McLeod
2007-2008 Church President
