Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Visalia Teams and Committees

Please contact any board member if you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these teams or committees.

A Democratic System

Our Fellowship is governed by an Executive Committee, which includes a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and the immediate past President. These officers are elected at each annual meeting. No person may hold the same office longer than two terms in succession. Our Fellowship also has other committees, appointed by the Executive Committee. Only members of the Fellowship may serve on the Executive Committee, but Friends of the Fellowship may serve on other committees.

 

Worship Team

Plans and arranges programs and worship services based on UU principles; trains and mentors Worship Associates. Includes a Chair, a Verger (set-up and take-down), a Choir Director, and several regular members.

Adult Religious Education Team

Plans Adult Education programs, Small Groups, classes, and book discussions. Includes Librarian and works with Communications Team for the Library Database manager.

Children's Religious Education Team

Plans and conducts children's religious education curricula and programs and arranges for babysitting for younger children.

 

Social Justice Team

The focus of this team for 2009-2010 is on Ethical Eating Projects and maintaining our Fellowship's Green Sanctuary status.

Unitarian Universalists take action on a variety of issues pertaining to social justice including civil liberties, economic justice, health, hunger, peace, energy, and the environment.
Our congregation's Social Justice Team is responsible for implementing these concerns in our Fellowship. For maximizing our effectiveness, the team decided to focus on just one primary social justice issue for this year. For the 2009-2010 church year, our Social Justice Team decided to focus on the issue of Ethical Eating. This topic is of great interest to us locally, and is also the 2008-2012 Congregational Study/Action Issue (CSAI) of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. The team produced an Eco-Friendly Recipes cookbook and is now working on a second edition to include not only recipes but more information about environmental sustainability, nutrition, and ethical eating principles. The team has established an Ethical Eating reading group to bring our members up to speed on these issues, and plans to sponsor a discussion course on Menu for the Future using materials from the Northwest Earth Institute beginning March 4, 2010. The team is providing a series of guest speakers for the whole conregation throughout the year.
Our Green Sanctuary program responds to the call to heal the Earth, combat global warming, and live more sustainable lives. The congregation has a Green Sanctuary Committee which meets concurrently with the Social Justice Team. The Green Sanctuary Program elements include Worship and Spiritual Practice, Religious Environmental Education, Environmental Justice, and Sustainable Living. We implement this by providing environmentally-themed topics for worship services, donating energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs for Habitat for Humanity homes, and replacing old appliances at the Friends Meetinghouse with energy efficient ones. The “ethical eating” program ties into the Green Sanctuary program due to the impact of agricultural and industrial practices on the environment.
Our congregation is an active member of the U.U.L.M.C.A which works in our state capitol to support health care reform, marriage equality, fair elections, and climate & water justice. The Social Justice Team responds to alerts and issues raised by this important state ministry.

Communications Team

Responsible for newsletter and website; Bulletin boards; Signs and banners; Media outreach (newspaper, radio, TV); Press Releases, Library Database manager, Web 2.0. Includes a Chair to coordinate efforts, and Editor, Webmaster, Web 2.0 managers, bulletin board organizers, graphic designers, and others.

Membership and Welcoming

Three person team, responsible for UU Membership Orientation programs twice a year, and to do the following:
1. Greeting - Train and coordinate greeters and serve as greeters;
2. Hosts - hospitality during the potluck - Follow up with visitors - handwritten note card with "beliefs" pocket card; and
3. Caring Coordinator.