annual report 2019-2020 · 2020. 9. 2. · montclair emergency services for the homeless (mesh) 30...

Annual Report 2019-2020

67 CHURCH STREET • MONTCLAIR NJ 07042

OUR MISSION AND VISION STATEMENTS Grounded in faith, we come together to nurture the soul, inspire hope, and bring into being a more just and loving world. We come together to:

● Create a spiritual community that nurtures and inspires us as we search for meaning in our lives.

● Reach out and welcome all who wish to be part of our community because diversity of race, culture, sexual orientation, and economic background enriches us all.

● Guide and challenge our children in their lifelong journey of discovery and spiritual growth. ● Explore religious and cultural traditions so that we may honor our differences and our

common ground. ● Take responsibility for helping to solve the problems of our community. ● Promote social and economic justice, furthering our work to dismantle racism,

homophobia, and all forms of oppression. ● Celebrate artistic creation as a spiritual element of life. ● Respect the beauty and mystery of nature by actively preserving our environment. ● Invest our personal resources to build and sustain this community of aspiration. ● Act together to keep this covenant alive.

We are Unitarian Universalists, building upon our heritage as advocates for the rights and dignity of all.

UU Montclair Annual Report 2019-2020 2

Office Directory

Remote Office Hours: Monday—Friday, 8:00 am to 3:30 pm

67 Church Street, Montclair 07042

Telephone: 973-744-6276 Website: www.uumontclair.org

E-mail: [email protected]

SENIOR CO-MINISTERS Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael Ext. 0011 [email protected] Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael Ext. 11 [email protected] [email protected] MUSIC DIRECTOR Markus Grae-Hauck ext. 0015 [email protected] ADMINISTRATOR Danielle Carlo Ext. 0012 [email protected]

OFFICE & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Jaclyn Puleo ext. 0010 [email protected] DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Judith Hogan ext. 0016 [email protected] BOOKKEEPER Emilia Sadonis ext. 0019 [email protected] CUSTODIAN Dawn Coleman


Table of Contents

2019-2020 Board of Trustees 5

Senior Co-Ministers’ Report 6

President’s Report 9

Treasurer’s Report 10

Strategic Plan 11

Committee Reports 12 Worship and Celebration 12

Music Committee 12 Family Ministries 13

Director of Family Ministries 13 Religious Education Committee 14 Mortenson Scholarship 15

Welcome and Engagement 16 Membership Team 16 Connection Cafe 17 Communications Committee 17 Harvest the Power 18 Nominating and Leadership Development 19

Care and Connection 23 Covenant Groups 23 Care Team 23 Crazy Quilters 24

Service and Justice 25 Social Justice Coalition 25 Sharing our Riches 27 Undoing Racism Committee 28 Out Front 29 Montclair Emergency Services for the Homeless (MESH) 30 UU Faith Action 30 Interfaith Hospitality Network 31 Mantel of Giving 31

Stewardship 32 Buildings and Grounds 32 Personnel Team 33 Pledge Team 34 Auction Team 35 Endowment/Investment Committee 35 Emergency Preparedness 36 Finance Committee 36


2019-2020 Board of Trustees OFFICERS (One year term; may serve three terms) PRESIDENT Susan Raufer (term expires 2020) VICE-PRESIDENT Denise Rodgers (term expires 2020) TREASURER Christopher Corbett (term expires 2022) SECRETARY Shannon Gattens (term expires 2022)

TRUSTEES-AT-LARGE (Three year term) Term expires 2020 Brian Crooks Laura Wilson Term expires in 2021 Elaine Gibson Peter Arian Matt Silverman Term Expires 2022 Michael Hetrick Kitty Cullina-Bessey Ramona Hilgenkamp


Senior Co-Ministers’ Report Combined 2020 Annual Report of Co-Ministers and Director of Facilities Management “Pains, Plans, A Pandemic and A Pivot” UUCM’s Engaged Journey The 2019-2020 Congregational year at UUCM, the third for the Co-Ministry of Reverend Anya and Rev Scott, was a year full of changes, attention paid to mission, vision and facilities, and many opportunities to test how flexible and creative we could be. Forces human, environmental and institutional challenges and provoked us until we had to go all virtual

with our programming due to the Covid-19 virus. The 2019-2020 theme was “Engage.” Here is how we engaged.

In July 2019 Judith Hogan was brought on to run our Summer RE program. The program had high engagement and satisfaction. Judith was brought on because our former DDFM had nothing prepared to go ~ no volunteers, no curriculum, not even informing us she wasn’t prepared until 10 days before the program was scheduled to begin. Judith Hogan’s engaging art-based program proved a great addition. Thanks to the board for approving hiring Judith as Summer RE Program Coordinator (she was paid out of funds normally paid to others to serve as aides). Judith proved such a good addition to our staff that she was hired as our new Director of Religious Education, beginning July 1, 2020.

We continued renovating our sacred spaces. The Alliance Room received new paint, plaster repair, flooring repair, a wall-mounted TV, electrical upgrades, a new chandelier, etc. We also continued our lighting retrofit project - in the Annex hallways and stairways, as well as some lights in the Sanctuary. We continued upgrading the stage in Fletcher Hall with dmx lighting, sound system reinforcement, and curtains. We reclaimed the Melchior Library for storage; tables and

chairs had been stored on the stage before, making it unusable/unrent-able as a stage. Additionally, we diminished our potential liability by no longer asking custodians or volunteers to lift tables and chairs up and down from the stage. Melchior library books will be salvaged (those that can be) and made available elsewhere. Our renovated stage immediately invited a community group to bring a great program to UUCM. The October 24th Undoing Racism event was able to include the premier of a brand new play, written by an African American woman who grew up in Montclair! This was sponsored by the MSU Theater Dept, the NAACP and UUCM. Other special events this year included Sound Bath Healing Meditations, a “Gender Reveal” event, and “Deeper Than Skin” in concert. We also were able to serve as host to several memorial services, weddings, a Montclair Design Week presentation, Montclair Film Festival author events, and other special events for the broader community. UUCM is deepening its identity as a major hub for arts and community renewal.


We had enthusiastic volunteer engagement in 2019-2020, including a robust Harvest the Power class, a Great Works Program, Bible Study, 5 Questions class, MESH, URC, Choir, and so much more. Our members, friends and guests continued to show how much they care about the wider world as they seek their personal transformation in service to UUCM’s mission.

In January we began to hear about something called “Covid-19.” Our Emergency Preparedness and Safety task force immediately enlisted the help of public health professionals. On March 5, this task force began to prepared us in the event that we might need to close the building On March 11, the NBA halted its season, On March 13, Federal and State governments recommended closing places of assembly (like houses of worship), and on March 21 an order was issued from the Governor that we were to shut down and shelter at home. Our programming went all-virtual. Religious Education, Board, Covenant Groups - all transitioned to ‘virtual.” Zoom rooms became our program centers and meeting spaces.

We were fortunate that among our membership are media professionals, many who were able to rush in, bring equipment, and staff a hastily constructed Media Control Center in the Balcony. Randy Crafton and his entire family are to be greatly appreciated for how they brought tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment in a moment’s notice, set it up, and began training others how to use it. We had a Live Streaming service March 22, in the Sanctuary ~ but on March 29, to limit exposing staff and crew, we began producing worship remotely and having it assembled by a team that included the Co-Ministers, Markus, Jerry Fried, the Craftons, and more. New procedures were adopted, new equipment purchased and mastered, and now we have virtual worship services that include some of the best audio/video quality among our peers.

We realized that making our major programming available as live-streamed

events had many benefits: keeping those who cannot drive or live too far engaged; bringing in funding from folks who might never pass through our doors; growing our membership simply due to the easy access of clicking a link. We realized that when the shut-down ends, we should live-stream all major programs, a pivot for which we are now planning. Care must be taken to make sure we are remaining connected to all those who joined us before the shutdown, assessing their needs and keeping them in our fold and attention.

Many in our congregation were directly affected with Covid 19. Almost everyone knew someone who died from the virus. We lost one local, regularly attending member - Lauretta Freeman. We heard stories of so many other deaths - deaths of former members who moved away, and relatives/friends/colleagues of existing members. In fact. one staff member lost 3 members of her family.. This pandemic has proven to be a trying time pastorally and professionally. So much grief, loss ~ and the uncertainty brought by economic devastation that was drastically increased because of an anemic and clueless Federal response to flattening the curve of infection. Rev. Scott was diagnosed with Prostate cancer in October 2019. His treatment overlapped the Covid shutdown (January-June 2020), adding to Rev. Anya’s workload. Rev Scott’s treatment was successful, and he has resumed all of his duties, including VP of the Montclair Interfaith Clergy Association (MICA). Both he and Rev. Anya were able to participate in the protests for Racial Justice that erupted after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer on May 25.

Two major changes occurred during the congregational year regarding the relationship between the ministers and the core Governance and Ministry bodies ~ the Board of Trustees and the Council on Ministry.


The Board of Trustees, at their Autumn 2020 Retreat, developed their first "Vision of Ministry." This is the vision that they provided to the senior co-ministers and from them to the staff as a whole, with the hope that we would direct our work to serve that vision.

Vision of Ministry, Congregational Year, 2019-2020 From the Board of Trustees to the Senior Co-Ministers

● That engagement in the congregation

will deepen across all areas of ministry, from newcomers to long time members.

● That the engagement of our members and leaders will be inward, outward and forward; that there will be a deeper integration across all of our ministry areas, especially encouraging the de-siloing of the Religious Education program.

● That an appetite for growth will be inspired.

Receiving this vision each staff member developed their own goals and action steps, and by the close of the congregational year (even with Covid-19) most goals were accomplished. This was also the first year that the Co-ministers were evaluated through a process developed by the Board and Council on Ministries, in concert with the Unitarian Universalist Association. Both Senior Co-ministers received their evaluations with gratitude and a renewed commitment to develop their ministries in accordance with the expressed needs and goals of our lay leadership. Rev. Anya has worked closely this year with our Social Justice Coalition, our Worship, Communications, Covenant Group, and Membership Programs. Core to all of this work is increased structure and organization as well as a renewed sense of purpose and possibility.

Some of the less visible aspects and accomplishments of Rev. Anya's ministry follow: Throughout this congregational year, Rev. Anya has served as the internship supervisor for Intern Antonia Bell-Delgado, UUCM’s first intern minister in 15 years. Rev. Anya also serves as a Good Officer for the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association; this year her work included counseling many ministers as they worked through conflict with their congregations and with other ministers, as well as the negotiation of a minister's resignation. Rev. Anya was also in July appointed Co-Chair of the Meadville Lombard Theological School's Board of Trustees, an honor and a challenge she is gratified to accept, as the position will provide her the access to support and lead the schools' development toward greater inclusivity and equity in all of its operations. Finally, Rev. Anya has taken on a leadership role in the town of Montclair as the town mobilizes for racial justice and a new vision of public safety, bringing together MICA and MAACA to form a new “Prophetic Council.” This work is in concert with UU groups, other interfaith associations, and the statewide organization, Salvation and Social Justice, led by Rev Charles Boyer.

Respectfully Submitted, Rev Anya Sammler-Michael, Co-Minister Rev Scott Sammler-Michael, Co-Minister, and Director of Facilities Management


President’s Report During this congregational year, the Board of Trustees successfully accomplished many of the significant goals outlined at the beginning of the year. The Board set out to strengthen the infrastructure of the congregation by working with the relevant committees to collate and update foundational documents such as the Financial Policy and Procedures Manual and the Employee Handbook. We helped bring the congregation’s first Strategic Plan before the congregation for a successful vote. We worked to improve communication policies and develop enhanced protocols for social media and increased transparency of Board actions for the congregation. We partnered with the Council on Ministries to develop and implement a system to evaluate our ministers. The Board worked with the Ministers to address challenges presented over the course of the year. When our former Interim minister Rev. Justin Osterman resigned from fellowship with the UUA after a ministerial fellowship review, we provided a forum for staff and members to understand the process and voice concerns. We worked with the Religious Education Committee to identify a way forward to strengthen our beloved RE program. And, when the Covid Pandemic hit in early spring, we quickly helped the congregation and staff pivot to remote worship and administration. This has been a tumultuous year, but one in which the Board has made great strides.


Treasurer’s Report Our past year saw many financial challenges brought about by the pandemic. In Fiscal Year 19/20, that ended this past June 30th , the Congregation saw sharp decreases in many areas of income. By mid-March, most of our rentals ceased and throughout the spring the pandemic caused financial distress to many of our Congregants resulting, understandably, in a substantial decrease in pledges paid. Our Board acted immediately to cut spending for non-essentials and to prohibit overtime for our employees. At the same time, the Board committed itself to retain all our employees and to continue all our essential work in the community. With the help of a federal PPP Cares Act grant of $73,807 we were able to end the year with a surplus of $32,523. The financial challenges of the pandemic will certainly test the Congregation in the coming year, but the Board believes it has the tools, with our members’ generous help, to weather the storm. Chris Corbett Treasurer

Income Annual Budget

Year End Balance

% Rec. Verses Budget

Pledges and Contributions

561,394 505,177 90 Pledges (-58,528) Other areas +2,311

Facility Income 87,000 53,896 62 (-33,104) Endowment Earnings 18,500 39,676 214 +21,176 Fund Raising 34,900 37,624 108 +2,724 Religious Education 5,500 9,196 167 +3,696 From the Balance Sheet 16,504 16,504 100 - Cares Act Funds 0 73,807 +73,807 Total Income 723,798 735,880 102 Net +12,082 WO Cares (-61,725) Expense % Used Employee Costs 483,509 482,662 100 (-847) Admin./Operations 52,809 47,296 90 (-5,513) Facilities 112,138 97,618 87 (-14,520) Denomination / Ass. 37,016 39,338 106 +2,322 Worship & Spirituality 14,375 13,842 96 (-533) Religious Education 5,500 5,156 94 (-344) Social Justice 18,450 17,445 95 (-1,005) Total Expense 723,798 703,357 97 Net (-20,441) Balance 0 32,523

Surplus Def. WO Cares (-41,284)

As of June 30, 2020 (in $)


Strategic Plan In August 2018, the Board of Trustees at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair (UUCM) voted to initiate the process of developing, and subsequently implementing, a Strategic Plan for the period beginning July 2020 through June 2024. The UUCM Strategic Plan Task Force (SPTF) was established to lead the strategic planning process. The Strategic Plan aims to affirm UUCM’s identity and provides the congregation with priorities for the future and pathways to achieve those priorities. It is a forward-looking document collaboratively created to foster mindful action, provide structure for our programs, and set priorities for the budgeting process, staffing decisions, technology acquisition, and facilities improvements. The Strategic Plan consists of 3 key components: 1. A Congregational Mission Statement 2. The Congregational Vision Statement 3. UUCM’s Goals & Objectives The Strategic Plan is intended to function as a playbook to help the Board, Staff, Council on Ministries, and Congregation at large achieve the congregational Mission and live into the congregational Vision. The Goals & Objectives section of this plan, beginning on page 18, was created to establish priorities for strategic action within the 4-year plan implementation period. These Goals & Objectives are organized according to the seven Ministry Areas, also known as the congregational pillars of UUCM congregational life. • Care and Connection • Service and Justice • Family Ministries • Stewardship • Governance • Worship and Celebration • Welcome and Engagement The SPTF drove the Strategic Planning process, with Matt Silverman, Laura Wilson, and Nancy Franklin, leading the way. In addition, the Council on Ministries and Board of Trustees worked in tandem with the SPTF to move the Strategic Planning process forward.


Committee Reports

Worship and Celebration

Music Committee Anne Sailer, Music Committee Chair Markus Grae-Hauck, Director of Music Ministries [[email protected]] # of regular participants in choirs: 37 # of volunteer instrumentalists: 15

The music program contributed to worship services and other celebrations throughout the year, involving many volunteers and some hired guest artists. We are especially proud of having been able to involve some of the young adults who have graduated from high school within the last couple of years; traditionally, maintaining ties with this demographic has been a challenge for UU congregations, so we are pleased about connecting with them through our music program.

We co-hosted the MLK Interfaith service in January; being able to create a worship space where African-American members from other faith traditions would feel at home was a task that we fulfilled admirably (as far as we can tell). In February we hosted our seventh annual Montclair Interfaith Music Festival, a tradition unique to UUCM. Participants from five congregations presented music separately and at the end of the concert came together for a joint performance. We were also scheduled to host the annual statewide UU choral festival on March 21. The Concert for Hope, which we envisioned as a benefit for MESH, had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 crisis. We are expecting to mount this event at another time after reopening. At the end of March we successfully transitioned to online services. Members of the congregation have participated in a number of virtual projects since then, including a few singers who had not been attending choir for some time, or ever. We have also been able to recruit volunteer singers to lead hymns each week and enlisted several instrumentalists who are members of our congregation to contribute to music for worship. The Worship Team has hosted a number of evening programs ("Soulful Sundown") since the lockdown. Most of these featured music, much of it produced by our congregants.


Family Ministries

Director of Family Ministries Judith Hogan, Director of Religious Education [[email protected]] Information provided by Lily Rappaport: Previous of Director of Family Ministries Over the past two years UUCM has done significant work moving toward family ministries programming, focusing on the needs of UUCM families. The RE Committee has reviewed models of religious education programming to help

re-imagine the way we do religious education and how we can broaden and deepen faith development for children and families. There have been changes made to the Sunday morning experience, consolidating parallel programming, strengthening classroom support, and holding regular children’s chapels. Many of our worship services have been designed with all-ages in mind, and with family friendly seating in the Sanctuary. We have been intentional in creating inclusive opportunities for faith development and worship that occur both in person and online. We have accomplished much together in providing stability for the Sunday RE program, building self-reliant teaching teams, and supporting youth integration into the life of the congregation. Additionally, we have been intentional about creating faith formation development opportunities for families outside of Sunday mornings, including building a network of parent support and at-home resources for family faith formation. In March the COVID pandemic hit and immediately forced us to let go of the past ways of gathering. Amazingly, it has been said that the way we gather for service has changed more in the past few months than in the past five centuries. Changes we are currently experiencing are helping us to build “a new normal” for the future. Online platforms have allowed us to learn new ways of being a UU community and to adopt the idea that service can be anywhere. We are discovering how we can expand our reach to new audiences and find better ways to serve people who are not able to be there on Sunday. Thus we are reshaping not only how we engage in worshipful experiences; but who can access these experiences and when they are able to experience them.


Religious Education Committee Ghana Hylton, Co-Chair Jason Brome, Co-Chair Committee Members: Kirk Barrett Jennifer Bell Lourdes Canizares-Bidwa Anneliese Scherfen John Zurlo Each committee member acts as a point-of-contact for a particular grade-range group within our program. They act as the liaison between the teaching teams for that grade and the committee itself. Key accomplishments include:

● Formalized repeatable structure for our 'Start-up Saturday' teacher orientation, supported by a number of guest presenters representing different groups within the congregation

● Worked with Judith, Lily and Danielle to drive the adoption of Realm integrated background checks for all RE volunteers. This provides a highly secure process for performing background checks, streamlines our processes, and keeps track of when checks for existing volunteers need to be renewed

● Hosted Parent/Caregiver Mixer in October

● Hosted in-person RE Roundtables and distributed online roundtable feedback forms to allow families and other congregation members an opportunity to provide feedback on our programming

● Collaborated with Larissa Brookes, John Wodnick, and other members of the Strategic Planning Team to develop our Family Ministries Strategic Plan

● Sponsored a well-received Family Game night

● Supported preliminary Director of Family Ministry search, which transformed into Judith Hogan transitioning role to our new Director of Religious Education

● Continued to embrace our use of Realm for internal committee communication and meeting scheduling

● Started to utilize Soul Matters material both within our committee meetings as well as the content of RE programming

● Pivoted RE program to a 100% virtual program as of early March. Continued weekly programming across grade ranges providing ongoing community and gathering.

● Collaborated with Judith Hogan to establish our upcoming first 'semester' - through the end of the year - as a virtual/remote semester for RE programming.


Mortenson Scholarship Nicole Rinklin, Committee Chair Relaunch Committee: John Zurlo David McGowan The purpose of the Mortenson Scholarship committee is to oversee the scholarship process from communication to the congregation to consideration of (and awarding) the recipient/s. This subcommittee (consisting of the Mortenson Scholarship committee chair and representatives from both the finance and RE committees) will redefine the process, procedures and communication plan around the scholarship fund. 2019-2020 Award recipients ($500 each) include Maggie Arian, Molly Sailer, Jade Lytle.


Welcome and Engagement

Membership Team Nancy Silverman, Committee Chair Committee Members: Sheila Eby Amy Hains David Hanley Malinda Loflin

Leila Loring Arlene Marin Dorothy Rogers Beth Smith

Key accomlishments include: Outreach:

● Team currently working on a 3 minute "Welcome Video" designed for people seeking a congregation of spiritual exploration, social justice activism and will help individuals learn more about our dynamic congregation, whether virtually or in person. An emphasis on diversity is key in this video.

● Creating a Zoom Pathways to Membership Class. 2 evening sessions beginning Aug. 26 In-reach: Team members working with new members to make them feel welcome & engaged. During covid, through emails, phone calls, walks.


Connection Cafe Nicole Gray, Chair Members: John Lytle Carol McGough Dana Moore Suzy Luna Martinez Debbie Ann Tripoldi Key accomplishments include: Since March, Connection Cafe has successfully pivoted to an online interactive format. Each Sunday, attendance has ranged from 10 to 50, depending on the occasion. A major highlight includes the Connection Cafe in which Peter Yacobellis joined us to celebrate Pride month and his recent victory in winning a position as Montclair Councilor-at-Large.

Communications Committee Deborah Ann Tripoldi, Group Lead Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Advisor Judith Rew, Graphic designer Key accomplishments include:

● Advertised various events in local newspapers - print and online, including our

transformation to online worship services. ● Updated Communications Policy to include social media. ● Created moderators for the FB Community Group and changed settings to moderators

approval only. ● Post the Sunday offering ad online on both the FB page and the Group. ● Share pics of the virtual Sunday services. ● Shared reports in the Gazette on ways to connect and included analytics on our virtual

Sunday services from FB and YouTube.


Harvest the Power Kim McLennon, Leader Dana N. Moore, Leader Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael, Leader Becca Siebert, Leader Key accomplishments include:

● Graduated 8 Participants this year, bringing the total number of Leaders developed through Harvest the Power program to 100 graduates in 10 years.

● Increased past graduate participation by 200% - Past graduates from various groups and areas of ministry ( M.E.S.H., Undoing Racism Committee (URC), Nominating & Leadership Development, UUCM Board of Trustees, Religious Education, Council on Ministries) shared their leadership journey, and impact of HTP in their continued development, at 6 of the 8 workshops held at UUCM.

● Increased participant and past graduate engagement in wider UUCM activities - group attendance at the URC Reading and Rally, current and previous classes hosted 3 Connection Cafe's during the congregational year.

● The Leadership Team along with advisors (leaders from previous years) reviewed & restructured the curriculum to meet the needs of the congregation in leadership development, facilitation of programming, and alignment with mission.


Nominating and Leadership Development Laura Anthony, Lead The Nominating and Leadership Development Committee placed the following names before the membership for consideration for leadership positions in the congregation: OFFICERS: BOARD OF TRUSTEES (One year terms)

If the proposed bylaw change passes: If the proposed bylaw change fails: Candidate:

President (1 year term) President (1 year term) Peter Arian

President Elect (1 year term) Vice President (1 year term) Michael Hetrick

Past President (1 year term) N/A Susan Raufer

Secretary Secretary Shannon Gattens

Treasurer Treasurer Chris Corbett

TRUSTEES AT LARGE (Three year terms)

Term expires in 2021 Term expires in 2022 Term expires in 2023

Elaine Gibson Francesca Elms** Lauren Carlton

Nick Lewis* Ramona Hilgenkamp David Jones

Matt Silverman (Left unfilled) Will Hylton

* serving out Peter Arian’s term **serving out Kitty Culina-Bessey’s term NOMINATING & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (Three Year Term)

TERM EXPIRES 2021 TERM EXPIRES 2022 TERM EXPIRES 2023

Kate Loysen Turek Doug Andrews Laura Anthony

Jason Fortuna Roz Gohagan

Steven Mintz

Names shown in bold are candidates running for election to terms starting July 2020.


BOARD OF TRUSTEES

PRESIDENT

PETER ARIAN first walked through the doors of the UUCM the first Sunday after 9/11. It felt like home then and still does. Most recently he was a member of the Settled Minister Search Committee and for the past two years has been a member at ;arge of the Board of Trustees. He was selected as a Pillar of the Congregation in 2015 because of his commitment to UUCM in several different areas. He has been teaching in the Religious Education program for 12 years at every age level from K-1 through Senior Youth. He is a trained OWL facilitator and has taught K-1 and 4th-5th OWL. He was on the RE Committee for 10 years serving as Chair for three of those years. For the past 6 years he has been involved in UUCM Mesh Café and for the past two years has held a leadership role in that ministry. He is also a graduate of Harvest the Power. Peter has two daughters, Emma, 19, and Maggie, 15. He is a graduate of Georgetown University where he was a team manager for the Men’s Basketball team led by Patrick Ewing. In his professional life he is an Executive Recruiter focusing on quantitatively oriented positions in finance. He hopes this experience can continue to be used by the Board of Trustees in any way possible.

PRESIDENT ELECT

MICHAEL HETRICK has been attending UUCM since 2014. He is a member of the choir and has served as coordinator of the Senior Youth program since 2015. Michael grew up in Northern Virginia before attending college in Philadelphia, where he received his BFA in Illustration. He currently works as a Senior Graphic Designer for Penguin Young Readers, designing marketing materials for books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As a freelancer, he is a published illustrator and has designed artwork for several award-winning CDs. Michael lives in East Orange with his husband Stearns and their canine best friend Darby, and on days ending with Y you can find him reading/watching Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Star Wars, and Batman. Michael is extremely passionate about growing UUCM and looks forward to serving as a member of the Board of Trustees.


TRUSTEES

FRANCESCA ELMS and her late husband Jack Drucker were delighted to find the then- Unitarian Church of Montclair in 1994 as their spiritual home for their interfaith family with their two young boys, Michael and Jonathan. As a special educator in her professional life, Francesca jumped right in to teach RE, following her son Jon up the grades until he was in middle school, and later, was the Lead Teacher for the Pre-K RE for several years. She joined the RE Committee after 9/11, helping to write peace curriculums. She became the ongoing Educational Consultant to the RE program and has helped in many Start-up Saturday teacher trainings. Francesca instituted and supervised a “Buddy” program, where teens were trained to shadow students who required 1-1 support in their RE classes. Francesca was on the Council on Ministry for over 12 years, has been the Chair of the Peace and Justice Committee, and helped to form the Peace and Justice Coalition. She wrote the bi-weekly “Just One Thing” e-blast for many years in order to spread the word about Peace and Justice happenings and actions. She helped Jack and the Theatre Group produce multiple productions over the years. She was selected as a Pillar of the Congregation in 2003. She has been very involved in women’s groups and many covenant groups, and she has been a vital participant in many UUCM auctions. UUCM has been an all-important part of her life and her family life. She is looking forward to serving the congregation in a new capacity on the Board.

DAVID E. JONES and his wife, Stephanie, joined UUCM in 2017. Since joining, David has served as a Religious Education Teacher and Youth Mentor for the Coming of Age program. He currently serves as a Commissioner for the West Orange Human Relations Commission and Membership Chair for the Parent Teacher Association at his children’s elementary school. Professionally, David is the Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Talent Management at William Paterson University. Since 2010, David has served as a diversity consultant, trainer and speaker for colleges and universities, corporations and non-profit


organizations. He has held previous leadership board positions for the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators, where he previously served as the Region II Advisory Board Representative for the Professional Standards Division and Chair for Strategic Initiatives. A native of Brooklyn, New York, David holds a doctorate of education in organizational leadership and communication from Northeastern University and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. David and Stephanie are proud parents to Jacob, Sophia and Natalia, who are also members of UUCM. David is excited to continue serving UUCM in this new leadership role.


Care and Connection

Covenant Groups Claudia Sanders: Chair An overview of the current covenant groups below:

● New Member Covenant Group- Leader: Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, number of members varies

● Our Positive Place- Leader: Carol McGough, 6 members ● The Poetry Covenant Group- Ginny Crooks, 8-10 members at a meeting/17 members on

the mailing list who attend at times Food Diplomacy Leader: Nelia Sellers, 22 active members

● Art and Soul- Leader: Nick Lewis, 14 Members ● Short Fiction Reading Covenant Group- Leader: Dorothy Sommer 7 Members ● Soul Matters Covenant Groups:

○ Mirrors and Windows- Nancy Franklin. 7 Members ○ Wednesday Nighters- Sarah Scalet, 6 Members ○ Soul Matters- Deb Ellis

Most groups seem to have adapted well to the virtual meetings via Zoom. The addition of the weekly Drop In Covenant Group was well received and will be continuing into the fall and beyond. It meets weekly and has continued over the summer. The other groups meet monthly. The good news is that the Covenant Groups have continued to serve a need to maintain connection at this difficult time when we can't be together.

Care Team Arlene Marin, Co-chair Lisa Auslander, Co-chair Members: Becky Doggett, Team lead, Cards team Carol McGough, Co-lead Call team Georgiana Hart , Co-lead Call team Nikki Kean, Lead, Meals team David Bronstein, Lead, Ride team Arlene Marin, Lead, Visits team Key accomplishments include: Sent, on average, 5 cards per month based on remembrances. Provided meals to help out about 12 families. We offered regular rides to and from Sunday services for 2 members. Made on-going calls to about 5 members. Connected, by phone, text or email, congregant families once or twice during quarantine. Provided regular shopping support to about a dozen members during quarantine. Delivered chancel flowers after services to deserving members. Made regular Zoom calls to congregants in a nursing home. CTM team leads developed a document of Operational


Norms for Care Team Ministry and individual teams including goals for the future. Use of Realm Groups for individual teams and leaders communication.

Crazy Quilters Arlene Marin, Chair Key accomplishments include:

● Provided/created masks to support MESH attendees. ● Monthly ZOOM meetings to stay connected during quarantine. ● Made several quilts to be shared with congregants. ● Made 27 tote bags for sale at the auction. Also, offered placemats and runners for the

auction. Held a fundraiser raffle of a queen-sized quilt.


Service and Justice

Social Justice Coalition Executive Team Teresa DeSousa, Co-Chair Johanna Foster, Co-Chair David Sailer Michael Mernin

Steering Committee Maria Towe Roselyn Gohagan Nick Lewis Georgiana Hart Peg Seip Kathryn Counsell Annaliese Scherfen Peggy Hayden Anne Sailer

Partnering with OutFront, we have continued to focus on improving Montclair's score on the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index. 12 members and friends of UUCM met with Councilperson Renee Baskerville in October of 2019. She formally endorsed our campaign and offered UUCM 2 seats on the Civil Rights Commission.

● 8 members of the congregation showed up to the CRC meeting scheduled for October 17; however, the meeting was cancelled at the last minute.

● We attended the Montclair Civil Rights Commission meeting on 12/19/19 to share the news of our campaign, to seek input from the commissioners, and to confirm our interest in filling two of the vacant seats on the Commission.

● We contacted the LGBTQ liaisons of the towns that both received a 100 score AND had an LGBTQ community liaison to get some insight into what is required.

● In March of this year, we met with Bruce Morgan, Montclair’s Affirmative Action

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● Officer who has assumed responsibility

for preparing this year’s submission. He was very forthcoming about the issues Montclair faces, both on the town’s part and the HRC’s specific requirements. We offered to assist him where we can, and we requested that we see the final submission prior to sending it in for this year.

● We reached out directly to the Human Rights Campaign and clarified information that will be important to clarify in the preliminary May submission, and we have followed-up with Mr. Morgan to discuss those clarifications.

● We have reviewed the draft sent to us by Mr. Morgan and have offered suggestions and assistance with finalization of the document.

● We reached out to interfaith partners to inquire about their interest in collaborating with us and received positive responses from B’nai Keshet; First Congregational; St. Luke’s Episcopal; and Union Congregational.

● Several members attended an in-person meeting with the Executive Director of Garden State Equality and got a commitment to partner.

● It is worth noting that our campaign was covered in The Montclair Local on 12/12/19.


Through the SJC Housing Justice Working Group, we formed an alliance with the Tenants Organization of Montclair, whose goal it is to establish rent control in the township. Our members, within hours before the vote, made calls to their representatives, and on April 7 the Town Council passed an ordinance limiting rent increases. The fight is not over but the Montclair Housing Commission indicated that it was a significant victory that UUCM was instrumental in making happen. Racism in Local Policing/ Use of Force – Led by members of the Undoing Racism Committee, the Police Use of Force research team has studied the NJ Force Report, data and policy solutions from Campaign Zero, as well as uniform crime reporting data from the FBI. The team has connected with both the statewide Use of Force and Social Justice coalition led by Rev. Charles Boyer and the organization, Salvation and Social Justice, and the All Faiths Justice Coalition, established by UU Faith Action in 2016. In addition, the team has developed a relationship with Montclair Police Department Community Service Unit Commander, Lt. Tyrone Williams, Jr. Concerns about the nature and availability of anti-bias trainings, as well as crisis intervention trainings, have been a key theme in the team’s discussions with Montclair PD.

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged amid the MEI work, and the research team explorations, and the SJC felt called to respond to the immediate crisis. We did so by spearheading an effort to enhance the MESH program by supplying to-go meals along with the weekly dinners. This work is ongoing, and UUCM members and friends donated over $1,600 in support of the initiative. Members and friends have volunteered to do the shopping and bagging The COVID-19 pandemic emerged amid the MEI work, and the research team explorations, and the SJC felt called to respond to the immediate crisis. We did so by spearheading an effort to enhance the MESH program by supplying to-go meals, disposable face masks and hand sanitizer along with the weekly dinners. This work is ongoing, and UUCM members and friends donated over $1,600 in support of the initiative. Members and friends have volunteered to do the shopping and bagging of the meals, which we continue to distribute to our MESH guest.


Sharing our Riches Patrick Preblick, Chair Members Jane Gaertner Nick Lewis Wendy McNeil John Lytle Deborah Corbett Claudine Ohayon Myrna Brome Ellen Fenster-Kuehl Shifted to a monthly recipient model in July 2020 and expanded the committee to include 5 additional members. Met with Reverend Anya and the social justice committee to realign our priorities in the wake of the George Floyd murder to focus on organizations in support of the ideals of the Black Lives Matter movement for the immediate future.


Undoing Racism Committee Jane Gaertner, Chair [[email protected]] Members: Eileen Birmingham Felice Celikyol Eileen Delahunty Rebecca Doggett Georgiana Hart Mary Jones Petra Kershaw Helen Lippman John Lytle Charlene Marable Wendy McNeil Mary Moriarty Carol Roehrenbeck

Gail Ryan Alan Sanders Gary Sanderson Anneliese Scherfen Beth Smith Diane Specht Kevin St. Pierre Norma Tassey Laura Thomas Vincent Wares

Key accomplishments include: Sept 19 Profiled, film by Kathleen Foster (35 attended) Sept 26 Crown Heights film, (27 attended) The September film series linked the legacy of enslavement to the disparities in the current criminal justice system. Film viewing followed by discussion. October 15 Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation with author -UUCM member Dionne Ford at the Montclair Public Library. (approx. 90 attended)

October 24 Rally on Church Street Plaza and march (40 attended from 5-6 pm), play (100 attended 630-830 pm) Andrea McChristian of New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, advocated working to close New Jersey’s youth prisons, restore the voting rights of current and formerly incarcerated, and demand reparative justice in New Jersey. Rev. Anita R. Wright, Trinity Presbyterian, Bill Slezak UUFaithAction also spoke at the rally. In collaboration with Montclair History Center (MHC), URC commissioned a play, written by a Montclair State University (MSU) alum, Jessica Baskerville. MSU students, alum, and NAACP Collegiate Chapter members staged a powerful reading of a short play premiere, “Just As Cruel,” based on 1882 NY Times interviews of two people born into slavery in New Jersey. The reading was followed by robust discussion with MHC Executive Director, MSU students and academic experts which centered on the not so distant history of slavery in Essex County, New Jersey. November 13 Dr. Traci C. West, activist scholar. “Intersections: Ending Gender Violence, Find Anti-Racist Solidarity” 32 attended


February 24, 2020 Use of Force Subcommittee met with Lt. Tyrone Williams, Montclair Police Department Community Policing head, to discuss MPD’s community outreach and learned information about the Uniform Crime Report, use of force issues, body cameras. 8 attended March 15, 2020 Annual Women’s History Month Program postponed due to pandemic (Spring 2021), Program attached separately. May 7, 14, 21, 2020 Online Book Discussion of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. 12 registered. Supporting Initiatives/Subcommittee May/June 2020 – Met with Intern Minister Antonia Bell-Delgado to discuss forming a UUCM group, Allies for Racial Equity. This

group (and 2019 group) hopes to become established at UUCM. April 2019 thru June 2020 -- Under Social Justice Coalition initiative on Racism and Policing, URC Subcommittee on Use of Force met several times to discuss key issues/actions items, and next steps. 7 original members, but grew to 14 post-Mr. Floyd lynching. Related Events at which URC assisted:

● October 13 The Montclair History Center tour focused on Montclair’s African American history

● 25 attended, 2 members volunteered. ● January 20th - UUCM hosted the

townwide MLK celebration - URC promoted and approx 7 ushered

● URC Hosted two Connection Cafes in spring 2020

Out Front Becca Nast, Chair Regular attendees: Maria Towe Jo Ponticello Marcia Mandel Elaine Gibson Key accomplishments include: We advocated this year for increased pronoun awareness and assisted Rev. Anya in the purchase of pronoun pins for worship right before the stay at home mandate went into place.


Montclair Emergency Services for the Homeless (MESH) David Bronstein, Co-lead Kathryn Counsell, Co-lead UUCM takes part in the Montclair Emergency Services for the Homeless (MESH). MESH is a project of the Montclair Clergy Association and was created to rally the support of our community to help serve our most vulnerable neighbors. UUCM volunteers continued to serve our neighbors during Covid by providing dinner, face masks and hand sanitizer weekly outside to our guests.

UU Faith Action Nick Lewis, Vice-President, UU FaithAction NJ Bill Slezak, Treasurer, UU FaithAction NJ Georgianna Hart and John Carlton, Liaisons Charles Loflin, Temporary Assistant Executive Director Many members of the congregation follow FaithAction Action Alerts and participate in its Task Forces in varying capacities and at varying times. FaithAction's accomplishments over the past year, especially in the area of liberal religious lobbying in Trenton, are set forth on the FaithAction website (uufaithaction.org). We have been working to integrate FaithAction into the social action consciousness of the Congregation. These efforts are reflected in the FaithAction portion of the Strategic Plan. Those efforts were stalled somewhat by the pandemic and the infection of our Executive Director, Rev. Rob Gregson, with COVID-19. The addition of John Carlton as a liaison was an important step and our recruitment of Charles Loflin to assist Rev. Gregson while we recover from the virus has been a very positive development.


Interfaith Hospitality Network Susan Krcmar, Lead Active Members: Becky Doggett Gretchen Japhet Maryann Ficker Tanya Dixon Key accomplishments include: Nov. 18, 2019, we provided dinner for 14 homeless people - 5 adults, 9 children, also children supervision and overnight supervision, in Bloomfield, NJ, 12 Park St. Our second day of service in March was canceled due to Covid 19 virus.

Mantel of Giving Kate Conroy, Lead Key volunteers: Michael Hetrick David Szmak Kathy Szmak Key accomplishments include: Collected, organized, packed and delivered 150 gifts to the Horton School in Newark, NJ


Stewardship

Buildings and Grounds

John Carlton, Co-Lead Ed Martoglio, Co-Lead The challenges of maintenance, updating code violations and obsolescence and preventing structural damage to a century old building complex are financial and logistical. Many of these issues need to be addressed through a Capital Campaign. The needs exceed $1 million dollars with the largest costs being associated with reroofing the west side of the sanctuary, Fletcher Hall and the Annex. Another priority is providing internal accessibility between the sanctuary and Fletcher Hall. Other needs are updating old building systems including electrical, heating and cooling, plumbing and future media streaming. Aspirations include updating bathrooms and the kitchen and adding a bathroom to Fletcher Hall to better address congregational needs and programs. Logistically the Buildings and Grounds Committee strives to contract building and grounds work in the first quarter in July and August when there is less use of the facility. Financially the challenge is twofold, the cost of improvements and fixes, and the limitations imposed in the Congregation operating budgets during fiscal emergencies. Delayed maintenance becomes costlier as it is delayed. The first quarter of 2019 saw the refurbishment and structural fix of the Alliance Room. Nearly half the budgeted line item for Maintenance was spent capping off rotted steam radiator lines, removing old pipes, installing a new heating and cooling mini split system, fixing the rotten floor boards and rotten joists in the northwest corner, refinishing the entire floor, painting the walls, ceiling and trim.

The second large project in the first quarter included replacing the rusted thru metal second floor exit platform and steps from the north side of the Annex with new pressure treated structural components and composite decking and rails. An important first quarter project was installing a fire code mandated egress window in the Senior Youth Room large enough to allow emergency egress. The final significant project for the first quarter was the entire replacement of the walks and landscaping around the east and north facades of Fletcher Hall. This project was accomplished with significant donations of time and money and improved the aesthetics, the accessibility and the safety of the old walkway and surrounding areas. The Fletcher Hall gutters were cleaned of seedlings at this time. Early in the second quarter a small project of replacing missing ceilings in the Senior Youth Room closets turned into an emergency replacement of the entire ceiling when it collapsed in late September. Other smaller projects that popped up during the year included speaking with the Township Planner concerning the adjacent proposed apartment building, speaking with the Township Building Inspector concerning the dumping of trash and ashes on the new walkway by Antikas restaurant, working with the roofing contractor to stop the small leak in the Peirl’s Room ceiling, Rev. Scott fixing the sanctuary air conditioning, Rev Scott resolving and getting the State to rescind a


$2,000 boiler violation fine. Rev. Scott also developed a volunteer workforce, known as SWET to work on small projects during the year. Several of the exterior doors were updated to building code with panic exit bars and door closers. The annex elevator was repaired for $1,406. The fourth quarter saw a small emergency when senior custodian Dawn noticed stucco on a corner of Fletcher Hall by the exterior

door had fallen off, exposing the interior of the wall to damage from rain and ice. As part of the inspection a clogged exterior drain along the driveway creating standing water against the building foundation also was noticed. The mason came and repaired and painted the missing wall and several similar structurally challenged spots along the north and east façade where the stucco was missing. The drain was also cleared and fixed.

Personnel Team Denise Rodgers, Chair Members: Teresa DeSousa David Hanley Key accomplishments include:

● Completed the revision of the congregation handbook ● Revision of some forms and policies ● Conducted 2 exit interviews ● Conducted 1 position interview


Pledge Team

Myrna Brome, Co-chair Chelsea Vaughn Showalter, Co-chair Members: Jerry Fried David Gaynes Brian Lavery Arlene Marin Wendy McNeil Judith Rew

Ex officio: Dennis Kurtti, stewardship chair Chris Corbett, treasurer Danielle Carlo, UUCM administrator Rev. Scott, senior minister liaison

Key accomplishments include:

● Analyzed pledge numbers from a financial perspective ● Recruited 2 UUCM members with fundraising experience to join/advise the team (Wendy

McNeil, Jennifer Bernstein) ● Recruited 3 new team members: Wendy McNeil, Brian Lavery, David Gaynes ● Experimented with new video approaches: kid video + Dawn "day in the life" video ● Several rounds of follow-ups, including after covid-19 pandemic ● Expanded outreach (typically team does not reach out individually to smaller givers, but we

did this year) ● In person and video testimonials


Auction Team Nick Lewis, Co-Chair Christian Turek, Co-Chair Ursula Wolz, Tech Leader Mike Mernin, A little of everything John Lytle, Food David Bronstein, Food

Francesca Elms, Set up and Planning Dottie Hiebing, Merchant Donations Dennis Kurtti, A little of everything Steve Crooks, Decorations Scott Lahey, Wine

In addition to the above key committee members, there were multiple volunteers who handled data entry, check in, kitchen staff/food preparation, photos, and post-auction work.

Endowment/Investment Committee Team members: David Bessey Ramona Hilgenkamp Anthony Schowalter The Investment Committee for the UUCM endowment and other funds met regularly during the year to monitor the congregation’s investment returns and risk profile. A substantial amount of time was focused on evaluating the returns of the UUA Common Endowment Fund vs available alternatives from Vanguard or other fund providers. Underperformance of the UUA fund over most time periods resulted in a decision to diversify away from this fund, selling a portion of the UUA and investing in the better performing funds such as Vanguard Wellington. This decision will be implemented over the next fiscal year. Returns for the UUCM investments were volatile, but generally positive. The UUA Common Endowment Fund returned +1.6% for the fiscal year ending 6/30/20, while the Vanguard Wellington Fund returned 4.7%. A smaller holding in the MCI Barings income fund returned -9.44%, but this fund is held predominantly for its income potential rather than long term returns. The congregation received 3 major bequests during the year totaling just under $600k. The cash flow from these bequests was invested in relatively low risk investments, awaiting the decision from the Board on the proportion that will be dedicated to the long term funds such as the UUCM Endowment or Capital funds.


Emergency Preparedness Team members: Peter Arian David Hanley Mary Moriarty

Doug Andrews Kitty Culina-Bessey Marcia Mandel

We held emergency preparedness training for several groups including staff, greeters, RE volunteers and held a fire drill after both 9:00 and 11:00 services. We continued to liase with MPD and Montclair Fire Department for Emergency training. We purchased new first aid equipment to be used in case of a shooting or other tragedy. We applied for and received a $10,000 grant from NJ Dept of Homeland Security to fund armed security guards or off duty police acting as security during Sunday mornings, however a decision on whether or not to initiate the grant is still forthcoming by the board. As the pandemic unfolded a decision was made to form another task force tasked with giving guidance for when and how to reopen 67 Church Street for Congregational activities. That task force consists of Peter Arian, Nick Lewis, Jill Magioncalda, Rae Dumont, John Carlton, Rev Scott and Stephen Schwander.

Finance Committee David Bessey, Chair Chris Corbett, Treasurer Ramona Hilgenkamp, Investments Dan Silver

David McGowan Edward Martoglio John Carlto Judy Lutzy

The Finance Committee had a busy year, made busier by the financial volatility surrounding the Covid pandemic. We worked closely with Treasurer Chris Corbett to monitor the operating budget on an ongoing basis throughout the year. With Chris’ work securing our PPP grant from the government, the 2019/2020 budget came in with a surplus, although we expect 2020/2021 fiscal year to be much tighter. We assisted Chris and President Sue Raufer in preparing next year’s 2020/2021 budget, which is an austerity budget encompassing lower expectations for facilities revenue, pledges, etc. The congregation was fortunate to receive several bequests during the year from the estates of Jack Drucker, Terry Last, and Mr. Monica. In aggregate these bequests, when fully distributed, will total approximately $600k. The use of the funds is the prerogative of the Board, but the Finance Committee recommends that at least 1/2 be distributed to the endowment. This actual use will necessarily depend on how the finances of the congregation evolve during the pandemic. We regularly reviewed the returns on the endowment and other funds of the congregation, and worked with the Investment Committee to evaluate whether UUCM should keep the funds at the UUA or switch to a more competitive Vanguard fund. Fund returns were solid, as the market rebounded significantly after the March sell off.


annual report 2019-2020 · 2020. 9. 2. · montclair emergency services for the homeless (mesh) 30...

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