Dear Members of KUUF,
You are receiving this Survey Monkey so that you may suggest names of KUUF members to serve on the KUUF Selection Committee that will select our next transitional minister.
Background
As you know, our fellowship is embarking on a search for another bridge or transitional minister, who will step in after Rev. Carol’s contract with us ends, and assist us in our search for our next settled minister. These transitions between settled ministers, which is what Rev. Jessica was, are meant to be a year or two long, in part, to give the succeeding minister and congregation a fair opportunity to know and appreciate each other beyond the shadow of the previous minister.
On Tuesday, February 22, your Board of Trustees and members of the Committee on Shared Ministry met with Rev. Sarah Schurr, who is our Congregational Life Staff contact person in the UUA Pacific Western Region, to discuss how we might proceed. Rev. Sarah heard the difficult memories that many in our congregation have of a past transition, and she reassured us that the UUA is taking steps to improve its assistance to congregations. Following this extensive conversation with Rev. Sarah, your Board agreed that KUUF will post our search for a transitional contract minister in the UUA system when we are ready to do so. If you have any questions or concerns about how we came to that decision, please reach out to a Board member.
Prior to registering our posting with the UUA, our fellowship will engage in conversations regarding what worked well in Rev. Jessica’s ministry, and what we are hoping for in the next ministry. We made a small beginning to these conversations during coffee hour on February 20, but we are very aware that coffee hour attendees are a small portion of the whole congregation. The Board is looking to the Committee on Shared Ministry for advice and direction on how we may expand these conversations to other venues and even modes of expression to reach everyone.
Once we have discerned, from all these conversations, what KUUF will be looking for in a transitional minister, we will be ready to post our position in the UUA system. And once we do that, we will need a Selection Committee that will review the responses to our posting and select our next transitional minister.
The KUUF Selection Committee
This committee will be made up of five members of the congregation who know the congregation well and can be depended upon to act in the best interests of the congregation as a whole, and not to favor one group or activity over another. They will be charged with reviewing the submissions, checking references, perhaps traveling locally to see an applicant in action, and interviewing. All of which will involve a significant commitment of time and energy. They must accept the duty of strict confidentiality in their work.
This is where we all come in: we all have an opportunity to suggest a name or two of people who we believe can carry out the duties described above. The Board is NOT asking for volunteers for the committee, but rather for the names of people who we trust to act in the best interests of the congregation and who can observe the necessary confidentiality.
Deadline
Please fill out the survey with your suggestions and submit by Friday, March 11.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LYD2928
Thank you for your assistance!
In Fellowship,
KUUF Board of Trustees