Dear Congregants,

Welcome to summer and a new Congregational Year! I hope you’re staying cool and your Eversource bill is remaining reasonable. We had our monthly board meeting last night at 7pm in the Sanctuary, with Zoom call-in option available. We also had the Special Congregational Meeting take place on 6/28 where I am happy to report both slates were approved and the previous year’s meeting minutes were accepted — so a special welcome to our new Board members JoAnn LaBare and Chris Long.

We had two e-votes happen between our June and July Board meetings. On 6/18 we approved the slates put forward by the diligent members of the Nominating Committee. Thank you to them for their hard work during the crunchtime between congregational meetings.  On 7/19 we reached an e-quorum on voting for the ministerial search committee, so Craig will be reaching out directly to those who were selected, and Celeste and myself will be the Board members who are participating on the committee.  Thank you to everyone who submitted their names for consideration on the Ministerial Search Committee!

At this meeting we did vote on a few items:

• Approved Key Policy — 1) Board members, the minister, RE Director, Admin, the sexton, Assistant Treasurer, and committee chairs are entitled to keys which are needed to accomplish congregational related service tasks. And…2) Only board members, the minister, Admin, and committee chairs can grant temporary authorization for keys, and any key distribution must be documented with the Admin for record keeping purposes. Keys should not be copied, loaned, or shared without authorization. and…3) All keys must be returned by the minister, board members, committee chairs, Re Director, Admin, Assistant Treasurer, and sexton, at the end of their terms of service. Lost or unreturned keys should be reported promptly so the Board can determine whether any further action, such as rekeying, is needed. and…4) Any keys given out to congregation members, renters/groups outside of those roles from 1, will be on a temporary basis and will have documented with the Admin clear loan periods informed by a project, event, or business with the congregation. and…5)The Board may override any authorization for the security and safety of the staff and congregation.
• Approved Rekeying the doors for the Sanctuary, Community Room, RE Building, and Admin Office
• Approved Share the Plate Schedule: SNUI (specifically the helping hands/food portion) for August and September, and a TBD Domestic Violence or Women’s Shelter as identified by the Social Justice Group for October and November
• Affirmed the creation of the upcoming By-Law Review and Revision Committee in September, as part of our UUC Guiding Documents review cycle — interested members can reach out to me (Sarah!) about joining! We are looking for 3-5 people for this task to be completed with deliverables by January/February 2027.

Hard copies of this month’s Board meeting notes will be available on Sunday, and all previous month’s Board Meeting notes are available digitally here.

The Board will have our retreat on August 17 from 5-9pm in the RE Building in lieu of the regularly scheduled monthly meeting, which means our next Board Meeting will be on 9/14 at 7pm over Zoom.

Please enjoy the rest of your summers and don’t forget to save some water from your travels for the Water Communion Homecoming in the Fall!

Yours in service from the keyboard,
Sarah Prosser — UUC Stamford BoT Clerk