New Faces, New Friends

New Faces, New Friends

We have hired a new Membership Coordinator– Jennifer Kirkton-Foss. You can read more about her in her newsletter column.

One of the challenges for a congregation the size of Eliot Unitarian Chapel is how to make friends. Perhaps the most straightforward way is to join a Covenant Group or committee. But even that can be confusing sometimes.

Our membership coordinator has 3 primary areas of work: newcomers (people who have visited us 2 or more times and are interested in the next step); members through their first year of membership; and old timers (everyone else). Jennifer will also be working with our membership database, Membership Committee, and me to work on membership satisfaction information gathering.

You will probably see Jennifer on Sunday mornings greeting at one of the entrances, or soon, introducing herself from the pulpit.

On a broader scale, you can meet UUs from all over the Central Midwest District. The District is comprised of some 11,000 UUs from eastern Missouri, all of Illinois, south east Wisconsin, and slivers of Indiana and Michigan.

This year's District Assembly will be held in St Louis at the Hilton Hotel in Frontenac from Friday night, April 25 through Sunday, April 27, 2008. The St Louis area ministers and musicians will be taking part in the fabulous Friday night kick off, introduced by yours truly.

Friday night has a banner parade, and a big celebration with a half dozen ministers, scores of singers, and it will be a "family friendly event," meaning the content will be pitched such that 11 year olds should be able to be engaged (for most of it).

Saturday will see a keynote speech about the UU church in the 21^st century, along with a workshop on innovative worship ideas, plus a lot more.

There are opportunities to– among other things– be greeters at the hotel, staff the bookstore, or provide home hospitality, One thing is for sure, there will be lots of UUs in St Louis that weekend. You can find out more here.

If you haven't done so already, check out our Information Guide in Visitor's Corner, and in our newsletter for a listing of all the programs, events, and classes coming up.

Daniel

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Celebration Sunday Date Set

Hello Everyone:

It looks like we have the Kirkwood Community Center for Canvass Sunday on 2/10/08. We will have a single service at 10 am.We will want as many musical, program, RE, and other groups to participate as possible. I plan on doing a UU revival service. We will take pledge cards at the very end of the service. We want to show off our talents, programs, people, and energy in the most energetic and satisfying way.

So! In the months to come, I'd like the staff to start generating ideas for music, reading, testimonials, etcetera. The lay canvass leadership will likely also contribute ideas and especially the collection coordination, logistics, etcetera. This will be BIG.

Here's the time breakdown:

Theatre for church service at 10:00 a.m., approximately one hour (9:00 a.m. – 12 noon, including one hour before and after for set up and clean up).

Gymnasium for a brunch or potluck at 11:00, approximately two hours (10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., including one hour before and after for set up and clean up).

Daniel

P.S. This changes the February 2008 Sunday Service Schedule. I will email out an update to the OOS List and any board member who wants one.