Recent updates from your Board of Directors.

President’s Report

For the UFP Annual General Meeting, May 7, 2023

Let me begin by thanking our dedicated departing 2021-22 members, Heather-Lynn Fraser, Guy Hanchet, Chris Risley and Meredith Hill. Each made major contributions to the Board and congregation during the difficult period of the pandemic. 

The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough 2022-23 Board of Directors included:

President: Ben Wolfe
Vice President: Aukje Byker
Treasurer: Joan Higginson
Secretary: Scott Donovan
Directors: Tracy Galvin, Mundy McLaughlin, Julia Wallace, Stephanie Wildheart

2022-23 has been a year to remember — a “year like no other” for UFP. A year without a Minister, in the third year of a pandemic. I hope and feel it is a year we will be proud of, looking backward. It took all hands to see us through, and we are coming through more than a little weary but loving, committed and strong. 

As we completed and celebrated our beloved Rev. Julie Stoneberg’s 15-year ministry with us last spring, we learned we were among many North American congregations who were not successful in search for an Interim Minister. The pandemic has disrupted the availability of UU ministers in unprecedented ways.

The Board and other leadership teams set to work in spring/summer. Our first key step was securing Rev. Peter Boullata as our very-part-time Consulting Minister. Peter has been a gift to us, and indispensable to our Transition tasks and capacity. 

At an end-of-summer Board retreat we named and felt our anxieties and our future vision. We understood this would be a year of emergent as much as managerial leadership. We created the Transition Leadership Team (TLT) — a Board-interlinked hybrid of what would normally be the Committee on Ministry during an Interim year. We also interconnected the Board with the Creative Worship Team (CWT), which was suddenly faced with the challenge of leading all services for the year. 

The triangle of these three teams — Board, TLT and CWT — soon found its way to an effective division of roles, communication, and collaboration as needed. 

And… as September began, our highly skilled Administrator, core to our day to day operations and communications, resigned to take an impossible-to-refuse job leading Artspace. And hopes that the pandemic was over after two years faded as the local COVID-19 level returned to HIGH.

In co-leading a September 18th service called “Transitioning in Love Together” I said: “We’re reinventing everything. We’re rediscovering everything. And in doing that we’re going have to love each other.… This is complicated, hard work. Some of it can be lonely.… [Th]e right question is not “Why haven’t you?,” but “How can we?” We can figure that out together.”

And we did. In visible and invisible ways, imperfectly, collaboratively and creatively, we — all of us as a congregation — stepped up and day-by-day, beautiful Sunday by beautiful Sunday, we guided ourselves across a bridge to a next stage of our congregational life. 

Many practices have helped see us through the year. Pre-meetings of our Executive a week before each Board meeting improved focus, efficiency and accountability. Community Conversations and a new, regular, after-service Business Salon initiated by Scott invited congregational cohesion and a better understanding of immediate and longer-term needs. Every Board member has been personally active in at least one other major area of congregational life — and in some cases several areas — and has brought this hands-on knowledge to the Board. 

Jessica Smith, our gifted and dedicated Director of Religious Exploration, initiated a seasonal series of outdoor, all-ages community gatherings, Grounded in Love, that brought large attendance, joy, connection, and many newcomers and young families. These were a highlight of the year. The Fellowship hired a new Joint Administrator, Barbara Hawthorn, who has held vital aspects of congregational communications and admin together for us with a lot of initiative under very challenging conditions.

Our multi-year Board culture of Sociocracy has served us well. Sociocracy is a meeting process based on rounds in which all voices speak, with consent of all members to decisions. The need to achieve consent changes leadership culture. It inspires deeper listening, genuine welcoming of differing views, and thoughtful balancing of complex needs. There is no win/lose. Every decision by your Board this year had the consent of all its members. 

Our Sociocracy work is pioneering among UUs and has drawn interest from congregations across Canada and the US seeking a renewed system of governance. Aukje and Ben have led multiple workshops and spoken in a UUA webinar in December. For the first time, the Board used the Sociocratic role-selection process in choosing its Officers.

The 2022-23 year was deeply affected by COVID-19. We opened our doors and relaxed our policies to the joy of meeting together in person, and then had to painfully retreat to online services again through the worst COVID spike of the year in late fall. Our Safe Gathering advisors, especially Heather Ballarin, have gone above and beyond, again and again, in a commitment to providing the Board with advice and vision. Our Creative Worship Team rose to the challenge and pivoted to delivering outstanding online-only services. And then we steadily opened up again in winter and spring. 

I am intensely proud of how UFP has managed multiple perspectives on many issues, including COVID policy. We’ve worked hard to create a safe, caring listening space. We’ve committed and equipped ourselves to provide long-term, hybrid services. Our COVID measures were responsible and effective, being aligned with public health data and recommendations. Peterborough Public Health has called us leaders in the community in our response.

Through the year, Board members with specialized professional skills have taken the lead in policy areas needing an update at this complex time. Our staff turnover required Human Resources policies, knowledge and effort. Rather than dealing ad hoc with matters arising, we now have a functioning HR Committee, led by Mundy McLaughlin. 

The Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) requires we update our our Fellowship Articles, Bylaws and other governing documents by Fall 2024 to be compliant. We have taken a broad view of this work, as we mark a generational shift in the life of the congregation. A Task Force of Ben Wolfe, Paul King-Fisher and Ian Attridge is beginning work to advise the Board on our charitable purposes and governing documents, to meet the ONCA deadline and in a manner consistent with the exciting possibility of formally adopting Sociocratic governance at UFP.

Our finances need special mention. The Board is profoundly thankful to our Treasurer, Joan Higginson, who is stepping into retirement from the role after serving with vision, diligence and grace for more years than she ever intended. The Board committed to Joan that this would and could be her last year. She deserves the whole community’s thanks. We somehow need to replace her. The Finance Committee, led by Joan, is very strong and has done extensive preparation for this transition, building many supports for a new Treasurer to step into. (Might that be you, reading this now?)

This year’s Treasurer’s Report includes important information about how our finances, member contributions and investments have fared through the pandemic and ministerial transition. There are impacts but they are less than might have been. There are reasons for optimism, including new ministerial leadership (see below), the launch of a new Planned Giving Program, and what seems to be (let us hope) the end of acute COVID.

Our best news over the last few months has been finding a path back to full-time ministry. Speculative conversations among TLT and Board members and Rev. Peter have led to excited dreaming, an exploratory circle, negotiations and the formal hiring of Rev. Peter Boullata as our Minister for 2023-25. His contract will be in place by the time I present this report at the AGM. Excitingly, Peter’s contract and all our conversations leave open the possibility of his becoming our Settled Minister should we all so decide in the future.

Your Board ends this year a little frayed at the edges (and desirous of shorter meetings) — and filled with gratitude for this place, this community, and every one of the other forms of leadership and service that has seen us through an intensely memorable year. 

Let’s find ways to let this rite of passage strengthen and serve us for years to come.

— Ben Wolfe

UFP is now “MASK VOLUNTARY” (but encouraged)

close-up photo of purple petaled flower

With new air quality measures, in place (and in progress), masks are encouraged but not required.

Dear UFP Members and Friends,

We are so grateful for the love and care that our community has shown one another through three years of COVID-19, and since we returned to in-person Sunday gatherings. Our commitment to the safety and well-being of all in our community and beyond continues to be our guiding priority.

As announced over the last three weeks, the UFP Board feels it is time to move to the next phase of in-person gatherings. Masking is now voluntary but encouraged at UFP — as, at the same time, we creatively work to improve indoor air quality as a further risk reduction measure.

By moving slowly and cautiously, based on best available evidence, we have done our best to uphold values of mutual care, protection of vulnerable people, and true inclusivity. An interesting read can be found here that helps better understand how the immunocompromised community has felt as places of worship have dropped COVID-19 protection measures.

Effective Sunday, April 23rd, the following COVID-19 protocols
are in place for Sunday services.

Please read through the measures carefully.

We continue to support dual platform services so that everyone, all the time, for whatever reason, has the option to join via Zoom.

Continued self-screening

We ask that you not attend in-person gatherings when feeling unwell or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. This practice is also requested when one has been exposed to someone who has tested positive for Covid. Please join us via Zoom in these scenarios.

Additional ventilation

Windows at the front of the sanctuary and those in rooms in either corridor will be open to provide additional ventilation over and above what our air handling unit and “leaky old building” provides. We are fortunate to have the tri-fold doors at the back of the sanctuary that can increase the air flow from the foyer.

Air filtering

Portable HEPA air filtering units will be working during services to add additional protection. We ask everyone to be patient while configurations are modified to provide the best protection while keeping the noise associated with such units to an acceptable level.

Encouraging masking

Masking is known to decrease risks for those wearing them and for those sharing indoor spaces. Masking at Sunday services, while voluntary, remains encouraged. We mask to reduce risk to ourselves, and we continue to respect all those who mask and those who wish to maintain respectful distancing.

Various seating options

Air flow studies have shown that our high ceiling in the sanctuary benefits the dispersion of any virus particles. What this also means is that sitting in the balcony may create a slightly greater exposure should there be viruses lingering. Along with the options of balcony and main floor seating, there will be chairs available in the foyer where the space is open to the sanctuary. Again, how grateful we are for the ability to “open up” the sanctuary using the tri-fold doors.

Following the recommendations of Public Health

We continue to encourage our community to remain up to date on Peterborough Public Health’s recommendations as they relate to vaccinations, masking and indoor air quality.

If you have any questions about these measures or need more information about the ventilation and filtration that will be in place, please do not hesitate to contact Heather Ballarin at 705-931-0732. We are profoundly grateful to Heather for her expertise and deep commitment!

— Ben Wolfe (President), for the Board, our Safe Gathering working group led by Heather, and many helping hands

Past Notes From the Board

Music and COVID: Returning to Singing Together

At our meeting this week, the UFP Board approved the following COVID-19 and music policy, to enable Resonance, the Occasional Singers and any other small groups to rehearse and perform in the Sanctuary under these specific conditions: —- When the Local COVID-19 Risk Index is at Moderate: Resonance and other singing groups are welcome to meet…

COVID SAFETY UPDATE: SEPT. 28

Well, it’s not a shock that cases have been rampant due to many factors including schools starting, a flood of large gatherings, COVID exhaustion and reduced protective standards, change of seasons, and how much all of us want to get back to normal.  The curve was turning upward a week ago and is now a…

In Transition

Dear UFPers, It’s happened. Our beloved Rev. Julie Stoneberg has completed her time with us in ritual and thanks. And your Board, Transition Team and Creative Worship Team and others have been meeting, together and in our individual roles, to map out a plan for the coming transition year. We hope and expect to have…

Our New Officers, As We Enter Into a Year of Transition

Last Friday, UFP’s 2022-23 Board of Directors met for the first time in this unique transition year. Our formal business was to choose our Officers for 2022-23, as required by our Bylaws. And here they are: President: Ben WolfeVice-President: Aukje BykerTreasurer: Joan HigginsonSecretary: Scott DonovanPast President: Steph Wildheart Board Members: Tracy Galvin, Mundy McLaughlin, Julie…

Message from the UFP Board | December 17, 2021

Hello Beloved UFP Community! As I am sure you have heard, things are changing again in our pandemic world. At this week’s Board meeting, acting on advice from the Safe Gathering Committee, we made an unavoidable decision based on the presence and spread of the Omicron variant.  We are suspending in-person indoor services and meetings…

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