At its regular meeting on November 19, the BVUUF Board of Officers and Trustees took the following actions:

• Appointed Molly Fortuna and Jan Cheney to the Leadership Development Committee. Molly’s term will end in June 2022, and Jan’s term will end in June 2023. The two appointees will fill vacancies created by the resignations of Rebecca Laverdure and Cathy Jourdan.  

• Appointed Elisabeth Kern to the Committee on Shared Ministries for a term ending June 2022.  She will fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Ann Morrill.   

• Approved adjustments to the 2020-21 operating budget to reflect the recent addition of intern Lisa Moore. 

• Authorized the expenditure of $22,000 to buy trees for the planned playground at our remodeled building.

• Adopted a rapid response plan to consider any time-sensitive emergency requests for community assistance.  Possible examples might be requests to allow people evacuated because of fires or floods to stay in the building, or to open the building for emergency health care needs.  Under the response plan, the Board President or Vice President plus at least three additional Board members, in consultation with Rev. Lydia, will make a decision within 18 hours of receiving the request.  If an approved request requires any funding, it will come from the Stoner Fund, set up for outreach activities.

• Approved Rev. Lydia’s request to take a sabbatical from March 1 through August 10, 2021, for the purpose of reflection and renewal, as covered in her calling document/contract with BVUUF.  Rev. Lydia’s  last sabbatical was in 2013, and she is now due for another.  Board members noted that our congregation has a strong sense of shared ministry and leadership that will be valuable during Rev. Lydia’s absence.

If you would like further information about any of these items, please contact Gloria Pearlstein at secretary@bvuuf.org. 

The next regular Board Meeting will be  December 17, 2020, 6:30-9:00 PM, via Zoom.  All members are welcome!