Fiscal Year 2015-2016

Mountain Light UU Board Meeting Minutes
Sept. 13, 2015

All members of board were present, as well as Geraldine Barker, our newsletter editor/website developer. The minutes of the Aug. 9, 2015 were approved.

Team Reports

Finance Committee Report Terry reports that new checks have been ordered. As of 8-1-15, our net worth is $24,868.05, however, we have not sent a Gift Program check to UUA yet, and 2 mos. of rent were paid using our deposit per landlord's instructions. There is also a bill from Appalachian Propane for 751 gallons of propane at $1.29 a gallon, plus tax.  Due date was August 6th.  Total bill was for $1036.00, and hopefully this filled up our propane tank for the winter. Terry will send Appalachian a check. On a positive note, donations to the church for the past month were $2913.19, which is $1000.00 more than the previous month!

Membership We have 3 new members: Michael, Rachel, and Cyr DeBruce.

Linda Kelly and Gayle Wood wrote to 7 repeat visitors and offered to include them in the membership ceremony on 9-20-15, if they wanted to join. Average attendance for past month was 32.6. Kasey has done a beautiful job with name tags for members, speakers and returning guests (and our dogs!).

Social JusticeOur Giving Tree for Sept. is MLUUC. Cleaning supplies and candles are always needed.

Newsletter/WebsiteNewsletters are being mailed to 26 active families and 366 visitors. Paper copies of the newsletter are available at the church for non-computer users. The website is up-to-date, and corresponds to the newsletter.

Publicity The Gilmer and Pickens Co. newspapers billed Carol Johnson's Visa card for our current ads; Carol will submit a bill to Terry when she receives her bill from Visa.

Sunday ServicesLaura Burton reports that service presenters are booked through 11-15-15.

LeaseWe will be writing rent checks to Rusty Beamon again.

FundraisingNo one has volunteered to head this committee yet. Kathy and Aimee have tentatively scheduled the next yard sale for Nov. 7, 2015. Sam's quilt raffle raised $284.00 for the church (Terry and Ted won the quilt). Thoughts for upcoming fundraiser: jewelry sale for church people only and a hypertufa class.

R.E. Things are going well for the 8-10, on average, children who have been coming to R.E. The schedule will continue to be twice per month on the second and fourth Sundays. Today, the children learned about group decision making in a scenario where they were stranded on a desert island and had to choose, as a group, which 5 items out of 20 possible items would best enable them to survive.

Old Business

Upcoming Sandwich Sunday is on 9-20-15. Terry will provide the entrée; Gayle will do salad and cheese; Carol will bring dessert; Geraldine will provide tomatoes, lettuce. etc, and Ann will bring potato salad and veggie burgers.

New Business

David Michael Searcy's program ran over time by 1 hour, which was a problem for several people. Gayle will send a generic reminder to him that we need speakers to stick to the 25-min. time frame.

Daniel Elrod has volunteered to head up our road-cleaning and glass recycling efforts. The board voted for him to fill these positions.

Sunday Service Accompanist Daniel doesn't want the job, but Hope Cribbs has volunteered as a fill-in accompanist, on a limited basis. Options discussed and the board voted to have recorded music until the end of the year.

Keys and locking up: The problem was resolved and we all agreed to be more careful in the future. The last person leaving the church should remember to turn off printer, lights and A/C, and to lock all doors including R.E. side.

Ruth House: Terry has connected with Merle Howell-Naylor of Family Connections. Ruth House is part of Family Connections. Terry continues to develop a broad base for addressing the issues we have with Ruth House.

MLUUC cookbook has been tabled for now. It is too late to get a decent publishing price. Ann will try again in 2016.

The meeting was adjourned since all matters had been addressed.