July 2022
July 1 marks the start of a new fiscal year and church year for us. This year, it marked the end of a 14-year ministry and the beginning of a two-year phase of interim ministry. It’s also the time that we say “thank you” to a group of previous Board members and “hello” to a new crew. This year, we have very little turnover on the Board. Chris Hitchcock completed a 4-year term and Kathi Hillyer completed a maximum 6-year stint that included terms as Board Secretary and Vice President. We’ll let these two catch their breath for a while but we know they will undoubtedly continue to contribute to Countryside in other capacities.
The new Board members are Emilie Cheng as Trustee, Dan Yokas as Secretary, and Lisa Gilley as President Elect (a position we only have every other year). Pat Wydell also moved from Secretary to Vice President. As a whole, this Board represents the wide spectrum of CCUU membership in ages, experience and interests. I’m looking forward to working with both the old and the new members as we prepare to welcome Rev. Denise in September and prepare to write a new chapter in our history.
I sometimes hear Countrysiders refer to “The Board” as if it were some mysterious, monolithic group pulling the levers of authority. The reality is that CCUU has a good system of rotational leadership and use of the democratic process in many ways. Any Board here is just the latest group of nine (ten this year) members who have volunteered to shoulder a greater share of the work of supporting our mission. They participate more, read more, listen more, and expend a great deal of energy making CCUU work. Together with the staff, minister, and committee chairs, they are the backbone of our community. Due to term limits, some of us will rotate off next year and a new configuration of nine will take their place. There are many dozens of our members who have served on the Board in the past. This is all the sign of a healthy organization.
Our lay-led summer services are all set and many of our work groups and committees are hard at work planning activities for next year. Whenever you see a Board Member or Committee Chair, it would be appropriate to thank them for their service (and maybe ask them what you could do to help).