Membership Committee 

Committee Purpose:	Click here
Chairperson:	Jane Nocera
Members:	Linda Tulley, Ann Kemp, Ruth Rankin, Barbara Burnim, Janet Sutherland, and Nancy McCarthy
Meeting Schedule:	The first Sunday of the month at 10:00 a.m. at Caffe di Siena, September through June
e-Mail Contact:	Jane Nocera
Annual Reports:	2002 - 2003 Annual Report 2001 - 2002 Annual Report 2000 - 2001 Annual Report
Minutes:	Meeting Minutes -- September 10, 2006 Our first meeting of the year was attended by two members: Elaina Sayles and Ruth Rankin. Thank you to the two of them for attending. Here is what we need to do next Sunday to set up for the church picnic: Plans for the Church Picnic Everyone will meet at the church at 9:00AM to load the tables and chairs into the truck. We'll caravan over to the park to set up the tents. Jane Nocera will arrange for a man with a truck to help us. Ann Kemp will bring the tents/canopies and perhaps two flower arrangements to the park. Jane will check the "box" and purchase paper products, utensils, soft drinks, etc. Remember to bring a dish to share, don your casual picnic attire and wear sensible shoes! Respectfully submitted, Jane Nocera Meeting Minutes -- April 3, 2005 Attendees: Jane Nocera, Linda Tulley, Ann Kemp, Barbara Burnim, Janet Sutherland, and Nancy McCarthy Circle Dinners -- Spring Circle Dinners are scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 2005. Jane submitted the date to John Mercer for publication in the Steeple BiWeekly. The sign-up schedule is as follows: April 17th - Janet and Ann April 24th – Linda and Barbara May 1st – Ann May 8th (Match Day) – Barbara Sign-up sheets will be located in the Membership Committee file in the filing cabinet in Vicki Dyer’s office. New Member Luncheon -- The New Member Luncheon will be hosted on Sunday, May 1, 2005. We will make the boutonnieres at Jane’s house on Saturday, April 30th at 2PM. A good time is guaranteed. Ann will bring flowers for the luncheon tables. Food will be prepared by the following: Ann: 2 quiches; Barbara: sandwiches, Linda: green salad; Nancy: dessert; Jane: coffee and beverages, Ruth:? Please plan food quantities to serve at least 20-25 people. Jane will work with Vicki to confirm the sending of the invitations, the preparation of the welcome packets, and the inviting of the church staff. Visitor’s Table -- Barbara Burnim has graciously volunteers to staff the Visitor’s Table and to accept responsibility for managing it. Member Directory -- Jane spoke with John Mercer about the status of publishing/printing and distributing the 2005 Member Directory. It is in the queue, behind the auction activities. Due to hosting the New Member Luncheon on May 1st, the next Membership Committee meeting will be held on Sunday, June 5, 2005, at 10AM at Caffe di Siena. Respectfully submitted, Jane Nocera Membership Committee Meeting Minutes - February 2005 Attendees: Jane Nocera, Linda Tulley, Ann Kemp, Barbara Burnim, Ruth Rankin, Nancy McCarthy Mid-Winter Party The Mid-Winter Party is scheduled for Saturday, February 26, 2005, from 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm at The Dyers' home. Committee members will arrive at The Dyers' at 4:00 pm to set up. Ann will order flowers and bring one bag of ice. Jane will bring two coat racks. Linda will bring the party goods and name tags. Ruth will bring tablecloths. Committee members will rotate as bartenders, each serving ½ hour increments. Church members will be asked to bring an hor d'oeuvre or dessert and their beverage of choice. Budget The Membership Committee will request level funding ($600.00) for FY 2005-2006. Jane and Linda reviewed the expenditures to date. The total appears to be low. Jane will follow-up with John Mercer. Visitor's Table Changes with the Visitor's Table are afoot; both the physical table and its location have changed. The new table is larger, higher and more attractive. It presents a greatly improved image of our community. It has been placed to the right of the entrance which should alleviate the problem of papers blowing off on windy days. The new table provides more surface area for the printed materials and its height allows for easier accessibility to that material. Its height also makes it easeir for the greeters to make eye contact with visitors. Ruth Rankin expressed her desire to relinquish responsibility for managing the staffing of the Visitor's Table. She has been coordinating this effort for 3 years. No one volunteered to take over this responsibility. Jane will write and submit an announcement to the Steeple BiWeekly asking for volunteers to staff the Visitor's Table and to accept responsibility for manage it. Barbara Burnim will be the contact person for this effort. Annual Canvass All members of the committee were asked to volunteer as canvassers. Jane Nocera volunteered. Nancy McCarthy will speak with her husband, Jay, about his level of interest. All others declined. Member Directory Jane will follow-up with John Mercer about the status of publishing/printing and distributing the 2005 Member Directory. New Business In response to Harold's challenge to each committee to "increase opportunities for participation and assimilation of the membership," the Membership Committee discussed two ideas: 1) Conduct one or two focus groups with new members ("new" defined as members who joined the community in the last two years). They will be asked questions about whether they feel like members of the community. Why or why not? What have been the challenges of assimilation? What could be done to make them feel more a part of the community? What have they done to facilitate their assimilation? 2) Institute a systematic process to make visitors feel more welcome. The process would work as follows: Visitor arrives. The greeter introduces the visitor to an usher who will show the visitor to a comfortable pew in which an ambassador will be sitting. The ambassador will chat will the visitor and offer to accompany him/her to coffee hour. At coffee hour, the ambassador will make introductions to other members and engage the visitor in interesting conversation. The next Membership Committee meeting is Sunday, March 6, 2005, at 10 am at Caffe di Siena. Respectfully submitted, Jane Nocera Meeting Notes -- April 4, 2004 Attendees: Jane Nocera, Linda Tulley, Ruth Rankin, Ann Kemp, Barbara Burnim, Peter Cullinan New Member Luncheon - May 2, 2004 The Committee discussed the details of hosting the New Member Luncheon on Sunday, May 2, 2004. Here are the results: Announcements: Jane will ask John/Vicki to run the boiler plate announcement in the Steeple BiWeekly and ask Harold to announce it on April 18th, 25th and May 2 (Any objections Harold?). Invitations: (Bettina, will you volunteer to do this again?) Please include: Josie Seymour, Laura & Jeff Litkofsky, and Leslie Lipkin in the mailing. Presentation: Flowers for luncheon and buttoniers: Ann. Ann Kemp has generously volunteered to make the bouttonieres for the new members. Given our budgetary constraints, we cannot afford to purchase them from a florist. Dry Goods: Bettina, will you please take inventory of "the box" and let us know what items we need including: tablecloths, hot & cups, plasticware, plates, napkins, etc. We should plan for 35 place settings. Are the Name Tags in "the Box"? Food: Sandwiches - Barbara & Linda; Quiches - Ann; Hot & Cold Beverages- Jane; Cookies - Ruth; Fruit Salad (?) - Peter (who volunteered his wife Amy to do the preparation); Dessert: Jane We still need a green salad and/or pasta salad to balance the meal (Bettina? Liz? Janet/Mike?) Photos: John Mercer, will you be attending? May we use your digital camera for photographing the new members? As an aside, we would like to update the Member Directory after May 2nd. Ideally, we would like to have new directories available to members when we return in September. Circle Dinners - May 15, 2004 The Spring Circle Dinners will be held Saturday, May 15, 2004. The division of volunteer labor is as follows: Announcement: Jane will ask John/Vicki to run the boilerplate Circle Dinner announcement with a revised date of course, in every edition of the Steeple Bi-weekly between now and then.Jane will ask Harold to announce the Circle Dinners on April 18, 25, May 2, and 9. (Any objections Harold?) Sign Up Sheets: Bettina, will you please print them or forward them to Vicki so she can place them in our committee folder in her office? Sign Up Table: Retrieve the sign up sheets from the file cabinet drawer in Vicki's office. Please remember to return them too! April 18th - Ann; April 25th - Ruth; May 2nd - Barbara; May 9th - Peter. Note: May 9th is Match Day. Please plan to attend. We really need Peter, Bettina, Linda and others to successfully complete this exercise!!! In the event we are desperate for hosts, Ruth volunteered to host. She can seat six additional people. Again, this is only if we are strapped for hosts. Leave a message on her home phone by 5/11 if she needs to host. Respectfully submitted, Jane Nocera Minutes - Sunday, March 7, 2004 Attendees: Jane Nocera, Linda Tulley, Bettina Turner, Ann Kemp, and Ruth Rankin Adult Mid-Winter Party - Linda Tulley sent a formal Thank You note to the Raschkes for hosting the Mid-Winter Party. Spring Circle Dinners - The committee chose the following dates in order of preference: May 15th, May 22nd and May 1st. Jane will contact John Mercer to confirm the date. We will plan the details during our April meeting. New Member Luncheons - The committee unanimously decided to host two New Member Luncheons per year: one following each New Member Recognition service. Sponsoring two luncheons will: welcome new members immediately without making one group wait for half of a year to be celebrated; and, allow more time for sharing personal experiences which turns out to be the favorite part of the afternoon according to participant feedback. Ann will speak to Marj Babcock about the possibility of asking the Ladies Alliance to assist us with the food when we have a large group to entertain. Committee Sunday - The committee decided to move Committee Sunday to September for the following reasons: recruiting new members will be easier when everyone's enthusiasm is high in the fall; new members can get involved immediately rather than waiting until September to participate; and, recruit interest will not have time to wane during the summer. Uncommon Denomination - The committee reviewed the Uncommon Denomination program and decided to make the following recommendation to the FRSUU Administration: While the Uncommon Denomination program is well-designed, effective, worthwhile, tasteful, and readily available, this Committee does not feel that the FRSUU is prepared to participate in the program this year for the following reasons: Financially, the FRSUU does not appear to have the funds to expend on a new program. Funding the UD program could be a challenge and the cost could be prohibitive. Kansas City spent $200,000. Before we commit to an investment, we should adopt a "wait and see" attitude. To date, there is only one experience to analyze. We recommend seeing results from other churches before we commit. Membership at the FRSUU is continually increasing without significant marketing expenditures. The FRSUU could glean free ideas from the UD program and implement them without great expense. If the FRSUU choses to launch a full blown marketing campaign in the future, the FRSUU should: Establish a dedicated Public Relations Committee. An on-going program like this will require significant time and effort. It should have a dedicated team to insure its success. FRSUU Member Directory - Jane will ask John Mercer to update the Directory after the May 2, 2004, New Member Luncheon. We will take new photos at the luncheon, incorporate them into the Directory, and release the new Directory in September. Respectfully submitted, Jane Nocera Minutes of February 8, 2004 Members in attendance: Linda Tulley, Ruth Rankin, Janet Sutherland, Nancy McCarthy, Barbara Burnim Linda Tulley chaired the meeting in Jane Nocera's absence. Susan Ricker decided that she did not need to attend the Membership Committee meeting as she had previously thought she did--she believed that things were progressing smoothly on the Canvass front and that she did not need to make a special presentation to the Committee. The next major item on the Agenda was planning for the Adult Mid-Winter Party to be held at the home of Cyd and Manfred Raschke on Saturday, February 28, 2004 from 5-8 p.m. Members of the Committee will meet at the Raschke home on Tuesday, February 24 at 3:00 p.m. to walk through the house with our hosts and decide on flow of traffic, location of bar and coat racks, etc. We decided to announce that in case of snow, if an on-street-parking ban is announced by the City of Newburyport, the party will be cancelled and that there will be no snow or rain date. (I note that this announcement has gone into the paper version of the Steeple Biweekly being distributed on February 9--we need to remember to state this in our future announcements in Church.) The following items were also decided: Linda Tulley will ask Bettina Turner to purchase soft drinks (canned Poland Springs water, as we did for the New Member luncheon, is preferred because we can use for future gatherings any that are not opened, thus saving on wastage) Ruth Rankin will buy paper or plastic table cloths (3 or 4) Janet Sutherland will buy other needed paper goods (napkins, plates, plastic ware, plastic glasses). She will check first with Bettina to see if we have any left over from previous gatherings stored at Bettina's home Barbara Burnim will buy big trash bags for clean up Nancy McCarthy will buy name tags and markers and will also bring a cooler Linda Tulley will ask some people in the congregation to be bartenders. We hope to get 3, so each person only has to do a one hour shift and can enjoy the party the rest of the time. She will also bring ice. She will check with the Raschkes regarding how much oven capacity they have for re-heating hors d'oeuvres that party goers bring. Members of the Committee will arrive at 4:00 p.m. on the day of the party, get every thing set up--bar, coat racks, etc. and will stay after the end of the party to get everything cleaned up, so that our hosts do not have to do anything but open their house to us and enjoy the party. One thing we forgot to plan was getting an arrangement of flowers to put in the front hall and to leave with our hosts as a thank you memento--Jane: will you attend to this? Last item on the Agenda was a brief discussion of the UUA's new integrated marketing and media campaign to get UUism's story out there before the public. The campaign is entitled "The Uncommon Denomination." We have been asked to look at it and recommend to the Parish Committee whether or not we think our Church should participate. Linda Tulley brought for each member present a print out of the introductory pages describing the campaign on the UU's Web Site. By copy of this set of minutes, she is asking all of us to look at the Web site in question and be ready to discuss at our March meeting. The Web site address is: www.uua.org/uncommondenomination. The next meeting of the Committee will be the first Sunday in March at 11:45 a.m. in the Lower Meetinghouse. Membership Committee -- Meeting Minutes -- September 7, 2003 Annual Picnic The committee finalized the details for the picnic to be held at Maudslay State Park on Sunday, September 14, 2003. Ann and Linda will practice erecting the tents on Saturday at 1:00pm and Jane will confer with Barbara on Saturday afternoon regarding the weather and the hayrides. Members will meet at the church at 9:00am to load tables and chairs into Bob Thurlow's truck and proceed to Maudslay to set up. Expenses are estimated at $135.00. Individuals incurring expenses will submit them to John Mercer personally. Fall Circle Dinners We will begin announcing the sign up for Circle Dinners on Sunday, September 28, 2003. The schedule for members to announce and staff the sign p table is as follows: September 28 - Barbara will announce. Ruth will staff the table. October 5 - Ann will announce and staff the table. October 12 - Linda will announce and staff the table. October 19 - Jane will announce and staff the table. This will be matching Sunday. All committee members are strongly urged to participate in the matching exercise. Jane will be responsible for posting the announcement in the Steeple Weekly. Bettina will forward her archives/files to John Mercer if they are available. Talent Show Bettina announced that David Turner and Nancy Crochiere are interested in organizing the Spring Talent/Variety Show again this year. The committee offered to support them as needed. Visitor's Table Ruth recruited volunteers to staff the Visitor's Table. The committee decided it would be a good idea to ask visitors to "meet me here after the service and I'll join your for coffee hour." We also agreed that church members would be randomly selected/recruited to escort a visitor to coffee hour. Ann informed the group that John and Vickie had created a new document for the Newcomer's Packet that provided a overview of each committee. Ann gave the new document rave reviews . Small Group Ministry Linda presented her ideas on committee work as a form of Small Group Ministry. After much discussion, the prevailing feeling was that since our committee met right after the Sunday worship service, the group did not want to initiate a piggy-backed spiritual ritual. The group did agree that periodic reminders that we are doing this as part of our commitment to the community would be helpful. Procedure Book One of our many goals this year is to create a Procedure Book that contains everything anyone ever wanted to know about how to operate the Membership Committee. Please bring all of your files, forms, memos, letters, sign-up sheets, etc. to the October meeting so we can begin the consolidation process.