Committee Purpose:

Chairperson:

Members:

Meeting Schedule:

e-Mail Contact:

Minutes:

Present: Harold Babcock, Mindy Sheehy, Julie Parker Amery, Ellen Sheehy, Kate DeKanter, Julie Menin

I. Opening Words: from Walking Toward Morning by Victoria Safford.

II. Fall Term Update:
Julie Parker Amery: Things are going well; we have plenty of teachers, all seem content. Several teachers present reiterated how much we appreciate the setup of the fall term. We like how it helps the kids learn to know other children, and the experience in young church mirrors big church with its weekly rituals & message.

III. Holiday Term:
A. More on Alicia's idea of a multicultural theme.
1. Pick a theme within different cultures, e.g. art in Kwaanza; band singing Hannukah songs, etc.

2. Who will coordinate?

3. Could focus on festival of lights holidays, picking 4-5 for different groups; could go on-line to get more info on: Santa Lucia, Saint Nicholas, Hannukah, Dutch Christmas traditions, Kwaanza, or Ramadan

B. Should also have at least one social service option for kids who want that.
1. John Roberts happened to be walking by so Julie PA asked him if he & his wife would be interested in catering the Empty Bowls lunch this year; he said they would be happy to.

Discussion: Are the kids tired of this project? Maybe they could make different kinds of bowls to sell. The soup lunch goes over well with the congregation.

2. Other options include collecting Books-could do Lakota Book project or could go with the Lynn Community Health Center/Reach-out and read program Julie Menin mentioned last month.

Discussion: Books are heavy to ship; Lynn program avoids that, also books wouldn't need to be new so kids could donate their own books. We'd need to come up with an educational component to this. Have the kids write letters to the book recipients? Have the kids make their own books?

3. Linus project was a big hit last year, although it was a lot of work for the teachers to cut all the fringes. Will definitely do it again, but maybe another year.

4. Box project

IV. Space Issues: Youth Group space.
Julie Parker Amery reports that Rob Burnham helped to cut the nursery in half, painting the door between the rooms and mounting it. However, Julie visited the room while youth group was in session and the room is decidedly too small for 15 teens. What are our options?

Best option would be to remove the wall in the nursery and give that entire space to the Youth Group, moving the nursery (or possibly a different class) into the Lower Parish Hall coffee hour area.

Cons: might be nerve-wracking for parents of babies to see them in coffee hour area (we would have to set up pen/gated area to contain mobile babies); LPH is not the most bright & cheery space. Would have to move baby equipment every week. Might interfere with coffee hour set-up.

Pros: nursery is the easiest set of kids to contain; would be harder to keep elementary kids out of the way of the coffee preparers. Parishioners would be better able to relate to our space crunch if they realized we were using LPH for Sunday School classes. We could use the closet there to store the gates, etc. for the nursery.

What other options are there?
Possibly renting/borrowing space elsewhere for the youth group. We used to have an agreement with Newburyport Montessori; are there other spots which aren't too far away? Rejected the Synagogue as too far; some city buildings might work but aren't open, e.g. City Hall, Library. Ellen knows someone who "knows" Newburyport spaces; will check with him.

Other space? Could move the Youth Group into one of the other classrooms in Lower Meeting House and move the displaced class into the back half of the nursery.

Decided this last option, while temporary, is the best and easiest one for now.

V. RE Retreat: January 11-12, 2008.

VI. Family Night:
We don't have a karaoke machine, so we'll need to come up with another activity to go with the Make-Your Own Sundaes for the October First Friday Family Night.. We will have active/social games and/or tag after the sundaes.

November: Ellen S. in charge of a themed party/dance

December: Caroling outside the church.

VII. Update on Social Service ideas:
A bunch of volunteers checked the Brainstorming Social Service Ideas box on the RE registration form. Julie Parker Amery will call in their Brains for a meeting in the next few weeks.

VIII. Miscellaneous:
A. Nursery Helper: Mindy Sheehy recommended her most excellent 15 y.o. babysitter, Jasmine (who also has a younger sister with excellent potential); Mindy will call her & will let Julie know if she's interested. The nursery helper position has a 3% cost-of-living increase written in, so the remuneration this year will be $20.60/week.

B. Dividers between the classrooms in Upper Parish Hall were fixed this summer, so that they have no gaps. They look great!

C. Coming up:
October 25, 2007: next RE Comm meeting
November 10, 2007: Mass Bay District Powow.

Present: Harold Babcock, Julie Parker-Amery, Alicia Raddatz, Ellen Sheehy, Colleen Werner, Kate Dekanter, Julie Menin

I. Opening Reading, Check-in:
Everyone had a grand summer and we're all ready to get back to church!

II. We need a secretary! Who's not here who we can appoint?
Julie Menin shortened the meeting by volunteering without coercion, and Colleen Werner agreed to serve as backup if Julie M. can't make a meeting.

III. Fall curriculum: Small Group Ministry.
Julie PA reported that we will be running the mixed age group classes again as they were a great success last year. The age groupings will be slightly different, with 1st-3rd grades together, 4th-6th and 7th -8th. We may need an extra section for 1st-3rd grade. Julie still needs teachers, having only 11-12 of the 22-24 she will need for the fall.

A. The theme this fall will be Heroes and Prophets.
Sunday Sept. 9th will be registration Sunday
Saturday Sept. 15th will be training
Sunday Sept. 16th will be the first teaching day, with our traditional Water Communion.

B. We will try to incorporate a social service piece. Some ideas:
1. "Pay It Forward" which encourages a child to do a good deed for someone and ask them to "pay it forward" by doing a good deed for someone else rather than repaying the child.

The Giving Game has a website where kids can register and receive cards to hand out when they do a good deed; the card recipient is asked to do another good deed and pass the card along, with each recipient hopefully logging the progress of the card on the website, so those involved can see where the card has gone.

Pros: Kids can all get excited about seeing where their card has gone.

Cons: Feels a bit like a chain letter (which parents hate but kids usually enjoy).

Questions: Will participation be optional? What if a good deed recipient doesn't want to log in-should they take the card or not?

2. Concert Against Hunger: Alicia is working with Chris Hyde to organize a concert with ticket proceeds going to benefit Our Neighbor's Table. The tickets can be sold as "donations for charity." Tentative date November 3rd. Alicia is looking for ideas on an eclectic mix of local talent to perform in the concert. The tentative format is an approx. 2 hour concert, 7-9PM, with two shorter (30 min?) acts, an intermission and a longer (60 min?) act. Church kids could sell concessions, act as ushers, design a logo, hang posters.

3. Peace procession: Kids as Peacemakers will have a peace march from the Peace Garden at the waterfront to Central Congregational Church on Thursday, Sept. 20th at 4 PM. Becky Dill & the Youth Group will create some readings on Sept 16th to contribute to the ceremony at CCC. There will also be readings available from a UN book of peace statements from all over the world, if they prefer to read something already written. (Julie M checked with Merle Forney after the meeting, and our youth group can have about 5 minutes to read or sing a song).

Julie PA noted that our Kids as Peacemakers mural is ready to go, and she will ask Rob Burnham to help put it up. The Kids as Peacemakers group is also going to provide us with windmills to put in the ground near the mural.

IV. YC Registration Table:
Sunday Sept 9th, 10-10:30, either outside the church or just outside the sanctuary, depending on the weather. Parents will receive registration forms in the mail this week to turn in on Sunday (forms will also be available at the table). Registration volunteers should check the forms as they're turned in and "encourage people to VOLUNTEER" if they did not fill out that section. Kate, Colleen and Ellen volunteered to staff the registration table.

V. Nursery care provider.
Our beloved Nicole has left, so we need to fill the position, most likely from outside the church. We are hoping for someone 16 or older, to work with 3-6 kids from ages 1-3. Pay is $20/week. Please ask around. We will have to request that the parents do double duty until the position is filled.

VI. Family Service Day:
Tentative date Sat., November 10th. Soccer should be over by then (although it was noted that soccer make-up day will probably be Nov 10th, and that is also Veterans' Day weekend, but most people don't go away that weekend, so it might still be okay). There is a conflict with the UU Mass Bay Youth District Conference, so Julie PA won't be available to help. In fact, several of the RE Committee members were interested in attending that conference (at the Malden UU from 10-4), so it's not clear how many families will be around for the service day, but another date was not discussed.

We discussed ideas for service projects. Last year several families raked leaves at 2 or 3 houses. It worked fine, but we'd like to come up with some alternative ideas. Julie PA is going to send a letter to local service agencies to see if they have any projects we could work on; Alicia suggested adopting a family through hospice, and Kate said the VNA could also put us in touch with some individuals in need of company. Julie PA is going to put a section on the registration form for volunteers to brainstorm service project ideas.

VII. First Friday Family Nights:
We will try to plan them a few months out rather than leaving them to plan each month, just a week or so in advance. Our tentative schedule:
October: Make your own sundaes/karaoke (Julie PA)
November: Dance Night (Ellen)
December: Caroling. Could be done at a nursing home like last year, or walking downtown, or in front of the church (perhaps during Invitation Night).

Other ideas:
Bowling-might be tough on a Friday night if there are leagues; perhaps try on a Sunday afternoon?

Family Service project, like blanket making

Movie nights (could we have two rooms with different movies for different ages?)

Karaoke

Cup building

Tag (very popular with the kids, could station groups of adults at the parking lot corners to make sure they stay on the church property)

Talent show just for families. Perhaps performing at a Nursing home?

Theme Nights-Halloween, knights, etc.

Bev Lacey volunteered to run another family night, perhaps with bubbles.

In November, FRSUU is in charge of donations to Newburyport Food Bank, so that would be a good time to ask families to bring in donations. In fact, we could have people bring donations to every family night & do a drop-off every few months.

Alicia requested that we consider alternative family activities as some people cannot attend on Friday nights. Some thoughts: Stone Zoo, bowling, aquarium.

VIII. Holiday Term
A. Ideas for projects:
1. Box Project-sets you up with a family in need; you send them a box for Christmas. We have to register; if we think it's a good idea, Julie PA will register FRSUU. We didn't come to a final consensus on this.

2. Lakota Book project

3. Have participating FRSUU kids pick a gift they've rec'd for Christmas and send it to someone needy. It was suggested that the kids could instead pick a gently used book to send to a local charity. Julie M has a co-worker who takes children's books to a health center in Lynn where the patients can pick a book to keep, so that is a possibility.

B. Ideas for Theme:
1. Unplugging the Christmas Machine (We did the book "We Need a Little Christmas" a few years ago.)

2. Multicultural holiday theme

3. Various Winter Solstice holidays

Consensus was that we'd like to see various holiday celebrations represented.

C. Back to brainstorming ideas for groups:
Circle knitting (making hats on circular looms)

Book drive

Box project

Empty bowls. John & Laura Roberts traditionally make the soup & bread for the lunch; Youth Group has also expressed interest in making the soup as a project

IX Date for visioning retreat.
Fall is filled or quickly filling. We decided to pick a date in January and nail it down to avoid previously scheduled conflicts. Kate will have to work one weekend in January, so we picked two, and it will be whichever one she doesn't have to work. Tentative dates then are January 11-12, or 25-26, 2008.

X. Miscellaneous, non-agenda items:
A. Ellen would like to remind teachers to tie the weeks together and to the theme. i.e., "We're studying the UU principles. Can you remember which principle we studied last week? That's right, and this is the principle we're studying this week: . . . "

B. Book group: After discussion among the members from last year, it was decided that Sunday after church might be the best time for book group. We tentatively scheduled it for October 14th, and we will be discussing The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards. The group is open to any parent & child, although we generally target kids from 8-12. Time?

C. Knitting for all ages will be offered one Sunday/month after church. Starting date & exact time TBA.

XI. Future meeting dates:
We will meet on the 4th Thursday of the month at 7 PM at the church. Next meeting is September 27th.

Annual Reports: