OUTCOME OF MARCH 1ST TOWN HALL MEETING

A heart filled thanks to the 40+ who attended our Town Hall Meeting last Sunday! Your faith and commitment to continue Unity Church of Knoxville without a minister is deeply appreciated. Your creative ideas, enthusiasm, and willingness to take an active part in supporting this ministry rang clear!

Here is a summary of what was decided:

We will continue to hold Sunday Services in Dance Dimensions through March 2009 (and beyond as needed?)

• Michael Betz will lead a team to seek out other meeting/office location options
• Mary Whiteflower will lead a team to line-up the Sunday lessons/speakers. Mary also offered to create a “Blog” to support open communication and continue dialog. http://unitychurchofknoxville.blogspot.com (Thank you, Mary!)
• Sunday lessons suggested were Youth Of Unity led, in-house speaker led, Open Share format, Guest Speaker, and a Music Sunday with musicians in our congregation signing-up.
• We have the current Sunday service outline to guide us until ideas and preferences have been surveyed and tallied. Alice Henke has agreed to head up the team that will see that services run smoothly.
• Our Youth Ed Director, Tiffany Emitt is willing to continue temporarily on a volunteer basis, requests that funding for her wage be supported and secured as soon as possible, and invites additional volunteers to help her.
• The Prayer Chaplains Program will continue and welcomes anyone wishing to join this rewarding and supportive program to check it out!

We will continue to lease the office on Sutherland Ave. for 3 months as we re-group

• To assess our assets, an Inventory/Rummage Sale team was formed, co-led by Tonya Riley and Tiffany Emitt.
• Should we need to move some of our inventory, it was suggested that we could invite our congregation to purchase one or more of our chairs to keep at home as “Prayer Chairs” until needed again.
• We will continue to employ our Bookkeeper and Administrative Assistant as needed to insure ongoing operational support and are evaluating these job descriptions for possible volunteer assistance.
• An affordable space that serves us as both an office and meeting place would be ideal. One option would be to switch sides at Sutherland giving us two offices and a meeting room (a bit small) as well as the downstairs storage, for the same monthly rental as our current office.
• Those voting members wishing to be nominated to the Board of Trustees for the fiscal year starting in May, please see or contact Mary Miller or Cheryl Wellington. A quorum of 4 is required to “do business”, which we currently have until the May annual meeting. Terms are ending for Linda Green and Libbie Landers in May. At that time we will have room for 5 additional members to reach the 7 ideal head count. Whether Dan Murley and I will continue to serve is being discerned.

Thanks to all of you who completed the “My Commitment to My Church” forms, created and handed out Alice Henke! Your pledges of service & treasures are greatly appreciated and will help us support our journey forward. Additional forms will be available on Sunday for those who were unable to attend and wish to join this mighty co-creative adventure! These forms request input about Sunday Church service preferences, a commitment of service for 3 months, and a 3 month financial commitment of a pledged monthly amount. Only the Board of Trustees Treasurer will see and tally these pledges.

We will continue to keep you posted. Written notification will be included in our mailing to all members in April, exact date to be determined, in preparation for our annual meeting on May 17th. Matha Anderson and Elena Thurman will co-lead the Mailing Team. Bill Benson has offered to update and combine mailing addresses and email lists. Bill has also created a suggested Sunday Service Preference Survey that we hope to hand out shortly.

In the mean time, if you know of someone that may be interested in an update and may not be on our Hot Happening email list, please help spread the word!

The next Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for March 17, 2009 at 6:30 PM. We invite the team leaders, staff, and visionaries to join us! Please contact me if you plan to attend so we can give you a slot on the agenda.

In Faith and Love,
Matha Anderson  Co-President, Unity Church of Knoxville Board of Trustees  manderson@unityshurchofknoxville.org

Updated Financial Summary: (Financial update: The figures shared Sunday were estimated expenses to cover minimum administrative support if we decided to "liquidate". Actual amount needed to employ these two staff positions averages $1,300 per month.)

Total owed to Lora Beth $1,790 ($1,200 of which is Feb. salary check)
March Office Rent $ 800
March Dance Dim. $ 500
Yellow Page Ad $ 130
Supplies/Postage $ 170
Utilities $ 240
Phone/Internet $ 190
Admin/Bookkeeper $1,300 (Average based on $300 per week)
Youth Ed Director $ 0 ($250 being gifted by Tiffany for time being)
$2,100 Credit Card Balance $ 50 (Min. monthly payment)
March Total $5,170
Offering Collected 3/1/09 $1,400
To Break Even for March $3,770 (before 10% Tithe on income to what serves us)

Anticipated April 2009

April Total $3,430 (before 10% Tithe on income to what serves us)

Possible April Total $4,430