PLEDGE DRIVE ANNOUNCEMENT:
The 2022-2023 NW pledge drive is rapidly coming to a conclusion! Thanks to the generosity of our members, we have already received 39 pledges totaling $133,070 towards our goal of $200,000. To those who have already pledged, our deepest thanks! Your names have been added to our pledge poster located in the NW lobby.
But we are still far from our goal. If you have not yet made your pledge, please consider doing so ASAP to help us get there. To maintain our beautiful campus, our dedicated staff and the programs we are once again beginning to enjoy, pledges from members and friends are essential. The commitment of time and resources makes NW great for us all! If you want to get involved, please go to the pledge tab on the NW website or fill out the pledge form available in the lobby each Sunday morning. We appreciate all that our members do for our “Home in the Woods.”
NWUUC Financial Update
My dear NWUUC community, thank you for your generous giving to NWUUC over the last couple of years at a time when most of the contact has been through phone and Zoom. As of the March Board meeting, we have received 79% of the pledges made this year (about $139,000 of $175,000 pledged), which is excellent given there are still 3.5 months left in the fiscal year. We still need all pledgers to complete your giving.
During the last two years NWUUC has received a now-forgiven PPP loan and legacies from generous friends and members, which helped bridge us when other historic sources of up to 25% of our income like rentals were very low. These funding sources are not unlimited or renewable, and while we hope the income from rentals and eventually a pre-school will rebound and become assets to NWUUC, it will take time to build these resources.
As we come back to in-person worship and fellowship, we would like to have an engaging community which requires people and resources. As you probably know, we’ve started the pledge drive for the upcoming fiscal year. Our goal is $200,000 and it is important to the NWUUC community that we meet or exceed this stewardship goal. Please think about your personal financial situation, the importance of your NWUUC community, and be generous in your financial pledge and volunteering your talent to this beloved community.
Grier Page,
Finance Trustee
Circle Supper
Saturday, April 9
Dear Circle Supper People ~ FORTY-TWO of us have already attended at least one Circle Supper, and some have attended every one. What great participation! Thanks for supporting this Community Ministry effort to deepen our connection within our congregation.
We are always looking for people to host these intimate gatherings of eight people—might you be willing to do it? If you haven’t hosted yet, perhaps you will consider trying this important role. It’s the easiest party you’ll ever throw! Just tidy up a bit, set the table, maybe put the coffee on, and open the door when guests arrive.
If you haven’t signed up yet for the April 9th supper there is still time to do so by contacting Judy McKinley or Kat Benoy, Community Co-leaders.
Virtual Documentary Night
The next Virtual Documentary Night will be on Sunday, April 10th at 7 pm. We will be discussing the documentary, The City With No Water. Imagine having to spend half or more of your salary on buying water, sometimes only available illegally from criminals. Or if water taps in your area only ran once a fortnight in the middle of the night for less than two hours. That was the situation for millions in the city of Karachi, Pakistan back in 2016, where climate change and mismanagement saw the supply of water drastically reduced. Here is a link to where you can watch it for free. https://youtu.be/lWraEBec0Vg.
Email Adam Hicks at communitydocumentarynight@gmail.com to receive the link to the discussion and to be placed on his monthly emails for Documentary Night.
NWUUC Book Groupies
The NWUUC Book Groupies will meet on Tuesday, April 12th, at 7pm on Zoom to discuss The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare. Dare is a Nigerian native and this is her first book, and she has received rave reviews for it. This page turner novel follows the trials and tribulations of a 14-year-old Nigerian girl as she navigates Nigerian society’s treatment of young women and seeks to find a way to further her education and goal of having “a louding voice”. Copies are now available for purchase in our bookstore. If you are interested in joining the Zoom meeting, please call Penny Raney at 770 551 8817 and leave a voice message with your name and email address.
Annual Congregational Fall Retreat
Planning has begun to resume our Annual Congregational Fall Retreat to The Mountain, our UU Retreat and Learning Center on top of a mountain in the Scaly Mountain-Highlands area of North Carolina. We have reserved spaces for Oct. 21-23, the third weekend in October when the leaves are usually at their peak color. Please put these dates on your calendar and watch for updated info in this newsletter on our plans for that weekend. If you would like to be involved with our planning, please contact Penny Raney at 770- 551-8817. WE would love your input!
Backstage Busy Bees
Gardens and Spaces
As we slowly emerge from COVID we thought it might be a good time to update the congregation on activities, projects and accomplishments being made by and for the congregation. We appreciate all who continue to help maintain our Gardens and Spaces and invite others to join us as we will soon be using the buildings regularly!
What we’ve done so far:
The entire exterior of the Chalice House was pressure washed.
Trees in the playground were downed during a recent storm. One tree fell on the playground fence and damaged it. Dave Zenner and John Hagler cut up the fallen trees and repaired the playground fence.
Three very large trees in the playground were identified as dangerous – they were leaning dangerously and had the potential to fall on people or our building. They were removed from the playground by a tree company. Donations from several members of the congregation helped to defray the costs of this project. There is additional work on the trees in that area that will need to be done soon.
The keys that were kept in the key safe that is on the wall beside the door to the office disappeared. Despite many pleas for their return, we were unable to find the keys. Therefore, all the exterior door locks had to be rekeyed and new keys made. As a precaution the code to open the key box was also changed.
A leak in the old section of the roof over the sanctuary was detected. Several roofers were called to provide bids. The solar panels on this roof added considerations and questions about warranties. Most of these items have been resolved and you should soon see the roof being repaired. Help from the Endowment Committee and several members resolved the costs.
We desperately need more Internet bandwidth than we have. Using Zoom the way we are, with at least 4 Zoom sessions going on during the service-one for the producer laptop, one for the Zoom participants laptop (connected to the big screen TV), one for the mobile phone placed as a camera at the podium, and one for the mobile phone used as a mobile camera–requires more Internet bandwidth than we have. There are other things we will need to get to keep producing the service via Zoom but, the most important one right now is that there is an urgent need to get a much faster data pipe into the building that provides more upstream and downstream traffic.
We have successfully contracted with Comcast to do an installation that will increase our speed from 18mb down/768 up to 1gb/35 mb. It will take a month or more for this installation to be complete.
Moving forward there will be many opportunities for volunteer involvement.
Following is a list of what we still need to do:
For the Chalice House:
*Repairing a cracked window and broken screens
*Replacing rotted wood on the structure and exterior walks
*General cleaning of building interior
*Replacing slide structure in playground
*Washing all windows and doors
For the Main Building
*Repairing/replacing siding
*General cleaning of the grounds
*Hanging door for Green Room
*Washing all windows
