From Janine Larsen, UUC Director of Ministries

With our new church program year beginning this July, my position as UUC Director of Ministries has moved from full-time to half-time to support the church’s budget plan for the 2024/25 fiscal year. I’m turning my attention now to building and strengthening the structures necessary to transition my program leadership and administrative tasks over the next six months. I want to share some of my reflections and provide some information about the immediate and longer-term opportunities and impacts to staff and volunteer responsibilities going forward. 

When I began at UUC in July 2016, I was charged with overseeing church programs and staff who support learning, spiritual deepening, connection and communication, congregational services and leadership development. It has been a demanding and rewarding eight-year span of nearly constant change—some anticipated (the building construction period) and some unforeseen (the pandemic period). With the Rev. Jon Luopa’s retirement, the church enters yet another multi-year period of major transition.

Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of practice with change in recent years. We’ve proven our ability to leap into the unknown and land in a superhero pose! I have no doubt that this congregation, with the help of a skilled interim minister, Rev. Dr. Doug Wadkins, and the guidance of wise lay leaders, will manage with strength and creativity once again. It is gratifying to be part of the ramping into this new time of discernment and discovery about the congregation’s being, becoming, dreams, and intentions.

It is very usual to have significant staff transition during the time of interim ministry and the settlement period of a new senior minister, whether or not these are prompted by budget considerations. Transitions are often initiated by staff who are ready for something different. And it’s also common to discover that that some staff positions must shift in response to a process of thoughtful and generative needs assessment. I expect we will see some of both at UUC in the next few years. These can be difficult adjustments, to be sure. And still, these decisions can help a congregation and staff to thrive and grow in a healthy and positive new way.

As I have considered how to trim my hours and commitments without a successor at hand, it is clear that existing staff (nearly all of whom are part-time) already have full plates. That requires me and our staff team to decide what to let go, what might be taken on by existing staff (who must in turn let go of other tasks), and what might be redesigned for volunteer leadership and implementation.

I’ve chosen to focus on sustainably transitioning three areas: Sunday Volunteer support and leadership development; Small Group leadership development; and Adult Faith Formation programs for the 2024–25 church year. I’m hopeful we can identify robust volunteer leadership for all of these areas as 2024 comes to a close. These priorities might, of course, be changed in consultation with our interim minister, Rev. Wadkins, after he arrives in August and makes his own evaluations.

The following are some of the tasks I have given up or am in the process of transitioning to others. For those tasks to be continued by others, note that the turnaround time and level of detailed support for group and event leaders and the congregation will be significantly affected.

Supporting our small group meetings and events calendaring, including space and/or Zoom reservations.

• Jessica Monahan, Office Manager, will return to primary position in managing calendar requests, with Stacy Carlson, Member Engagement and Support Assistant, as back-up. Meeting and event leaders, please plan to submit requests with at least one week’s lead time, using this online request form (you can also find this through our website menus: News & Events > Room Reservations).
• Staff will not have the capacity to continue my priority to develop the UUC public calendar as an essential and effective communications and marketing tool. Event descriptions and images provided by group leaders will be included in calendar listings without further polishing.
• Group and activity leaders, please check calendar listings carefully to ensure that details are correct once posted, or identify someone in the group who will do so. You are in the best position to catch errors, misinterpretations, or changes needed if there are program revisions after initial entry.

Supporting UUC Connect small group calendars, communications, and promotional information for new and existing group members as shared, consistent, efficient, and effective tools for congregational connection, engagement, and analytics. Group leaders will need to identify one or more group members who can manage these functions in UUC Connect.

• Regular orientation for new users and an ongoing training series for group leaders will launch this summer. Staff and/or volunteer support to sustain this ongoing need is still to be identified.
• Public registration for events open to anyone will be increasingly managed by volunteer event leaders with support from staff as available.

Oversight of Communications protocols and development will likely transfer to the Senior Minister or staff and volunteer sub-groups, including updates to UUC Publications Guidelines, which help Susan St. John, Communications Coordinator, manage consistent policy around content in The Gateway weekly enewsletter, the UUC newsblog and website, and the UUC Facebook page.

• Small group leaders, please plan extra lead time to be sure your meeting or event is already on the church calendar before submitting news posts for The Gateway enews, etc.
• Remember that the Learning Stations in Nathan Johnson Hall and in the downstairs atrium can be reserved through the calendaring and space reservations system to help promote UUC small groups and events.
• Website maintenance will continue to be supported by staff as available, specifically by Jessica Monahan, Susan St. John, and Family Ministries staff for their programs. The “Web Watchers” volunteer team may be broadened to encompass a greater scope related to outreach, user content, design and development.
• Sunday Connections Slides, showing before and after Sunday Services in the chapel, on our livestream, and in Nathan Johnson Hall throughout Sunday Morning Coffee & Conversations, has been suspended and will be discontinued unless a volunteer team is able to take up and sustain this communications vehicle.
• Coordination of announcements from the pulpit will likely revert to the resident minister(s) in September.

Connections and Welcoming programs and communications, including Sunday Info Sessions, Exploring UU & UUC classes, and companioning new Members and Friends, will be sustained by an expanded Connections Volunteer Team in collaboration with the Stewardship Team and Sunday Welcoming Team leaders, including attention to welcoming aesthetics throughout the building (e.g., flowers, signage, information, and accessibilities).

These are my current expectations, which will be informed as we go along and revised accordingly. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to implement staffing changes and greater volunteer leadership commitments in a changing support environment.

Janine Larsen  (she/her)

Director of Ministries, University Unitarian Church