About Circle Fellowship

The Membership Journey-Making New Friends & Keeping the Old

Fifth Program

Now What??

Now that we have chosen and planned a fair portion of the early stages of Making New Friends and gaining new CUUF members -- with our first directed Outreach being to families with children, artists, Greens and intellectually curious folk -- what do we need to do next? Do we have (or can we raise) the energy and enthusiasm to do this CUUF Membership Drive? Which of the events we've come up with (to bring folk in to CUUF) shall we actually do? When? What else can we do to continue to make CUUF even more attractive and warmly welcoming? And what do we expect from members? What do we expect from ourselves? And from the new members we bring in. The research shows that younger people today especially when they join a group want to know what is expected of them! What will we expect of them?

The obvious division of expectations is between Financial and time

Brainstorming financials produced the following list.

"UU Tithe"--10 percent of income--5 percent to church and 5 percent to other charities (this is the recommendation of the UUA).
It was suggested that perhaps we should expect 5 percent, with 2 1/2 percent to the church and 2 1/2 percent to other charities.
People should give "if able".
More if you can, less if you can't
Have a suggested goal
Ask people to give "If you care to".
Consistent donations are important
Give as comfortable
Regular Giving (Stewardship)
Post expenses and income in newsletter--also short piece about finances, but in a different place in the newsletter
Remind people that even small amounts over time amount to big dollars.
Communicate to Congregation about finances

Brainstorming "Giving Time" brought forth the following list:

Show up Regularly for programs
Do Interests and skills survey and connect people with appropriate committees
Play Music
Paint
Maintenance
Programs
RE--Teachers and Volunteers
Weekly/regular needs--Breakfast--Setup--Cleanup
Committees
Board
Week Night Meetings (may let more people be more involved)
Group charitable project and/or ongoing CUUF project
Sponsor Support Groups

It was suggested that the idea of doing an interest and skills survey was excellent and needed to be followed up on.

We did not have the time to get into the other topics for the day. We will follow with these in the near future.