SmorgasBoard: September 24

Perhaps because my favorite spiritual practice is getting stuff done, and I am an unrepentant list-maker, it gives me great joy that the Board has once again created a set of goals for ourselves for this church year.

You may recall that at the beginning of last church year, we did a survey of the congregation about various aspects of congregational health. We used the results of that survey to help us set our priorities as a Board, which fell into two categories: Trust, and Welcoming and Belonging. For the 2025-26 year we established a number of goals for work that we as a Board could do to advance those. We also recognized that enhancing congregational well-being is not short-term work, and committed to continuing to lean into that over probably a few years. Thus, when we started looking at our goals for the coming year, we again wanted to concentrate on those overall themes.

For 2026-27, we will be prioritizing the following goals (each of which has a set of specific activities associated with it):

Deepen the sense and practice of belonging among members of First Universalist

• Create a congregational covenant
• Continue to expand our intercultural development (for those not familiar with our prior work on this, you can read more about it in my President’s report in the 2025-26 Annual Report)
• Improve congregational communications
• Promote shared ministry through greater acknowledgement and appreciation

Enhance trust

• Sabbatical planning in collaboration with Rev. Jen
• Complete Governing Policy Handbook updates
• Undertake review of bylaws
• Further increase Board communications and visibility
• Develop a risk management framework

Note that not all of these fall neatly into one category. Specifically, having a congregational covenant and expanding our intercultural development to move beyond minimization will not only help us foster the sense of belonging, it becomes the basis for more trusting relationships as well.

We recognize this is an ambitious list; we can’t do it alone. Nor should we. Attending to our health and well-being as an organization is something we must all be a part of. As we move ahead, there will be ample opportunities for broad participation in the work of building beloved community, for all of you to share in the spiritual practice of getting stuff done. Stay tuned!

Marc Gorelick, Board President