Hello, fellow members and friends of TVUUC,

As you may be aware, our annual Congregational Meeting was held on Sunday, June 8, 2025. I want to extend a big “thank you” to everyone who participated in the annual congregational meeting! Coordinators, helpers, speakers and presenters, and attendees: I appreciate you all coming together as we do the business of our church!

I’d also like to issue a quick apology for the technical hiccups involved in the online viewing. This was our first attempt using Live Control for a congregational meeting, and we learned in real time what was and wasn’t working. We appreciate all the grace you can give us, and if we decide to use Live Control again it should go smoother next time. And an extra thanks to those who assisted so quickly with getting us back on track!

I would like to share a few things from the meeting with those who were unable to attend, or would prefer to view these items in writing.

Voting Results

The TVUUC congregation voted on a full slate during this meeting for candidates to fill roles in the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1, 2025, along with a budget and minor Bylaws amendments.

Here are the full results, with “yes” counts out of 88 ballots received:

Closing Remarks

I would also like to share the words I spoke to close our meeting:

“I would first like to say that I am honored to be trusted with this responsibility. I am committing to you that I will do my best work to continue building a resilient organization that supports the work we want to do in the world.

My first tasks will be to help reestablish trust within the leadership of this church, next to establish clear lines of communication from leadership to the congregation, and then to facilitate work within leadership to build a strong foundation that we can continue to build upon together.

I’d like to share with you a brief framework of how I hope to approach this upcoming year, which I gleaned from the UUA Institute’s training for Strategic Boards.

As originally written by Maurice Mitchell in Convergence Magazine, a resilient organization is one that can weather internal conflict and external crises. He identifies 4 dimensions of such an organization:

• Structurally sound: organizational form, roles, and mission. What kind of vehicle are we?
• Ideologically coherent: the organizational vision for the world. Where are we going?
• Strategically grounded: the organizational plan to advance toward this vision. How do we get there?
• Emotionally mature: the organization’s expectations of its people and people’s expectations of the organization, in matters of emotional, physical, and spiritual care and well-being. How do we behave on the journey?

As we move through this year, I plan to reinstate the Board President’s column in our newsletter where I hope to share more about how I’m thinking about these dimensions and the way they could relate to governance at TVUUC, as well as regular updates on the work of the Board throughout the year.

I am grateful for the leaders who came before me, the knowledge they bear, and the lessons they have taught me. I am grateful for the Officers and Members of the Board, past current and future, whose energy I hope to absorb and foster. I am grateful for the Management Team and the entire staff of this church, whose expertise I can count on. I am grateful for the other elected and volunteer leaders, whose work I hope to share and encourage. Lastly, I am grateful for you, for this congregation, for embracing me as a member and for trusting me to be one of your representatives.”

With love at the center,

Maddie Kulpa (she/her)

TVUUC Board President