We covenant with each other, promising our goodwill and honest effort, pledging our care and support to one another and to our church community, challenging one another to live in accord with our Unitarian Universalist principles.

With this common purpose as our source, we covenant:

• to welcome all who come to us with acceptance and respect for the differences among us and to remain open to the richness and discomforts of diversity;
• to listen with sincerity and love;
• to foster trust, practice patience, and speak one’s truth directly and with compassion;
• to reflect carefully about the potential results of our words and actions before we speak or act;
• to assume the positive intent of others and keep our discussions to topics and issues rather than personalities;
• to acknowledge that we may not always agree with the group decisions, but we will support and participate in decision-making processes that are collaborative and democratic and be open to compromise;
• to pursue mutually satisfying resolution when there is disagreement and seek help when needed;
• to speak directly to those with whom we have disagreements and encourage others to do the same;
• to speak out with loving kindness when we witness disrespectful interactions, acknowledging our fallibility and practicing forgiveness;
• to act with loving kindness, seeking to promote justice, equity, and compassion;
• to understand that building our beloved community requires ongoing learning and practice of courageous acts of love and reconciliation.

TVUUC Bylaws as Amended After the November 13, 2011 Congregational Meeting

TVUUC Bylaws Revision to be Voted on at the upcoming May 20 Congregational Meeting

 Summary of Revisions to Bylaws

What follows below is a summary of the proposed revisions to the TVUUC bylaws to be voted on at the 5/20/12 congregational meeting.

Annette Marquis, the Southeast District Executive, remarked sometime back that our bylaws contained “too much detail” and should be streamlined. The GTF and the Board also saw a need to better align our bylaws to facilitate the transition to a more policy-based governance style. Thus began a detailed review in 2011 that lead to revisions approved by the congregation in May 2011 and again in November 2011.

The May 2011 revisions were focused on the formation of an Executive Team and changes to the Nominating Committee structure and length of terms. The second round of revisions were ready for congregational consideration at a special meeting held on Nov 11, 2011. The upcoming May 20, 2012, meeting will see the recommendations for change stemming from a completed review of all Articles of the bylaws.

Note: In the summary below, Articles from the 11/13/11 version are indicated with an [11-11] following the Article title. Articles from the 5/20/12 version are indicated with a [5-12].

Revisions for 5/20/12

Article IV Board of Directors [5-12] revisions lead to a reorganization of some of the bylaws. Formerly under Board of Directors and Committees [11-11], now all Committees are under the new Article V Committees [5-12] whether Board committees or not.

Under Article IV Section 3 Budget part B Approval of Extraordinary Expenditures [5-12] , the expenditure amount requiring congregational approval if not in the approved budget has been raised from $5,000 to $10,000. The rationale is to update the amount in line with years-long inflation since the $5,000 amount was set.

Article V Committees Section 1 Committee Membership [5-12] Here is inserted a requirement for church membership to join any Board committee or task force and any other committee “so designated by the Board”. The provision is proposed as appropriate for the security of a large church where many members may not even know each other. Members, as opposed to non-members, have a certain accountability for confidentiality, as needed, and a vested interest in the well being of a well run church.

Additionally, each committee described in this Article has listed as a member a liaison from the Board. The Board has in mind to a create a leadership development track for Board members, and better engage them in understanding church activities, by requiring each member, each year, to identify a committee to attend for the year. In the interest of alleviating some of the burden on a President-elect, (Article VI Section 2 [5-12]) the President will advise that person on which committee(s) he or she should attend to fill knowledge gaps, rather than automatically requiring any President-elect to join a pre-determined four committees for the year.

Article V Section 4 Personnel Committee [5-12]

A large portion of this Article is now included as part of the Personnel Committee Charter. Those items included in a charter are more likely to require some flexibility from year to year and inclusion in a charter, as approved by the Board, rather than in bylaws, takes less time to make a change.

Article V Section 7 Program Council [5-12] The Program Council Chair will be a member of the Executive Team along with the Senior Minister and the Director of Administration. Considering that most programs in the church are under the Program Council umbrella and are a large part of church operations, the communication and decision-making needed among these three will be facilitated with this structure.

Additionally, the recommendation is that the Program Council Chair be selected by the Board, again to provide needed flexibility on length of terms, e.g. if a Program Council Chair is particularly effective and also likes doing what the posi

position entails, it could be appropriate to ask that person to serve for a second one-year term. When a position is Board-appointed, there is gained accountability that is lacking when a church grows to the size of ours and small-church mechanisms no longer serve as well. As with all Board-appointed positions, the Board will often rely on the Nominating Committee for recommendations as gathered from their extensive interviewing of church members.

Article V Section 8 Nominating Committee and Section 9 Endowment Fund Committee [5-12] The Endowment Fund Committee recommends a change to the TVUUC bylaws and to their own charter to increase the number of members from six to seven in order to have an uneven number of voting members.

Article VIII Employees of TVUUC [5-12] This Article has been rewritten to reflect changes to the new Personnel Manual policies, completed in late 2011. Formerly Article X Salaried Staff of the Church [11-11], other revisions reflect the addition of the Executive Team in our governance structure and the division of responsibilities between the Executive Team and the Board.

SUGGESTED DONATION: $20

Hello, Chris Hamilton, new member on the Gift Card team with some BIG news to report. We are sponsoring a contest for the month of October. Anyone who buys a Scrip gift card this month will automatically be entered in the contest. What a great prize we have: a $50 gift card that can be used at Olive Garden or Red Lobster. Not familiar with the new cards? Stop by this Sunday to see what a wide variety of vendors and prices are available. Check out our monthly specials which earn more money for the church. Holidays are approaching fast; cards make nice way to remember people. I bought a Lowe’s and Ace Hardware card for a home improvement project. The cards helped to keep me within my budget.—Blessings Chris

TVUUC Social Action Initiative: Serene Manor Linda Capps, Linda Podbielski, and Kelli Covington

My name is Linda Capps and along with Linda Podbielski and often Kelli Covington and her daughter Rene Thompson we host Bingo night twice a month at the Serene Manor Nursing Home. Serene Manor is a nursing home for either the indigent or those who receive very little from Welfare checks or Social Security. Along with buying Bingo prizes, we often buy them things they need like shoes, sweaters and many personal items.

The bingo prizes usually consist of shampoos, cream rinses, socks, beef jerky sticks, trinkets, earrings, and diabetic candy. We always take a cooler with a bag of ice and diet sodas which they love. They never get an “icy” drink, and candy is out of the question for them because they have no sources for sugar-free candy. They love the prizes, and they love the bingo games.

Actually, we could use more donations for “prizes” and maybe a few folks to come and help. Usually around 20 of the residents show up for bingo night, and it takes about 4 people to manage everything that needs to be done. A few of the residents even need someone to help them with their cards.

Thanks so much!

TVUUC Social Action Initiative: Growing Native Grasses Mary Tebo

Because of the $100 that the Social Action Committee so generously awarded me, native warm season grasses are now growing on the slope near the top of the steps to the lower parking lot. Native grasses have often been considered as a replacement for the many invasive species that live on that slope. I’m not sure they will work there on a large scale, as I will describe below, but without this $100, I would never have known if they would grow there at all.

Conservation of native species is not really a priority of the Social Action Committee unless conservation is directly tied to the welfare of people. Consequently, the Social Action Committee encouraged me to hire an economically disadvan- taged worker to help with the project. I hired Abdallah Guruza, a political refugee from Southern Sudan, to help me plant the grasses. I paid Abdallah $10 an hour for 10 hours of work. He helped me prepare the site by chopping down some Ailanthus trees that overhung the slope and cast too much shade for grass to grow. He then helped me plant 400 plugs of assorted native grasses. Unfortunately, the latter part of May was one of the hottest and driest on record so, despite watering every other day, many of the grasses died.

For my part, I have learned that establishing native grasses on that slope will be a long and arduous task, and may not be possible if it requires such labor-intensive effort. Other, less labor-intensive methods for growing these grasses, such as planting seed with equipment available through the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, or spreading native grass hay that contains native grass seed, may work better.