The Board of Trustees of Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (HVUUC) recently formed a Reopening Task Force. This group is charged to research and provide the board with a comprehensive recommendation of the steps, criteria, and protocol for opening in-person activities at HVUUC. The recommendation they provide to the board will include but not be limited to:
Concrete criteria for when changes to gathering guidelines be made, both expanding and restricting.
Considerations regarding:
Worship services
Religious education: adult and youth
Committee/Small group meetings
A combination of in-person and virtual activities
How the plan(s) will be executed.
How the plan(s) will be maintained and revised.
This task force will consult broadly with congregants, staff, committees, and board members. We hope you will participate in this process so the task force has great input from a variety of sources.
On April 15, 2021 UUA President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray presented 4 key principles for planning for multi-platform operations. These will help guide our task force and, we hope, set expectations within the congregation:
As a faith community, we root our decisions in the values of inclusion and consent.
Follow the science.
Go slow and be flexible.
Be humane and realistic with expectations of ourselves and others.
You can read the full statement at this link.
We are grateful to the members of the Reopening Task Force for agreeing to serve. They were each chosen because of knowledge they have/congregants they represent:
Kim R—chair and cat-wrangler-in-chief
George C—facilities
Wanda E—membership, caring team, medically vulnerable congregants
Cindi H—RE collaborative, CommSquad
Wendy H—music, tech
David K—tech, legal
Rosemary K—religious services
Larry L—medical, families with young, unvaccinated kids
Ann L (nonvoting, president of the board)
Rev. Tiffany Sapp (nonvoting, called minister)
The task force will share updates with the congregation through email and a new section of the website that is coming soon. You can contact the Reopening Task Force by email at: reopeningtaskforce@hvuuc.org
The Board of Trustees is excited to have these folks on the job and confident in the plans they will develop to navigate this new territory.