DRE REPORTS 2008-09

Jan/Feb 2008
Feb/March 2008
March/April 2008
April/May 2008
June/July 2008
August/Sept/Oct 2008
November December 2008
December 08/January 09
March/April 09

• The Middle School field trip to Portland was a wonderful success! Our best one yet. The youth came a way with a variety of experiences and impressions from our visits to a Pureland Buddhist temple, Hindu temple, Mosque, large Jewish synagogue and 1st Unitarian. They saw people in prayer, beautiful statues, children leading worship, and amazing architecture.

• Spring Break : the first weekend of Spring break was slightly lower attendance than usual, but the 2nd week, a non-RE day, welcomed many children since Rev Steve and Rev Colbert were back in the pulpit. The kids made crafts and played with four hired childcare staff.

• The RE Committee Spring retreat is April 17-18. Rev. Steve will join us on Friday night to lead a philosophical discussion and Judy Shaw will be facilitating the Saturday meeting as the RE committee looks at the RE program Mission Statement and explores encouraging and developing more of a spiritually based identity as “Religious Educators” in our volunteer teachers. The committee has opted to meet at a committee member’s home rather than renting a facility this year, to help with the budget.

• Childcare Budget – I am currently working on a report on estimated cost of childcare for the rest of the church year. Goal is to have it to the board by the April meeting. I have sent a note to committees that we are not able to fund new childcare requests for the rest of the year and gave groups options of already set dates, and other ways to cover childcare. Right now, a  group has cancelled childcare needs (NVC) and another (Green Sanctuary) is offering to pay for the costs so that they can have childcare at the Stream Team work party.

• Childcare Staff Training: I held a 2 hour training for all providers on our list to strengthen their group management skills and to learn some group non-competitive games to play with the kids.

• OWL continues each week, and after checking in with a few youth, the reports back are very positive! The material is engaging, and the teachers are caring, accessible and consistent.

• The Easter hunt on April 12 will involve the children and teens searching for ONE egg and trading it in for a treat bag that is filled with 80-85% locally purchased or reused items.

• Teacher Appreciation event has been planned and scheduled for May 31. This will include a reception after each service and a short piece in the beginning of the service thanking them for their volunteer time and care. The planning team is collecting donated foods for the reception.

• RE Library: Betty Hosokawa has volunteered her time to keep the RE library in room 2 organized. We will be working together to further categorize the books by subject area so they are easier to find to use for curriculum.
• RE Budget Ledger: Over the break, I further felt the benefit of having an assistant, as I actually had time to work on an Access Ledger to start better keeping track of my events and programs and what I am spending. I am waiting for the office to give me copies of my program reports from Quick Books so I can finish the project and verify all deposits and subtractions to the RE accounts.

• I will be welcoming Niya Standish, DRE for Children in Corvallis on Tuesday the 7th. Niya is coming here to network and we are swapping curriculum ideas and plans.

• Random Generosity benefits a member of our community! Hutch received a call from a past member of this community (30 years ago?) who was passing through town in their RV and had a 1997 Chevy Malibu car that they were trying to find a home for. They were going to donate it to a local charity, but were unhappy with that process and wanted it to go directly to a person in need of a vehicle. Together, Hutch and I were able to connect the donor to Amber Alexander, church member, single mom, student and long-time youth advisor. How fun it was to say the words “You’ve won a new car!”.

• Bridger Photos installed in Room 6 – Over the years, we have posted 5 x 7 photos of the youth who are graduating High School during the bridging ceremony. Finally, thanks to the help of the RE Assistant, Marika, all of these photos have come out of storage and are now in frames, hanging in room 6. Stop and check out all the amazing young people who have graduated from our program!

• I will be away April 23-27 partially on a short personal trip and partially at the Youth Conference in Lincoln City, supporting our advisors and youth.

Respectfully submitted, Candee Cole

DRE Report
December 2008/January 2009

Some Highlights of the Month:

• Hanukah and Solstice Gathering - Worked with CUUPs and Ad Olam, Synagogue Without Walls, to create a multi-faith celebration of Hanukah and Winter Solstice. To our surprise, over 200 people attended from our community and the Jewish and Pagan Communities. We celebrated in prayer, song, food and dance. The band was wonderful, the connections were genuine and there are requests that we collaborate again! The church smelled like latkes for over a week! The event brought in $75 for the church with an additional amount of $50 donated by the musicians. All monies put out for food were also reimbursed.
• Helped put together Staff Christmas Card project.
• A fun Solstice Fair was put on in RE with the help of Vicky Scheuerell and Carolyn Munroe, practicing pagans and RE teachers. The children learned about Winter Solstice in their rooms and then gathered together for beeswax candle making and felting decorative suns. The youth joined the group at 11:00 which was fun. All ages together participated in a Solstice ritual, and children wrote wishes for the new year on spirals and hung them on the solstice tree, which was displayed at the Christmas Eve service.
• Christmas Eve Service - I was very disappointed to be ill on Christmas Eve, so I could not tell the story or participate vocally at all. I did set up the mitten tree and décor for the evening, found a replacement storyteller, Christine Puetz, and led the children I jingle bell ringing during the opening sing-a-long. I also created an activity sheet for the order of service for the children to use during the service.
• Working with the RE Assistant on Office Organization – We are moving our organizing  into past year’s curricula and getting lessons and resources put in files so they can be found and reused in the future.
• Reviewed, wrote, rewrote and edited term 2 curriculum (over 40 lesson plans) for Preschool, K-2nd grade, 3-5th grade and Middle School.
• Worked with Our Whole Lives Instructors to create a calendar of classes and sleepovers for the 8-9th grade OWL program this Spring. Coordinated a mailing to families
• Organized and led a Teacher Orientation and Curriculum review for term 2 volunteers. Worked with the RE committee to facilitate food and activities.
• RE Registration and Teacher Recruitment table is being staffed by REC members for the first two Sundays to help recruit replacement teachers and to help new families get registered for the program.
• Writing the pageant – have been working on blocking and completing the ending of the pageant provided by Connie Newman. Working with Diane Wooldridge, Lici Blades and members of the RE committee to gather props and costumes. Rehearsals will be Jan 17 and 24.

Professional Development and Staff Supervision:

• Have met with childcare lead, Svetlana, 2 times per month and am in regular communication by phone, helping her work out kinks in the system. Planning a childcare meeting in the next month with all providers to review safety, behavior management and expectations.
• Offered Shinai Grzebielski a regular Sunday position working as the 2nd caregiver in the infant and toddler room.
• Held a futures planning with the RE assistant, Marika, and have scheduled a 3 month review for the end of January.
• Began listening to “Eat That Frog”, a time management book, on audio CD and am taking Wednesday as a set curriculum and planning day each week to spend time reading.
• Professional Goals – In addition to the time management book, have set a more firm schedule of days off and office hours, and started writing a monthly column in the RE newsletter. After researching class options at LCC, I decided to modify one goal of taking a class on supervision and management, and found some books on managing and human resource and will read those. I will also share these with the front office staff.

The Outer UU World

• Attended Eliot Institute – A Unitarian Universalist Family Camp on the Hood Canal, for five days over the New Year.
• Plan to attend Professional Days at AGM on February 20, and perhaps part of AGM depending on offerings.
• Will be scheduling a weekend district teacher training in Washington this Spring.

Respectfully submitted, Candee Cole

Director of Religious Education Report
November/December 2008

Some Highlights of the Month:

• Hired Svetlana Dunbar as Childcare Coordinator. She began training in early December.
• Helped put together volunteers and bakers/servers for the Corn bread and Cider Communion along with a story with children assisting on November 23.
• Supported High School youth sleepover on November 22. High School youth and advisors are now planning the district youth conference in the Spring.
• Organized a Middle School field trip to the Episcopal Church up the street on November 23.
• Created and ran First Family Worship in December with Rob Tobias on Celebrations of Light.
• Met with members of CUUPs and Ad Olam Synagogue without walls to plan the Hanukkah and Winter Solstice celebration on the 21st.
• Karaoke Party was a grand success with all ages represented and many requests to offer this event again in the Spring.
• Held separate teacher meetings with Youth Advisors, Middle School Advisors and younger age group volunteer teachers. Worked with Middle School advisors to deal with behavior issues in class.
• Group combined the ages at both services to help with the teacher shortage. K-2 now meet together in room 1 and 3-5th meet in room 2.
• Welcomed newborn infant, Samson Pebworth to our UU family! Met with new parents, Angie and David Pebworth.
• Assisted with New Member and Child Dedication Ceremonies.
• Began reviewing and writing curriculum for Term 2.
• Participated in exit interview with Emily Wornell, our previous RE Assistant.
• Helped organize a holiday staff photo.
• Meeting weekly with Svetlana and Marika Banyacski, our new RE Assistant. Working with Svetlana to create a calendar of childcare offered to post where members can see it. Continuing to train Marika in database management and will begin training her in Publisher I upcoming weeks.
• Putting together celebrations for Sunday morning RE around St.Lucia (Sweden), Las Posadas (Mexico) , as well as a Winter Solstice Fair for December 21.
• Working on improving procedures on attendance taking and data collection for visitors.
• Started working on 2009-10 RE Budget.

Where have I been?

• Attended the Liberal Religious Educators (LREDA) Fall Conference in New Mexico. I feel more fully inspired around creating a MULTI-generational faith community.
• Attend a family wedding and reunion in San Diego. Participated in the marriage ceremony of one of my beautiful nieces. I was honored to read the “Prayers of the Faithful” as part of the ceremony.
• Took a Thanksgiving holiday to Sacramento to meet my partner’s family. We took a side trip to the Redwoods on the way home!                          Respectfully submitted,

Candee Cole

DRE Report
August/September/October 2008

Summer Program and Fall Start-Up
• Three summer day camps offered at the last part of August. Approximately 28 children participated.
• Interviews for Day camp staff, Childcare providers and the RE Assistant
• Room clean up and work party prep
• FC installed new flooring in infant/toddler room
• Curriculum book preparation, copying, and tabs took three weeks without our normal office help! Volunteers were scheduled whenever possible to prep Teacher Training packets, mailings and prepare registration materials for families.
• Labor of Love work party helped to straighten rooms, decorate bulletin boards and organize toys and art supplies. Cleaning up from day camps was considerable work.
• SAIF claim from day camp staff injuring knee at the park playing with kids.
 
Teachers and Program
• Ten more volunteers are still needed…eight of them at 9:00 service.
• Volunteer Training in early September with separate meetings with Middle School and High School advisors
• Multiple individual orientations as volunteers trickle in.
• World Religion year begins in October with Judaism. Children learn about and celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, the Festival of Booths
• Special program for preschool begins at 9:00, but at 11:00, there is low enrollment. High School youth is now leading the preschool at 11:00 when children come (anywhere from 1-5 kids) with adult supervision as volunteer hours for school.
 
Youth
• Both Middle and High school youth held Welcome back parties with games and pizza with their advisors.
• 5 High school youth are attending the district youth conference October 10-12
 
Campus Ministry
• The baton has been handed off to Lisa Bohannan, who is volunteering to be the Campus Ministry advisor this year. Young Adults has been removed from the RE. for Children and Youth umbrella, and Lisa is assisting specifically 18-25 year olds connect on campus and at church.
• My affiliation with the Religious Director's Association comes to an end on October 14 as I step down from my role as President. Lisa Bohannan will continue to attend RDA meetings as a way for us to serve students on campus.
 
Events
New Parent Orientation- 24 parents, children and staff enjoyed pizza, parachute play, group games and crafts. The children were with us for the first past and then went downstairs to play with 2 childcare providers. The adult had a Q and A time with me to learn about our program, history and procedures.
 
Halloween – A team of six are working on a great party, Harvest themed this year. The Haunted element of the party will be simplified and held on the playground. I will be out of town for the first time ever, so this team, along with the RE committee will be running the event.
 
Advent – R.E. will no longer be sponsoring this event. I spent some time orienting CUUPs members to this much loved tradition and they are taking this service on this year.
 
SJUUCE Social Empowerment weekend – Will be supporting Julie Heffernan Moore to create a "Peace Camp" for kids during the Saturday portion of the Social Empowerment workshop. Met also with Leslie Gilbert from the Accessibilities Committee, and they may be adding an element to the weekend as well. There is an interest from the committee to provide some disabilities education to the children and teens this year and next year.
 
Centennial Pageant – Met with the Centennial representatives regarding an intergenerational pageant held in late January on the history of the Eugene church. The play is being written currently and I will be putting together a pageant team and recruiting actors.
 
Administration
DRE Job Description, Contract and Goals. The DRE job description has been under review for many months. Thing are being added around supervision and items are being removed as well. The RE Committee and DRE Advisory are working up a proposed final draft to present to the minister in the next 2 months. A contract meeting was held with the minister, DRE advisory committee, board president and the LREDA good offices person, Cathy Cartwright from Portland. Contract is awaiting finalization from the minister and signatures. The biggest change was added language around Supervision by the minister. A list of goals I created for myself was reviewed at this meeting and a timeline set. The contract was set for one year.
 
Hiring RE Assistant. We hired Emily Wornell in early September for the 16 hours per week RE assistant. Emily will be working on Wednesday and Sundays and attending some special events. Emily has jumped right in and is very skilled at being a detail person and learns quickly. She has already made a huge difference in helping the RE program get even more organized!
 
Preparing RE office for an extra desk!- The huge job of reorganizing the RE office is under way in order to fit another desk in the space. Bookshelves are being moved out. Emily has reorganized the shed and some items that have been stored in the RE office will be stored in other areas of RE. We will be getting a new (rebuilt) computer through Gary Oster, our "computer guru" for the RE assistant.
 
Criminal Records checks for CARE ad Pastoral Care committees We are currently running records checks for CARE committee members through the RE office.
 
Planning several fields trips and visitors. We are scheduling visitors on Judaism this month and are hoping for a field trip to the new synagogue for the Middle School this month. In November, we are inviting in a visiting Episcopal priest and other representatives of Christianity for 2nd-Middle School. We hope to visit the local Episcopal church with our Middle School group.
 
Childcare Changes. I will be working on changes to the Childcare Lead job description this month. Regina, out current lead will be leaving us in late November, and with support from the minister, we are changing the position to be more overseeing of the childcare program and direct supervision of the other childcare staff. This person will be working regular hours and we will be offering set childcare on certain nights so this person can have a consistent schedule.
 
Offsite childcare box. Due to special off-site events, like Stream Team and Choir retreats needing childcare, I have created a special box for groups to take with them when they are offering childcare offsite. The box includes safety, game, and behavior management resources for the providers, a sign in clipboard for parents, games/toys for infants-5th grade, a first aid kit, and art projects, and a reminder checklist for providers.
 
Nametag and Ribbons. RE committee members are now marked more visibly with green nametags and purple "committee" ribbons. Classroom volunteers now have red nametags with bright green "volunteer" ribbons". We have ordered bright yellow ribbons for childcare providers, and the Childcare Coordinator has a bright red plastic "official-looking" nametag. The DRE (for the first time in 17 years) now has a professional nametag, and the RE assistant also is marked more professionally. Rev Steve will be handing this idea off to the new Administrator to consider for the custodian and office staff.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Director of Religious Education Report for April/May 2008

Special Events

• New UU Holiday – Electricity Day on April 20. Well, because we had un-naturally cold weather this day, instead of heating up the whole place, we set the heat upstairs and down at 60 degrees (unfortunately it switched off mid-morning so it got colder than comfortable for some.) However, the kids did great with extra blankets and candles and flashlights, and it seemed to hit home how much we depend on electricity in our daily lives. EWEB provided educational materials on Electricity usage and Rev. Steve did away with the order of service and it was printed by Judie Hansen on large sheets of paper for people to see as they walked in. It was an eye-opening day for many!

• Final Family Worship - Erin and Hailey Troberg, Katy and Sages Siepert and Christine and Sophie Puetz were the 3 parent/kid teams that put together our final family worship for the year on May 4 while I was away at the Vision Quest. Reports state that they did a lovely job and that the 3 kids, with Hailey in the lead, wrote a special song for the worship about taking a stand for things that concern you.

• Parent’s Day Planning - Gearing up for Parent’s Day service on May 11 and the Child Dedication ceremony. The children and youth will be upstairs for half the service. Steve and I have planned songs and Steve will tell a great story at the service. We will also be joined by the Spirit Choir.

• RE Committee Retreat – The RE committee is heading off to Sunriver on Memorial Day weekend to plan and look deeply at future curriculum, job descriptions, World Religions year calendaring and more!
Teachers and Program

• RE Volunteer Meeting – 15 volunteers were able to join together to go over the end of the year calendar and classroom close-down procedures. We were joined by Rev. Steve at the end to talk about upcoming property search procedures and the volunteers were asked to lend their voices in future meetings to how we might make any future property welcoming to children, youth and Religious Education programming.

Youth Ministry – Coming of Age Program

• COA Check-in meetings – David Bockoven, Laura Adams, and myself met individually or in small groups) with 17 of the 20 youth in April to check in on Mentor relationships and project completion, as well as to answer any questions about the Vision Quest or Credo assignment.

• Planning/Implementing the Vision Quest- This element of the program actually took up the majority of my time the month of April. A huge amount of planning, scheduling and collecting items took place throughout the month leading up to May 2-4. Excepting a few snafus along the way, including the high ropes course being cancelled due to weather, the weekend went off beautifully, with the 19 youth (one youth had to stay home ill) participating in all of the activities with open hearts and minds. They all had such deep and amazing things to say during and after the VQ exercises. These exercises included a death mask activity, a 4 hour silent vigil in the hills, men’s and women’s circles, worships, a night challenge, low ropes course, and a rock wall and giant swing. We took along 7 awesome staff that made the weekend fabulous (and it was so much work, we could have used 2 more), David Atkin, Sarah Holland, Kathy Dillon (chaplain), Chris Nunes, Lisa Bohannen, Aaron Mello, and Erik Troberg.

• Archives Committee – John Clay and Kathy Dillon met with a small group of 5 youth and one mentor and showed them photos and newspaper clipping of our church community over the last 99 years…and told fun stories as well. The kids were mesmerized and it feels like this should be part of the regular program in the future!
Youth Ministry – Middle and High School Program

• Pro-Bone-O Planning – The Middle School youth met and planned a sandwich luncheon for the June congregational meeting. Some members of the group will be sitting at an info table on May 11 And 18…and others will be calling volunteers to bring food and making doggy treats to sell. The group hopes to collect items need on the Wish List and money to help pay for spay and neuters to help control pet overpopulation. The younger children in the program made signs and a donation box.

• Station 7 Luncheon – The High School youth are also collecting items for Station 7, a homeless youth shelter, and will be sponsoring a burrito luncheon on May 18 at 12:30. All proceeds will go directly to the Station 7 New Mattresses project.

• District Summer Conference – A five day conference for youth is being planned in August and we are looking for an advisor to sponsor a few youth. The conference is going to be small, about 60 people, but a fun way to connect with other UU youth over the summer.
• Goldmine Leadership School – We will hopefully be sending another member of the youth group to Goldmine. I and the advisor team will be checking in with members of the group to locate a candidate.

• Moving Up and Bridging Ceremonies for Middle and High School – The June 1st service will be all about transitions! We will be honoring the children entering Kindergarten, Middle School and High School, as well as the 3 youth who are Bridging into young adulthood, Will Stancil, Skye Rios, and Nathan Heldt.

What’s Coming Up
May 18 Return of the Initiates Service and Youth Sponsored Station 7 Luncheon
May 23-25 R.E. Committee Yearly Retreat (Sunriver)
May 25 No R.E.
June 1 Bridging, Moving Up and R.E. Volunteer Appreciation
June 8 Pro-Bone-O Luncheon

What have I been up to?
• Cluster Meeting – Attended my cluster group in Portland in April.

• Mentoring RE program coordinator from Ashland – I have been connected with the church in Astoria through the LREDA Mentoring to support their current volunteer RE coordinator with curriculum development.

• DRE Sabbatical Scheduling - Began to look ahead at what makes sense for a future sabbatical date for me. I am hoping to take 6 months sometime before we move to another space, if possible. Steve and I discussed this idea and tentatively scheduled January 2010-June 2010.

Respectfully,
Candee Cole

Director of Religious Education Report
March/April 2008

Special Events
----• Easter – Much smaller turn out today due to Spring Break! But we were able to hold a fun egg hunt activity and offered Spring/Easter activities for the children and youth.
----• Celebration Sunday Programming for the Children’s piece – Beth Hoyt, our office assistant, was incredibly helpful in helping me maintain and run the kids program while I was in the service. It was the perfect example of why we need extra staff support! We served 55 kids with 11 providers, (9 paid and 2 volunteer youth). The children were led to their groups by Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins (Daniel and Felix Blades), and spent the hour + playing games with their fun group leaders.
----• Community Service – Service projects have begun for the children and youth. Most kids groups chose to support “Pro-Bone-O” and fundraising and a wish list drive will start in May. One age group chose to work for Stream Team, and members of the Middle School group are working on 3 different projects (see youth section).
----• New UU Holiday – Electricity Day will be honored this Sunday, April 20. We will not be using heat or lights during classes or eating snack that needed refrigeration. We have prepared education materials for all the age groups on electricity usage and power.

We have had very few days of Religious Education programming since the last board meeting with holidays and special events. Nothing new in this department other than the last volunteer meeting of the church year is scheduled for April 26.

Youth Ministry
----• Youth Conference in Canada – We sent one advisor and 5 youth via rented charter bus to a conference in Canada April 4-6th. The attendees were greatly impressed by the conference and said it is the best one they have attend thus far!
----• Middle School conference in Corvallis – 3 youth and one advisor attended a one night overnight April 11-12 in Corvallis at the Willamette Valley Cluster Middle School conference. The kids played fun bonding games and worked in a sustainable garden.
----• Community Service Projects and Field Trip – 9 middle and high school youth helped to plan, prepare and serve a meal to 20 (adults and kids) at 1st Christian Church for the St. Vincent de Paul overnight shelter on April 11. About 10 high school youth participated with 3 advisors in a tour of Looking Glass Station 7 homeless youth center. They learned of the services provided and will be preparing fundraisers and wish list drives for the agency throughout May.
----• Middle School Fun Outing – Sarah Holland, our youth coordinator, has planned a fun outing for MS youth this Saturday, April 19 at “All That and More” a fun gathering place that offers trampoline basketball and Velcro walls! About 7 middle school youth will be attending.

Young Adult/Campus Ministry
----• Met with Campus Ministry (18-25) leaders to make a game plan for welcoming new students next term.

Childcare
----• New providers have been hired and a new list is being created, We have not made changes in the coordination of childcare so has to not cause confusion with the congregants in case extra hours for childcare coordination are approved.

What have I been up to?
----• Have been spending most of my personal time celebrating my one year anniversary with my partner Mike, preparing for Saturday Market, and Spring cleaning both the house and my office!

Respectfully,
Candee Cole

Director of Religious Education Report
February/March 2008

This month, I have time for a bulleted list of everything that is going on in Religious Education!
Teachers and Program
• Short 4 teachers in the program but, things are running smoother than last term!
• Created RE Budgets and New RE Assistant Request
• Continuing work with weekly volunteer, Marj Cole, on organizing RE files
• Organized Community Service Fair and facilitating projects for Chiildren and Youth
• Met with lawyer and UU mom, Jet Harris to go over Mandatory Reporting laws and expectations after she attended a training.

Special Events
• Helped facilitate Middle and High School youth Listening Groups
• Began work on Celebration Sunday programming for the Children’s piece
• Offered a 30 minute presentation on R.E. and volunteerism for the Newcomers Class
• A simpler Easter plan for this year.

Youth Ministry
• New Youth Coordinator. Sarah Holland hired!
• Youth Advisors Meeting to go over specific issues and to plan service projects and activities
• Coming of Age Class – Mask making for their “Death Mask” activity that will be offered at the Vision Quest.
• COA Vision Quest site bumps us from our date…after a scramble, we have another date.
• Coming of Age Credo Class offered by Rev. Steve. We set up beautiful fabric and environment and bring in a canvas labyrinth for the youth to walk while organizing their thoughts for the Credo writing.
• All Mentors Finally Oriented!!!
• High School Our Whole Lives Saturday Marathon and Overnight – Kay Crider and David Pebworth ran the youth through 4 session on a Saturday and the youth celebrated with an overnight that evening.

Young Adult/Campus Ministry
• Campus Ministry (18-25) are meeting twice per month with me and are planning a retreat.

Childcare
• Childcare Lead Meeting and Job Description Review
• We are creating a new and improved system of “coordinating” childcare
• Am finalizing a new Childcare Handbook
• Childcare provider recruitment, interviews, reference checks and orientation…4 new providers added to our list.

What have I been up to?
• Trip to Tacoma to visit friends and attend the District Program Consultant, Tandi Koerger’s baby shower. Worked for UUCE from coffee shops in Tacoma for a few days prior to my AGM Professional Days where I did some work with DREs and Ministers on Classism
• Attended a weekend intensive module for DREs on “Pastoral Care”

Respectfully,
Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Director Of Religious Education Report
January/February 2008
State of the Union

Since September, we have been running the RE program short 10 volunteers. Since more recruitment has happened (and cute kid pics), we now are needing 4 more people. 5 people have come forward and one volunteer is opting to be in the classroom every week.

Curriculum Development- With the help of substitute office assistant, Lucy Dawson, the curriculum is set, organized, copied, tabbed and mostly distributed. This term highlights human rights, animals, and caring for the earth. The children in 2nd –Middle School will participate in a Community Service fair on March 2nd and hear from 3-4 local organizations…and vote as a class which one they would like to work on. At the end of the year, the children will be given a sheet to fill out where they can express what they stand for…either in the take action style of “standing up for” something, or a representational stand…”I stand for caring for the earth.”

Office assistant interviews and hiring: We are very please to welcome Beth Hoyt to the church staff team! Beth works at Nearby Nature and does a lot of similar work there to our programming! Kim and I are very happy to have her! Beth will be working Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday morning each week. We received about 20 applicants, and we interviewed 3. I did follow up reference checking, criminal records check and notifying the rest of the applicants.

Budget: Finally completed budget requests for all of my programs, and will be working with the RE committee and DRE Advisory on staffing requests and my package in the coming week.

Recruiting childcare: I have placed an ad on craigslist to look for more good childcare people to add to our list. We are using a lot of childcare as of late, and our current people are being kept plenty busy. There is still a need in my mind for a way to use our resources more wisely and combine efforts so that several committees can be taking advantage of childcare at the same time.

Events
Minister’s Installation: In spite of snow, many people turned out for the installation service, including 18 elementary age children, and about 7 younger children. We were short 2 providers, so my energies were required in the childcare room during the service. The 7 kid groups at church worked on seven t-shirts as a gift to Steve, that depict the seven principles and kid art. I told a story provided by Steve, in the service, based on a Thich Nhat Hanh story on interdependence.

Volunteer Orientations: Due to very, very busy volunteers, the curriculum orientations are happening at 3 separate dates. Two have been held during the last weekend of Janaury, and the final (I hope) will be on February 9. The volunteers gathered for food, shared the ups and the downs of their volunteer experience, shared stories and advice, learned about upcoming events in the church and got oriented to their curriculum.

Family Worship/Children’s Chapel – The February 3 Family Worship was led by myself and Rich Glauber and was focused on inclusively and gender stereo-types.

Youth
Coming of Age Mentors and One-On-One Meetings: I met with each of the 21 youth to pick their mentor and go over their COA projects. Due to the snow at the end of the month, many of the youth received home visits from me or came over to my home or down to the office for their meeting. We thankfully had about 26 mentors apply, which gave these youth a lot of choice. Mentor orientations happened over 2 nights (with about 3 more people needing to meet). We spent about 2 hours together, talking about safety, boundaries, and what the youth are experiencing. Criminal records are being checked for those who do not already have something on file at their work, and the youth and mentors will start connecting in a week or two.

Coming of Age Classes – The January Class was led by Laura Adams and August Sabini and was on Values Development. This class included foundation work on developing belief statements.

Youth Coordinator Position – Since the last board meeting, everything has been too busy to create a job posting for the new temporary position. This has been done and fleshed out by the RE committee and went up on Craigslist as of February 6.

High School Our Whole Lives- Kay Crider and David Pebworth led the parent orientation for OWL at the end of January, and about 12 youth are participating! This is our first year offering High School OWL!

Youth Group Sleepover – The sleepover in January was quite the success, with about 14 youth in attendance. Rev. Steve joined the group until about 1 a.m. and they really appreciated that! One highlight was a game of capture the flag around the church grounds in the dark!

Upcoming Big Events in February
Listening Groups – We hope that youth will sign up to participate in one of the groups. Right now we only have one person lined up for the 10th. The youth group will not be holding OWL on the 17th, so hopefully more of them will attend that day.

Campus Ministry Start-Up – I am organizing a welcome party for February 6 on campus. Some planning and goals will be set hopefully by the attendees and a more regular activity group will begin!

Where have I been what am I up to??
• Met with my cluster group in Portland and took a quick trip to Seattle to surprise my niece.
• Attended Non-Violent Communication Workshop at church and found it very helpful!
• Told a Unitarian history story at the Interfaith Service
• Plan on attending my professional days at AGM but not the rest of the meeting
• Will be attending a Pastoral Care training for DREs in Corvallis in early March.

Respectfully submitted,
Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education