[Access] Immobility at the Auction

[d. maria]

Mary, it is unreasonable to expect to meet a general fund budget well 
over $300,000 by having bake sales.  That is what the auction is, as a 
fund-raiser.  $12,000 can be much more easily raised through an 
effective pledge campaign.  Our fund-raising efforts should not be so 
labor intensive and expensive to put on... they should be more fun to 
do and spent on the Extra fun things we didn't happen to raise enough 
money for, but would be nice to have... not to pay the electric bill.  
Thinking higher, to me, in this sense is to think about how we want to 
spend our social time together, and what kind of community do we want 
to be... I know we're not much on the bible at UUCE, but Jesus' actual 
teachings can be pretty incredible for their new age thought (not my 
fav. either, but)... anyway I am reminded here of one of his quotes:  
"Whatever you do for the least of "them" (people in general), you do 
unto me (god)."
              dm
On Mar 10, 2008, at 1:27 PM, Mary Otten wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:09:40 -0800, d. maria wrote:
>
>> I agree with you about getting accessibility with physical
>> accommodations being different from getting access to civil rights in
>> general.  Accessibility is a right!  It is not so easily accommodated
>> when physical changes and engineering must happen and be paid for to
>> realize those rights... that does not make them any the less, rights.
>
> I have problems with anything being called a "right" that then has a
> ton of strings attached to it, as do all the civil "rights" laws that
> pertain to the disabled. I think such use of language raises
> expectations to levels which cannot possibly be reached, not now and
> possibly not ever. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Maybe I'm just
> being picky on language usage here, and I'm not sure what you call it
> if not a right. but to me, rights are something that are not dependent
> on a whole host of stuff happening to make them a reality.
>
>
>> I agree we should cut people who are trying some slack.  I also 
>> believe
>> that, as a religious community, we serve all people in our community.
>> It is a 1st principle issue.  If a fund raiser will make less money if
>> everyone is able to come, then do another fund raiser or find another
>> way to raise the money.  If we are not serving all of us, why serve 
>> any
>> of us?  It is an issue of inclusion and the right to autonomy.  We 
>> need
>> to re-think (a little higher?) our priorities and goals if we cannot
>> have events that can accommodate everyone.
>
> You know, we can't accomodate everybody at church right now. We have
> something close to 400 members and many who are not members attend. If
> all those people actually want to attend church on sunday, even if they
> divided evenly between the 2 services, we could not accommodate them.
> If even half of the members of the church had wanted to attend that
> auction on Saturday, we'd have been totally out of luck. that space was
> woefully too small to accommodate anything like the number who could
> theoreticaly have chosen to come, never mind the issue of people who
> need to use wheelchairs and walkers.  Of course, we know not everybody
> will come. I'm all for doing the best we can. But I don't believe it is
> realistic, and it would be paralyzing if we said we can't do an event
> if it can't accommodate the entire congregation of members and friends.
>
> I wonder what other venues exist that are significantly larger in terms
> of usable space and are also not too expensive such that the goal of
> the event, fund-raising, is wiped out by having to pay the big bucks
> rental. I also can't help but comment that putting on a fund-raiser of
> this scope takes no small amount of work. so to do another big event
> would likely require more of the same, with a finite numnber of people
> who are willing or able to do that work. Maybe we will have a
> fund-raising committee that will come up with more ideas, and people
> will jump at the chance to pitch in and make them happen. One may hope.
>
>
> mary
>
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