2020-2021 Annual Pledge Drive
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Our theme for this year, Celebration 2020 – Perfect Vision for Our Future, has changed in a few short weeks from reasoned optimism to fervent hope, secure in the knowledge that our congregation has survived and thrived for over 150 years and will continue to do so. Our vision for the future of the First Unitarian Society may vary in the details. We may differ in how we imagine the possibilities, depending on our connection to this congregation and our current needs and wishes for what this community has come to mean to us.
Whatever lens we have used to see this community - rose-colored glasses – periscopes – telescopes – microscopes – now is the time to see clearly. With 2020 hindsight may our future selves be grateful for our vision today. Generous gifts of time and talent have supported this community this year. There is something interesting and inspiring going on every Sunday. Our experienced program groups, our well-selected and well coached pulpit guests, our talented musicians, our amazing administrator, our board and leaders, our wonderful part time one year minister, and YOU have made it happen. We have shown our flexibility and commitment by learning to zoom via laptop, desktop, and cell phone, even if we cannot be seated in our meeting room. We are a smaller congregation than we were a year ago. Even a modified budget will call for significant increases in pledged monetary gifts from everyone. The budget for the coming fiscal year, July 2020 through June 2021, will be a work in progress as situations change for each of us and for the congregation collectively. As an independent congregation, we turn to each other - 60 households, 85 members - to support this congregation. Each week we hear about how much this community means to you. We know that you are nourished, you are entertained, you share, you listen, you grow in mind and spirit. For that opportunity to continue we must each contribute to this budget in a meaningful way. At our annual meeting in June we, the members, will approve a budget for the coming year. Let it be one with a vision for the future. So much has changed and is still changing. Very little is certain or predictable. Many of us rely on the certainty of the presence of FUSW in our lives. For some of us our sources of income are still there, for some of us that is no longer the case. We are including giving guidelines based on monthly income and expenses, with the earnest request that you include your contribution to FUSW in your monthly budget. A member of the board or finance committee will be contacting you to answer any questions you may have, or find the answers with you, and to remind you to make your commitment to the future of FUSW by submitting your pledge form by May 5th. In community, Craig Butler, President Susan Greenberg, Treasurer 2020-2021 Pledge Drive documents and forms. As you ponder your pledge, please consider the process as an opportunity to celebrate the gift that we have inherited and can continue to nurture through making a commitment to our future.
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