Report by Rev. Dr. Aija Duelm

• We had our first youth game day of the year. The two youth who attended expressed they would like to have another game day in the future.
• For Valentine’s day the congregation – children and adults alike – participated in multi-generational activity. They made love notes and hung them on the tree.
• RE committee had its first impromptu fundraising due to the generosity of David Binde. They raised about $220. More fundraisers will be planned in the future.
• The committee member Jules Black is working together with Sudbury School to repair the playground.
• Teacher training is scheduled for 2/27. I have been able to locate a few policies related to RE and have been completing background checks to be in line with our screening requirements. There are several missing policies/guidelines that need to be written such as lost child policy and inclement weather policy. We do not have AED. I hope it could be added to our wish list.
• RE classes will begin on March 20^th . The classes will be from 9:45-10:45am. We recruited enough teachers and thus are able to offer two classes for children and youth – Coming of Age for 11-15 year old and Soul Matters to 6-10 year old. Coming of Age parent and youth orientation is March 6^th.
• Adult RE will offer different classes each Sunday, each with its own leadership. We will have UU Sunday, Soul Matters Sunday, Social Justice Sunday and one more. We are still looking for leaders for the last one.
• Nursery work is undergoing revision. We have recruited three volunteers which will help to provide more adequate staffing for our nursery. There is one possible candidate for hire, yet to be interviewed. In addition, the committee decided to reinforce the expectation that the nursery is for children under the age of 8 and all older children are expected to join worship service. We are working together with worship team to help these children and youth participate in the service. While we are transitioning towards these changes we will be ready to offer supervised service option to those youth and children who do not want to be in worship but can not be in the nursery. This is due to safety concerns of having wandering youth around on the church property.
• The DFW cluster is planning to have OWL facilitator training this summer. I hope we can send one or two to this training. Michael Zepeda expressed an interest in becoming an OWL facilitator for high school youth. I am considering writing a grant proposal to seek assistance for covering the expenses of the training as well as for purchasing the current – second editions of OWL curriculum.