New River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship an interfaith congregation

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NRUUF Board

New River UU Fellowship is governed by a board. Each year board members and officers are elected at the Annual Congregational Meeting in April, please check the calendar for this year's date.

You can download a copy of the current bylaws as a pdf file by clicking here. To view as a webpage, click here.

The Officers and Board Members for 2008-2009 are:

President	Evelyn Phillips
Vice-President	Tome Kinraide
Secretary	Teresa Rose
Treasurer	Cathy Abernathy
Board Member At Large	Dr. Wally Johnson
Board Member At Large	John Newby
Board Member At Large	Wilma Meadows

Report from the Current Newsletter:

We are happy to report that Kelly Kaufman has accepted the board’s proposal requesting that she provide one service per month after the end of July. We are grateful to have Kelly’s continued active involvement in the life of our Fellowship. Congratulations and a huge “thank you” also are due to Kelly for the success of her Herbalism 101 workshop / fundraiser, which drew in fourteen people from the wider community. The amount of the proceeds exceeded expectations and were donated entirely to the congregation.  They will be used to offset our congregation’s requested balance due to the OMD for attendance of four members at Summer Institute. We really appreciate her having given of her time, talent and energy. Thank you to everyone, including Teresa Rose, who helped publicize this event; your efforts contributed greatly to its success.  Many of the workshop’s attendees expressed strong interest in possible future workshops, not only on herbalism, but also on energy healing modalities such as Reiki and Kolaimni. Several folks interested in learning Kolaimni (ask Kelly about it) gave their names and contact information at the herbalism workshop, so we may be offering such a workshop in the future.  We also want to thank Kelly, her father Argyle, and her brother Kevin, for presenting “A Kaufman Family Musical Father’s Day Service and Celebration.” We had a full house and everyone enjoyed the toe-tapping, joyful sounds of traditional music and singing! The potluck afterward was bountiful and well-attended, also; thank you to everyone who brought a dish to share.  We also thank Argyle and Kevin for generously donating their travel expenses to the Fellowship. Teresa Rose, John Newby, David Neff, and Michael Lilly all will be attending Summer Institute July 13th – 19th. We will miss you, but look forward to hearing about your experiences and hope you will share them with us and perhaps teach us something new at an upcoming service!

We expect to receive a grant check at the end of July or beginning of August for our approved Chalice Lighters signage and media outreach projects.  We are excited about the prospect of enhancing our visibility in the community! At the next board meeting plans will be made to research types and prices of signs. The sale of the house and property at Maxwell Hill is underway and could take up to two months to be completed. Thank you to Beverly Kinraide, who has worked tirelessly, not only meeting with the current tenants and the prospective buyer, but also taking care of all the paperwork. We also want to thank Debbie Thompson for having notarized some vital paperwork related to the property sale.  We are grateful to “Detective” Burchell Pierce for having solved “The Mystery of the Misplaced Air Conditioner!” Burchell found it “hidden” under a table in the depths of the Fellowship basement! The air conditioner works perfectly, and along with our new ceiling fans, keeps everyone comfortable during Sunday services and other activities. Thanks also are long overdue to Burchell for having cut down the tree next to the deck. The tree was in danger of falling, and now we are safer because of his hard work.  We also want to express our appreciation and gratitude to April Puzzuoli for identifying a need and volunteering to take on a wonderful and much-needed labor of love. April is creating a scrapbook of photographs of our congregation and our activities. This will help us to preserve precious memories and serve as a visual archive of and for our congregation. April and Teresa also are working together to compile a directory of the congregation. Thank you both for undertaking these projects!  Do you see a need to be addressed or have a good idea? All are encouraged to share their talents and gifts to make our – your – Fellowship even better!

Amnesty International
Social justice is an important value among UUs. By participating in our new chapter of Amnesty International, you will help people living under intolerable conditions and whose basic human rights and dignity are not respected. Our chapter is working toward ending the U.S. government’s practice of torture, helping correct prison injustices, and upholding the international rights of women. We need people to participate in telephoning, writing campaigns, lobbying, and other activities. We also are seeking a dedicated individual to serve as chair of our chapter.  We are hoping to have a regional AI representative visit our developing chapter in the near future. Please come to a meeting and see how you can use your talent and commitment to stand up for justice and civil rights.