What’s going on....                    August 2000

Tues

Aug 1

  7:00 PM

Women’s Group at the Church

Sat

Aug 5

 7:00 PM

Games Night at the church

Sun

Aug 6

9:30 AM

10:45 AM

Youth R.E.

Service - Kathe Lowney,  “Professional Wrestling as Male Soap Opera”

Wed

Aug 9

7:00 PM

Gay-Straight Network potluck at the church

Sun

Aug 13

9:30 AM

10:45 AM

12:15 PM

Youth R.E.

Service -  Dick Saeger, “Perspectives on the Czech Republic”

 2nd Sunday Potluck and Board Meeting

Mon

Aug 14

11:00 AM

Break Bread delivery

Tues

Aug 15

      7:00 PM

Women’s Group at the Church

 Sun

Aug 20

9:30 AM

10:45 AM 

Youth  R.E.

Service – Ron Barnette, “The Internet and Communications”

Sun

 Aug 27

     9:30 AM

10:45 AM

Youth R.E.

Service  -  Andrew Stafford, “Waste Not, Want Not---Recycling in Lowndes County”

 

August  ……. Well we’ve done it again!  No vacation for this congregation!  Interesting programs and excellent participation through the summer.  The programs for August look great too.  There is a UU joke that we’re the only folks God trusts enough to let take a vacation from church in the summer.  The Valdosta church has in fact continued its programs through the summer only in the last several years.  We’ve learned though that our fellowship and community is important enough that we need it throughout the year.  We have also had a number of visitors through the summer.   Some of us are here, others going, and others returning.  Come when you can. .Don’t forget to collect some water to share in our Water Service in the fall.


VSU Professors and Local Official Speak

Several of our speakers this month are faculty members at Valdosta State University.  All have been popular previous speakers at the church.  Kathe Lowney is in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice.  She spoke to us last year about her research and book on television talk shows and their similarity to the tent meetings and sideshows of the past.  Her most recent research is on professional wrestling.  Dick Saeger is a political scientist at VSU.  He and his daughter spent this past Spring Semester in the Czech Republic where Dick was teaching in a VSU exchange program.  He will be sharing some of their experiences.  Ron Barnette heads the Philosophy Department at VSU and has spoken to us in the past about his interests in computer communications.  We welcome him again.  Andrew Stafford, Lowndes County, will speak on recycling, an important issue to many of our members.  This timely topic should provide much for discussion later in the month.


 Games Night!                                         

Bring $1.00, a dish, and your favorite game to the church on Saturday, August 5 at 7:00 PM.  Call René  Kerr or Julie  Halter if you need further information.


Women’s Group

Join us for good food and great company, the 1st  and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Bring a snack, ideas for discussion, or just yourself!  Contact Julie Halter for more information.


 Water Service

September 10 

We will have our end of summer service on September 10.  We will have the opportunity after our summer vacations and other adventures to re-establish our community and welcome new comers.  Bring the water and other memories of your summer to share.  (Its been suggested that an empty film container provides an excellent container for your water as you travel!)


New Member Welcome

During the September 10 Water Service there will be a New Member Welcome.  If you are interested in joining our church please let Virginia Branan know so that you can be recognized at this service. Any of our officers would be glad to discuss membership in our Unitarian Universalist Church with you.


Program Committee

 Diane Holliman is getting together a Programming Committee.  If you would like to participate on the committee or want to share your ideas she would like to hear from you. 


GHP Visitors

As many of you know we’ve had an interesting group of visitors in the last few weeks.  Several Governor’s Honors Program students from VSU have visited this summer while they were in Valdosta.  Several of these young people attend UU churches in the Atlanta area.  Others came because they were interested in learning more about us. It was great to see their young faces in our group.  Your editor thinks this may be a first despite the fact that GHP has been at VSU for a number of years now.


 

 

 

 

 

 

VIRGINIA'S VISION

 The "lazy, hazy days" of summer are fading fast as school terms crank up again and we move into the new church year. Your board has some exciting ideas to spread the UU vision into the wider community. Our publicity chair, Dee Tait, has been authorized to contract for a bench advertising our church in a prominent location in Valdosta. Doug Fraser will be designing and securing an advertisement to appear on the SurfSouth homepage. 

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN! Molly & Doug are planning a Coffee House evening for November. Rene' Kerr has volunteered to organize the menu and servers for this popular fundraiser. 

Add to the vision by sharing your ideas with any board member. And remember as you look over our programs and activities, invite friends to come with you. 


Congratulations to Laurel Hahlen

When Laurel spoke earlier in the summer she told us about a big grant she was writing for the area.  Well she got it!!!!  Go Laurel and Great news for this area too.


R.E. Program 

Dear Friends,

As we begin another year of adult and youth religious education I would like to ask for your input.  It is my understanding that attendance at youth religious education has been very low and that recently the adult RE is simply not happening.  This leads me to conclude that what we are offering is either not meeting your needs or that we are offering it in a format that doesn't work for you or your family.  Please take a few moments to think about what it is that you would like to see religious education provide for our UU community as a whole and what you, as an individual, would like to see it offer you.  If the programs that we have been offering meet your spiritual needs but are not offered at a time that fits into your life; please suggest a better time.  If you do not think that we need a RE program please share that.   

Please get in touch and share your ideas. 

Ann Kasun,  R. E. Director

Thank You, Thank You

For delivering Break Bread Together meals: Sarah, Jason, and Virginia

For posting the newsletter to the website and maintaining the website: Earl Daniels and Carol Stiles

For getting the July newsletter out: Virginia Branan

To those who have pledged their time:  Dee Tait, Molly Scholtz, Ann Kasun, Julie Halter, Lea Atkinson, Albert Slone, Jim Ingram, Doug Fraser, Virginia Branan, Diane Holliman, William Atkinson, Fran Phillips, René Kerr

Social Action Activities

Break Bread Together

Our date for meal deliveries with the Break Bread Together program is the 2nd Monday of each month.  If you can deliver meals on this day beginning about 11:00 AM, please contact Virginia Branan. 


Newsletter Staff

Editor:  Betty Derrick

Production:  Virginia Branan

Membership database:  Doug Fraser

Website:  Carol Stiles and Earl Daniels

August 15, deadline for the September issue


Our UU Web Page

Carol Stiles and  Earl Daniels maintain our website at http://www.oocities.org/uuvaldosta/

or http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/1918/

So, if you lose your printed newsletter - or you want to save a tree – Carol suggests that you keep our website bookmarked, and refer to it occasionally!  She also points out though that all of the information which is in the printed newsletter is not on the website.  For example only the church’s phone number is listed on the website.  Carol is following web-published guidelines in this regard.

A new highlight of our UU-Valdosta website is the "UUA banner" which appears near the bottom of the main page.  This banner changes every week, with a different quote by a UU (some famous, others not-so-famous), photos, and so on.  Visit our web page often to see the UU banner of the week!  By clicking on the banner you can visit the UUA website; while there check out http://www.uua.org/banner.html to see other banners that have been used in previous weeks. 

Carol will  be updating the home page, with the new officers etc.  If you have any suggestions for the website, let her know or send them to your newsletter editor to pass on.  Carol says to keep in mind she is just now learning how to use MS FrontPage for putting together websites.

Earl Daniels, a member who now lives in Atlanta, has continued to help out with our website, fixing glitches Carol claims she creates when posting the newsletters, and he deserves our thanks!  Most of you know Carol herself is now in Gainesville, FL but still “works” for us!


Some Food for Thought from the UUA Banner 

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the

true place for a just man is also a prison."  Henry David Thoreau

 

"Church is a place where you get to practice what it means to be human."

James Luther Adams

 

"Instead of me fitting a religion I found a religion to fit me." 

(name not given, but there's a nice photo on the actual banner!)


At the Church-in-the-Woods:

    Gay-Straight Network -second Wednesday each month for a potluck social, 7:00 PM.  

Cardio Karate - Tuesdays and Fridays, 7:00 - 8:15 PM.   Call Albert and Delane Slone.

  Tai Chi - Monday and Thursday evenings, Contact Vicki English.


 UU Activities and Announcements

 Further information is posted on the bulletin board at the church.

 

September 1-3 YRUU Coming of Age Con #1

September 8-9 Florida District Board meeting, Nature Coast UU(Lecanto) 

September 15-17 (notification by August 15) OWL Training for elementary age.   

September 16-18, From Surviving to Thriving: A National Conference about Welfare Reform, Washington, DC 

October 7, Combined Cluster Event(TBA) 

November 5-11 Florida Leadership School

The Magi Network: Founded in 1998 to promote the birth of new UU Christian congregations.  If you are interested there is a web site at www.magi.uni.cc

 

Pledging Our Time

 Thank you to the folks who have already signed up for various service tasks at the church! We still need volunteers to:

Ø      Clean bathrooms in R. E. Building weekly

Ø      Chair Fund (and Fun) Raising

Ø      Coordinate Break Bread

Ø      Deliver meals on 2nd and 5th Mon.

Ø      Coordinate Book Discussion

Ø      Historian(scrapbook and records)

Ø     Telephone Committee

 

 Treasurer’s Report

June Budget

Outstanding Debts: $0.00

 

Income

   Pledge:        $700.00

   Plate:          $98.00

   Fundraising:     $1.00

   Rent:          $200.00

                  $999.00

Expenses

   Mortgage:       $520.00

   Utilities:      $125.19

                   $645.19 

Last year we budgeted for expenses: $18,780.00.  Last year we actually spent: $16,102.06.  GREAT JOB! 

What does this mean...it means we made $3,791.87 during the last fiscal year!

Your Treasurer, René Kerr