Board Work as Sacred Work

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Several seats on the CUUPS board are opening up and nominations are coming in now. Here’s a little bit about how the CUUPS board works, and why I think it is sacred work.

We meet once per month from 6 to 7 or 7:30 pm Pacific Time (9-10 or 10:30 pm Eastern Time) on a conference call. We have a shared google document up on our computer screens during the meeting so everyone has a view of the minutes as they are being taken.

Each meeting starts with a chalice lighting and check-in. We’ve learned how to do check-ins so that they are real, but not an entire life history.

This year we invested time in clarification of board roles and have matched board members with portfolios.

The President convenes and runs the meetings, serves on the nominating committee, supervises the Executive Director, and is a backup for the treasurer.

There are three vice presidents.

The Vice-President for Communications and Outreach supervises the web site, consults on social media, and works with the membership chair to develop our visual and written identity. This portfolio includes maintaining connections to our sibling organizations such as Lady Liberty League and Parliament of World Religions.

The Vice-President for Membership supervises member and chapter tracking, reaches out to new members and maintains a relationship with our current members. Our membership includes individuals and chapters and will include institutions.

The Vice-President for Development is responsible for securing funding. This ranges from writing grants to appeals and includes special events.

Our core work of curating curriculum and liturgy is currently supervised by one board member. This board member fields requests for resources and maintains relationships with religious educators and writers/composers of liturgy in order to encourage development of resources and to connect resources with those who can use them.

CUUPS has a long history of providing conflict resolution and consulting for Pagan, Nature, and Earth centered members and chapters in congregations. This responsibility often falls to the clergy on the board. At this time the president is our only clergy-person and covers this pastoral care function.

Currently we have three special projects running: visioning, the sermon contest and convocation. Board members have taken the leads on each of these (one former board member has retained the lead on the visioning project. This is a good and healthy thing!) (More about visioning here, and here.

What do we need? Each of the above areas of focus need more team members to work with the board member. The board itself needs a treasurer and secretary. We also feel a commitment to justice work and to finding more and better ways to speak for and serve the Nature and Earth -centered and Pagan UUs. That is the work of the board: to ensure that the institution is serving the mission and vision developed by our members, and to be faithful custodians of the institution’s strengths.

This is sacred work. We are in service to something greater than ourselves. We are making a difference in our broken world by building the world we dream about. We are creating connections, community, and providing support for spiritual deepening. The resources we developed for incarcerated Pagan, Nature and Earth centered UUs are still being used and appreciated. Podcasts from years ago still get steady traffic. Isolated UU Pagans are relieved and delighted to know that there is an organization they can be a part of. Seminarians with Earth-Based spiritualities rely on us for encouragement on the arduous process toward UU ministry. Hundreds of General Assembly attendees find meaning in the CUUPS Summer Solstice worship/ritual service. Serving on the board or in CUUPS leadership often looks like going to meetings but it is soul healing, inspiring, and meaningful work.

Here are the bios of our current board:

Reverend Amy Beltaine is our president. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her spouse (HP), son (Corey), the cutest beagle in the world (Invader Zim), Annie the cat, and a chicken called “Chickiechickie”. She works 1/2 time for the League of Women Voters of Portland and her ministry: “Listen to Heart Song” consists of guest-in-your-pulpit visits throughout the West and one-on-one and group Spiritual Direction, where she invites you to conspire with divine love to trust and live your heart’s song. She has served as an intern Parish Minister at UUCCN on Long Island with Rev. Hope Johnson and at First Unitarian in Portland with Rev. Bill Sinkford, and for a year as the Director of Religious Exploration at Salem, Oregon’s UU congregation with Rev. Rick Davis. She is an affiliated community minister with Trail’s End Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Her previous life included founding “Hestia House” (a center for earthbased spirituality in Portland) and working as a technology trainer and IT department manager at Cornell University.

Jerrie Hildebrand is our Vice-President for Communications and Outreach. Jerrie is the principal and Creative director at Kishgraphics, a web design studio and an adjunct professor at the North Shore Community College in Lynn, MA. She has been ordained by Circle Sanctuary and works with Lady Liberty League. Jerrie will be attending her second Parliament of World Religions as an Ambassador this year.

Imari Nguyen Kariotis is our Vice-President for Development. Her term is expiring this year. Imari lives in Salton City, CA where she is active with the Salton Sea Action Group. She works as a member of the disaster action team for the American Red Cross. Imari serves on the board of EqUUal Access and staffs the disability support table at General Assembly every year.

Rebecca Crystal is our vice-President for Membership. Rebecca lives in Denison, Texas with her husband. She will be graduating from Meadville Lombard Theological School this year. Rebecca is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She is seeking her next “Star Fleet Assignment.”

Martha Kirby Capo is our board member for Curriculum and Liturgy and is our Interim Secretary. Martha describes herself as an “Episcotarian Unipaganist . . . sorta” on her Facebook page. She has been active in the First UU Congregation of Second Life, having served on the Leadership Group and as a homilist for several years. She is an award-winning, published poet and lyricist, and is a member of the UU Musician’s Network. She has volunteered in RE, taught BYOT courses, led workshops at the Southwest District’s Summer Intensive, and is trained as a co-facilitator of Prepare-Enrich, a premarital counseling series. A Solitary whose practice has been deeply influenced by Scott Cunningham, Martha is a certified Reiki Practitioner (ICRT) who also utilizes reflexology when doing energetic work. Martha spent 10 years of her professional life as the Dean of Students for a small Episcopal School in Texas, and 4 years as the Director of Communications for an Episcopal Church. She worked 4 years as a Service Coordinator (case manager) in Iowa’s Early ACCESS program, which serves children ages birth-3 who may be at risk for developmental delays. She is married to Reverend Tom Capo, who currently serves DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church in Naperville IL.

Maggie Beaumont, MA, is a board-member-at-large and is coordinating our sermon contest project. Maggie is a former Dean of Students of Cherry Hill Seminary and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the continental Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. After an extensively varied career in mechanical engineering, journalism, real estate, and adult education, she is currently a Chaplain Intern at a level-one trauma center in Philadelphia and a first-degree member of Weavers of the Moonfire, a coven in the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. After leaving a long marriage last year, she now shares an apartment with one cat, three looms, and eight bookshelves full of books.

Joe Wolforth is a board member-at-large. His term is expiring this year.

David Pollard serves as CUUPS Executive Director and previously served on the CUUPS Board of Trustees from 1995-2001 and 2007-2014. His congregation, Pathways Church, in Hurst, Texas provides office space for CUUPS. He has been a Unitarian Universalist since 1989 and a member of CUUPS since 1990. He was also a founding board member of the Green Party of Texas and served as a National Committee member for the Green Party of the United States from 2002-2006.

John Beckett, serves as the lead on our visioning team. He is a former CUUPS board member.

Niko Tarini serves as a co-lead for the Convocation planning team. He is a former CUUPS board member.

CUUPS’ focus is updating to reflect the changes in the world around us and our Unitarian Universalist movement. Our board is developing the capacity to flex and update as well. Won’t you join us as a project participant? Leader? Or even as a board member?

We are looking for Unitarian Universalist Pagans/Earth-based individuals who have at least 10 hours per month available and wish to serve the mission of CUUPS. You must have been a member of CUUPS for at least 120 days before taking office (e.g. be a member by July 1st), have some evenings free for attending meetings by conference call, and be able to attend GA occasionally. We are particularly looking for individuals who 1) have interfaith experience (especially UUs with experience in the larger Pagan movement), 2) have experience serving on a board, 3) have a good relationship with their UU congregational board and clergy-person, 4) have been affiliated with a CUUPS Chapter (preferably as the coordinator) or 5) are UU Clergy. We are specifically looking for a board Secretary or Treasurer. Skills with Membership, Outreach, or Development are a plus. If you know someone who might be able to serve our movement on the board or as a leader, contact Lynn at lynndonovan11862@gmail.com/978-224-1693, or Amy at abeltaine@gmail.com/503-877-2692. If you would like to offer yourself, please email your resume!