DENOMINATIONAL MATTERS 2007-2008 Pat McGiverin, Chair

UUC members have been very involved in many UU events beyond our own congregation this year. Several of us attended the UUA General Assembly in Portland, Ore. last June, and many more will be at GA this June in Ft. Lauderdale. In fact, our Sue Boone is in charge of all volunteer activities there, a major responsibility. We also had good representation at the Florida District Annual meeting in Gainesville in April.

Furthermore, we had excellent representation both at SUUSI (Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute) in July in Blacksburg, VA, and at SWIM (Southeast Winter Institute--Miami) which this year was held at The Pines in Brooksville, FL, during the final week of 2007. (There are several UU-affiliated Camps and Conference Centers around the country that offer a wide variety of spiritual, educational, and recreational activities. Nearest is The Pines. Another is The Mountain, located on a breathtaking mountaintop site in Highlands, NC.)

The Florida West Central Cluster of UU Congregations, ten UU congregations in the Tampa Bay area, has sponsored numerous worthwhile events which many of our members have enjoyed and benefited from. These include an October picnic at Spirit of Life in Odessa, a Holiday Program at Tarpon Springs UU, participation in Tampa Bay Pride Festival in St. Pete in July, a workshop on diversity at UU St. Pete, a workshop on Ethics at Spirit of Life in April, a May 17th workshop at UUC on dealing with the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment, and a big Revival/Renewal service at UUC on May 28 which this year features Rev. Bob Eller-Isaacs, a renowned UU minister and speaker from Minneapolis.

The West Central Cluster Board usually meets monthly at UUC and several of our members, including Bill Norsworthy, Linda Stoller, Bill Loomis, Fred Seidl, Roger Rochester, and Pat McGiverin, have attended to help shape Cluster activities. Any interested UUC member may attend these meetings. Our Roger Rochester and Bill Norsworthy are slated to be next year’s Cluster President and Treasurer respectively. The Cluster Annual Meeting and election will precede the Revival on May 28 and all are welcome to attend. We are allowed four voting members.

However, the major denominational event in the Tampa Bay area this year was a huge marketing campaign, February through April, led by UUA staff but funded locally. The campaign included several billboards, numerous radio, TV and internet ads, oversize postcards sent to targeted zip codes and interest groups, and beautiful four-page full-color inserts in major area newspapers. Preceding the campaign were an informational meeting and several weeks later a Best Practices Workshop for participating congregations, both held at UUC. An invigorating kick-off to the campaign took place at UU St. Pete on Feb. 9. UUA President Bill Sinkford, Vice President Beth Graham and others came from UUA’s Boston headquarters for this thrilling occurrence. All of these events were very well attended by all the UU congregations in our area, building a wonderful sense of unity, momentum and pride among us. We certainly raised the UU profile in our area as well as attendance at all of our congregations!