I am full of gratitude for this year’s Board of Trustees, and our ex-officio members Rev. Carter and Shannon. This group is affirming, caring, reliable, creative, and deeply committed to Westside’s well-being. We recently gathered for a retreat to strengthen our relationships, learn new ways to collaborate, and lay plans for the year.

After getting a sense of the strengths and perspectives we each bring to this work, we engaged with the Core Team to learn more about the tools that nonviolent communication offers us as leaders and members of WSUU. With that foundation we drafted our covenant and turned to developing our goals for the year. We prepared for this discussion by reflecting honestly on WSUU’s current structure and needs. We agreed that it’s important to be both supportive of committees and teams who make things happen, and to be strategic and visionary about the congregation’s future.

So, what are our goals for the year? We haven’t decided. As we were engaging in the conversation it was called out that we had not reviewed the prior year’s goals. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel nor be uninformed about longstanding priorities, we paused. We continued to talk about a framework and listening, what the role of the Board is, and what will best support the congregation. We prioritized thoughtful discussion over rushing the process.  

We are committed to work that strengthens our congregation’s ability to live its values, and we will revisit goal setting at our meeting on October 22nd. Though I feel some urgency, I am embracing Both/And. I value the solid foundation the Board is creating, and I am confident it will help us to center our relationships with each other and the congregation, and it will ground us as we get work done.

In community,
Jill Jackson
President, WSUU Board of Trustees