PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

What a spring and early summer we’ve had here at the Portland Center for Spiritual Living! We hired a new senior minister, Rev. Bridget McCann, our beloved music director, LaRhonda Steele resigned, and we hired Lauri Jones to fill that position. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind.

But things have calmed down nicely, Rev. Bridget is getting perspective, having her here is making my job much easier!

That said, I would like to announce some changes in the way we do some things, specifically special events. In the past, it seemed these things had just sort of magically happened. Starting now, planning an event has a path to follow and organization to help things flow more smoothly.

As part of the initiative, the Board has named Marcia Hudson as the Events Manager. So, here is how this works in a nutshell:

If you have an idea for an event (for example, a potluck or a teen fundraiser, the harvest banquet, really any event), you reach out to Marcia, she will then guide you through the new set of forms to be filled out to get your event to happen. NOTE: to make sure that Rev B, the Board, and the marketing team have enough time to get everything in place, your event proposal needs to be handed to Marcia at least 90 days in advance of the event date. Some allowances can be made for annual events like the picnic and ecclesiastical events like our commitment service with Rev. Bridget. Once you have decided you want to have an event, you need to name an Event Coordinator, someone to be the point person for this event. This is who contacts Marcia to get the ball rolling. If your event is ecclesiastical in nature, it will need to be presented to Rev. Bridget, otherwise, it will need to go before the Board of Directors for approval.

Those are the highlights; details will be given as the actual planning for events starts happening.

This is an exciting new opportunity for having events in our community planned and executed easily and effectively without the relative chaos we have sometimes seen in the past!

Special thanks are in order to Laura Perkins, Debbie Pettijohn and Marcia Hudson for designing, learning, and getting the forms ready for use, and Kathryn Richer, Kat Hooker and Kathy Ballard for doing real time testing and revising of the forms and procedures while organizing events. Much gratitude to you all!

I fully trust and know that we will transition to these new policies with ease and grace!

That’s all for now!

Rick Smith
Board Chair, PCSL