5/3/15 Doug Kerr  

5/10/15 June Fesler  

5/17/15J im Gronvold

From the DRE:

We are having a great and active Spring here at UUCM in RE with both action and reflection, music, art, pool party, work party, dance and games, service work, OWL program planing, and exploration of religious traditions. We are making a joyful noise ....

UUCM is delighted to be hosting the YRUUP Youth Conference, May 1-3. District wide gathering of youth ages 14-20 and volunteer adults creating sacred space, conducting worship, doing service, having their own workshops and just hanging out. Expect to see many of their tired, happy faces on Sunday morning.

We had a great YRUU/Parent and Volunteer Work Day. Thanks go to Jason and Isaac Stearns, Thomas Ervin, Marge Hollinger, Norm Davidson, Jef Melcher, Sarah Scott, Suzi & Julia Musgrove, Ray & Forrest Meluch, and Jack Bauer.

We are starting to plan the next as an ALL UUCM work day, May 23rd. The YRUU need to get in another five solid hours to finish earning the $500 from the RE Enhancement Fund to help them power their way to UUA General Assembly in Portland, Oregon. Please mark your calendar to come help the youth help UUCM with patch and repair, cleaning and painting.

This work day will be bigger and includes an invite to the whole UUCM community. Lot of little repairs and Spring cleaning to do. So, everyone is welcome to pitch in. Please put it on your calendar. We will be there from 10:30-4:30. You can come for all or part.

Mother's Day Dance, May 9th - Contra Dancing, and a family game room. All welcome.

Mother's Day Service, May 10th - An active and fun intergenerational service. Drummers needed for 10AM hilltop call to worship.

Summer RE and Day Camp? - We are seriously looking at a couple weeks of summer day camp here at UUCM. late July through mid August. Nature education, cooking, songs, dance, arts, and UU values woven in. More info to come.

Blessed Be,

(415) 479-4131 ext. 104,   DRE@uuMarin.org 

Thank you to everyone who attended.  We had a very good conversation, one that will be ongoing.  Mark your calendars for the upcoming Budget Hearing (May 17) and Annual Meeting (May 31).

Here is a link to Notes from our Conversation.

For your additional reading pleasure, here is a link to an internet resource that I found particularly relevant to our situation. Unfortunately, no easy answers are to be found, but I think very good information regarding the possible paths and ramifications:

http://www.congregationalconsulting.org/crunch-time-in-smaller-congregations/

Due to ongoing technology changes associated with the change of my job, I need to change my email address again.  My new email address is dianneestrada11@gmail.com

Thanks,

Dianne

And finally this week we share with you the recipe for the Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower "Wings."  You can adjust the kick (from docile yearling to a full fledge bull) by how much hot sauce to add. Check out the link to the "this ain't bad for not being real Point Reyes Blue cheese." And then get ready to ride into the vegan prairie of smiles where the cows and horses are also smiling: 

http://www.peta.org/living/food/spicy-buffalo-cauliflower-wings

Lefty

Head Wrangler of the Gratitude and Commitment Campaign

Sunday, May 3 - Social Justice Luncheon

Speaker: Karen Lohmann is a supporting friend of UUCM and shelter volunteer. On May 3, she will tell us about one of her many dedicated commitments: ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) in Liberia. Suggested donation: $8 (or bring a dish to share). Nobody turned away.

Joan Nelson reports that the Rotating Emergency Shelter program (operating for six months every winter for the past seven years) will probably be operating year round before long.

It's closed now, but will have a test run for 56 nights from June 8 to August 3. She will be signing up Sunday night dinner volunteers again. This time there will be no sign-up board in the UUCM foyer. Signups will be done electronically! Stay tuned.

Save the date:
On Saturday May 30 from 7-9 pm there will be another one of our fabulous chamber concerts put together by Milton Wong. We will be celebrating the works of Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979), a much overlooked but more recently celebrated female composer. 

Proposed Program:

Piano Trio by Rebecca Clarke (piano, violin, cello)
Viola Sonata by Rebecca Clarke (viola, piano)
Lullaby and Grotesque by Rebecca Clarke (viola, cello)
Songs for soprano by a female composer (TBD) featuring Amanda Morando and Milton Wong. 

Advance purchase tickets: 

$20 adults

$15 students & seniors 

$10 children 13 & under 

At the door $5 more for all.

The UUCM Social Justice Committee urges you to become informed about the human rights history and contributions of our denomination's UU Service Committee. You will find the story in a nutshell during this week's 75th anniversary celebration. https://www.youtube.com/user/uusc4all

For the May 20th book club we have chosen Pulitzer Prize winner author, Jane Smiley's new book, 2014 National Prize winner, Some Luck.

Summary: On their farm in Denby, Iowa, Rosanna and Walter Langdon abide by time-honored values that they pass on to their five wildly different children: from Frank, the handsome, willful first born, and Joe, whose love of animals and the land sustains him, to Claire, who earns a special place in her father's heart.

Each chapter in Some Luck covers a single year, beginning in 1920, as American soldiers like Walter return home from World War I, and going up through the early 1950s, with the country on the cusp of enormous social and economic change. As the Langdons branch out from Iowa to both coasts of America, the personal and the historical merge seamlessly: one moment electricity is just beginning to power the farm, and the next a son is volunteering to fight the Nazis; later still, a girl you'd seen growing up now has a little girl of her own. Some Luck, the first of an intended trilogy, cycles through birth and death, passions and betrayals, among characters we come to know inside and out.

Join us at 7:30 for a review moderated by Sandy Steinman.

Note:  This is a new book and has a short wait.  Reserve a copy now.

We are taking a trip to Wonderland! 

Where you can bask in the sun and commune with your UUCM community at the Mountain Play enjoying their presentation of Peter Pan.

Order your tickets at  www.mountainplay.org and plan to meet at the Park and Ride at Smith Ranch Road just off US 101 at 10 am that day. We will carpool to the Manzanita Parking lot and catch a school bus to the mountain. Pack a picnic, wear a hat, bring a blanket or cushions to sit on, your best pirate swagger and don't forget your sunscreen. Please email thomas.ervin@comcast.net if you have questions and to let me know that you are coming.

Best,

Thomas