Newsletter

Last month I had the pleasure of being the "official" photographer for the Central Iowa Symphony at their winter holiday concert. As I sat at the back of Stephen's Auditorium letting the voice of Mezzo Soprano Mary Creswell wash over me, I was struck by how much this symphony is like our Fellowship. It's a primarily member-run organization-definitely run and supported by those members. These musicians gather to create something beautiful, for their own enjoyment and edification and to better our community.

There are also similarities in how we operate. While they play different instruments, they join them in one orchestra. Here at the Fellowship, we have different beliefs, but a unified mission for our congregation. They have soloists, and groups who play different parts and sometimes don't play at all for a while but are ready when their part comes around again. The same could be said of us.

In both music and Fellowship life, there is a necessary blend between soloists and the group. Both have their roles, both are important — but one without the other would leave the group lacking creativity and continuity. For instance, soloists in our congregation have come up with ideas for classes, projects, group, Sunday programs and many other innovative projects. Their energy and enthusiasm carried them through.

Larger groups have created a sense of community, a feeling of closeness and belonging. These larger groups allow our voice to be heard in Ames, and provide consistent quality in our programming and structure for more people's participation. Many great ideas are also created through the interchange of people in a group, and often those ideas have the bodies needed to implement them since more people were involved in the decisions. This larger group creates that vision to guide us.

Both also have limitations. Sometimes soloists end up feeling burnt out, or unappreciated, because the group didn't realize what they were doing, or understand the person's heartfelt commitment to their project. Sometimes soloists want to go in directions that the larger group doesn't and end up with hurt feelings. The group, on the other hand, can be slow to make decisions, slow to change directions. So both the group and the soloist have important contributions to make to our community, and their limitations (especially when they try to function without the other).
Now, let's go back to my symphony analogy. At the concert the soloist sounded all the sweeter with orchestra behind her. Sure, occasionally soloists in our religious organization needs to offer a discordant voice, but usually when soloists are in accord with the group, the music is harmonious and everyone benefits form the journey.

Our congregation is itself a discordant view of religious life in the 21st century. Together we can have greater effect at nurturing those views in ourselves and presenting them to the larger community. None of us are always soloists or members of the group, but take on different roles depending on the needs and our interests.

During my sabbatical we will have an opportunity to play those roles in a very obvious light. My hope is that the Fellowship will think about how each person plays their role, what is the kind of community they are helping to create and how does this community feed and nurture them, while helping to create a more just and peaceful world?

Rather than an orchestra, we're probably more like a jazz ensemble, improvising on a theme. I hope that our theme centers on the power of creativity and love to create deeper appreciation for ourselves, our communities and the world around us. This theme brings together our differences, be they talents or theologies, allowing the cords of beauty to resonate from within each of us. For such resonance to occur, we must be one of the players. During the next six months I hope the chairs will be filled on Sundays and the circles expanding to welcome new people and the meetings vibrant with discussions and plans.This is an exciting time for us all.

I leave you with these final thoughts, hoping that this sabbatical period is full of growth and opportunities for each of you as it will be for me, your minister. I am deeply grateful for this sabbatical time, and the support expressed by you all. See you in June.

Brian

Baby New Year is here, 2004! We have just emerged from a season of celebrating births. With Hanukkah comes a birth of a miracle, Winter Solstice a rebirth of the Sun, Christmas a birth of a baby, and Kwanzaa a rebirth of heritage. With Baby New Year, there is the birth of possibilities, of new beginnings.

Our Fellowship is celebrating new beginnings: a six month sabbatical for us, as well as for our minister, Brian; the birth of a new building addition; and a rebirth for our Fellowship community with each new member who enters our doors. Possibilities await us at every turn.

It is in "real-izing" those possibilities that creative energy must convert into action. After much preparation and action, Brian is really away, the building is really nearing completion, and we really do our best to make newcomers feel at home. How many of your personal possibilities do you put into action?

Many of us gathered for the Christmas Eve play, "The Birth of Love." Through this play, the 25 Fellowship children involved presented a message of possibilities: the birth of every child brings hope and special gifts to the world. Jesus happened to "real-ize" his gifts by putting his possibilities into action.
We were all babies once upon a time. Through our life's journeys into maturity we can lose sight of our special gifts and forget the magic of our own birth. As long as you live that magic never fades. All of your possibilities await action to be realized.

My New Year's wish for each of you is to realize your own gifts. You are the Baby New Year, with each flowing moment. Celebrate the birth of you, and your gifts to the world, all the year through!

"Ready — and ACTION!"

Rich

We have an absolutely dynamite group of high school teens this year (our attendance has averaged between 10-12 or about 58%) and it would be so great if all of us (not just the Sunday morning leaders) got to know them better. If you are wondering how to do this I can give you some ideas, such as:

1) once we settle in a room drop by for a visit, introduce yourself and ask to stay for our 11 AM class

2) attend Youth Sunday on January 25 when the high school group will present the Sunday morning program (they need to know you support them)

3) if one of them asks you to chaperone a social event, overnight, or drive to a youth con please consider doing it (it's hard for parents to do this all the time; after all, we want the youth to have time apart from their parents)

4) if you see them at the Fellowship (which you should start doing more of in January) engage them in conversation. Offer your appreciation of their flexibility and patience in waiting for a "room of their own"--(we have met at my house, Boheme, Cafe Diem, the new nursery, the new kitchen...oy!!)

5) if you notice their name in a Tribune article, ask them questions about the article (already Joe Scott and Colin and Michael Kramer have been mentioned in articles)

6) if and when we have fundraisers to finance trips ask them about the trips or projects.

In a crazy and sometimes nonsensical world, our Fellowship community can provide an anchor of consistency and caring for our youth.

RECENT SOCIAL EVENTS

November overnight--12 extremely sociable and responsible youth and two adults (thank you very much Ria Keinert!) spent the night at the Fellowship in late November. We played games most of the night. It was so nice to welcome three new young women to the group, Brette Deaton, Danielle Heno, and Christine Meyer. Next time you see one of our teens, ask them how to play "Psychiatrist" or "Mafia".

The Last Supper with Brian--13 high schoolers, one 7th grader, and two adults (Sarah Carlson, thank you very much for helping!) met with Brian in early December to offer him our best wishes for a safe and productive sabbatical. Brian told the youth more about his sabbatical vision and talked with them about how to keep the youth program vital and meaningful. We gave him a few trinkets for his travels as tokens of our appreciation for his dedication to the youth.

AN INVITATION

So many of you have experience and expertise that I don't possess. I'm fairly accomplished at planning and running retreats, organizing social events, making teens feel comfortable, etc, but I don't know much about sailing, canoeing, camping, spelunking, rock climbing, skiing and such----all activities that teens would love to do if they had the adult involvement.

Some of the most "spiritual" moments happen in nature--are there ways any of you can help these moments occur? Call me or e-mail me if you'd like to contribute your time or energy. You can also contact YAC members (Sarah Carlson, Anita Maher-Lewis, Kevin Kane, Cole Peiffer, Jessica Egli-Davis, and Thomas Keinert).

Winter blessings,

Benette

In agriculture, as Iowa goes, so goes the world, unless, that is, citizens of the world make it clear that would not be such a good idea. Iowa's landscape of nearly solid corn and soybeans, livestock factories that threaten our air and water, and small towns boarded up like ghost towns of the old west don't speak well for policies encouraged by the U.S. Trade Representative and giant agribusiness corporations.The United States has faced some fierce opposition recently at World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico, because trade liberalization in agricultural commodities has already battered farmers in developing countries and the reality of Iowa agriculture offers no recommendation for future international "free trade."

In August, I was a guest of Brazil's government to a conference entitled"Family Farm Agriculture and Trade Agreements." This is one of the few times a government has actually recognized and encouraged the notion that family farms, with a natural commitment to conservation, family, and community, should be factored into trade deliberations. For many countries, agriculture makes up over half of the economy, many farmers are already poor, traditional relationships to land and diet define a county's identity, and free trade policies will merely impoverish more farmers and force them into already crowded labor markets in overpopulated cities or the United States as illegal immigrants. Trade liberalization in the WTO forces other countries to lower tariffs on
imported food so that internal farm prices sink to levels dictated at commodity futures exchanges like the Chicago Board of Trade.Farmers thousands of miles apart are pitted against each other without any recourse but to increase production and externalize costs to the environment. The promise of industrialized food production, food processing, and food retailing as being "more efficient" ignores these costs to the environment, costs to rural communities, and costs to a sense of democratic participation. Farm prices in these countries are already too cheap and there are many other policies that could create rural prosperity and economic opportunity.

The conference attendees — representatives from various governments, farm organizations, and universities — agreed to bring this message to the WTO ministerial in Cancun. In Cancun, the message came through loud and clear as I joined with thousands of farmers from around the world and groups from "civil society" in protests and informative seminars. Brazil led the Group of 21 in refusing to reach an agreement in WTO, and agricultural issues played a crucial role.

A new concept is gaining strength completely counter to WTO trade liberalization: Food Sovereignty, the right of countries to order their agriculture and food systems respectful of their traditions, environment, and need for rural economic opportunity. Besides the crucial right of food sovereignty in achieving social and economic justice, however, will be the need for major exporting countries like the U.S., the European Union, and Brazil, too, to create a price floor under their commodities and avoid wasteful overproduction. Without price floors, food security reserves, and conservation set-asides, fencerow-to-fencerow farming and destroying rainforest in Brazil to plant more soybeans are the only options.

According to an article in the New York Times, an area of jungle the size of New Jersey is brought into production each year, roughly 5 million acres. If Brazil goes ahead with the legalization of Roundup Ready soybeans, this expansion can easily accelerate since weed control will be so easy-at first. A brighter future for the rural environment on which we all depend and rural economic opportunity will only be a likelihood if powerful nations like the U.S. resist the influence of agribusiness farm and trade policy and lead the nations in a more humane and environmentally sound direction. That really is up to us.

George Naylor, President
National Family Farm Coalition

The project is in its final, unavoidably chaotic phase. We'll come within a few weeks of meeting our Dec. 31 completion goal. The new kitchen is done, the stairs to the addition are in place, and the elevator is operational. The Fireside Room is carpeted! The door between Fireside Room and Fellowship Hall hallway reduces sound competition between those two spaces. The gas fireplace insert is operational. (For instructions on its use, ask any Space Cadet. Or if you are familiar with gas fireplaces, go ahead and turn the dial 1/4 turn counterclockwise to the left. Voila! But first, make certain that the flue is OPEN! Pull the "O" chain on the right, but also reach up into the center top to make sure the trapdoor is propped open and stays open.)

Although we're eager to move into our new space, it is important to understand that we do not legally own it until Story Construction grants us possession. This contractual requirement protects our investment and assures our safety.

Moving our office will be the last big push. Once we clear the old library of furnishings, Story will paint it and replace windows and carpeting. Door locks will be coordinated sometime in January, and new keys distributed. Drinking fountains will soon be installed and operational upstairs and downstairs. We also hope to install a telephone in the addition in a hallway location.

The UUFA Board of Directors has voted to celebrate the building's completion in April with a small celebration of UUFA members and close friends. That will give us time to tie up loose ends, rearrange furnishings, and adjust to new usage patterns. In the fall, we will host an open house for the larger Ames community, in part to encourage membership growth. This timing makes sense for several reasons: It allows time and a growing season to get the building and grounds looking their best. It avoids our semi-dormant summer season. And it only makes sense to promote UUFA to the community after our minister is back in the pulpit.

In terms of finances, we have incurred very little interest on our building loan thus far, thanks to many pledges paid in full. A generous late November pledge was much appreciated, as were two new gifts, designated by anonymous donors, to purchase library and minister's office furnishings. We also received a cost-savings "refund" from Story's original estimate. Using that, November pledge funds, and a small "contingency fund" that Story had advised the Cadets to set aside for unexpected expenses late in the project, we will now be able to add landscaping, window treatments, shelving, coat hooks, a new vacuum, and a carpet cleaner.

We are fortunate that the Space Cadets chose Story Construction as our general contractor. They are coordinating many concurrent tasks as they strive to complete the project in a tight time frame. Working closely with them over the months has given our Space Cadets an appreciation of the complexity of their task and the many variables they must address: materials manufacturers going out of business, errors in fabricated materials, legal and inspection requirements that pose last-minute changes; subcontractor illness; and scheduling delays, all of which affect progress. They have worked hard and smart to put every hour to efficient use.

As Cadets keep adding things to the to-do list, Story's attitude remains "Can do." When the project first began, we thought we might have to move some of our activities to offsite rental space. But thanks to Story's excellent planning, we've been able to use our building for practically everything we would have under normal circumstances (the notable exception being staff office space).

For our part, we have weathered the construction disruption admirably. Our flexibility and patience have strengthened our sense of community. In the weeks to come, our teamwork will continue to serve us well. Many thanks to all! (See the Cadets' formal letter to the congregation in the right-hand column.)

The Space Cadets

In December 1998 the Fellowship developed long-range goals. Included in the goals were to create and develop a facility to meet long term needs with the objective to appoint a task force to examine space issues.

In September 1999, Ginny Huntington, Fred Johnson, Gloria Symons, Ken Lane, Molly Nesbitt, Kay Berger and Bob Haug received a congratulatory letter from then president Doug Marek welcoming them to the Space Needs and Analysis Committee (later dubbed the Space Cadets). This team was charged with the responsibility of examining the space needs of the congregation with a projection of thirteen years.

In the letter Doug announced the first of our meetings with consultants Nancy Quinn and Bill Haney from the Prairie Star District. This began the five year journey of the Space Cadets.

By April 2000, the Space Cadets met with the staff, committee chairs, volunteers, youth representatives, those familiar with past studies of space, and general contractors involved in past additions and remodeling projects. The Space Cadets gathered information on construction standards and toured every inch of the fellowship. Three options were presented to the congregation: a) do nothing, b) move to a new facility and c) add and remodel the current facility.

When the vote was taken to the congregation, the choice was to move forward with the option of adding and remodeling. In early 2001, after months of meetings and continued research, the Space Cadets solicited bids from contractors and Story Construction was selected. More meetings, a feasibility study and more research resulted in conceptual plans and preliminary options. Finally three options were presented to the congregation. Option A had a price tag of $xxx. Option B would cost $yyy and Option C $zzz.

Due to an economic downturn, financial uncertainty and following a consultation with consultant Martha Easter-Wells, it was decided to delay a capital campaign.
The Fellowship began a Capital Campaign to raise funds for this project in January 2002. With the campaign raising nearly $xxx and the congregation's ability to secure loans, option B with enhancements was selected. The Space Cadets were authorized to complete this project not exceeding $xxx (including all equipment and administrative costs).

Molly Nesbitt, Kay Berger, Ken Lane, Gloria Symons and Bob Haug agreed to follow the project through to completion. Plans were draw and redrawn and redrawn again, as Space Cadets continued to balance the needs of the congregation and the reality of available dollars. Hours and hours were spent with Story Construction, members of the congregation and each other weighing needs and considering options. We valued the input from all who gave it. Thank you for the hours many of you put into helping us wade through all the possibilities.

The Space Cadets wanted the building to include every amenity but had to make some tough decisions. The decisions that were made were guided by the priorities set by the congregation. We didn't get everything, but we did our best to adequately meet all the identified needs.

Because of the congregation's kind and generous support we will have a 3,410 square-foot addition and a remodeled facility.

It has been a long and tedious process, at times being challenged by the hard choices that had to be made. The end result often seemed more like a dream than the reality it would become. Today we want to thank you, the congregation, for the opportunity to serve the fellowship as Space Cadets. Each of us feels that we have been enriched by this experience. We are proud of our work and what we, the congregation, has accomplished. We, and those who join us, will enjoy a wonderful new facility for years to come.

The Space Cadets