Tallahassee Movers and Shakers!

On Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 3-6, the UU Church of Tallahassee had its first church retreat at The Mountain in Highlands, NC. The retreat was planned and coordinated by Jean Chulak, our Mountain Ambassador. Thirty members and children made this first trip. We returned aglow with warm feelings of camaraderie and tales of beautiful mountain hikes, adventures of the high and low challenge courses, an intergenerational touch event, star gazing, crickets chirping during evening services, and a nearby mountain labyrinth.

Now that our professional leadership decision has been made with the calling of Rev. Amy McKenzie Quinn, we are moving forward with plans for expansion of our physical facilities. With 70 children, our RE program is bursting at the seams of our limited classroom space (three rooms now subdivided into 6 small classrooms). On Sept. 25, 1999, Consultant Larry Wheeler met with the congregation for a UUA Needs Assessment. Recommendations for revising our former Long Range Plan into a Strategic Plan and for ways to conduct a capital campaign were provided. After extensive solicitation of potential architects, two have been selected and hired, with congregational vote, to develop the Master Facility Plan.

UU Church of Tallahassee, and our Racial and Cultural Diversity Committee, was recently featured in the local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat, as cosponsor of Parallel Lives, a live program sponsored thru the Florida Humanities Council. The program featured discussion by two persons, a white woman and a black man, of their memories of growing up in Florida at the end of the Jim Crow era of segregation. To add further to our pride with the standing room only event, the man, Bill Maxwell, mentioned that he was a Unitarian.

On a more somber note, long time member Richard Lee passed away. Richard was an early District President (1977-1979). He provided Sunday services not only to Tallahassee, but to other churches in the area, including Panama City and Valdosta.

— NANCY R. BASS CHAIRPERSON, DENOMINATIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE