Your Parish Board held its annual fall retreat the day before our Ingathering service. We covered a lot of ground. We started by offering suggestions to Rev. Anne on what her priorities should be this year, other than worship and pastoral care. We then had a two-part training segment, starting with a review of a document that the Board is drafting entitled, “How Decisions are Made at First Parish.” This document is a work in progress; we hope to share it with the congregation for comment in a few weeks.

Former Finance Committee Chair David Bovet led a “Finance 101” segment that reviewed the church finances for the Board, and members of the Annual Pledge Drive planning team then joined in for a discussion of how this year’s pledge drive could be run. The retreat concluded with a segment on identifying priority goals for the Board this year.

At the top of the list are addressing the findings of the Historic Structures Report on our church building and creating initiatives to increase our visibility in the community and attract new members. We will report on both of these goals at the Semi-Annual Meeting after the Sunday service on October 30th.

In the spirit of community,

Tom Rich

Board Chair