How Our Church Works

January 18, 2024 As we review, we will note items here that have been developed included since HOCW was written.

The first such example is the UUCC Incident Report that was presented in the January 17, 2024 E-Blast with the new report form.

Incident Report Distributed with January 17, 2024, E-blast.

Introducing the “UUCC Incident Report”
This article is to introduce you to the UUCC Incident Report. You may well ask, “What’s an incident report? Why do we need an incident report? Whose idea was this? What the heck is an incident anyway?”

Perhaps a little historical background is in order to make sense of all this. In October of 2022, a half dozen members of the congregation and our minister attended a daylong seminar entitled Safeguarding our Houses of Worship put on by the Federal & Maine Emergency Management Administrations (FEMA & MEMA). This group of people were asked to form a UUCC Safety Workgroup which continues to meet and look for ways to ensure the physical safety of our church and those who attend activities here.

One of the first things that the Safety group noted was that we had no way of keeping track of any events that disrupted our collective sense of safety. Everyone could recall events in the past that were concerning, but no one could clearly remember the specifics. We defined an incident as any event that occurs on church property that is out of the ordinary and leaves you or others feeling uncomfortable or at risk. These can include many things such as threatening or disruptive behavior, threats from outside directed at the church community or other credible threats.

We will maintain a clipboard with blank Incident Reports in both the Sanctuary and the Fellowship Hall. We invite any attendee at church activities to use the form to document their observations and concerns about perceived incidents, please provide as much detail as possible. The completed form should be given to the minister, a worship associate or folded and placed in the pulpit in the Sanctuary. These forms will be collected by the church administrator and maintained in a secure file in the office to protect confidentiality. They will be reviewed by the chairperson of the Safety Committee at regular intervals and any concerning patterns will be reported to the Board of Trusties.

By documenting any and all such occurrences it will be possible for us to recognize any patterns and make data informed decisions about how best to provide effective communal security while respecting individual rights.

How Our Church Works Review 1.2024

OVERVIEW OF HOW OUR CHURCH WORKS

The overall governance of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Augusta is found in the Bylaws and various policies, procedures and forms for implementing the activities of the congregation. These are included in the publication How Our Church Works. The focus of policies when the congregations consolidated in 1992 was on safe congregations. The original version of How Our Church Works was published in 2011 to address cultural changes of technology, personal identity, and safety guidelines for various situations. Policies and procedures, from becoming members to reserving and renting space, and from committee and program descriptions to congregational staffing, were added over the years as a way to be more transparent. It is a great manual for understanding how we can work together.

To allow for easier update of information, we are uploading the total document, and the respective parts. You can download the sections that you might want. Updates are added to the website.

Printed copy is available at the following locations:

Committee Room in church by the Mail Slots

Judd House—Minister, Administrator, and Lifespan Faith Formation offices

URGENT REFERENCE: for Emergency see: XII. Right Relationship & Safe Congregation Section F. Emergency Evacuation and Fire Safety Plan

How Our Church Works 2017 Updates will be added as they are approved.

Table of Contents The following sections noted in the total contents have been broken out separately.

I. Theological Statement on Congregational Polity (Governance)

II. Bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church Rev. 2019

III. UUCC Committee Descriptions & Group Functions

IV. Administrative

V. Board of Trustees

VI. Building and Grounds