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| Love Phoenix by kathy kz |
I have had so many things happen this year and even more since I last posted here. I have been very busy on my Chalica blog and have had over 3000 hits on it since Nov. 17, 2010. It started as a very busy year in January. Had people say they would help me at church and then they backed out, so I had to do a lot of finding people to cook and do a lot of the cooking myself. This was very exhausting. I had to do something else, so I proposed to the REAP Council that we hire someone. Well we found someone but unfortunately attendance went down and we lost money on the effort, still didn't get much help from the other council members. Then the surprise evaluation that the "personnel committee" did on me and the rest of the employees. It was also surprising that since I worked with these other people I was not asked for my opinion about any of them. Of course I asked how could they evaluate me, when I did not have a job description. I was told that yes there was a job description for me, that the head of the REAP Council had sent it in and then it was held up. It was the document that I and REAP Council head had come up with the summer before and was more than 12 hours a week. She (REAP Council head) was suppose to have sent the info with a letter asking for what on the list was a priority so we would know what to cut out and what I could safely say to my "boss" I can't do this. Unfortunately that letter did not get written. Then the head of the personnel committee said he was not comfortable making priorities....so why have a personnel committee? Next the REAP Council head held a bash Kathy meeting of the teachers. I am not saying it was a great year. It wasn't, I had to rely on people that kept being "no show". I had to reduce my time on Sunday School to basically nothing as my "boss" made me do to many other things. Things that were mostly grunt stuff and meetings. Then finally the REAP Council and one member of the personnel committee announced a meeting to set my job responsibilities! Yeah - right the 1st meeting in June mainly was to list all the jobs that are the responsibilities of Religious Education in the church. Then before the July meeting we were all to list who could be responsible for them and prioritize them. But of course we did not have a meeting in July to do this and I was suppose to take June and July off and start up again the 1st of August. Well August rolled in and on Wed. August 18th we all waited for the final member to arrive and then the meeting started with the President informing me that the Board had decided not to renew my contract for 12 hours a week, that some of the teachers said they could not work with me and it would be me or them and the board chose the teachers. I could stay on for 2 hours a week and come each Sunday morning to greet the parents and the kids because that is what I was good at and that it would start that coming Sunday. So I quit. It was kinda funny because I thought that the congregation hired me and at the annual meeting they had approved me for 12 hours a week for 52 weeks. But I didn't want to be were I was not wanted. Leigh was at the meeting and he also couldn't believe it was handle like that in a public meeting, so we left our church. We realize it wasn't all the members - but it was their elected official. Then the minister put out a note to the whole congregation: "I would also encourage you to trust the actions of many loving souls in the church leadership who deliberated hard and long. We can never know all sides to a story, and so as you listen to one side, or another, remind yourself--it is this, and much more."
And that told us that the decision to leave was correct. Interesting in that we never saw the minutes of the board meeting, but a few people that were there said they don't remember a vote. It is funny though as far as I know the other "side of the story" was never told nor addressed. And what happened to me was not a "side of a story" it is what happened. oh well.
The interesting thing is a number of people called to either invite us back "because the minister will be on sabbatical" or to gripe. I told everyone that there are great people at the UUSBHC, but for right now it wasn't for us. We went back for Chalica, but it wasn't the service I was hoping to present. But it was what it was and hopefully many others decided to celebrate Chalica this year.
We won't be back for quite a while.
That's enough for now.
