January 6, 2023

A Report for Board-Related News
Meet Your Ministerial Hiring Committee!

Ministerial Hiring Committee Report: members, application process

The Ministerial Hiring Committee is hard at work developing our application and packet materials for the Developmental Minister search process through the ministerial transition office of the UUA to clarify our needs and goals for a Developmental Ministry.  Application materials are due January 15, with the packet to be completed by January 31. The committee is basing our application on recent congregational reports including the Wisdom Council report, the report of the Healthy Communities Team on cottage meetings, the Board of Trustees goals, the 2019 Interim Consulting Team report, and congregational survey summary. We will be telling potential candidates about the Fellowship, our strengths and weaknesses, successes and conflicts, our needs and expectations of a developmental minister, and our history and traditions as a UU fellowship.

After we have completed our materials, potential ministry candidates will have access and can begin submitting their names and their packets for consideration. We’ll have more information about the process as it unfolds.

The committee members, with brief biographical information, are as follows:

Biographical Sketches for Ministerial Hiring Committee Members

Brian Rogers. I have been a UU since high school in the 1960s; active in LRY and serving as a committee member or board member/officer in three congregations – Hartford, Fairbanks, and now Quimper. Here I’ve served as Personnel Committee chair and as a member of several committees. I’m a former treasurer of the Pacific Northwest District and of the Cascadia Growth Fund for Unitarian Universalism and served as a compensation consultant for the Pacific Northwest Region for the UUA. In my professional career as a university administrator and as a private consultant, I worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations and led or participated in a variety of search committees and hiring panels. I hope to put that experience to work helping find a developmental minister who can bring us back together as a diverse UU community.

David Rymph, Board Trustee
David has been a member of QUUF since 2003 and a Unitarian since 1975. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, he worked mainly in the public sector, at the state, regional and Federal levels. He recently finished facilitating an ALPs class on the early Stoics of Greece and Rome. He is currently on the Board of Trustees where he serves as the Board representative on the Ministerial Hiring Committee.

Debra Bouchard
I moved to Port Townsend with my husband in 1977. I became a member of QUUF in the early 1990s after taking the “Build Your Own Theology” class. I was thrilled to find a liberal spiritual community in which to raise our sons – Cameron (4 years old) and Conner (2 years old). During the years that my sons participated in the QUUF RE program, I volunteered as a RE teacher, RE committee member/chair, and as an instructor for the Our Whole Lives youth program. Both my sons bridged and were launched into their young adult lives by the congregation. My involvement in the fellowship waned in 2010 when my work with King County Water and Land Resources in Seattle took me out of town most days of the week. I retired in 2021 and have spent the last year reacquainting myself with QUUF and the complex issues the congregation is currently facing. I am excited about this opportunity to apply my enthusiasm and experience as a member of numerous hiring panels and have a great deal of respect for the process and importance of this role. In my experience, organizational legacies are often the result of a solid hiring process.

Dean Carr
I am honored to be a member of the committee chosen to assist in selecting a developmental minister to guide QUUF over the next few years. Over the last 45+ years I have been a member of 3 UU congregations, 2nd Unitarian in Chicago (where my wife and I were married), Northlake Unitarian in Kirkland WA, and QUUF. In each of these locations I have been a volunteer in a large variety of activities. In the mid-1990s, I was heavily involved in an effort at Northlake Unitarian to evolve our overall organizational structure to better manage an increase in membership and financial challenges. Upon retirement from 39 years of medical practice in Seattle, we moved to Port Townsend, where, aside from my event support activities at QUUF, I was an active member in our efforts to establish a Safe Park program. I envision QUUF expanding our abilities to be a welcoming community to those who seek to develop their religious and spiritual connections according to the principles and values that we cherish. With the assistance of a developmental minister, the devoted members of our Fellowship can work through current divisions, re-establish common goals, and ready us for calling our next established minister. I look forward to active participation in that process and I am open to member input.

Sarah Walker
I have been a Unitarian Universalist since 1979. I joined QUUF in 1991 along with 2 daughters, Clara and Paige, who were regular participants in the RE programs through their graduations in 1998 and 2000. I worked as a teacher in this community for more than 20 years in the field of early childhood special education, and early elementary grades. I retired in 2016 following 4 years teaching in an international school in Ankara, Turkey. Over the years, I have participated in most aspects of congregational life and served in many leadership roles. I deeply love our community and admire the strengths and talents of our membership. I am currently the co-chair of the Pastoral Care Team. I am honored to serve on the Developmental Minister Hiring Committee and hope my knowledge of QUUF’s developmental history, ministry and congregational life will be helpful in finding the candidate that best matches our needs.

Annemarie Mende, alternate committee member.
Annemarie Mende is a retired clinical social worker who has enjoyed living in Port Townsend and working in the field of community mental health including crisis intervention, therapy and supervision. She was fortunate to have been involved in the initiation of two agencies in Jefferson county: the first domestic violence/sexual assault program (Dove House) in Jefferson county and the Hospice program at Jefferson Healthcare. Annemarie is married, and with her husband Jim Lyons raised their 2 now-adult children, Sebastian and Irina. within the QUUF congregation. Writing, gardening, hiking, travel and walks at North Beach are favorite pursuits.

Linda Spratt, chair of the Personnel Committee (advisor)
I joined QUUF in July 2016. I had not been a member of a religious organization since the 1960s and was grateful to find my spiritual home. From the get-go I was drafted to be a member of the Personnel Committee, and currently I am on my third term as chair. My professional career of thirty-two years was in Human Resources for two large retailers. I was the Recruitment Director for Liberty House of Hawaii for my last seventeen years where I oversaw the employment function of over 3,000 employees which included being the recruiter for management positions. For many of those, there was a need to conduct searches on the Mainland to find the appropriate expertise. That was my responsibility along with handling the relocations. I look forward to supporting the Ministerial Hiring Committee in the areas of my background and experience. I live in Port Townsend with my kitty Gracie.