(largely based on the speech she gave at the Congregational Meeting)
I am delighted to be your new Interim President, after former President, David Langrock, had to step down from being President due to his new job in Boston. I want to thank David, for the past 3 ½ years of being a thoughtful leader on the Board of Trustees. He has been a passionate and dedicated leader, guiding us to a position where we can look forward to a brighter and more sustainable future.
Once it was agreed that I would take over as Interim President for the next 6 months, the Board’s first task was to appoint an additional board member who would serve as Interim Vice President for the next 6 months.
Leslie Collins only joined East Shore at the beginning of this year, but already she has stepped up to a leadership role within Women’s Perspective, and has served on the Finance Team and Budget Committee. As a retired public administrator specializing in financial planning and organizational development, she brings exceptional skills to our community. For King County, she developed business plans and strategies for the Emergency Management Division, spearheaded development of a public fiber optic network, and led the county technology department. More recently she has directed a small arts non-profit and acted as treasurer for the Delridge Neighborhood Development Authority. I’m super excited to have her on East Shore’s Board and hope that you welcome her as your new Interim Vice President.
Both Leslie and I will serve in these interim roles for 6 months until June, when the Nominating Committee will select and bring for your vote the next slate of Board members, which I hope will include Leslie and myself.
Another key role we have recently filled is that of Director of Finance and Operations. This staff position has been vacant for a year following the resignation of Rebecca Chatfield. Dianne Upton, our Facilities Manager, also resigned a year ago. We have taken this year to see how much volunteers and existing staff could manage without these two roles, and to carefully think about the tasks that really needed to be done by an additional staff person. Several board members and existing staff need to be thanked for the extraordinary workload they have taken on in the past year to cover for these missing positions, especially board members Geri Kennedy, David Langrock, Dave Baumgart and Keely Cofrin Allen, and staff members Nicole Duff, Jenny Newell and Celil Cakmak, although the absence of two staff has added stress to all staff, and we thank them all for their patience while we figured out these essential needs.
So with such a great team of staff and Board members in place, I believe we can now look forward to a period of stability and growth for East Shore, especially in terms of further developing the programs we offer and deepening the relationships we all have with each other and with our external Social Justice partners.
Those of you who know me know that I’m willing to have a conversation with anyone about practically anything. One of the characteristics of the PNW culture is that we can sometimes be a bit conflict averse, choosing to back away when we’re not happy rather than talk through our concerns. Deep relationships build trust and confidence, so I encourage you all to participate as fully as you can and especially to get to know and build relationships with our staff and board members as people as well as leaders of this community. That way, if you ever have any concerns about any aspect of life at East Shore, you will hopefully have the confidence to share your concerns, in a respectful and supportive way of course, with the most appropriate person. And if you’re not sure who the most appropriate person is, feel free to contact me, Amanda Strombom, at any time.
We have big goals for the upcoming 6 months. Last year, the Board approved churchwide goals for 2025 and 2026. Several listening circles were held, asking what the congregation wanted to see happen in the next year, and the many ideas were narrowed down to a list of 8 key measurable goals which we felt were achievable as a church within the next year.
These goals fit into three overall themes:
- Better support and integrate young families into the church,
- Deepen our members’ involvement in the life of the church,
- and Promote East Shore to the wider community.
I encourage you to read all about them at esuc.org.
They are all valuable, exciting and achievable goals, but we do need your help to achieve them. You can help specifically by reading the e-blasts that Nicole Duff and Amanda Alice Uluhan (Family Newsletter) send out so that you know what’s going on, and by offering your help for volunteer opportunities, signing up to participate in small groups, bringing food for coffee hour and being welcoming to visitors to name just a few. All this will help to build your relationships with our community and help East Shore grow to be an even more welcoming, supportive, enriching and fun place to be.
I look forward to an exciting year ahead!
Amanda Strombom
Interim President, Board of Trustees