This is my second report to you as your Financial Advisor, and bridging the mileage from Brunswick, ME to Vancouver, BC is daunting, to say nothing of the seafood opportunities. If you sample, as I do in any new saltwater place, the local clams, the contrast between East Coast quahogs and West Coast gooeyducks is stunning - simply the largest clam I’ve ever eaten.
Back to finances... it has been a financial year of planning and problem solving, rather than of dramatic progress. We have been significantly affected by external happenings within the economy, the securities markets, and in certain of our sources of funds. An interesting year, a challenging year, in some ways a frustrating year, but one which leaves us with almost as many problems as we brought into it.
Now these comments are, perforce, directed to the US economy in which the great majority of our expenses are incurred, and which directly affects the securities markets in which all of our invested assets are placed. If I seem, therefore, to be slighting the Canadian camp in our constituency, let me assure you that my concerns are continental though my focus may be more limited.
I was right last year about what was going to happen in the economy (or at least I read the right experts on the subject, but I really blew it with respect to what, within two months was about to happen to the stock market. What I failed to tell you was that in August of 1982, the market was going to commence a major move upward. As of last Thursday’s close (when I was last in touch with a Wall Street Journal) the Dow Jones industrial average was at 1189, down slightly from its highs over the magic 1200 level, but still almost 49% higher than it was last year at this time.
Having failed to alert you to the rise in stock prices last year, perhaps I have to say something this year. To suggest what will happen to the market over the 1983-1984 fiscal year requires a degree of prophetic vision I generally leave to the clergy -- although I am never able to get any market forecasts out of the sermons I hear -- but let me extend my neck to say I do not believe we shall see in the next year a market which will be as good to our portfolios as was the past year’s market. I am not predicting a decline, but a hovering, generally at present or slightly higher levels.
I was watching a program recently on Channel 13, the public television station in New York, on the centennial of the Brooklyn Bridge. There were statements made by New Yorkers commenting on the significance of the bridge in the history of the city and in the image the citizens have of themselves.
Now I’m am not suggesting the UUA is like the Brooklyn Bridge. I know both are going from one place to another -- both have great underlying strength -- both soar to great heights at some points -- and both have many moving parts which can’t always be seen moving, even from close up.
What I am saying is that our power and such wealth as is our portion are only meaningful as they are part of, and lend support to, that reality which exists in our institutional mind -- in the spirit which animates us. St. Jerome, some 1600 years ago said he wanted a church “preferring to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse.”
Showing posts with label 1982-Vancouver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1982-Vancouver. Show all posts
Vancouver, BC II
The President has referred to the two landmark gifts from the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Society. There is so little that I can say about these gifts because they say so much for themselves - for the needs they answer - for the character of the donor. It is a little early in the week for confession, but I must tell you that my written report suggests incorrectly that this grant came from the Veatch Program of the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Society - in fact it comes not from the Veatch Program, but directly from the Plandome Congregation itself. All these wonders we have witnessed flow from the initial generosity and concern of the late Caroline Veatch.
Some of the distribution of that largess channels through the Veatch Program, but the program itself was funded by - and the gifts for theological education and ministerial sustenance come directly from the Church itself - and we do thank them for their informed concerns and their great generosity. Perhaps the most remarkable about this support is that it has come free of any attempt to impose the will of the donor on the recipient - it has truly been support in the most positive sense.
I see from my financial perspective two potential weaknesses of this Association. The first I dealt with at some length last year in this report. The membership of this Association, has, directly and through sources it can influence, the money to do whatever it wants to do. It is a tragedy that we have perceived needs and programs to deal with them and we lack the funds for ample implementation.
I see a second potential weakness.
- Our numbers are limited
- Our resources are limited
- Our potential impact on our two national societies is limited.
To the extent that we lack the ability to focus our efforts, to the extent to which our institutional programmatic and financial goals are diffuse, so shall we succumb to weakness.
I respect pluralism. Our institutional respect for pluralism is one of the strengths of this organization. We’re all in favor of pluralism. But pluralism has a flip side.
We are a small but hardy band. If we wish to remain small and perhaps not so hardy, we will avoid the effort and the heat of the forge of coalition. We will allocate insufficient amounts for a whole series of efforts, each mustering the support for a given moment, of some vocal plurality. We must decide our direction and pour our energies and our resources to that course.
I have a dim recall of some medieval sea captain who once drew a map for his crew, showing only the open sea for miles around his vessel, no rocks of danger, no landfalls of uncertainty, and they were of peace because they knew the sea and its demands upon them. But in the words of Robinson Jeffers, “A sailor loves the sea - when the helm is for harbor. And so we must focus our energies.
Some of the distribution of that largess channels through the Veatch Program, but the program itself was funded by - and the gifts for theological education and ministerial sustenance come directly from the Church itself - and we do thank them for their informed concerns and their great generosity. Perhaps the most remarkable about this support is that it has come free of any attempt to impose the will of the donor on the recipient - it has truly been support in the most positive sense.
I see from my financial perspective two potential weaknesses of this Association. The first I dealt with at some length last year in this report. The membership of this Association, has, directly and through sources it can influence, the money to do whatever it wants to do. It is a tragedy that we have perceived needs and programs to deal with them and we lack the funds for ample implementation.
I see a second potential weakness.
- Our numbers are limited
- Our resources are limited
- Our potential impact on our two national societies is limited.
To the extent that we lack the ability to focus our efforts, to the extent to which our institutional programmatic and financial goals are diffuse, so shall we succumb to weakness.
I respect pluralism. Our institutional respect for pluralism is one of the strengths of this organization. We’re all in favor of pluralism. But pluralism has a flip side.
We are a small but hardy band. If we wish to remain small and perhaps not so hardy, we will avoid the effort and the heat of the forge of coalition. We will allocate insufficient amounts for a whole series of efforts, each mustering the support for a given moment, of some vocal plurality. We must decide our direction and pour our energies and our resources to that course.
I have a dim recall of some medieval sea captain who once drew a map for his crew, showing only the open sea for miles around his vessel, no rocks of danger, no landfalls of uncertainty, and they were of peace because they knew the sea and its demands upon them. But in the words of Robinson Jeffers, “A sailor loves the sea - when the helm is for harbor. And so we must focus our energies.
Vancouver, BC III
Probably the first recorded long-range planner in history was Diogenes who said, “Bury me on my face,” and when he was asked why, replied, “Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down.”
We are working on a long range plan - - or what might be more appropriately called a strategic plan. We have a good committee at work: people who know our denomination, who have different perceptions as to where we are, where we should go, and how we should plan to get there, but who are going to forge a coalition because it is too important to our future not to.
One doesn’t often have the opportunity to attribute a quote to two sources, especially when one of them is not only still living, but in the room at the moment. In the April Religious Education Clearing House mailing - - the REACH packet - - my fellow trustee, Will Saunders of Brunswick, Maine, representing the Northeast District, contributed nineteen, count them - - one liners.
One of them - - the original attributed to Confucius - - “Unless we change direction, we will wind up where we are headed.” It is a complicated job, however, and our short-range plan is to have it largely completed by the end of calendar 1983. In one sense, the job will never be completed, for a working, long-range plan, to be of ongoing utility, must constantly be updated and the forward range of vision extended. To paraphrase the Eastern Airlines commercial, an organization without a plan for the future, may not have a future.
There was also much hope last year for the major effort invested by the DR2 Committee. It had the promise of solving many of the problems of the relationship between the continental organization and the individual societies. In the financial area, there was hope for a sharing of resources still held by certain districts and related organizations, and for greater cost effectiveness in the delivery of services to churches and fellowships. We tripped over a number of conflicting concerns, not the least of which was that we did not have the funds to pay for the new system, the design for which was drawn by the DR2 committee. Other than tinkering with the Districts Grants mechanism, we have not been able to do much to carry out our hopes in this area. The problems, however, will not go away and the negative responses that we cannot afford to solve them will not do.
In our planning process we need to identify where we are, and where our trend lines are heading us. Then we need to assess our strengths, where we want to take our organization and what kind of plan we need to employ our strengths to get us there. We have to have a program for bending those trend lines or we will wind up where we are headed. it sounds simple and of course, it isn’t. But we are going to do it - - and we are going to share the options and the difficult choices and the needs we find along our way - - and you’re going to help us because we, after all - - are in this together.
Our future effectiveness, our position in the ethical, religious and societal spectrums, our choice for positive leadership on this continent and in our world may be at stake.
i tried to start a mini-tradition last year of closing with a few words of non-financial prose or poetry to help us each with a little perspective for the week ahead. This year, these words from Robinson Jeffers, the great poet of the west coast.
Sad sons of the stormy fall
No escape, you have to inflict and endure, surely
it is time for you
To learn to touch the diamond within to the diamond outside.
Thinning your humanity a little between the immeasurable diamonds,
Knowing that your angry choices and hopes and terrors are in vain,
But life and death not in vain, and the world is like a flight of swans.
We are working on a long range plan - - or what might be more appropriately called a strategic plan. We have a good committee at work: people who know our denomination, who have different perceptions as to where we are, where we should go, and how we should plan to get there, but who are going to forge a coalition because it is too important to our future not to.
One doesn’t often have the opportunity to attribute a quote to two sources, especially when one of them is not only still living, but in the room at the moment. In the April Religious Education Clearing House mailing - - the REACH packet - - my fellow trustee, Will Saunders of Brunswick, Maine, representing the Northeast District, contributed nineteen, count them - - one liners.
One of them - - the original attributed to Confucius - - “Unless we change direction, we will wind up where we are headed.” It is a complicated job, however, and our short-range plan is to have it largely completed by the end of calendar 1983. In one sense, the job will never be completed, for a working, long-range plan, to be of ongoing utility, must constantly be updated and the forward range of vision extended. To paraphrase the Eastern Airlines commercial, an organization without a plan for the future, may not have a future.
There was also much hope last year for the major effort invested by the DR2 Committee. It had the promise of solving many of the problems of the relationship between the continental organization and the individual societies. In the financial area, there was hope for a sharing of resources still held by certain districts and related organizations, and for greater cost effectiveness in the delivery of services to churches and fellowships. We tripped over a number of conflicting concerns, not the least of which was that we did not have the funds to pay for the new system, the design for which was drawn by the DR2 committee. Other than tinkering with the Districts Grants mechanism, we have not been able to do much to carry out our hopes in this area. The problems, however, will not go away and the negative responses that we cannot afford to solve them will not do.
In our planning process we need to identify where we are, and where our trend lines are heading us. Then we need to assess our strengths, where we want to take our organization and what kind of plan we need to employ our strengths to get us there. We have to have a program for bending those trend lines or we will wind up where we are headed. it sounds simple and of course, it isn’t. But we are going to do it - - and we are going to share the options and the difficult choices and the needs we find along our way - - and you’re going to help us because we, after all - - are in this together.
Our future effectiveness, our position in the ethical, religious and societal spectrums, our choice for positive leadership on this continent and in our world may be at stake.
i tried to start a mini-tradition last year of closing with a few words of non-financial prose or poetry to help us each with a little perspective for the week ahead. This year, these words from Robinson Jeffers, the great poet of the west coast.
Sad sons of the stormy fall
No escape, you have to inflict and endure, surely
it is time for you
To learn to touch the diamond within to the diamond outside.
Thinning your humanity a little between the immeasurable diamonds,
Knowing that your angry choices and hopes and terrors are in vain,
But life and death not in vain, and the world is like a flight of swans.
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