Read our 2018 Strategic Plan HERE

Why a Strategic Plan?

Who are we called to be in these times? Who are we called to serve? What matters most at this moment?

Boise UU Fellowship last created a strategic plan in 2010. Since then, we have called a new minister, we have grown, and we are financially healthy. In the fall of 2017, the Board appointed a Strategic Planning Task Force to take us through a process for developing a new strategic plan as we bring to life our hopes and dreams for a future of continued health, growth, connection, and community.

What We’ve Done: 

May 2018 – Congregational Annual Meeting. The Strategic Plan was passed as a living document. The overarching themes and goals of the Strategic Plan will remain the same as the congregation shaped and voted them to be. The means to which those initiatives and goals will be achieved will remain flexible as new and great ideas arise.

April 2018 – Open Forums. We invited all members and friends to discuss the Strategic Plan after each service the last two Sundays in April. Questions and concerns were responded to as the Strategic Planning Task Force adapted the Strategic Plan accordingly.

February 2018 – Congregational Town Hall. The task forced shared the current priorities and initiatives identified through all the information gathered n the process to date. In small groups, the community discussed the exciting pieces of each initiative and voted for their top 3. The three front-runners (though the votes were very close) were a social justice furniture bank project for newly housed families and individuals, a welcoming and engaging space for fellowship/coffee time after services, and deepening our spiritual connections through small group ministry. These became the three larger categories for the draft of the plan (see above).

December 2017 – The Task Force issues an online survey inviting respondents to prioritize which focus areas they felt the church needed to invest its energy and resources. There were two clear priorities identified in the survey –  both from an individual and a church perspective.  Spiritual growth and deepening connections received nearly the same number of #1 priority rankings (each ranked #1 by close to 30% of respondents).   Community outreach and youth and young adult ministries were pretty similarly ranked as the second group of priorities.  It is clear from the survey and from prior visioning work that social justice also remains very important. 

October 2017 – The Task Force held a Congregational Gathering to do more visioning and gather additional input on the areas of the fellowship that matter most to folks.

In September 2017 – BUUF hosted UU Consultant, Kay Crider, for a Next Steps Weekend, to kick-off the whole STrategic planning Process and help imagine our future. A big THANK-YOU from the Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF) to all BUUF members and friends who participated. We had over 70 people at the presentation on Sunday, where Kay shared some of her initial observations and recommendations we might consider as a fellowship. Click to review Kay’s final Next Steps Weekend Report.

In conjunction with the Next Steps Weekend, Rev. Sara delivered a powerful sermon entitled “Welcoming Vision” encouraging us all to contemplate what matters most for BUUF in this moment – and to consider what six-word story we want to tell. This sermon contains powerful food for thought as we continue with our strategic planning process.