President, UUFD Board of Trustees

 

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango

Slate of Candidates for Elected Positions

2016-2017

The members of the Nominating Committee, Allison Andersen, Judy Hook, and Maureen Maliszewski, submit the following slate of candidates for the congregation's consideration for election at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 22, 2016:

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

President:  Teresa Jordan (1-year term)

Vice President:  Tom Miller (first year Vice President; following year President)

Associate Treasurer:  K. Redford (first year Associate Treasurer; following year Treasurer)

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

Our bylaws require the congregation to elect three members to the Nominating Committee. Allison Andersen was elected for a 2-year term last year and will continue to serve for the upcoming year. There are two positions open on the Nominating Committee, but only one identified candidate.  Nominations from the floor will be required to fill the third position.

Maureen Maliszewski  (second 2-year term)

Vacancy

Nominees

TERESA JORDAN

Born in the Cumberland Mountains of southeastern Kentucky, I am a daughter of Appalachia where both sides of my family had lived for generations. When I was a young child, our family moved to Ohio. But my mountain connection was retained with frequent trips to my grandparent's home near Pineville, Kentucky. Mountain living is in my DNA - one of the many reasons I so much love living in Durango, Colorado.

My academic training includes a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; a M.A. in Anthropology from Arizona State University; and teacher training from the University of New Mexico, Adams State College, and Fort Lewis College.

During my professional working career, I have been a health educator, a museum curator, and a teacher. In retirement, I indulge a life-long interest in art by papercrafting: making greeting cards and scrapbooks. I enjoy a small, part-time business teaching papercrafting to others and selling papercraft supplies as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.

We moved to Durango from Gallup, New Mexico in 1991. My husband had a career as a medical technologist with the Indian Health Service and worked at the Zuni Indian Hospital in Zuni, New Mexico and the Southern Ute Health Clinic in Ignacio, Colorado. As an anthropologist, I consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to live in and around Native American communities much of my adult life and deepen my understanding of the Southwestern Cultural Area.

John Schiffel, my husband of thirty-eight years, and I have a son and daughter-in-law who live in Durango, and John has a daughter who now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter (our 11 year-old granddaughter).

In 2000, I was captivated by a PBS-TV series by Bill Moyers on death and dying. Other Moyers programs had introduced me to Unitarian Universalism through interviews with UU minster Forrest Church. So when I saw a small ad in the Durango Herald for a speaker from the Hemlock Society at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango, I felt comfortable attending that Sunday service in the Smiley Building. I was warmly welcomed by members of the congregation, several whom I already knew from working with the La Plata County Democratic Party and the Durango Branch of the American Association of University Women.

After that initial visit, my husband and I began attending services more frequently, depending on our interest in the Sunday speakers. When the current UUFD property came available, we contributed to the fundraising and helped with the renovation and move. I became active with the Hospitality Committee and served as co-chair for a couple of years. I signed the membership book in 2010 when I was asked to serve a term as Vice President of the Board of Trustees. I served this past year as President of your Board of Trustees.

I am seeking a second, one-year term as President to fill a vacancy since our current Vice-President needed to resign because of increasing obligations in his busy professional life. As President I will provide continuity on the board; allowing our incoming Vice-President a year of board experience before his term as President. I appreciate your vote at the UUFD Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday, May 22, 2016.

TOM MILLER

Tom and his wife Bonnie have been involved members of UUFD since they moved to Durango in 2012 to join their daughter, Shanan, son-in-law, Doug, and their children Alex, Jax and Ava.  Tom is retired from a long career as a Management Psychologist. His primary activities included assisting companies in the selection and development of their senior executives and coaching them and their teams to be more effective leaders. At UUFD Tom helped develop the Focus Group process that led to the decision to move from lay-led to professional ministry. He then was chosen to be a member of the Ministerial Task Force, which was charged with building the process for defining the parameters and goals of the position and ultimately selecting our first minister, Rev. Katie.  He was involved, as well, with designing and conducting the Cottage Meetings that led to the decision to call Rev. Katie as our settled minister. He has been coordinator for the Worship Associate group, a member of the Communications and Music Committees, and is currently a Sound Assistant and member of the choir. In UUFD he has found a spiritual home, many friends, and looks forward to working on the important growth issues we face in the broader role of Board member. 

K REDFORD

The first time I entered a Unitarian church was in 1971 -- in New Jersey.  I was still experiencing culture shock from our move east and certainly had never experienced anything like the service, the sermon, or open discussions that were held each Sunday.  My husband, Eb, and I both graduated from New Mexico State with degrees in mathematics  (we actually met in a math class our junior year).  After college in Las Cruces,  Eb took a job with Bell Labs and we headed east in 1967.  Five years later, we had two children and were in the early stages of remodeling our first home.  It was an old house in a small community that was settled in 1609 -- the remodel was not quite complete when we finally moved full time  into our dream home in Durango in 2003.  I had originally agreed to move east of the Mississippi River for 5 years. 

 

The 35 years we spent in New Jersey were busy with raising our two children, enlarging our house, and our careers.  Eb and I took different paths -- he got his masters in computer science and I got mine in education.  After our youngest started first grade, I started teaching math.  I was very fortunate to end up in a small private school with students from an amazing diversity of cultures.  It was not usual for me to teach arithmetic to sixth graders and pre-calculus to seniors in one day. 

There was little time to volunteer, or attend church services on a regular basis.  But over the years, I taught some RE classes, and chaperoned  the trips that were part of the Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) program when my children were in their early teens (their one required year of church attendance).  I particularly enjoyed the visits to services at other denominations and the year-end trip to Boston to UUA headquarters.  I was the bookkeeper for a short while, and served on the board of the day-care center located in our building not long before we moved.

 

We had a definite list of "musts" when we started planning for our retirement:  a small town with a 4-year college in the western mountains, an NPR station, and a Unitarian church.  When we bought our lot in Falls Creek Ranch in 1989, the Unitarian House sign was located on 3rd Avenue.  By the time we finally moved to Durango, it was gone.  After some searching, I found Room 16 in the Smiley Building, and I was at home.  By the time UUFD moved to our current building, I was in the second year of my 2-year term as president of the board.  It was a crazy, busy and exciting time -- and it still is!   After several years as co-chair of the hospitality committee, and several more as chair of the membership committee, I am looking forward to serving on the board of trustees once again as associate treasurer.   I am so grateful to be part of this amazing town and this beloved community.