Guest at Your Table (GAYT) is Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s annual intergenerational program to raise support for and awareness about key human rights issues. Since UUSC works in more than 20 countries, with over 60 grassroots partners, there are thousands of individuals involved in and who benefit from the work that our members make possible. The program is an opportunity to celebrate grassroots partnership, support human rights, and learn about just four of these individuals – the “guests” in Guest at Your Table.

We learn about these guests through written descriptions called “Stories of Hope”. This year the UUSC has created a video about each leader as well as a written description. You can download the videos and descriptions here.

You can download this template to make your own Guest at Your Table box to put on your meal table at home. Many families and households like to include a time before dinner to remember their guests. Often children and household members put coins in the box. This year we’ll ask you to count up the money you collect and send it directly to the UUSC. Please send in your donation by January 25th.

1.   This year the UUSC has set up a donation page for us. The donation page is a bit like a GoFundMe in that we can can see the donation totals in real time. Be sure to click the “Make donation anonymous” button under your name if you want your name and amount to be anonymous. Find our unique donation page on our website here.

2.   If you prefer, you can mail in a check to UUSC, PO Box 808, Newark, NJ 07101-0808. Make it out to UUSC and write “First UU Society of Albany GAYT” in the memo line. That way your donation by check will be tallied in our overall total.

You can check out the Guest at Your Table page at the UUSC website.

Guest at Your Table will be the focus of Brunch Church on Dec 6th at 11:30. All are welcome. Contact Leah Purcell at dre@albanyuu.org for the link to join or if you have questions.

At its November meeting, your Board approved a modified budget to guide us through the rest of this fiscal year which ends in June.

The budget approved last Spring assumed we would be able to open our building in January and secure half a year of rentals and hold our major fund-raiser — the auction. As with many of our personal plans, the virus felt no need to accommodate us. Once it was clear that we could not safely open in January, the Finance Committee (FC) and the Ministries and Operations Team (MOT) set to work to see how we could address a shortfall of about $40,000 less revenue than originally expected.

After first looking at how our expenses changed as a result of having a closed building, we incorporated substantial savings from such items as utilities and maintenance into the new budget. Expenses were also trimmed to reflect programmatic changes resulting from a closed building. Specifically, the decision to forgo the hiring of a music director at this time, the reduction in Sexton and Childcare time and the resulting decrease in payroll taxes. Similarly, savings were possible in administrative expenses. A silver lining of the need for electronic services is that guest speakers and musicians no longer need travel expenses. A thorough review of these, not always obvious, savings allowed the FC & MOT to accommodate the loss of income without affecting the viability of our core programming. Yes, things are not the same during an epidemic, but we can still continue to function at a very high level. The Board approved the recommended budget and we are able to continue building the world we would all like to live in.

If you have any questions or would like a copy of the new budget, please contact Reese Satin, Treasurer at 518.380.0251.