For the past year, our Partner Congregation in Brassó, Romania, has been hard at work on a substantial "floor-to-ceiling" renovation of their sanctuary. Meanwhile, all services have been held in their social hall—something that will sound familiar to long-time First UU members, who will recall meeting in Bard Hall and in a tent during our own renovation. It was just September 15 when they were finally able to hold a "moving back in" dedication, presided over by the Unitarian Bishop (see photo).
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Throughout this period, they have kept up with regular church needs as well as their community food and outreach programs. In addition, Rev. Benedek has been serving as an assistant to the Bishop, meaning his days are filled with meetings and other duties, while much of the pastoral work has been carried out by Partner Minister Rev. Imola, who is also expecting a baby soon!

Thus, our recent gift from the Generosity Offerings could not have come at a more helpful time. From Rev. Imola: "Thank you so very much for the support of your congregation, both material and spiritual!"

Dan Ratelle, Partner Church Committee
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​Click any image for a larger view.

Board of Trustees - all candidates were voted in with at least a 91.53% approval. 

• Vice President/President Elect FY24-25 / President FY25-26: Karen Lamphere, two-year term
• Treasurer: Armin Kuhlman, one-year term
• Member At Large: Les Vivian, two-year term
• Member At Large: Jim Davis, three-year term
• Member At Large: Rhiannon Smith, three-year term
• Member At Large: Rose Van Oss, three-year term

Nominating Committee - all candidates were voted in with at least a 98.31% approval.

• Gay Hybertsen, three-year term 

 FY 24-25 General Operating Budget passed with 100.00% voting "yes."
 Thank you for your participation
in the voting process
Valerie Jaques, Board President
Everardo Aguilar, Past President 

​By Robie Evans, Director of Operations, [email protected]
 
On Friday, November 10, 2023, First UU San Diego was notified by @YouTube that our YouTube channel had been removed. We were terminated based on findings under their Community Guidelines Policies which include: Spam, deceptive practices & Scams policies, defined as:

• Video Spam; Misleading Metadata or Thumbnails; Scams; Incentivization Spam; Comments Spam; Repetitive comments; 3rd party content; Also, external links in our content

 
After reviewing these policies in detail, we’ve made two separate appeals letting them know that we have NEVER knowingly done anything in violation of the Spam, Deceptive Practices & Scams policies in the many, many years of publishing our videos on YouTube.
 
We believe this removal was in error and our case needs to be reviewed by a human. We also believe that an algorithm perpetuated this removal, and if this is the case, they will need to humanly re-review the video(s) in question.
 
In trying to determine what might have caused this termination, the only thing we’ve come up with is perhaps someone with malicious intent reported one or more of our videos to YouTube. We’re hoping this wasn’t the case, but rather an algorithm issue.
 
To our further chagrin, once we put in an appeal to @YouTube, we were catapulted into a vicious cycle of automated replies, automated admonitions, and all-around “how do I get a real person to answer/help me?”
 
Yes, it is extremely frustrating. I promise to be my wonderful, charming self if I could only exchange some sort of communication with a living, breathing human being.
 
Don’t get me wrong. We absolutely LOVE @YouTube! And, we promise upon re-instatement of our YouTube channel, we vow to be extra diligent in our handling of our videos in this important streaming platform and hope to enjoy many, many more years with @YouTube!
 
Please, @YouTube, if someone from your company reads this, please email me so we can work this out. We would love to hear from you.
 
Here’s my email: [email protected]
 
Thanking you in advance for your prompt communication!

​Dear Ones of First UU,
It is with a heavy heart that we write to tell you of the death of Rev. Dr. Carolyn Owen-Towle, beloved minister emerita of this congregation.  Carolyn experienced an inoperable aortic tear late last week and her status declined rapidly.  Tom gathered the family and brought Carolyn home with hospice for her final days.  She died on Monday evening, surrounded by love.  Tom is doing as well as can be expected and he expresses his appreciation for our love and prayers, welcomes our emails and cards, but asks that we hold off on calls or visits for the time being.

The South Bay Quincenera is such a joyful occasion!  

This campus, in this location, was born of our congregation’s desire to put ourselves in a community where we could do local social justice work. Our South Bay Food Pantry was born from the marriage of that yearning and a community need I experienced when I taught at an elementary school we can walk to from here.
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When the Diaper Pantry was evolving from Maureen McNair’s idea to a room stacked with cartons of diapers at the South Bay campus, Mindy Hochgesang & her son Sebastian signed on as two of its first volunteers. Since then, Mindy and Sebastian have volunteered monthly at the pantry and Mindy has taken on leadership for the Pantry’s varied needs. She’s deployed a range of skills from the interpersonal to the statistical: recruiting and training volunteers, ordering diapers, wipes and other supplies—many large cartons— from the food bank each week, scheduling volunteers from Hillcrest and South Bay to work the Sunday distribution shifts as well as scheduling volunteers to receive deliveries of diapers and supplies mid-week, documenting and communicating diaper pantry policies and procedures, maintaining the statistics that the food banks, which supply the diapers, require, and the overall coordination and communication. Mindy has been a key person in organizing the teams and assuring that all this happens every week.

By Rhea Kuhlman, Pantry Volunteer
 
Families come in all shapes and sizes at the Food Pantry.  Some are grandparents raising their grandkids.  Some are single parent households or even two parent households.  Some are elderly on fixed incomes, or extended families with 3 or more generations living together. But there’s one thing these families all have in common.  With San Diego rents among the highest in the nation (average $2917/month per rentcafe.com), electricity rates the highest in the U.S. (thanks, SDG&E), and ever-rising food prices, people earning minimum wage or less cannot afford to provide nutritious food for their families.
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By Rhea Kuhlman, Pantry Volunteer
While most of our Food Pantry’s clients have homes, and many have one or more jobs, a few of our clients are unsheltered. Each week, we prepare about five bags of shelf stable food for homeless people, who have special needs due to their lack of a place or equipment to cook meals or store items that need refrigeration.
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