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Just the facts, ma'am...
Gaia Community is a spiritual home to many different kinds of people, and
some of those folks have gone the extra mile in their commitment to Gaia to
become "Full Active Members" of the community. You don't
have to be a member to come to our rituals or classes, to join the
yahoogroup, or to participate in many of our activities. In fact,
many people decide to participate at Gaia Community without becoming members.
This is fine - the more the merrier! But what is membership about?
What do you have to do? How does it benefit you?
Why have membership at all?
Well, for one thing, we're a Unitarian Universalist congregation. In
order to maintain this affiliation with the UUA, we need to keep track of how
many people consider this "their church." There are
some other legal reasons... like keeping our church status as recognized by
the government and such. But it also helps us know who, of the people
who come to Gaia, are the folks willing to dedicate time, effort, and support
to our community. It helps us know who cares deeply about Gaia
Community's continued existence and prosperity. There are other ways to help, of course,
and many people do - but without financial support from our members, we cannot pay the rent,
the bills, our Religious Education Director... all those horribly mundane details that we each
deal with in our non-Gaian lives as well. Gaia Community is a living, growing, thriving congregation,
and it needs all the support it can get!
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The guidelines for membership were established by the membership committee.
They are:
to take the new member class to learn an
overview of the history of the UUA and Gaia Community and how we function
as a community. (education is good, ignorance is bad)
to sign the membership book indicating
you are in accordance with our Mission-Covenant
Statement and the Seven UUA Principles.
to fill out a pledge card for each fiscal
year, pledging at least the minimum amount required to cover the aforementioned
benefits package;
to keep up-to date on that pledge, or at
least cover our costs for the benefit package;
At this time the minimum pledge works out to $10 per month.
Those who donate more are able to help defray the costs of rent, paying our KidSPACE director
and Childcare staff, and other expenses of the community. We appreciate all that is given, whether it is pledged donations, loose bills and change
(called "Greening the Basket"), or donations from friends and former members who live at a distance but wish to support our growing community.
All funds collected in excess of expenses for a given year go to our New Home Fund, which will eventually support our permanent home and site.
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