Wednesday, February 1, 2017

January - Let's Track it Forward!

I have to admit I have been a little busy.  I have started several new blog posts, and then been side tracked with other things.  Isn't that how life is sometimes?  We have the best intentions and then other things or tasks get in the way.

So many things have been happening here this year.  I can't believe that I have been here a year and it has been so much fun to get to know everyone.  The last blog that I wrote had a pop quiz and it was specific to a cost that we incur here at UUCA - toilet paper.  The question was how many rolls of toilet paper did we use last year.  I had a total of three guesses.  You read that correctly - three.  The correct answer was 2,688.  The closest guess was by Al Himes and was 1750 rolls.  One of the things I have been looking at this year is just how much money we spend on the normal, daily things.  Toilet paper, water, electricity, gas, trash bags....and I can tell you that it all adds up.

One of the goals of this blog is to help communicate things going on around the church from a financial perspective.  The Annual Campaign kicks off this week, and I hope that you will keep a close eye on the weekly Connections newsletter where the team will be giving updates on our progress.

A few updates for you.

Track-it-forward is our tracking app for telling our congregational story.  During our annual leadership conference that was held last week, I talked about how important it will be to show growth and congregational engagement.  Your input is vital.  Driving into our parking lot on any evening you can see that we are busy.  This data will be able to show just how busy we really are and how our ministry areas are benefitting the lives of people at UUCA.
1.  Link:  http://www.trackitforward.com/site/unitarian-universalist-church-arlington-virginia
2.  Sign up and create a user name and password (note - this is not a UUCA owned application)
3.  Download the app on your smartphone on either iTunes or Android
4.  Log into the app
5.  Enter your hours

It's that simple! 

Data that we can see to date:
49 total users (we had over 80 attendees at the leadership conference last week)
2452 hours reported (Top 4 hour reporters are Diane Ullius - 503 hours; Bruce Rieder - 220 hours; Mollie Jewell - 181 hours; Jacomina DeRegt - 178 hours)  That's 44 percent of all volunteer hours between these four people alone!  Thank you!
64 Different activities have reported hours

Yelp! has recognized us!  Just this week we were notified that we were recognized as a place people love.  We received the coveted "People Love Us on Yelp" sticker and we will be displaying it on our door.  We are currently a Five Star rated business - the highest rated Unitarian Universalist church in the Northern Virginia area and the second highest rated church of any denomination overall.  Take a minute to go to here and give us a review.

One last thing - we are taking pre-orders for signs to show you welcome people to your home or business.  Here is a link to a google form to request signs.  We need at least 200 requests to make it feasible to order.  Each sign is $10 and that is only to cover the cost of production.  I'll be taking orders through the end of February and sending out updates as we receive orders.

Thanks for all of your help this past year making UUCA a place to connect, grow and serve.

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