0:17  
Okay, Gail, thank you for meeting with me. I really, appreciate it. Okay, you've been recommended

0:24  
to tell us about the before and the after.

0:29  
So the before, the really ancient before was the traditional be rotated, uu history, world religions,

0:41  
peace and justice, and I'm forgetting something here, Judeo Christian values, and we had a three year rotation with curriculum that we used, and then our program kind of fell apart. This is before the pandemic. And we offered nothing for a while. And then the DRE at that time set up.

1:00  
You often so, like, so people are in in the sanctuary, all ages, and then when, yeah, the kids leave after, what would programming look like if you offered nothing?

1:14  
I'm not sure what happened. I was not involved for a while. Um, so I was so,

1:21  
let me back up a little bit like years ago, I was the volunteer Dre when my kids were little. This is like, you know, 30 years ago. And then I was involved various times, teaching different age groups. And then I kind of stepped away and did other things like membership. And then, so about 10 years ago, I don't really know what was happening, but I know they had a Dre that left. They couldn't find anyone. They kind of stopped the programming. And so I guess the kids just, I guess they had childcare, or you sat in the sanctuary, yeah. And then a year before, then pandemic, a

1:54  
new person took over, and he structured it differently, more of a Montessori approach. They had a nature room and a reading room and an art room, and the kids could kind of decide what they felt like doing it. And I think they had a template that you had opening and closing, and I think they had some ritual involved that sounds Yeah. And so I think now it would be kind of termed a maker space, is maybe the terminology for it. And he said things like, the congregation is the curriculum. So he was saying this like, and now you're hearing that a lot, and he was saying this without attending any liberta workshops or anything.

2:33  
And then I think the kids liked it. They, you know, we had dwindled quite a bit, but they probably had, I don't know, a dozen kids. And then the pandemic hit. And so he resigned, because he felt like there was nothing to do. So we had absolutely nothing in 2020 and then in the fall of 2020 it was really bugging me that there was nothing. And so I and some other people, we put together parties in a bag. We used to have a Halloween party every year, so once the dollar store got these backpacks, and we put a roll of toilet paper so you could play mummy and popcorn, so you could eat popcorn and a little pumpkin and markers and stickers. And I forget what else was in there. And there was a little list saying here, so you can have a Halloween party at home. And then there were a bunch of people willing to deliver. You know, all the grandmas were like, Oh, get me off the house. Let me go drive somewhere. Let me deliver. So I had my dining table and assembled everything. It was, mean, you know, a lot of dollars to ourselves. And that was a real hit. And the families felt like, Oh, you thought about us.

3:33  
So then I think in December, we did another one, had a little gingerbread house kid in it. And I forget what else, some craft things. And I think we did a third one in the spring with more seeds and plant related I can't but each one had a little piece of paper explaining what to do. So I believe we did three deliveries. So that was in 2020, 2021,

3:56  
and I'm trying to remember when we started some outdoor events. I think the next step was we started some so by 2021, people were getting vaccinated. So I think we had some quarterly, let's meet at this playground, or let's meet at this place and hike. And so we did that maybe every other month. And then I'm forgetting, let me look, I have a spreadsheet. Let me see when we started up again.

4:22  
So it was May of 2022

4:26  
when we actually started back in the building.

4:30  
And then we pretty much met outdoors. We kept it as outdoors as we could, and we had a template put together that we had our opening words we did name games. We wanted the kids to learn who each other was, and we did joys and concerns. And when we talked to the parents, they said, We're not so interested in curricula right now, our kids need to relearn how to socialize with each other. Yeah, and and at one point, Reverend ship had attendance on.

5:00  
They said the acronym bem belonging, ease and a little bit of meaning was what they were striving for. And the most recent Laredo workshop I went to, they had one for starting up the year, and they said ease and joy and something else. I forget what the third one was, but I've been sticking with let's keep it easy. Let's make the kids belong, but let's try to impart a little bit of wisdom to them, so that in 2022

5:26  
we invited people from the congregation to share a talent. So the kids learned how to juggle. The kids learn how to sing rhymes. The kids had a day of Tai Chi. They had a day of croquet. But it's within the format of we gathered. We had opening words, we shared, they learned each other's names, and then we had the activity, and then we gathered at the end, and we talked about, is there something you're grateful for? And so that the main block, the activity, was the main activity. And so we weren't trying to read stories, and we weren't trying to make him have a long attention span. It was mainly outdoors, in the yard. So we did that for about a year. Oh, and then somebody, a family, offered to start doing Dungeons and Dragons once a month. And so then it kind of morphed to there were about three of us teaching, and I was using once a month the

6:22  
so then we had a theme once a month. A theme was one of the seven principles. So we picked a principle, and I did a lesson the first Sunday of the month on that and then the next person usually was more hurt and crafty, but we tie in

6:36  
the principle. And then, for example, D and D, you know, you can talk about, well, is this democratic, or are we being kind to each other? Are we searching for truth together? So it was just very lightly hit upon. So it was just one principle per month. And the activities I was using the we believe curriculum. I didn't really go through it, but I would look at a lesson and say, Okay, this activity works, and this activity works. Yes, I was just going to ask if that's the one you used. Yes, that's Yeah, yeah. We had copies of it, and I remember teaching on a bit years ago.

7:10  
And so we use the we believe.

7:13  
So I kind of did more of a lesson one at the beginning of the month, and then the DND was more free play, but they talked about it, and the other person would come up with our own activities, and they talk about it. So we did that for about a year, and then we were just planning on running out of ideas. So then I said, oh, we need some curriculum. So we're still doing like at this time, a one room schoolhouse, right? Although let me go back. Why? Why did you feel like you needed the curriculum? What was it? What were you running out of original ideas. It was getting tiring for us to be original. Yeah, got it, yes. And I also felt, I checked with the parents, felt like we were ready to move forward a little bit and add in some meaning,

7:54  
and we just needed, but we always regard the curriculum as just sort of suggestions, like you don't have to stick to every activity. So we were able to offer high school owl last year, so we did have an activity for the high schoolers, and then we had the one room schoolhouse the K through eighth grade. And we tried using the cartoons curriculum. It's videos from Dizzy shorts. We used it for a couple months, but we weren't really fond of it. It just wasn't grabbing us. So we ditched that.

8:28  
And then we started using

8:31  
the Lego values curriculum. I'm sure you're familiar with that, yeah. But then we got to so we started that maybe in May, and then we got to summer, and the parents said, Oh, we'd really like more fun and playing outdoors. So I purchased

8:45  
What was the name of it? I think it came from Soul matters, and it focused on imagination and curiosity.

8:55  
And there were eight lessons now we skipped the one where it was tasting different types of fish. We just thought that's not going to go over. But one of them was create an obstacle course, and one of them was create a fairy house outdoors, and one of them was junk art. So again, we stuck with our template of our opening and our joys and concerns, and then you could go outdoors and do this other thing, and then we would sometimes we still did the D and D once a month because that was so wildly popular,

9:26  
but I noticed, like the five year olds weren't so good at D and D. So then last summer, we started a second class on D and D Sundays that was more play oriented, but it was the five, six year old crowd that couldn't sit for D so then we actually split into two classes. So I'm thinking we're making a little progress here, so we're continuing to do that

9:49  
we have. So now we now we're back to Lego values. Now that the school year started, we're doing the Lego values. And again,

9:56  
we're not really doing exactly as written, because they get a.

10:00  
Story in the sanctuary, and then they're released, and if we read another story to go the curriculum, immediately they're all sat out. So we kind of do it backwards. We do an activity first, after our opening and our joys and concerns, and we do something active. So instead of tying the activity to the story, we're tying the story to the activity. And

10:21  
so after they've had some movement and some activity, and then one time it was doing sculpture. So while they're all sculpting, I read them the story. I mean, they were quiet as little mice, because their hands are so busy, busy, busy working. And that's been working well. And then we also make sure there's

10:40  
more outdoor time, like, usually the last 10 or 15 minutes, we just go outside, like, whether there's more activities to do or not, with a curriculum, if it's a nice day, we get outside. So a little bit less focus on curriculum, but still a little bit of we needed the activities suggestions, and so the Lego values is nice. I'm liking that quite a bit, except we have a bunch of kids that don't like Legos, so we're doing the alternate activity. It's always an alternate so now we are we were supposed to have middle school out. No, we did middle school our last year. We were supposed to do high school this year. Sorry, I got that backwards.

11:20  
The high school, all curriculum is not available,

11:24  
and so we were able to offer it.

11:27  
So I did want to start offering something for middle school. So once a month we're doing the fifth dimension. That's that Twilight Zone. We just started it last month so that the sixth and seventh and eighth graders can have a break from the kindergartners. So once a month, the middle schoolers get the Twilight Zone curriculum. And once a month, there's D and D,

11:50  
and then those Sundays, there's an alternate we have a Legos lesson for the younger kids, or the kids that don't care for D and D, and so it's pretty much, your child kind of decides what activity they want to do. Well, the fifth dimension is, really, we're seeing it's for fourth and fifth grade and up. And how do like, if I'm a newer family, how? How would my kiddo know where to go?

12:16  
So there's only one or two rooms. Usually, I have a chance to see people ahead of time and kind of explain to them, because I'm there early and milling around, if you see a new family come in,

12:29  
yeah, I would say pretty much, we grab them ahead of time. Yeah, nice. And so all the children start out together in the sanctuary.

12:37  
They light the chalice, they have a story for their children. They sing their children out.

12:42  
And so yeah, the newcomers, we have to explain it to them definitely. Yeah. And how do you how do you find, like the the volunteers to to be with the kids? I don't know if you call them teachers or

12:55  
Well, so far, I've been really lucky that I have two really dedicated parents. So we have childcare for four and under

13:05  
there's usually one or two. And so the childcare person often, if she has just one child, she might drift into our room and be kind of a second helper. And the greeters are just outside, and they can walk down and, you know, peek in. And so we

13:21  
feel fairly confident about that. And whenever we go outside, the paid childcare person often will accompany us. So there's two adults outside,

13:31  
unless it's, you know, if I have just four, and we range from maybe three to 10 kids in attendance.

13:37  
So pretty much we're all going into the same room, except for it just started these two Sundays a month where we not going in the same room. But I also created a Facebook Messenger Page Three years ago, and so the parents, like, usually the Friday or Saturday before, we explain to the parents what's going on. Hey, this week it's D, and D, they're going to be in a room, blah, blah, blah, and there's also going to be lessons for the kids that don't want to do. DND, hey, this week is a lesson on interdependence, and we're all together, so it's just somebody who's brand new that doesn't get that information. Got it and, and, yeah, so there's not, I mean, we're not a huge church, so there's not, like, a ton of people walking in the door, although sometimes you get three new families on one day,

14:25  
you just never know.

14:28  
So we're back to using some curricula, but sort of curricula light. We're using it for the ideas, for the themes and the ideas and the stories, and then we still have, once a month of social activity.

14:42  
So we have some traditions. Like Sunday was our annual Halloween party, which used to be held inside the church. And it used to be the teenagers put it on for the little kids when we had a real active teen group. Well, life changes. We don't have teens.

15:00  
Things, and the idea in 2022 of having an indoor party with kids bobbing for apples seemed pretty disgusting to all of us. So there's a park less than a mile from my house and maybe a mile from the church, and we rent the pavilion, and right next to it's a playground, and there's bathroom facilities. So we had,

15:26  
it was after church, and we do chili and baked potatoes, and someone else brings desserts. So it's the most simple meal you can imagine. It's a vegan, gluten free meal. There might be some corn chips or popcorn. Somebody might show up with Halloween candy, and we do vegan Rice Krispie treats, so the vegans have something to eat, and we just gather after church. And they now, last year it rained and it was freezing cold, but people still came and we had a cover. And so we have a craft table where there's pumpkin, tic tac toe, there's coloring. There was make a skeleton out of macaroni. There's painting something, painting pumpkins. So there's four or five crafts lined up if it rains. We had a tarot card reader this year. The weather was gorgeous, so the kids did some of the crafts, but they really played on the playground, and the parents got together and chat with each other, and someone had brought a card game, and the parents started playing together, and we could just see the kids. I mean, the kids are within sight at this beautiful city playground,

16:35  
and we had about 35 people, kids, adults and one dog.

16:39  
Most parents. Most parents, most were parents, but a few non parents come, and a few grandparents bring their grandkids. And my grandkids don't come to church, but my daughter will bring them to this outdoor event.

16:52  
And then this other grandma, her grandson, was in preschool with my grandchildren, so they had this lower union, like, oh, preschool friend is here. So there was just, it was just beautiful. There was a couple moms that both had a baby the same age and both had an older child, and I saw them chatting with each other.

17:08  
So that's in that's Halloween. And then we do Friday night board game night, oh, about every other month, six to eight. And I buy the really cheap pizza, the $3 pizza,

17:21  
and throw up some fruits and vegetables, make it look healthy, and they can eat before they come, or they can just snack while they're there, and if they want to play hide and seek or Twister. So we have board games in the conference room, and the kids can play the board games. It varies. Sometimes the kids want to play the games, and other times, I'm entertaining the kids out in the and they get the run of the church. They can play hide and see just gonna say hide and seek in your church. Oh my gosh, that's Yeah. Fun memories of that as a kid. Yeah, yeah. Like under the sound system, behind the pulpit. You know, you'd be amazed at where these kids find a hide. And then sometimes the games night we would do, we would have one table of Ask a church member to help with a craft. We have one person that does polymer clay. She came one time. We have some that does greeting cards where you stamp. I don't know she did that for was that may for Mother's Day. I forget what, but it was a holiday theme. So sometimes we have an extra craft table in addition,

18:22  
this time, we're gonna have a Euchre table, because some of the kids are starting to like to play Euchre. So then we might be more altogether. But if some younger ones come, if it's nice weather, I take them out in the yard, so it's just really free flowing. What do you kids feel like doing? And then we have to remind them on Sunday morning. We don't play tag or hide and seek inside the church on Sunday morning, so we

18:45  
have to kind of remind them of that. So that's several times a year in May, we do a playground meetup. We just meet at a playground from one to three, and I bring water and cups and snacks.

19:00  
Now, how do you stay organized? You've got, it sounds like, like, all these things you just like, now, like we did, this is it. Do you have, like, a big calendar that you put stuff? We have a Google spreadsheet. Yes, okay, Google spreadsheet. So we meet about every two months, and we fill in the Google Spreadsheet. Who's the one? I said, Oh, the team. So we, we rebranded ourselves. We are the Dream Team, the directors of religious education and mindfulness.

19:29  
So there are three of us that are kind of planning things. It used to be the teachers were the team. And this year we've got the D and D person and the fifth dimension person. Don't really attend the meetings.

19:43  
And I have one person, two people from last year kind of dropped out that were coming to the committee meetings, the team meetings. I'm retired. I'm used to being busy. I don't sit still very well, and so I'm really happy to like the Halloween party. You know, you go down the church basement, there's all these tubs of.

20:00  
Things. Oh, let's do this craft and this craft and, oh, I need the plates and knives and forks and spoons. And I just, throughout the week, gather things in bags. And the night before, I threw the chili together and plugged in my crock pot at 7am the next morning,

20:13  
and other people helped with some of the food. So it's sort of a party in a bag, you know, party to go.

20:19  
So we sit, we just met, and we mapped out who's teaching when in November and December, and then we made it through the beginning of January, and then we meet again in January. So certain people teach a certain Sunday of the month, and we know our curricula, and we know who's doing what, when. So we have this spreadsheet. It's, yeah, it's a Google spreadsheet that I can share with everybody. So then after the meeting, I update it and I send it out so everybody has the same spreadsheet they're working off of. Okay, so that's how we're retired. So are you? Are you an employee of the church or a volunteer? It's volunteer. So we're all so the team. So after the pandemic, we just weren't real. Well, there were several things going the church didn't have enough money to pay anybody. That was part of it. There was a, it was like a $20,000 deficit budget.

21:10  
And so it started with another person, Becky, who's no longer with the church. She and I were the directors. And then the following year, we added on, and now we have more directors, so there's kind of three of us now that are the most active, and so we are not being paid.

21:29  
There's a lot of stuff we don't do. For example, we're not planning any intergenerational services.

21:36  
So there is going to be one in November, and someone on our Dream Team is also on the Sunday service team, and so she's planning an intergenerational one.

21:47  
And so I've given her a few. I She's been at other UU churches, and I've seen them happen. So I don't pick out the story for the minister. Every week, the minister is in charge of doing that, so yes, I'm not paid, but we're not doing what full Dre would do either, right? I'm thinking of some of the administrative stuff, like

22:10  
background checks. I'm doing those. We're, yeah, I'm doing the administrative things. And for example, we were re looking at our website. We're searching for a minister, and we're trying to make sure our website's up to date. And lo and behold, it says on our website that our teachers sign a code of conduct or a code of ethics. I looked high and low for code of ethics and couldn't

22:33  
find one, but that first congregation for something like that happens, yes. So I'm part of the Northern cluster Loreta, Michigan and Indiana Loretta. And so I asked them, Hey, do you guys have a code of ethics? And I Googled it, and I got five different versions. And so I took that to our last meeting, and we selected one with some edits. And so as a team, we but I did the legwork. I like, got them and printed them out or sent them out to them. So I'm doing the administrative kinds of stuff, and that reminds me, I need to type up the next attendance log. Yeah, we didn't know you're supposed to keep attendance, but that's a legal thing. So now we're doing that.

23:14  
We are doing background checks. So the I think of the

23:19  
like, the the positive pieces like this, the storytelling to, I think of reports to the board, or whoever you would report to as be the positive. So who does that piece? So I'm the so I'm also on the board, so I'm the board liaison to the Dream Team. And so I just, every month right up two or three. I mean, it depends. Like, in September, it's like, here's the big picture of what all curriculum we're using, and I write the annual reports for the end of the year, report the budget we it pretty much is the same from year to year, but I'll bring it up at the team meeting, like, Hey, should we ask for the same budget? Or I, you know, I had old people that need to be trained, so I knew to ask for more for teacher training that year. And this year, the same teachers were going to come back until we couldn't get a hold of the curriculum.

24:14  
So, yeah, I'm doing the administrative things. And I remember some of that from years ago, when I was the, you know, volunteer person. So there, the goal would be to get back to having a hired person, because I think there's more that could be done.

24:31  
Like I don't feel if I'm not there. On a given Sunday, I let people know I'm not there, and, you know, like one of the other two people, I say, Hey, make sure the nursery care person shows up, and if she doesn't, you're going to be stuck in the nursery. So I don't consider it a job, but it is on my mind that I need to make sure everything's covered if I travel, for example. Right? Okay, so is the is the nursery person paid? Yes. Okay, then who's there?

25:00  
Um, they are,

25:01  
I'm so I signed the Yeah, so I signed the time, I signed the time cards for that. Now that we're like, supervisor, not like, Yeah, I'm kind of Yeah, because I know if they showed up or if they didn't.

25:15  
So who is like, if something and May it never happen, but if something horrible happened, when that, you know, hits the fan. Who do you then go to? Who does the dream team go to? Well, I would have gone to the minister.

25:29  
And we don't have a minister right now. No chip used to be a minister. He's gone. We're searching, right? Okay, you're in search. Okay, yeah, we're in search. Yeah. I would probably consult with the board president. Then

25:44  
I'm

25:47  
trying to think, it's so hard, isn't it, when you've got policies and protocols. Like, whenever a congregation would call me and be like, Oh my gosh, we just stepped in it. What do you hope I would ask him, you know, I would CO at them and say what your policies and protocols say? Because often, if we're anxious, we don't remember that piece of it, but if you're in transition.

26:08  
So I'm a policy person, so because of my last job where I had to write policy, I will fall back on policy. Yeah, I think we're missing some policies. We can't find the one that says our caregiver has to be 18 or over, and I know that was put in place a number of years ago. So we have an Administrative Committee that's coming through policies, and we're hoping to find things. So, yeah, if we So, part of the reason I want to be part of a team was to deflect criticism, because when there's a paid person, they complain to that person. Yeah, and having a team and different people getting up and making announcements, and not just me, it's it's not my show, it's our show. Yeah, I had the masters of education. It was secondary. I've raised three kids. I've got four grandkids now. So now I'm revisiting what one year olds do, and what four year olds do, what six year olds do? We have a couple kids that are on the spectrum, and so when this one little boy wants to talk about Minecraft for 20 minutes in a row,

27:10  
or they want to go sit in a corner and do something else while we read a story, I get that it's fine. They're not disturbing us. There was one time I had to take a little boy out and say, You need to go sit with your grandmother. They were being so disruptive he and his younger brother that the other kids were saying, why don't you pretend you're a statue?

27:30  
So I just was like, yeah, yeah. I wasn't mad about it. It's just but other kids weren't enjoying it. It just wasn't productive. So much less, you know,

27:39  
when you when you have your own children and you're trying to be a Dre you're really stressed, yeah, I have no little kids to deal with, and I can relax all week long. Yeah. And so I met us, I don't it's harder to get up off the floor than it used to be, but

27:55  
my my stress levels are so much lower than when I worked full time and had a million things going on in my head.

28:01  
That's so good, because I can come in a much calmer personally than I used to be. Yeah,

28:09  
what advice do you have? Although there's a lot of advice embedded in all that, what you just said. So why? Well, I think what advice. So the reason, the reason we started doing the social things, was to get that sense of belonging. And so I'll put that when we have so we have a newsletter. It goes out once a week. So I make sure things get in the newsletter, and then whoever's teaching that week gets things in the weekly chat for the parents.

28:33  
So I'll say, while we're having this intergenerational games night, so that the kids can get to know other people. I put the reason for the social event in there, or when we're announcing it from the pulpit, so that the kids will feel part of a larger community. So we were trying to explain why we do social things, just to educate

28:54  
everybody else.

28:57  
So I really like the make the sense of belonging, make it easy for everybody, and let's have a little meaning. So now we're working on the values, but we're going to burn through those values. And I need something for next semester.

29:11  
But I just saw something on the right of webs Facebook page about that. Oh, an island thing. It's like you're I forget the name of the mystic Isle, or something like that.

29:23  
Somebody made a curriculum where you're it's, it's not really about the values, but you're working as a team to find this treasure. Kind of stuff. We're a little bit flying by the seat of our pants, somewhat like I don't have next semester figured out entirely, and I'm listening to what the parents want, and the parents are saying, we really want our kids to feel part of community. We really want our kids to feel belonging. We really want active things for the kids. And so I'm and they really the D and D. We get more kids coming that Sunday than any other Sunday.

29:58  
The handling party we had.

30:00  
I think 13 kids. So we have maybe a total of

30:04  
16 or so registered,

30:07  
maybe 18 at the most. So it was a really good turnout for the party. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, well, I'm glad you're researching this. It sounds fascinating. Yeah, you're so creative. You're so creative. I appreciate that you, yeah, it was really nice meeting you. Yeah.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai