The GLOW team met for the second time last Sunday.  I volunteered to write a little something to introduce GLOW to the members and friends of UUCT. 

What is GLOW? Who are GLOW? Where did GLOW come from? Where is it going? 

If you do a Google search for GLOW, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling is the first entry. Although that might have been a fine show in the 90s, it is not what GLOW stands for at UUCT. 

GLOW stands for Growing, Leading Ourselves Whole. It is the creation of Kay Stuart-Tilley, as she pondered how the nuts and bolts work of keeping UUCT afloat as well as the many ministries that help us carry out our mission and vision could proceed. 

We all know that the army of Moms who kept the churches and PTAs and community agencies functioning has disappeared into our vibrant workforce with no time for bake sales and rallies. But our need to keep our church functioning as a place to charge our spiritual batteries continues. Our need for community grows as families move both nationally and internationally to support career paths. 

UUCT has been around for 50+ years and has had many many forms of leadership and governance as needs changed. GLOW is  a forum, a flexible team of volunteers whose members will identify needs, develop and implement solutions, measure their effectiveness, and then move on. There is no need for a year long commitment. 

For example, last week during one of the Sunday morning deluges, members were running along the south side of the church and were caught in run-off from the roof. Where are the gutters? Bob Deyle did a little digging and reported:

“Somebody, therefore likely made an explicit decision not to run a gutter along the sanctuary roof on the south side. From what I can see, that’s likely because there is no way to run a downspout to a place where it can drain without major expense. The grade goes up in the yard to the south rather than dropping as it does to the Memorial Garden on the north. Draining a gutter on the south side would like require running a drain pipe under the sidewalk into a sump dug into the lawn that would be large enough to hold runoff from several inches of rain falling on the sanctuary roof or doing a major tear up in front of the church (east side) to run a drain pipe to the Memorial Garden.”

Another question/concern raised at the meeting was why the church does not have a cell phone so that communication can include texts. That question is still open. If any of you reading this has phone knowledge, please jump in and help with the solution. 

GLOW will be meeting the third Sunday of each month after church in room L. There is also a zoom option if you can’t be present. The meetings are open to anyone with a few hours to donate to solve a particular problem or an interest in helping the many ministries of the church grow and nurture all of us. 

I hope to see you there on August 20th at 12:15 in room L.