Author: Jaco ten Hove

Job Description
(Approved by the Board on 5/16/24)

Rationale: The Treasurer maintains all financial records for UURMaPA, handles all income and expenses, and reports to the Board monthly on the financial status of the organization. The Treasurer sends memorial gifts for deceased members. For each fiscal year (January-December), the Treasurer prepares an annual Income/Expenses Report and a proposed Budget, in consultation with the Board. They work with the President on any fundraising appeal for contributions from our members. The Treasurer works with the VP to ensure that a periodic financial review is conducted. The Treasurer will periodically submit articles to Elderberries regarding UURMaPA’s financial status.

Expectations:  Specific tasks of the Treasurer include the following:

Financial Records:  The Treasurer requests authorization from the Board to open accounts in a bank or other financial institutions as needed and is empowered to oversee execution of needed agreements to complete the process.

Income:

• Contributions – UURMaPA’s chief source of revenue is voluntary contributions from members. The Treasurer works with the President to send appeal letters to encourage contributions and sends acknowledgement notes for those funds received.

• Memorial Donations and Bequests – UURMaPA regularly receives donations in memory of deceased members and has at times been notified that the organization is the beneficiary of bequests taken out by members through gifts to the UUA. Memorial gifts are currently placed in the UURMaPA Endowment Fund or other fund as determined by the Board. Large bequests may be allocated to projects as determined by the Board. The Treasurer may be given responsibility for acknowledging any of these gifts on behalf of the Board.

• Endowment Fund – As of 2013, the UURMaPA Endowment Fund was invested in the UUA Common Endowment Fund. The Treasurer was empowered to execute that initial transaction and to make future deposits upon receipt of endowment contributions.

• Grants – UURMaPA may apply for and receive grant funds to support special projects. The Treasurer keeps separate accounting for these grant funds and prepares timely reports as needed.

Expenses:

• Reimbursements – UURMaPA will reimburse expenses incurred on behalf of the organization by Board members and others. The Treasurer should be consulted by anyone planning to incur non-routine expenses. The Treasurer requires receipts and documentation submitted by those requesting reimbursements.

• Memorial gifts – Currently, $50 gifts are sent by the Treasurer upon the death of a member. If a ministerial death, the gift goes to the UUMA Endowment Fund; for a partner death, the $50 goes to a charity of the family’s choice. If there is no designation, the $50 will go to the UUMA Endowment Fund.

Reports: Contributions to UURMaPA are tax deductible. The Treasurer annually files with the IRS the required non-profit corporation forms (including a tax return if UURMaPA annual income should exceed $50,000.) The Treasurer also files an annual report with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in November.  They may file online at https://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corp/loginsystem/login_form.asp?FilingMethod, CID# is: bx3k28 and the PIN is:8958. 

Compiled April 2023;  minor revisions made May 2024 – Richard Speck, Treasurer

Do you want to strengthen your connections with other UURMaPAns? Here are three opportunities:

Join a PEER SUPPORT ZOOM GROUP:

70 UURMaPAns are now involved in 11 regular Zoom Groups.
Though self-governing as to format and schedule, most groups:

> Have 5-8 members
> Choose a Convenor/Facilitator member
> Meet monthly for a 90-minute session to:

* open and close with a reading
* give each member 5 minutes to share “How is it with thy Spirit?”
* spend the remaining time discussing a topic chosen at the prior session (and choosing the next session’s topic.)
> At 6-month intervals, free all to “depart with thanks” or re-commit for 6 months more.

To explore joining or forming a Peer Support group, email fhudson@uuma.org. 

Try out a SPECIAL INTEREST ZOOM GROUP:

We currently have 2 open Special Interest Groups. Learn more by contacting the Convenors directly.

> Care-givers: Makannah Morris (revs2uu@aol.com); Sylvia Howe (sylhowe42@gmail.com) > Grief Support: Duane Fickeisen (dfickeisen@uuma.org)

Partner with (or become) a LOCAL AREA CONNECTOR:

Our membership is clustered into 33 Geographical Areas. In 8 areas, Area Connectors now offer:

> orientation to newly retired & new-to-area UURMaPAns
> annual check-in contact with continuing Area UURMaPAns > support to survivors at an Area UURMaPAn’s death

Check out your Area’s listing: https://uurmapa.org/resources/#Area-Connectors > If your Area has a Connector, contact them to join in their ministry.
> If your Area has no Connector, email fhudson@uuma.org to become one.

Let’s Connect!
Fritz Hudson, Connections Coordinator

MAY, 2024

Dear Friends,

Good news! At our request, Empower added a housing allowance check box to their RMD (required minimum distribution) form.

As you hopefully already know, retired clergy taking distributions may choose to complete a Housing Allowance Distribution Form, rather than the other Empower withdrawal forms, to have taxes suppressed (not withheld) and to receive a form 1099-R that states “taxable amount not determined.”

What is new this month is this: If you wish to request a housing allowance RMD payment and have Empower calculate the RMD amount, you can now complete the RMD form and select the YES box for housing allowance. Call Empower to complete this over the phone or have them send you the RMD form (833-882- 2023).

You can follow this link to see instructions: Completing the RMD Form for Housing Allowance. Please contact us with questions.

In partnership,
The UUA Retirement Plan Team:

Rev. Richard Nugent, Church Staff Finances Director
Gloria Guldager, Retirement Plan Director
Jackie Toone, Retirement Plan Employer Liaison
Anna Gehres, Retirement Plan Specialist

retirementplan@uua.org, (617) 948-6421

This is the season of endings and beginnings. Commencement exercises in various institutions mark the end of years of study and the beginning of a new stage in life. Some of our UU congregations are calling or hiring new leadership staff, and ministries are beginning and ending. Here in UURMaPA we are welcoming newly retired ministers and partners or spouses into this community and into a new stage in their lives.

A quick way of describing UURMaPA is to highlight its role as a hub of connection. It is a rather loosely based community that is made up of people automatically enrolled in it by virtue of their statement of retirement from active ministry. What you do with your membership in UURMaPA is totally up to you. But I, for one, hope you will find some way to be active in it—by being part of a Zoom-based group, or attending conferences, or taking part in planing those conferences, or just every so often being in touch with fellow UURMaPAns.

As I’ve thought more about the themes presented in our conference this past April, I’m reflecting on the idea of being an elder. As I noted in my words for the conference ingathering, I wonder how we embrace being an elder in a culture that, as best I can tell, has not prepared us for this.

I know that I see myself as something more than the “senior citizen” caricature or stereotype prevalent in our culture. In that ingathering text I found insight in words from David Whyte’s book Consolations: the Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words (Many Rivers Press; Revised edition, 2021). There’s a reflection on “maturity,” which I know is technically not the same as “elderhood,” but it resonated with me.

“Maturity,” he writes, “calls us to risk ourselves as much as immaturity [does], but this risk is for a bigger picture, a larger horizon, for a powerfully generous outward incarnation of our inward qualities—and not for gains that make us smaller, even in the winning.” So as we navigate what it means to “be retired,” we might also consider how we are consciously engaging being an elder. And this might mean embracing risk.

Maybe we thought we were done with all that. Risk and adventures may be left behind as we settle into times of rest and reflection. Maybe such wildness is meant for those of younger years. But I think here the “risk” is not so much a moment of danger or one of unsure returns. Rather, we may be asking ourselves to risk being who we’ve been becoming over all these long years. Embracing elderhood is inviting us to be open, enlarging ourselves to that possibility.

Wherever we are on that journey toward embracing and becoming elders in whatever setting we find ourselves, UURMaPA can be an important part of the story for many of us. This is a community unique in the way it exists between and among other communities—between our families, our home communities, our religious affiliations (if we are still active in some kind of religious organization or congregation) and other places where we find connection.

So as we move into the summer season, shifting from one mode of being to another, may we find renewal, and perhaps energy to risk being who we are becoming. And it is my hope that whatever path you’re on, you’ll make UURMaPA a part of your journey!

Yours, in the faith, Susan
Susan Veronica Rak (retired but not retiring!)