Please click here to fill out the online MVUC Volunteer Pledge for 2023.

Below is a link to your MVUC Volunteer Pledge form for 2023! All are welcome to fill this out – we would like to hear from everyone who volunteers in any way at MVUC – that includes members and friends as well as occasional visitors and contributors! Letting us know what you do means we can acknowledge and thank you!

The volunteer time, energy, and talent you contribute is one of MVUC’s most important resources, and it enables us to do a lot of good work.  We estimate that the dollar value of these contributions is roughly equivalent to the financial contributions we receive. Therefore, it is important to us that we recognize and steward this resource wisely.  

We are asking you to complete this volunteer pledge to help us understand the changing dynamics of volunteer capacity in our community. We know that because of lifestyle changes (retirement, illness, new children, empty nests, change of address, change of job, and so on) there might be increases or new capacity available or there might be reductions in capacity. Understanding these changes tended to happen informally when we met regularly (and almost always) in person, but in this new world where many participate in various aspects of church life virtually, we are exploring new ways of capturing this information, hence this Pledge.

In the Pledge we ask you to estimate your current level of commitment (over the past year) and what you anticipate your future level of commitment in 2023 will be. We ask you to indicate whether your time and energy commitment to a particular activity will be none (in which case don’t check any box) “modest,” “significant,” or “a lot.”  

In filling this out – it’s how you feel that is very important.  If you feel like you contribute a lot of time then that is your answer.  And it’s tricky, some activities like the Refugee or Boxwood Gardens Fundraisers weren’t over the whole year just for a few short weeks.  Helping with parking at Holiday Shop is just one day (that’s a modest tick under fundraising).  If you need guidance on time you could interpret on a weekly or an annualized basis. 

·       “modest” as less than an hour a week, or 50 hours a year

·       “significant” as 1-5 hours a week, or 50- 250 hours a year and 

·       “a lot” as 5 hours or more per week or more than 500 hours a year. 

We know that most people may only be ticking a few boxes in this chart. After you have indicated your volunteer efforts in the different categories please try and estimate whether you are “modest”, “significant,” or “a lot” on an overall basis. For example, for my part I am “modest” on worship, CAT, social justice and fundraising and am “significant” on administration. Overall, I indicate my contribution as “significant.”  My wife Jan is “modest” on administration, property and grounds, worship, and social justice and would indicate “significant” on fundraising.  Overall, her contributions sum to “a lot.”   

The second thing we are asking about is your participation in various MVUC activities. As a general rule of thumb, consider organizing, leading, or staffing (e.g., at the cash register) an MVUC activity as “volunteering” and consider attending, participating, or observing an activity as “participation.” Attending worship or participating in an Outdoor Fellowship walk is “participation,” whereas serving as a Worship Associate or organizing the Outdoor Fellowship walk is “volunteering.” Please use your judgment if it’s not immediately obvious how to label your time. 

We very much look forward to hearing from you about your engagement and involvement with Mount Vernon Unitarian Church.  We truly want to understand, recognize, and appreciate everyone’s talents and contributions in order make MVUC an even more vibrant community going forward. 

Please click here to fill out the online MVUC Volunteer Pledge for 2023.

Thank you,

John Speakman
Stewardship Chair