The following is a summary of a Board of Trustees discussion held at the 3/8 meeting.

Cost of changing our name: The Board’s best estimate for costs associated with the change of our name is less than $1,000. Between a grant from our UUA Midwest region and a possible crowd-sourced “Faithify” campaign for the remaining costs, much of this cost will be taken care of. Please vote on the concept of the change in name rather than its costs.

Plans for considering a new name: Plans are being developed to come up with a new name, although it is premature to describe these in detail until the vote is taken. Elements would include:

• A task force made up of interested members who will design a detailed process
• Brainstorming by the congregation (many names have already been submitted) as well as by professionals who specialize in naming
• A process by which the congregation will whittle down a large number of names to a favored few and then take a final

If the congregation votes not to change the name

• TJUC will continue to examine issues of racism and white privilege in accordance with the call to action issued by the UUA, recognizing, as we do this work, that we may confront the issue of our church name in the future
• Realize that we will need to communicate why we have decided to keep Thomas Jefferson as our name on our website and in other ways to the larger community
• We would continue to build our own Beloved community

The Board knows that a few in our congregation feel the decision about our name is an internal matter, not something that the community is or should be concerned with. However, we, your Trustees, feel that our name speaks to the community, the UUA, and potential settled ministers about who we are. We are concerned about how we are perceived and believe that many, especially younger people and African Americans, find Thomas Jefferson’s legacy offensive. New information has come to light about this founding father. Thus, while it would be lovely to say that our vote on the name change ends the matter once and for all, we doubt this to be the case should the congregation vote to keep the TJ name. This is what a Board should do – consider the big picture of the actions we take.

Look for an email soon requesting new submissions regarding pros and cons to our name change; let’s keep this conversation going!

With respect and deep gratitude for this community, Deborah Novgorodoff, President, BOT