Isles of Shoals Association (Unitarian Universalist), Inc.
ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Virtual Meeting
Present: Ali Walton, Molly Mansfield, John Anderson, Amy Meek, Arlyn Weeks, Carrie Jones, Catherine Jenkins, Cheryl Doty, Connie Lentz, Cory Easter, Deb Weiner Soule, Irmingard Doane, Jane Soule, Mark Soule, Janice Prochaska, Joanne Bulley, Jocelyn Pierce, John “Tony” Thomas, Joe Watts, Tom Mansfield, Mark Adams, Kristen Simard, Linda Pollack-Johnson, Marlene Smurzynski, Miriam Coe, Nick Bresinsky, Plasha Will, Sarah Hawkins, Sean Elliot, Melanie Elliot, Scott Stewart, Suzy Bender Binzel, Tom Smurzynski, Rosemary Smurzynski
Not able to attend (ISAUU Board of Directors): Lisa Jennings, Lisa Nelson, Deb Walton, Patti Washburn, Tricia Coleman, Nicholas Baudler, Fiona Monllor, Gabrielle Prochaska
Meeting opened at 1:03 pm Eastern.
Opening Words - A brief welcome from Ali and a thank you to all who are a part of this organization.
Star Island Corporation Update | Joe Watts, SIC CEO
Joe said thank you to ISAUU for all that you do for Star Island!
Conference Season Update:
2025 was a good summer
The theme was Community this year - reflecting where we are in our local community and relevant to where we are as a country
Launched some new initiatives this year:
Reenvisioned housekeeping and improved cleanliness
Pelican and Conferee interactions - more than normal levels of interaction and increased customer service this year
Music - Pelicans performed at conference social hours
Food service - continue to upgrade and meet dietary needs
Enrollments were was up, back to pre-pandemic amounts
Bednights were the same as 2017 and 2018
2019 was all time record high and didn’t quite get to that level
Return of some folks who hadn’t been back in ages
A lot of new folks, which is great
Had a few medical incidents and evacuations this summer
Had nine known cases of COVID-19 this year but had a handle on it as now it is mostly normalized in our communities
Had a great deal of positive feedback from conferees in evaluations
Really focused on cleanliness this year and conferee feedback was positive about these changes
Biggest capital investment this year:
Underworld and Pelican Hall, Pelican Dining Area, Social Space
Financially:
Don’t have Annual Fund year end results yet, but Joe thinks Star Island will be on track financially
Set a budget of net income of $123,000 for the past year on a roughly $5 million budget
SIC budgeted 19,218 bednights and had 20,171 bednights, which means just over 4,000 people spent a night or more on the island this year! This is 5% more people than anticipated, which is great!
Joe gave special recognition to the ISAUU for contributing a $50K record-breaking donation this year! (Even more than last year’s record-breaking $45K!) And Joe remarked how, with a budgeted net income of $123,000, the ISAUU $50,000 contribution is a significant part of that net result.
Coming up:
Starry Night fundraising event is next weekend, please come
Speaker is Ann Beattie: 150th Anniversary of the Oceanic
Holiday Auction starting later this month
Looking for big ticket items like a vacation home visit, so if you want to donate reach out to Joe or Chelsea Haskell
Determining any room and board rate increase
Very excited for next summer
Expecting good enrollments
Labor Day calendar shift - it will be on September 7th (late) this year, and so it will be true that most conferences will start a week later than they usually do (this will happen in 2032 too)
Launching the Pelican applications next month
Please help in promoting to get good applicant pool
Annual Fund
Please help us reach the Annual Fund goal if you haven’t given yet
Please help spread the word
Two-thirds of expenses is covered by room and board, the rest is “subsidized” by the Annual Fund
There will be a year-end push with the conference representatives reaching out to their conferences too
Thank yous:
To Ali for all that she does leading the ISAUU
Thanks to the ISAUU for everything we do for Star Island!
Presentation | House Keeping for Our Spirit’s Home, by Tom Mansfield, Kristen Simard, and Mark Adams
Questions and Discussion
Breakout Groups | John Anderson
We spent about seven minutes in breakout Zoom rooms of about four people each as a chance to share and connect.
**Commencement of Business Meeting**
President’s Report | Ali Walton
Ali shared that this summer was really great all around, both for the island and for the ISAUU and the Shops
Reminded us that the ISAUU runs the Gift Shop and Bookstore on Star Island and all of the profits go back to the island in the form of Religious Professionals and Conference grants, discrete island projects individually approved, and a yearly donation to the Annual Fund
The Shops on Star are mostly volunteer-run with a few paid seasonal staff
So many people love Star Island and give their time and energy to volunteer for the ISAUU
Ali expressed deep gratitude for the people who have given and keep giving so much and show such dedication
In 2025, the ISAUU gave $73,454 in grants and gifts raised through membership fees, donations and sales in the island shops
Last year did just over $200,000 in sales, this year we hit over $233,000 in shops sales! There was literal jumping for joy! That’s a 15% jump in sales, which is incredible and made possible by a lot of work from our volunteers and staff
We increased our Annual Fund donation beyond what was budgeted
As Joe noted, the island operates on a tight budget and so every bit of what we can do counts
Minutes of the 2024 Annual Meeting | Molly Mansfield
Moved to dispense with reading meeting minutes from the Annual Meeting 2024, available on our website shoals.org, and to approve the meeting minutes. This passed unanimously.
Shops on Star Committee Report | Gabrielle Prochaska
Ali stood in for Gabby in her absence, she was unexpectedly unable to attend
It was a great year and the Shops exceeded sales expectations
Julia Manners and Julianna Corsa were our dedicated shops employees and Nancy Gair, Chelsea Easter, Fiona Monllor, Leslie Beattie, and Margaret Blodgett; thanks to Ali Walton for her font of knowledge and enthusiastic support
All volunteer members of the Shops Committee are returning next year
Ali added her own thanks to Gabby and to all of the Shops Committee members and to the many shops volunteers and shared that we should all be proud
Religious Professionals Grants | Suzy Bender Binzel
Ali stood in for Suzy in her absence, and Ali gave thanks to Suzy for her work and thanked the other committee members who contributed to the work of awarding the religious professional grants this year
This is the current iteration of what used to be the Clergy Grants, we recently expanded to include other religious professionals.
There were 9 grant applicants, 2 didn’t meet the requirements and 1 dropped out, so 6 applicants were reviewed and all were offered grants for approximately 45% of room and board cost and in some cases including with a partner or family member
In the end only 3 were able to attend conferences
The other 3 dropped out, more money was offered to the 3 who could come
Additional financial support was provided by SIC financial aid to two recipients
Gave out $3,380 in grants, a little under our budget for this year
In the future we plan to streamline how financial aid is awarded in collaboration with the Star Island Corporation and hope to reinvigorate the Religious Professionals Grants and spend more money to try to increase the chance of professionals being able to attend
Conference Grants | Cheryl Doty
In total $16,475 in grants to 26 different conferences and gave some examples of supported programs and activities:
Poetry workshops
LOASI hosted the UU Committee president: Mary Katherine Morn
Star Union nature journaling and sculpture
Intergenerational fun: All Star I competitive game night
SG Family and All Star II both hosted contradancing
Pelican Reunion hosted a fun pier party open to current and former Pels
IA had new speakers who bright diverse perspectives
Star Con launched the “Foundry Series to highlight diverse gaming creators
Natural history offered guided tidepool and seal excursions
New microwave in Brookfield to support social hour food prep
Cheryl thanked the Conference Grants Committee for working together to review and award these grants this year
Ali thanked Cheryl and her committee and added that we’ve been able to increase the grant fund pool and help out many conferences in a variety of ways - we get lots of applicants for this program
Treasurer’s Report | Cory Easter
Full numbers can be found in this financials report
Note a correction to the Shops financial report: it was 15.4% not 33.0% increase for this year
A 15% increase is fantastic!
We had a wonderful year financially due to the success of the Shops and that’s due to all the great volunteers and staff who made that happen, so thanks to all!
Income:
Memberships came in from the Shops and also our website
$1,450 in Memberships from the website and $3,470 in Memberships in the Shops, which is a reverse from last year with more memberships from the website due to the push we did then
Last year a lot of annual members became lifetime members, which resulted in slightly less income from memberships this year
Total income just over $238,000 - fantastic!
Net shops sales (without Memberships) was: $230,449.36
For years we had an investment in the UUA Common Endowment Fund and we decided to liquidate that in May because we needed the cash available
Going forward we won’t have a line item for the Common Endowment
Used to get about $400 in quarterly disbursements (about $1,600 total annually) from the Common Endowment
We opened an interest-bearing account with Fidelity
Interest in dividends will more than make up for no longer having the Common Endowment quarterly disbursements; through the end of this fiscal year we’ve made just under $1,700 in interest so that’s more than we were getting with the Common Endowment
Fiscal year runs Nov. 1 to Oct. 31, so these were year end financials
Total income up 13.9 % over the year
Expenses: Grants:
Conference Grants and Religious Professionals Grants were a total of $19,855, that represented a 10.1% increase over the year
Annual gift to the SIC was increased to $50,000, which was a record high amount as Joe noted earlier
In the early fall we approved a special projects request from the SIC from the Music Director for musical instruments and equipment for the island and gave just under $3,600 for that special project request
Total SIC Gifts were up by 15.9% this year
Total grants and gifts were up by 14.3%
All of these increases are the highest that the ISAUU has ever achieved!
Expenses: Shops on Star:
Cost of goods sold rose by 11.4% and other expenses were up by 11.6%
Total expenses were up 14.1%
Our income was up 13.9% and expenses up 14.1% so these were about equal and we ended the year with a surplus of $14,626
Assets Review as of Oct. 31st:
Shops checking account: about $5,500 in it
Fidelity Money Market account: just under $100,000
ISAUU checking at Citizens Bank, it does not bear interest, it charges a monthly fee if the balance drops below $10,000 - we plan to close that account and have all of our money at Fidelity
Cory will open what’s called a “Cash Management Account” which is interest bearing
We will no longer have an account at Citizens Bank
A few checks that Phil Quatrochi (Shops Treasurer) had issues have not cleared and are uncashed, Phil will follow up with those people to remind them they have checks in hand that need to be cashed
Adjusted cash on hand at the end of the year was just under $115,000
Accounts receivable is a very small amount of $579.86 for unpaid tabs at the Shops
Fixed assets are very small ($1,407.09)
Inventory is around $115,000
Total Assets: $230,844.62
Were some challenges this year in terms of cash flow management
Now many vendors for the Shops require us to pay for orders on delivery
In past years, vendors essentially extended us credit (30 or 60 days) for payment, but possibly upheaval caused by the tariffs, or people feeling uneasy about the state of the economy, or something, a lot of the vendors were no longer willing to extend credit
Phil Quatrochi and Cory worked together through the summer to make sure the Shops had sufficient cash on hand to pay any outstanding invoices while at the same time looking at how to move funds to an interest bearing account, so that was a juggle
Never overdrew the Shops checking account and earned a fair amount of interest!
Going into next year, Cory and Phil will work to minimize the Shops checking account and maximize the amount of money that’s earning interest
We’re getting about 4% interest at Fidelity which is fantastic and so much more than we could get at any bank
It has been a great year financially
Next year:
In January, Cory will be presenting a budget for conference grants, and religious professionals grants, and more, and Cory expects to be able to budget more this year than last year for grants and beyond
John Anderson thanked Cory for his work and asked for clarification about the fiscal year being labeled “2024” and Cory clarified since the fiscal year started in November of 2024 for tax purposes the year is labeled by the previous year
Cory inherited a system where the financial year is labeled by the previous year, so the financials we reviewed are for “2024”
Ali thanked Cory for his work as Treasurer and for all the other duties he takes on to support the board and the Shops on Star.
By-Laws Revisions | Ali Walton
Reducing the number of Board Members from 21 to 19
This has happened naturally by attrition, so nobody has had to be asked to leave the Board
It’s atypical for boards of our size to have multiple vice presidents so we’re eliminating the additional VP positions
Also proposed some language changes: there was no term limit for Shops on Star positions as there are for Board of Director positions and so needed to clarify that language
Nominating Committee Report & Elections | Molly Mansfield
Thanks were given to this year’s Nominating Committee for their work evaluating our nominating process and for their work starting to plan strategically to seek out new talent for the future in key roles on the ISAUU Board:
Nick Bresinsky, Amy Meek, Nicholas Baudler, Ali Walton, and Molly Mansfield.
No new members were nominated this year, but we did nominate existing directors for their next terms:
Patti Washburn as Director for a one year term, moving out of her former position as 2nd Vice President and moving into the one vacant director position we needed to fill with the by-laws changes.
Marlene Smurzynski as a new Emeritus Board Member.
Three people served two 3-year terms and were nominated for a third 3-year term: Cheryl Doty, Nick Bresinsky, Deb Walton
Three people served one 3-year term and were nominated for a second 3-year term: Molly Mansfield, Linda Pollack Johnson, Deb Weiner Soule
Members in attendance voted to accept all the membership changes and to elect members in their positions on our Board of Directors. All were unanimously approved.
We also voted to accept the committee reports given at this meeting - the motion passed unanimously.
Ali thanked Molly for her work as Secretary and as Nominating Committee Chair.
Transitions | Ali Walton
A number of people important to the ISAUU have passed away this year and we took some time to remember and recognize them:
Mary-Lu Esposito - Long time jewelry buyer for the Shops Committee
Joan Cumminsky - ISAUU Board Member
Steve Whitney - ISAUU treasurer for 12 years and he and his wife Edie have been supporters of the ISAUU and of Star Island for many years before that, and Steve trained our current treasurer
Nancy Meyer - Former Chair of the Shops Committee
We recognized Forrest Foreman who passed away this past year, he was the long time partner of Arlyn Weeks and a supporter of Star Island who will be dearly missed
We appreciate all of these Shoalers for their contributions to the ISAUU and to Star Island and are sad to have lost them
We had two members who are stepping down from the ISAUU whom we recognized:
Lisa Jennings and Lisa Nelson - thank you for their hard work and contributions to the ISAUU!
Ali Walton spoke to recognize Marlene Smurzynski for her years of service on the ISAUU Board of Directors and to welcome her as a new emeritus member. Marlene has served for ten years and has been on every committee that the ISAUU has! She has brought humor, dedication, helpful knowledge, and has been a steady presence, and we’re grateful that she is continuing on with us!
**Adjournment of Business meeting**
Meeting was adjourned at 3:38 pm Eastern.