Annual Congregational Meeting 

Eliot Unitarian Chapel 

May 18, 2025

Join the Board of Trustees this Sunday for Eliot Chapel’s annual meeting at 11:45 AM in the Sanctuary. Following the 10:00 AM service, sandwiches, chips, and drinks will be served in Adams Hall before the start of the meeting. Childcare will be available until 1:15 PM.

We aim to be as paperless as possible by having the meeting packet available electronically. View the meeting packet as a PDF or as a Word document. It will be projected on the screen in the sanctuary during the meeting. Please contact the front office if you require a hard copy of the packet.

The agenda for the annual meeting includes agreement of the consent agenda items which include the approval of new members to the Board of Trustees and the Nominating Committee, a presentation of the approved budget for the 25-26 year, and voting on two ballot measures. 

The Nominating Committee is pleased to share the nominees as follows:

Board of Trustees

David Cox for a 1-year term extension

Steve Jarrett for a 3-year term

Ann Lemon treasurer for a 3-year term 

Nominating Committee

Sue Bell for a 3-year term

Carole Glauser for a 2-year BOT-appointed term.

Erin Pohl for a 1-year term appointed by the Nominating Committee to replace a vacancy. 

Voting on Two Ballot Measures— Emerita Title & Name Change*

Emerita Title

Shall Eliot Unitarian Chapel confer the honorary title of Minister Emerita to our recently retired lead minister—Reverend Barbara Gadon— who retired from active ministry after serving our congregation for nine years?

Name Change

Shall Eliot Unitarian Chapel approve adding "Universalist" to its name thus becoming Eliot Unitarian Universalist Chapel" to better reflect and include its Universalist heritage?

*A majority of the votes cast shall be sufficient to approve each measure.

How to Participate in the Annual Meeting

• All members and friends are invited to attend, and all verified members can vote.
• Plan to attend the Annual Meeting in person on Sunday, May 18.
• Watch it via livestream on YouTube.
• Attend via Zoom where, as confirmed member, you can cast your vote virtually. The link to join the Zoom meeting was sent to our members and will be included in our Eliot on Zoom email on Sunday. You must check in by 11:30, before the 11:45 start time of the meeting to be verified and to receive instructions on how to cast your vote.
• Alternatively, you can appoint a proxy to cast a vote on your behalf.

Appointing a Proxy

A proxy form must be submitted to the Board Secretary, Rebecca Taylor, no later than noon on Thursday, May 15. Proxies may be submitted by the following methods.

 1. Submit your proxy electronically. Fill out this form. Please use the email you have on record at Eliot Chapel for verification. You will receive an automated email confirmation after you click the submit button.

 2. Alternatively, instead of the online form submission, you can download a proxy card here, print it and fill it out, and email a scan or photo of the completed form to secretary@eliotchapel.org. Hard copies of the form are available on the table by the front office.

 3. Mail via the US Postal Service to:

     ATTN: Board Secretary

     Eliot Unitarian Chapel

     100 South Taylor

     Kirkwood, MO 63122

  4. Hand deliver it to the Eliot Unitarian Chapel Front Office or to Rebecca Taylor. 

Date and time of submission shall be determined by receipt by the Board Secretary.

Confirm Your Membership

Only members of record will be allowed to vote. The term “Member" is defined in our bylaws, a copy of which is available at eliotchapel.org. A list of members is posted in the hallway outside Adams Hall so that congregants may check to make sure they are listed as members. 

Voting members were also sent the Digital Member List to verify their status is in good standing. Any discrepancies with the list of members should be raised with the Director of Business Administration at admin@eliotchapel.org no later than 72 hours before the meeting begins, Thursday, May 15 at noon.



Nominees

David Cox joined Eliot Chapel in 2006 after he and his family moved to the area. They had been longtime Unitarian Universalists prior to joining Eliot Chapel. David sang for many years with several choirs here. He was also elected to the board of trustees in 2015 where he served for more than one term.

David is an attorney in private practice focusing on immigration matters. He is on the Board of Governors at the Bar Association of Metropolitan Saint Louis where he is also the Chair of the Immigration Law Committee. David sings with the St Louis Symphony Chorus and the Bach Society of St Louis. His former spouse and youngest son live in the Metro East and his oldest son lives and works in Chicago.

Steve Jarrett is a longtime member of Eliot Chapel where he was married to Sue in Oct 2005. He is currently serving as a Greeter, on the Music Committee, and the Golf League. Steve has three lovely daughters and five grandchildren. The youngest daughter just finished University of Missouri and Purdue University with a Masters Degree in Animal Science.

Steve is a retired Federal Aviation Administration Technical Operations Manager with thirty-two years of government service. He worked for three years in the Washington, DC Headquarters on special RADAR projects. Steve lives with his wife Sue in Oakland, MO where he is a beekeeper, music enthusiast, and astronomy geek.

Ann Lemon has been an active member of Eliot since 2003. Her first service was when Rev. Bonnie announced the creation of covenant groups and Ann joined one of the original covenant groups led by Michael Hennon. She attended Women’s Weekend Spring of 2003, and was overwhelmed by the warm welcome of long time Eliot members. Ann has attended most WW, is the web mistress of the WW website, sung in the Eliot Choir, sung with Inner Voices, was a founding member of the Covenant Group Development Team, facilitated a covenant group for over 10 years, and has enthusiastically attended many Adult RE programs. This year, she has started facilitating Starting Point with Tim Gardner and loves the opportunity to meet new people and help them find their home at Eliot. Ann has one 18 year old daughter who participated in RE at Eliot and will be headed to University of Vermont in August. Ann is excited for the opportunity to be part of the Board as Treasurer!

Susan Bell has been attending Eliot for over five years and joined as a member in April 2022. She also enjoys being a greeter and making new attendees feel welcome at Eliot. She has been a UU for about 30 years and served as a Treasurer and Board member at Emerson Unitarian Universalist Chapel on two separate occasions. Susan was elected to the Eliot board in 2023. Although she has an accounting degree, her career has been in banking for over 30 years. She is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager and serves as a Compliance Analyst at Citi. She lives in Chesterfield with her husband Dave and their daughter, Sarah who is a Sophomore at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She enjoys walking their dogs, spending time with friends and family, reading, baking, book club, and is a member of West County Toastmasters. 

Carole Glauser joined Eliot Chapel as a member in 2017 after attending Eliot’s “A Course in Miracles” meetings for 10+ years. Carole is a co-founder (along with Corinne Esneault and Julie Morreale) of Attitudinal Healing St. Louis, a nonprofit organization that facilitates classes, workshops, and support groups that inspire individuals to live a life of love-based thinking. (ahstlouis.org) She has participated in Eliot’s leadership development trainings since becoming a member. She served on Rev. Barbara’s Adult Spirituality Task Force developing and implementing adult spiritual education offerings. Carole enjoys participating in 2 covenant groups. She had the moving experience of traveling with the Eliot group who journeyed to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum and Memorial in 2019. Carole currently serves on the Pastoral Care Team led by Rev. Krista. Carole was elected to the board in 2022.

Carole grew up in Springfield, Missouri where she earned a B.S. in Hospitality Business Management from Missouri State. She moved to the St. Louis area in 1990 and later earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from UMSL. She had a career in publishing before leaving the corporate world to freelance from home and manage her securities portfolio. She has also served 8 years on a local ACIM St. Louis Council Board. Her family has ties to Cox Hospital in Springfield where she serves on an advisory board that sponsors a cancer patient advocacy program.

A friend she met in a meditation community launched a movement called “Love on Every Billboard” with a goal of putting up billboards across the globe with one simple word—LOVE. She loved this idea and volunteered to be the St. Louis ambassador; and through creating press releases, a GoFundMe campaign, and appearing on several newscasts, she was able to run seven different LOVE billboard campaigns in 2019. Carole loves to travel domestically and abroad. She is an avid birdwatcher and has previously worked at Wild Bird Rehabilitation and served on their board of directors. She loves cooking and entertaining as well as all things crafty and nerdy science fiction stuff. She is a huge animal and nature lover and often hugs trees unabashedly. 

Erin Pohl is honored to join the Eliot Chapel Nominating Committee and looks forward to supporting the congregation in shaping its future leadership. Erin has been attending Eliot since late 2022 with their partner Ro, and the two officially became members in 2023. Since then, Erin has become actively involved in the life of the church, including facilitating a Witnessing Whiteness book group in the fall of 2024. A native St. Louisan, Erin is deeply rooted in the community and brings both professional and personal passion to their service. By day, Erin works as the Director of Development at the Crime Victim Center in St. Louis, where they focus on advancing the organization’s mission to empower and support survivors of crime. Erin and Ro live in South City with their beloved dog Lizzy and their very opinionated cat, Perceval the Cat—also known as PT Cat.