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Board of Trustees

The Officers of the church are the President of the Congregation, the Vice-President for Program, the Vice-President for Finance, the Secretary, the Treasurer and the Assistant Secretary-Treasurer. The President and two Vice-Presidents are elected annually by the Board of Trustees from among its members; the Secretary, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer are elected by the congregation and are ex-officio members of the Board of Trustees. These six officers constitute the Executive Committee of the Board.

The Board of Trustees consists of the church officers and twelve additional members who are elected by the congregation for staggered two-year terms. Board members may be re-elected for a second term and, if elected to an office, may serve up to six consecutive years. The ministers of the church meet with the Board ex-officio, except when requested to be absent for executive sessions. From time to time, the Board may invite other staff members or chairs of program boards or committees to meet with it.


2009-2010 Board of Trustees: (click each name to jump to their Bio)

President - Jim Perrault
1st Vice President - Sharon McElroy
Treasurer - Roger Blais
Secretary - Laura Hailey-Butler
Assistant Secretary - Ruth Ferguson

Additional Members: (alphabetical)
Brenda Alred
Colin Bent
Steve Caldwell
Emily Duensing
Nancy Harbaugh
Joe Lytle
Nancy McDonald
George Schnetzer
Georgia Snoke
Maurice Storm
Krista Waldron
Jim Walker
Barry Wilder


Jim Perrault - President

Jim Perrault is a native Tulsan. He and his wife Lisa were brought up in the Catholic Church and attended Catholic schools. Jim and Lisa sent their son and daughter to Catholic schools too, but when their son was reached high school he began to question the family's religious tradition and looked to All Souls for his own spiritual development. The family tried attending both churches for a period of time before determining All Souls was, "the best home for our questioning souls." The family officially joined the church in 2006. The Perraults have become active in the Children's Religious Education program. Jim has served on the Board of Trustees as a member, Treasurer and now 2nd Vice President. He hopes to discover more about the church and ways to use his talents to forward the mission of All Souls. He enjoys outdoor activities including fishing, camping, and skiing, as well as home repairs. Jim graduated from the University of Tulsa in mechanical engineering and is a licensed professional engineer. He is Director of Product Development and Marketing for McElroy Manufacturing, Inc. Call Jim at (918) 831-9290 or email.

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Sharon McElroy - Vice President

Sharon McElroy has been an active member of the church since 1986. She and her husband Chip were married in the church. Their three children have participated in the religious education program which brought Sharon to volunteer. Sharon has taught a number of RE classes through the years. In addition she served on the Religious Education Board for six years and was the RE Board Chair. She has worked on numerous UUSC dinners, church auctions and other churchwide events. Sharon enjoys volunteer work, boating and traveling. She is the Marketing Communications Manager for McElroy Manufacturing Company. Contact Sharon by email.

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Roger Blais - Treasurer

Roger and Mary Blais were married in the All Souls Chapel in 1971. After living in Virginia for several years, they returned to Tulsa where Roger joined the physics faculty at TU. Mary has worked for Tulsa Public Schools for many years. Roger served on the Children’s Choir Board from 1986 to 2003, and from 1992-95 was chair. He grew up a Lutheran in Minnesota, attended college at the University of Minnesota and postgraduate school at OU. Since 1998 he has served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at The University of Tulsa. He has been active in several community organizations including the boards of the Oklahoma Academy and Light Opera Oklahoma, as well as in professional societies in engineering, Boy Scouts and with Mary as co-president of the PTSA at Booker T. Washington (’97-99). He was a member of Leadership Oklahoma class XVI. Their son Christopher is a submarine officer in the US Navy, and their daughter is a law student at OU. Both were in Children’s and Youth Choir, and among the favorite family memories are the choir trips—especially to London in 1998 and Romania in 2002.

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Laura Hailey-Butler - Secretary

Laura Hailey-Butler has a 26 year history at All Souls. Her family joined when she was in the fifth grade. Laura participated in the Children’s Religious Education Program and choir. After ten years in Norman, Oklahoma Laura and her husband Edwin chose to return to Tulsa and All Souls in order that their two children could have, in her words, “a Ruby and a Rocky"…caring adults that would nurture their self-confidence and spiritual development as Ruby Buchner and Rocky Stegman had done for her and so many other children during their time at All Souls. While the move was intended primarily to benefit her children, Laura has found that her own involvement in the Children’s Religious Education program as a teacher, and as a member and president of the CRE Board, has profoundly affected her as well. Because of this she hopes for more involvement from the larger congregation in our Children's Religious Education and Youth Departments and that both groups will continue to be nationally recognized models for other Unitarian Universalist churches. Laura also sees advocacy in the Tulsa community as a strength of All Souls and hopes that we continue our leadership role in addressing social issues locally and beyond. Finally, Laura hopes for growth in our Endowment Fund to ensure a spectacular future. When not found in the west wing of All Souls, look for Laura on the golf course, or reading a good book. She is Vice President of Mission Advancement at the YMCA of Greater Tulsa. Contact Laura by email, or call 269-0699.

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Brenda Alred

Brenda’s main reason for returning to All Souls began with the desire to provide her children a broad religious education and a freethinking space to discover their own spiritual truths. She values the opportunity to serve in a church that is constantly striving to create diversity and social justice within the community, both locally and beyond. She enjoys skiing, singing, hiking, meditating and jewelry making. She may be contacted at brenda.alred@swpay.com

Brenda is a Tulsa native who attended All Souls as a child. After living in Arizona and New England, she and her husband, Darin, returned to Tulsa in 1996 and once again began attending All Souls. In recent years Brenda has participated in the church by singing in the Adult Choir, serving as Chair of the Adult Choir Board and working on the survey task force. Brenda has worked as an audiologist for many years and recently earned her Doctorate in Audiology. Brenda and Darin have two sons who are both active in the church’s religious education programs. Darin serves on the Children’s Religious Education Board and is also a life-long All Souls Member.

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Colin Bent (pictured with wife Jennifer)

A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Colin is the eldest of 4 “pk’s” (preacher’s kids). Raised in the evangelical tradition, he came to the U.S. as an ORU student in the late 60’s. When he returned to America in 1978 with his wife and young children, Colin searched for a church home, ultimately gravitating to the ministry of Carlton Pearson. He found in Bishop Pearson’s Gospel of Inclusion, a theological stance he agreed with, and he and his wife became elders and active participants at Higher Dimensions. Following Bishop Pearson’s shift out of state, Colin, his wife and daughter began attending All Souls, where they found a spiritual home. Colin feels quite fortunate to be attending a church that has a central mission of creating cultural diversity and not merely offering lip service. He is very pleased to be involved in the effort so ably conducted by the church's leaders and is becoming more familiar with our positive influence in the local community, the nation and the world. Colin has made a career in insurance, but quite often you can find him writing political commentary. An avid photographer, he is also the proprietor of Colin Bent Photography. He and Jennifer have a daughter, Toneille an educator, a son O’Neil who is married and an IT professional, and a grandson Jackson. Colin and his family reside in Broken Arrow.

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Steve Caldwell

Steve Caldwell and his wife Linda came to All Souls as an early step in a quest to find a community which embraced the ideals and ethics they desired to be taught and supported in the lives of their children. They were so moved by the covenant, the congregation and the messages in the sermons that they quickly joined All Souls in 2006. Service and active participation in a religious community are long running themes for this family as Steve grew up a “preacher’s kid” who was readily encouraged to involve himself in organizations and service groups. Steve believes that this community supplies a vital resource to Tulsa as a voice of reason and social leadership. Through his work as a Trustee he hopes create further growth and success through stewardship for All Souls. Steve has a B.S. in Psychology and a M.B.A. from Oklahoma State and is employed by a Fortune 1000 firm as a Director in the Human Resources department. A life-long athlete he enjoys sports and has recently discovered great joy by serving as a youth soccer coach. Steve can be reached by phone at (918) 688-4007 or by email.

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Emily Duensing

Emily Duensing has served on the All Souls Children's Religious Education and Youth Boards, as a youth advisor and volunteer for the Youth Department and Children and Youth Choirs, as a volunteer for numerous church causes and activities, and as a member of the Day Alliance. A Tulsa attorney since 1984, Emily has been a member of All Souls for nearly 20 years. She and her husband, Ted Bakamjian, have two children, Allison Bakamjian, currently a student at Tulane University, and Josh Parish, who, along with his wife, Taylor, are graduate students at the University of Washington in Seattle.

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Nancy Harbaugh

Nancy and her husband, Hank have been attending All Souls for eleven years. They have found it a good fit for questioning minds. Nancy attended Phillips Seminary for several years and it was a revelation of information! Their grandson, Mark, lives with them and Nancy had the opportunity to be involved in the children's R.E. finding it a refreshing way to teach children. Nancy is also involved in Labyrinth workshops and finds it a perfect metaphor for All Souls inclusive nature. She is also a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and finds the variety of classes and interests of the members very refreshing. Nancy is new on the board and is looking forward to the upcoming year.

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Joe Lytle

 

 

 

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Nancy McDonald

 

 

 

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George Schnetzer

 

 

 

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Krista Waldron

 

 

 

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Georgia Snoke (pictured with husband Kenneth)

 

 

 

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Maurice Storm

Maurice Storm (or Storm as he prefers to be called) is originally from Southern California. He comes from a family that did not practice a religion or attend church. Storm began attending church on his own when he entered his teens and was actively involved in both Methodist and Baptist churches until he completed college. After completing graduate school Storm moved to Tulsa, but could not find a church that tolerated intellectual curiosity about religious and spiritual matters. Eventually, church and the religious experience faded again from his life. Eight years ago he started attending All Souls and was pleased to find a church that embraces individuality, freedom of thought, and freedom to search for answers to the spiritual questions that abound in the world. Storm is a geologist by training, with a Bachelor of Science with honors in geology. He lives near the church with his beautiful wife Leah, three wonderful children, and two well-behaved dogs.

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Jim Walker

Jim was brought to All Souls by his wife Janis Updike Walker in 1977 who also let the church staff know that he had formerly been a choral director. Jim was approached by Doe Lockwood and agreed to direct a new adult choir "temporarily". The choir was off to a shaky start but grew and improved year after year and Jim continued as director for almost ten years. Jim and Janis raised their two kids in the church and worked on several boards and committees as well as jointly chairing the Stewardship Campaign in 2001.

Professionally, Jim served as Director of the University of Oklahoma National Resource center for Youth Services for 25 years. He became a nationally known leader and spokesman in the field of working with runaway, homeless and abused adolescents. After traveling back and forth across the country for all those years, Jim retired from the University in 2001 and became Director of Youth Services of Tulsa. Here he is having a great time working with a new generation of youth workers, creating programs and services to reach the most vulnerable youth populations in our community.

When not working or singing in the choir, Jim loves gardening, antiquing, visiting art galleries and spending time with his five incredible grandchildren who call him "Grumpy."

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Barry Wilder

Barry Wilder and Nancy, his wife of 48 years, joined All Souls in 2001 after being active members in the Methodist church for most of their lives. During that time, he was elected to various church Boards in several churches in three states. The impetus to join All Souls resulted from a realization that beliefs and doctrines of the Methodist church no longer fully matched his personal beliefs and practice. An invitation by a friend to visit All Souls initiated the move to join. Since joining, Barry has served on the Newcomers Board, Care Team, including three years as Co-Chair, Tutoring at Gilcrese, Partners in Education and a Branches group. Election to the All Souls Board of Trustees will provide an opportunity to continue his history of church service throughout his adult life.

Barry has degrees in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M and OU, and retired in 2002 after a 38 year career in the chemical and plastics manufacturing industries, serving as Plant Engineer and Plant Manager in manufacturing plants in Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee. Highlights of that career included working in plants in the USA, Canada, Argentina, Japan, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Barry and Nancy have three children and four grandchildren, and enjoy frequent visits with all of them. Travel within the USA and around the world is an important pastime, and aerobic walking, hiking, camping, skiing and sailing are highly prized recreational activities. Barry can be reached by email.

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