Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 
Circle Coordinators
There’s been quite a bit of talk lately about your Circle
Coordinators — and quite a few questions about who we
are and what role we play in the Fellowship.
To put it simply, we are the ones who help you get
done what this Fellowship wants or needs to get done.
Think of it this way: if the Board focuses on direction and
strategy (along with congregational votes, when appropriate,
of course), the Circles and its members focus on
implementation.
A description of the five circles and the groups or committees that belong within each circle can be found under Groups.
Biographies
Priscilla Akin, Social Responsibility Circle
Priscilla spent most of her life in San Diego until she moved to the SLO area in 2000. She has two children: a son, Eric, who lives with his wife and son in Berkeley and a daughter, Kate, who lives with her husband and daughter in Pleasant Hill.
Her education and careers have been in two widely different areas. For 17 years, she worked as a laboratory technician and as a fisheries biologist in the Marine Mammal Program at the Southwest Fisheries Center in La Jolla. After the children left for college, Priscilla returned to school herself and earned a master's degree in Clinical Art therapy. She worked for 15 years in this field, inpatient, outpatient and in the community. She is very happily retired now and enjoy activism (so many causes), foreign policy and politics. Her hobbies are birding, nature printing and gardening. But most of all, she loves to walk on the beach and does so about 5 days a week-it feeds her soul.
Renee Besel, Communications Circle
Renee, her husband Rich, and their three cats moved to the central coast in August 2007 and became members of the UUFSLOC shortly thereafter. By day she works for a direct marketing agency. In her spare time, she serves as Communications Circle coordinator, chair of the UUFSLOC People's Kitchen group, a Sunday welcomer and webmaster of this website. She is thrilled to have finally found a spiritual community that allows her to search for her own truth and that is profoundly dedicated to bettering the world through social action. In other words, she is thrilled to be home.
Jan Clarke, Pathways Circle
Jan has been a member of UUFSLOC since 2005 when she moved back to San Luis Obispo. (She graduated from SLOHS in 1960.) She spent the previous 25 years in Paso Robles as an active member of St. James Episcopal Church. She was a stay-at-home mom, a bookkeeper, and a volunteer in numerous organizations. She has been widowed since 1994. She and her husband, Bill, had three children, David (Lori) a mobility mechanic and salesman from Santa Margarita, Steve (Melissa) an attorney in Des Moines, and Cathy (Jim Kerman) a Physical Therapist in La Crescenta. She also has eight grandchildren. She serves as a Greeter and a volunteer for Joys, Sorrows, and Concerns on Sunday mornings. Jan is also active in Ladies of the Evening, the Women's Retreat, Circle Suppers, Lit Wits, and sometimes the Women's Discussion Group. She says, "I am so grateful to be able to call UU home. It fills me with joy to be part of this congregation, to learn, to share, and to grow together."
Sandra Kulczyk, Worship Circle
Sandra joined UUFSLOC in Sept. 2007. She and her husband, Gene, moved from Costa Mesa, CA and had planned to retire to the Central Coast for many years. She joined the Costa Mesa UU church in 1995 after finally finding a religious home she could relate to and in which she could raise her daughter, Kathryn. Gene is a retired air traffic controller and Sandra a retired clinical laboratory scientist. They have three sons from Gene’s first marriage, and 1 daughter together, two granddaughters, two dogs and a cat. They live in Los Osos. “We feel like we’ve retired in heaven” Sandra stated. She is active on several committees in her neighborhood, is a member of the choir, Ladies Discussion Group and an active member of the Worship Arts Committee in addition to her responsibilities as Worship Circle Coordinator.
Joan Scott, Growth & Learning Circle