Governance

Current Board of Directors

Marty Burgess
Kennebunk, ME
2011-2014

Rick DeWolfe
East Calais, VT
2010-2013
Rick DeWolfe resides in North Calais, Vermont. He has two sons, Reid and Jack. They are all life members. Rick is the president of DeWolfe Engineering Associates, Inc. a civil and structural engineering firm working in New England and the mid-atlantic states. Rick is a third generation Ferry Beacher who brings to the board a wealth of knowledge from his 30 years of experience in the construction and engineering business. Rick’s personal goal is to preserve the beach for future generations.

Lydia Gibb
Barkhamsted, CT
2010-2012
Lydia is a fourth generation Unitarian Universalist and a life long Ferry Beacher. She thanks the First Universalist Church of Orange, MA for sending her grandfather to RE Week in 1946, thus beginning the family’s long relationship with Ferry Beach. Lydia’s parents served on the Crew and Lydia and her sisters Adele and Rebecca grew up at Ferry Beach. During the 70’s the family camped in the Grove. Lydia attended Discovery and Sea Breeze youth camps and served a brief stint on the Crew. She introduced her husband, George, to Ferry Beach and he fell in love with it as well. So they started bringing their own children, George Brian and Matthew, camping in the Grove of course. The family attended Family and Friends for several years, and have been going to Homecoming, on Labor Day, forever.
Professionally, Lydia is Dean of Talcott Mountain Academy of Science, Mathematics and Technology, a school for “intellectually excited” students in grades K-8. She holds a MA in Educational Psychology/Gifted Education and a BS in Environmental Science/Wildlife Biology.
Since Lydia does not live near enough to any UU Churches to attend regularly, Ferry Beach is her “church” and spiritual home. She appreciates the opportunity to give back to a place that is so important to her and her family.

Carolyn Hodges
Treasurer
Cambridge, MA
2011-2012Z
Carolyn Hodges has been enjoying Ferry Beach with her family for about fifteen years. She is a member of First Parish in Arlington, MA which holds an annual retreat at the Beach each October. Carolyn attends Quilting by the Bay each August since its inception in 2001.Both she and her daughter, Jean Coletta, are life members.
Carolyn resides in Cambridge, MA with her husband John and they are twenty-year members of First Parish Arlington.
She has served her church in many ways, most recently as chair of the annual stewardship drives(2009-2011) as well as serving as a lay minister for several years. She sings in the choir and is a member of a small women's a cappella ensemble "The UU-lations." Carolyn is an avid cyclist. Professionally, Carolyn currently works in financial services risk management and has previously held management positions in accounting and finance. She holds an MS in Accountancy, an MBA in Finance and a BA in Economics/Political Science.

Jaime Lederer
Cambridge, MA
2010-2012
Jaime Lederer has been a Ferry Beacher for more than 20 years and is a Life Member. She attended Good Connections, Different Drummers and Teen Life Issues conferences as a youth and worked as a “tron” for two summers on the crew. Her home congregation is First Parish in Arlington, MA and currently lives in Cambridge, MA.
As a result of her participation in strong UU youth programming both in her church and at the district level, she has chosen a career path focused on community and youth development. She has a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Public Health from Boston University and currently works in the Health & Wellness Department in the Boston Public Schools. She is delighted to have the opportunity to serve on the Board to ensure Ferry Beach continues to have a positive impact on the lives of children, youth and families!

Cyd Melcher
Vice President
Three Rivers, MA
2009-2012
Cyd Melcher is a life long Unitarian Universalist. She served one term as Secretary of the Connecticut Valley District board. While working as Director of Religious Education at St. Paul's Unitarian Universalist Church in Palmer she first came to Ferry Beach for RE Week in 1997. Since then she has also participated in Clara Barton District Week (now UUFaF) including serving as Co-coordinator one year, Homecoming, and Work Week. Her professional life has been devoted to college and non-profit administration and she currently serves as Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts in Springfield. She is married to Dave Basler, also a former coordinator of CBD Week. She has two stepdaughters, Erin, who was on the Ferry Beach crew in 2005, and Caitlin; and one daughter, Meredith

Steve Onacki
Secretary
Saco, ME
2010-2012
I originally came to the Beach in 1973 for Family Week, but managed to beg my parents to let me and my brother come back that summer again for IMPACT, the teen week of the times. However, my real love of the Beach developed as I worked on the crew for the next 5 years, and I have been coming back ever since. I eventually moved to Maine in 1982, mostly due to my fond remembrances of Maine while at Ferry Beach. I have been attending Work Week for the last 8 years and was a coordinator for FUUTURE 1 for the last two years. My two daughters and I live in the Biddeford/Saco area close to the Beach.
I work for the State of Maine as a Probation Officer and am on the Board for the union that represents our agency. I have been on the Ferry Beach Board of Directors since 2002 and I currently serve as the Secretary of the Board.

Paul Provencher
President
Hampden, MA
2011-2013
Paul is a long time Ferry Beach member having attended Work Week I & II; Connecticut Valley District, then Clara Barton District Conferences, Yoga, Photography, Kayaking and Vacationing. Paul is a member of the Springfield, MA UU congregation; has served on their Board and served as the Treasurer of the Connecticut Valley District for seven years up to the district merger with the Clara Barton District. In his professional life he is a Financial Advisor operating his own practice serving clients throughout New England.

Paul Riechmann
Orono, ME
2009-2012
After teaching college for six years in Massachusetts and being acorporate “suit” for seven years in Chicago, Paul moved to Orono, Maine, and started his own marketing-research consulting firm, which now is in its 22nd year.
Paul joined the Universalist congregation in Bangor in 1991 and served in various leadership roles during the following years, helping the congregation establish and adapt to several changes:

• New organizational structure

• More aggressive membership marketing and retention program

• Pledge campaign using trained canvassers and an improved database

• Merger of Bangor’s Universalist and Unitarian congregations into UUSB

• Sale of Hersey Retreat and adoption of Ferry Beach as the replacement.

Paul and his daughter, Anna, first came to Ferry Beach from 1993 to 1995, attending “stand alone” programs such as “Exploring the Maine Coast,” but since then have been coming to CVD/CBD/UUFaF with Sue Hamlett and her daughter, Zoe. Paul also attends Circle of Music and Homecoming.
The two things that Ferry Beachers are most likely to know about Paul is that he is a musician who writes songs, plays guitar and bass, and performs in the band “Velma” and that every year he asks them to sponsor his 150-mile MS bike ride.

Valerie White
Sharon, MA
2011-2014
Next year I will celebrate a half-century as a Unitarian Universalist. With an undergraduate degree in zoology, and an abiding interest in and love for the natural world, I nevertheless practiced law in Vermont. Now retired, I'm the caregiver for 9 year old twins, and when I'm not chauffeuring them I'm thundering about in the woods on my horse, making music, or playing on-line Scrabble. I serve on four UU boards, including Ferry Beach, the Ballou-Channing District, Interweave, and UU's for Polyamory Awareness. I'm the past president of my home congregation, the Unitarian Church of Sharon, MA, and was president of the Vermont ACLU chapter and vice-president of the American Humanist Association.

Constitution and Bylaws