Jeffrey Scott Melcher
Work History

      I began my adult career as a teacher, but a parallel vocational track as a religious worker began two years later when I found a spiritual home in the Umpqua Unitarian Universalist Church of Roseburg, Oregon, in 1987. I was teaching at the alternative Phoenix School of Roseburg and was asked to facilitate the local Unitarian Universalist youth group.  My church life grew from there and I continued to choose deeper involvement in Unitarian Universalism, to the point where my volunteer church life became my main vocation. Over the years I took on a number of part-time jobs to economically support my church vocation.
      In 2001 I took my first seminary class, and in 2003 I made the leap to a full-time degree program and commitment to ministry.

      When I graduated from Central Michigan University in December 1985, I first took a 9-week substitute teaching position in high school math and computer science, and then moved to Oregon. I lived on my uncle’s farm outside Corvallis, OR helping build a house, water system, and other improvements. Later I moved to the intentional community at Breitenbush Hot Springs, and worked as a teacher for the community children: eight kids, grades K-6, in a one-room schoolhouse for $125/month plus communal meals and a tent behind the school house.
      I become interested in the School of Experimental Ecology (SEE) and moved to Elkton, OR, south of Eugene. SEE was a think tank developing K-12 curricula based on a humanist process theology developed by the founder John David Garcia. Here I reviewed curricula, helped edit a book, coordinated workshops, and cooked for the small community. John David Garcia eventually connected me to the Phoenix School of Roseburg, a sixty-student alternative public high school for talented and gifted “at-risk” youth who were failing or dropping out of the mainstream public school. I taught six subjects, and led opening circle with group singing and guitar nearly every day. After three strenuous years I left the school for a time, tutored, gave guitar lessons, and became a swim instructor.
      The following spring I was asked to come back to the Phoenix School and teach in the GED program called Project PRIDE. I accepted and the following year accepted the directorship of the Project PRIDE program. In my third year as director I expanded programming to include a high school completion track that was also the only queer-youth-friendly school program in the county. I attempted to start a residential program, but due to funding cuts and thus staff shortages this effort fell short. Also because of the staff shortage I ended up running both programs, and exhausted myself.
      I moved to California, ready to try something besides teaching, and entered a period of exploration. In Roseburg I had received some training as a teacher of infant massage to parents and was keen on the social implications of studies showing infant massage as deterrent to child abuse. Upon settling in Berkeley in 1996, I pursued a massage certification program. It was good part-time work, paid some the bills and allowed me to delve deeper into church work. I continued a massage practice until 2003 when a car accident ended that career. I continue to do occasional massage as a spiritual practice and share infant massage training when friends have babies.
    Most of my time in Berkeley 1996-2003 focused on my church life at the Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) and service to that community. Twice I worked as the office administrator during times of transition: handling calls, building rentals, repairs, Order of Service design and production, and improvisational lay ministry. I was a weekly religious education teacher for three years, and interim Director of Religious Education (DRE) in 1998.
    When in June of 1998 I accepted the role of Trustee of the Board at BFUU, my paid church jobs ended, except for a brief office interim position in 2001. I looked for other jobs that would both pay me and offer learning situations for me while I served the church as a highly involved volunteer. I worked for a year as Resident Building Manager for Griffin McCormick, Inc., at 244 Lakeside Dr., Oakland, a large upscale apartment building on Lake Merritt. I was the leasing agent, contractor oversight, construction oversight, resident-owner liaison, and emergency problem solver. I later took a position as an Activities Coordinator at Mercy Retirement & Care Center in Oakland, CA. I wanted more experience with the elderly, illness, and death. I facilitated classes in movement (taiji) and plant care. I led groups in music therapy, current event conversations, A’s games, and the inevitable bingo. After a year, I cut back my hours at Mercy to focus on my BFUU Board Presidency, and eventually left to volunteer full-time with the church. When volunteering full-time with the church become economically untenable, I took on work for a disabled Berkeley resident managing her house, driving, cooking, and chatting.
       When my last term as president ended at BFUU, I took a part-time job as a fundraiser and event organizer for Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. I was responsible for publicity, donor database management, visits, calls, and follow-up to donors, some grant writing, staff management, local and national travel arrangements, presentation logistics, and research. I stayed with MCLI through the summer of 2004 until I entered seminary full-time that fall.
      While in seminary, I have served two congregations, for a year each, as an intern minister – one as required for my training, and one as personally desired for experience.
      I have also worked every summer for R2W, the PANA Institute’s three-week summer leadership intensive for Asian American and Pacific Islander youth. Primarily I take care of the staff’s young children, but have also taught massage workshops for the teens, accompanied teens on outings, and provided some spiritual/emotional support to children, teens, and staff. I have done this for four summers now and have been asked to return for the summer of 2008. During the year I also volunteer and do paid odd jobs for PANA. I have also been employed by PSR as a docent in the Badè museum 5-10 hours per week.
     
     
    

Chronological Employment Summary
Currently:
Full-time student at Pacific School of Religion.
Docent (part-time work-study), Pacific School of Religion Badè Museum, Berkeley, CA, 2005-present

California (1996-2007):
Intern Minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 2006-2007
Intern Minister (Field Ed), Unitarian Universalist Church of Marin, 2005-2006
Childcare provider, PANA R2W Summer Youth Leadership Intensive, Berkeley, CA 2004-2007
Massage Therapist in private practice, 1996-2004
Interim Office Coordinator, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Berkeley, CA, 2001
Fundraiser and Event Organizer, Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Berkeley, CA, 2003-2004.
House Manager/Caretaker for Ms. Julie Gill, Berkeley, CA, 2001-2003
Activities Coordinator, Mercy Retirement & Care Center, Oakland, CA, 1999-2001
Interim Director of Religious Education, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1998
Resident Building Manager, Griffin McCormick, Inc., Oakland, CA, 1997-1998
Religious Education Teacher, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1996-98
Interim Office Coordinator, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1996

Teaching Career and Oregon (1985- 1996):
Tai Chi Instructor, Umpqua Community College, 1995-1996
Program Director, Project PRIDE, Phoenix School of Roseburg, OR, 1993-1996
Consultant to start a youth group for the Unitarian Universalists Church of Eugene, OR, 1993
Waterfront Director, Eliot Institute 2, July 1992 (UU PNWD family camp)
Various Eliot Institute positions (Youth Program Dir., Youth Speaker), Seabeck, WA 1992-1995
Guitar teacher, Rickart’s Music, Roseburg, OR, 1992-1994
YMCA, Water Safety Instructor, Roseburg, OR, 1992-1993
YRUU local youth group facilitator, Roseburg, OR, 1990-1995
Teacher, Phoenix School of Roseburg, OR, 1989-1992
Curriculum development staff, School of Experimental Ecology, Eugene, OR,  1988-1989
Teacher (K-6 all subjects), Breitenbush Community School, Breitenbush, OR,  1987-1988
Teacher (math and soc. stud.), Monguagon Jr. High School, Trenton, MI, 1986-1987
Teacher (math and computers), Middleton High School, Middleton, MI, 1985