Throughout the fall months, we have been profiling the seven members of our Board of Trustees. This week, we feature Doug Poutasse, our seventh member; his is the final in profile in this “Meet Your Trustees” series. Doug became a member of UU Wellesley Hills in January 1998 and joined the UUSWH Board in June 2020. He oversees our Stewardship portfolio.
Doug lives with his wife Elaine in Wellesley near the Brook Path. Elaine is a a social worker and former Chair of the UUSWH Board. They have twin daughters who are 31 years old: Nicole lives in Framingham, MA and Lauren lives in Silver Lake, NH. Both are teachers; Nicole teaches kindergarten and Lauren teaches elementary school.
Recently, Doug met with Board Chair Kathy to answer a few questions about himself.
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I grew up outside of Cleveland, OH and attended the local elementary and middle schools and then went to the Hawken School. My father taught at Hawken but he also managed a tree farm on our 45 acres of land. Every summer we went hiking and camping. I basically grew up in the woods. Then, I went to Harvard and majored in Economics. I met Elaine on my first day of college.
Q. What is your religious background?
A. I grew up in a liberal UCC church in Ohio — both my mother and I were active members. I left that behind during college and then didn’t do much. After Elaine and I got married and moved to Wellesley we had a neighbor who told us about UUSWH. Elaine started attending UUSWH when our daughter Nicole asked why we didn’t go to church. They started going and I was glad to have my Sunday mornings to myself. Then the girls stopped going so I joined Elaine every Sunday and I’ve been showing up for the last 24 years!
I later learned that my father had been raised in the Weston Unitarian church and my mother was raised in the Concord Trinitarian church. So, my roots are both Unitarian Universalist and Congregational.
Q. What do you do for work?
A. After college I worked as an Economic forecaster and software developer and then I morphed into real estate forecasting, which led to a career in real estate investment management. For the last 30 years I’ve been in research and strategy for two different global real estate investment firms. On Dec. 31st, I’m retiring from my position as the head of research and strategy for BentallGreenOak.
Q. What are you going to do on Jan 1st?
A. I will continue my work as a senior advisor for BentallGreenOak and another European company. A major motivation for retirement is I want to be able to ski! My favorite mountain is Cannon Mountain — it’s the first mountain I skied in the East. The one I ski most often is Wildcat. It was hard to schedule my ski days when I worked full-time! Now I know it’s going to be challenging going back and forth between New Hampshire and Massachusetts this winter due to the pandemic, so we’ll see what happens.
Q. In what areas of congregational life have you been most involved?
A. l was on the Standing Committee for a four year term, one year as chair,
and for 8 years as Treasurer. I was involved with youth trips to New Orleans, helping out at Camp Starfish (give me some tools and I’m happy!) and served on the Ministerial Search Committee. In addition to the Board, I’m currently on the Intern committee, the Committee on Shared Ministry, and the Social Action Council. I also frequently help out with Buildings and Grounds and rummage set-up and take-down.
Sometimes it was hard to handle these responsibilities with a full-time job!
Q. What do you do on the Board?
A. My portfolio is Stewardship, defined very broadly. It’s not just the Stewardship drive — it’s the financial health of the congregation, working closely with the Treasurer, focusing on fundraisers and other ways to contribute to the financial health of the congregation. I’m really looking forward to our next rummage sale. It’s going to be the best ever because of the pent-up demand.
Q. Who asked you to join leadership?
A. During my third year attending here, Kathy Kauffman asked me if I was interested in leadership. Then, three years later I was elected chair of the Standing Committee.
Q. How has social distancing been for you?
A. Overall, it’s been easy for me. Over the course of the last 25 years, I’ve been working remotely — now it’s so much easier for me to work from home instead of airports and hotel rooms. I’ve spent most of my career on the road and now I don’t have to do that. Plus, Elaine and I get to spend much more time at our place in New Hampshire.
Q. What’s most important to you right now?
A. The most important thing to me right now is giving back. I’m currently serving on 3 non-profit boards: the UU Urban Ministry, UUSWH, and Hearth, Inc. Hearth is a non-profit founded in 1991 dedicated to ending elder homelessness. We work to find housing for homeless elders and prevent others from becoming homeless. I’m currently the Vice-Chair and in line to become Chair.
We are very glad to have Doug Poutasse serving as one of our seven highly capable UUSWH Trustees!
Tags: Meet Your Trustees