Staff Transitions

Members and Friends of Immanuel:

As you are already aware by now, Janis Shackley is preparing to retire next month after twenty-one years of faithful ministry among us as our Office Manager here at Immanuel. The Congregation Council just met last night, and we have some important details to share with you about how we will celebrate her retirement together and what (and who) is coming up next for our congregation!

Details of Janis’ Retirement

Janis’ last day in the church office will be Friday, August 14. Between now and then, she will be finishing up loose ends in the church office, using some of her vacation time, and working with our next Office Manager to implement a smooth transition. Janis is not leaving Watertown or Immanuel. She’s excited to remain a member of the congregation and discover all that comes next for her in retirement.

Please mark your calendar for Sunday, August 16, when we will celebrate with Janis together as a congregation. We will have a special blessing for Janis at the end of the 9:00am worship service and a reception hosted by the Women of the ELCA will follow. We hope you can join us!

Introducing our Next Office Manager

For several months, an ad hoc Personnel Committee helped facilitate the search for our next Office Manager. That team consisted of Ryan Lessner, Jenifer Hedrick, and Bob Boxell and we give thanks for their important work.

We can now share that the Congregation Council has officially hired Nichole Lenius as our next Office Manager! Nickey, as she prefers to be called, is a life-long member of Immanuel and someone that many of you know very well. She has many of the gifts and skills we are looking for in this position, and we look forward to her service in the church office.

Nickey’s first day in the church office will be Monday, August 3. She and Janis will work together for a period of two weeks before she officially takes over on her own on Monday, August 17. Beginning August 3, please send any emails you would normally send to Janis to Nickey (more on that below).

Another Important Transition… Email Addresses!

We also want you to know that our congregation staff have begun transitioning to new email addresses. These new email addresses with our official watertownimmanuel.org domain name will be one additional layer of security, so that you know church leaders are actually the people emailing you. As always, if you have any questions or concerns about church communications, you should always reach out directly to the church office.

You may now begin using these new email addresses to reach our staff. We would greatly appreciate it if you would update your email contacts accordingly (and pay attention to spelling as you do so).

Thanks for your careful attention to all of these details. This is a special time in the life of our congregation, and we're grateful that you're part of it!