Joan Lund, March 2010

It’s always rewarding and invigorating to know information written in this column is being read. Thanks to UUA Florida friends who are writing and calling me. Some folks are not agreeing with the UUA Board’s decision to become a policy governance Board and others are saying they like the changes we are instituting. First, some background on why we are pursuing certain paths regarding our Board work. This year Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations will celebrate its 50th Anniversary, with essentially the same governance structure that was put in place during the merger. During these past almost-fifty years several task forces have studied our UUA governance and came to much the same determination: our governance is too complex and is not effective. Our leaders are not authorized to do the jobs they were elected to do, the UUA Board is too big to be effective, and GA is too expensive, especially considering many delegates are not accountable in any way to their respective congregations. The UUA Board and other leaders in our faith are continuing the conversation started with the District President’s Association on the shift toward regionalization during GA 2010, and we are making certain we include the voices of traditionally marginalized groups in our discussions.

As you know from last month’s column it is my intention to continue writing about the Board’s commitment to link with one of our Sources (congregations). During the months of February and March each Board member will be contacting four to six congregations and asking for a sit-down-together conversation or a telephone conference call to talk with leadership and ministers about healthy relationships, specifically maintenance of healthy relationships with our member congregations. In each district congregations were selected “randomly” considering several factors: district geographical size, number of congregations in the district, and size of membership within a congregation. Three to eight congregations will be contacted within each district. Seven Florida congregations have been chosen; the congregations have been contacted and we are well on our way to scheduling our time together. I will be talking with leadership in four Florida District congregations, and have asked the president of the congregation to determine the participants. Once the Board has processed all the information received from our linkage congregations, we will make it available to all congregations.

Note: I hope those of you who are interested in the work of the Fifth Principle Task Force to go to our UUA web site and link on to that report. Some of what is recommended is being considered in a motion the Board is putting forth at GA. Next month I plan to write about our June 2010 GA to be held in Minneapolis. Each year this is an exciting, exhilarating time in which there is “something for all UUs”, plus there is important business to be determined. Hopefully many of you are planning to attend. Information can be found at www.uua.org. In the mean time contact me with your thoughts, suggestions, and questions: jlund@uua.org or 813-931-9727. And right now I say…bring on some warmer weather.