Tidbits, 11/02/03

UUA Trustee Tidbits, November 2, 2003
Joan Lund, jlund@uua.org, 813-931-9727

This is my second effort at staying in communication with Florida UUs through individual congregation newsletters. There is much on which I could write about the fast-paced, challenging, and important October Trustee Board meeting in Boston, some of which you will read in future columns but this time, due to recent conversations with UUs, I think it might be germane to write some information about the role of UUA President and our UUA Moderator.

The President, at this time Rev. William Sinkford, is the chief executive officer of the Association and is an ex-officio, without vote, of all standing committees of the Association, except the Nominating Committee and the Ministerial Fellowship Board of Review. The President is also a member of all standing committees of the Board except the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. The President of the UUA is elected every four years by the delegates at General Assembly, and is eligible to serve two terms. Rev. Sinkford's first four-year term ends in 2005. The President is a paid officer of the Association. The Association President is our national spokesperson and is the voice of our denomination "stand" on important social and justice issues. His role and activities are so varied and important that they are impossible for me to summarize adequately and I suggest looking at the UUA website, www.uua.org, where it is easy to find his speeches, letters, travels etc., and photos.

The Moderator, also elected by the delegates at General Assembly, serves a four year term and is eligible for two terms. The Moderator presides at General Assemblies and meetings of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee. The Moderator represents the Association on special occasions and assists in promoting its welfare in various ways. The Moderator has the top volunteer position in our Association. In October, 2003, the Moderator, Diane Olson, resigned for personal and health reasons thus leaving an approximate two-year unfulfilled term. In the case of a Moderator resignation the Board of Trustees fills the position until the next regular General Assembly at which time an election is held. We, the Board, interviewed five declared candidates with carefully prepared questions, cast secret ballots, and filled the Moderator position by electing Gini Courter, who will serve until June, 2004, when an election will be held for the one remaining year of Ms. Olson's term. I hope this is not too confusing and encourage you to go the UUA website, www.uua.org, for comprehensive information about the resignation and the process the Board used to fill the Moderator position.

In an historical note the only other Moderator to resign was the UUA's first moderator, Marshall Dimock. He saw his role as a virtual co-president, demanding office space and a staff. According to what I have learned, Dimock interfered in the appointments of department heads, tried to get people fired, and actively opposed the President. After three years, frustrated by his inability to have his way, he resigned and disappeared from UUA affairs.

Perhaps you are reading this as a column in your December newsletter. I wish you a wonderful and warm holiday season. Again, it is an honor to serve as your UUA Trustee. Contact me at lundjb@earthlink.net with your questions and thoughts.

Trustee Report, November 2003

UUA Trustee Report, November 11, 2003
Joan Lund, jlund@uua.org, 813-931-9727

In October I had the pleasure of spending 11 days in Boston, attending and participating in the executive committee of the Annual Program Fund the first weekend, and the UUA Board activities and meeting the second. On the two days between these meetings I visited with friends in Rhode Island and walked the historic sites of Boston. Upon my return I was only home 2.5 days and then it was off to Philadelphia for a Pizzo family reunion. I am home hopefully until the January BOT meeting. Before I write my observations, thoughts, and some information about the BOT meeting let me remind you that informal notes of the two day BOT meeting are posted on the UUA web page, www.uua.org, and the official BOT minutes from the October meeting will not be posted until after the January meeting, because BOT approval of the each meeting are on the agenda of the next meeting.

If you have questions or comments please let me know. You can use jlund@uua.org, lundjb@earthlink.net, or phone me at 813-931-9727. I check email daily and will return any calls I miss.

It works best for me to chronologically talk about the Board experience so I will begin with Wednesday afternoon when the nine new Board members were lucky to experience an orientation. Before going to Boston I decided since I am a "hat" person the other new Board meetings needed to have hats. My hope was to find the "freshman beanie" type hats but being unsuccessful at that, I got the Dr. Seuss stove-pipe variety. We had fun with them. On a serious note we were informed about finance and strategic planning based on budget. Although the UU endowment is worth approximately $90 million, only 5% of that is unrestricted income. Kay Montgomery, UUA Executive vice-President, welcomed us and talked about the BOT's relationship with the UUA staff.

All day Thursday was the Board retreat, in which we were involved with issues of growth, governance, spiritual direction, youth/young adults, and strong lay leadership for congregations. Also much of the time we were involved with the resignation of the Moderator and the process of selecting the Moderator who would take us and the denomination to the 2004 General Assembly in Long Beach. There will be more on the process and selection of the Moderator later in this report. Generally it was important we learn who we are individually and collectively so the orientation was a valuable experience.

On Friday we spent the day involved in our individual Board working group. I have been assigned to the Justice Working Group chaired by Rev. Linda Olsen-Peebles, the Trustee from the Joseph Priestly District. The role of a working group is to help the Board do its work, in the area of living out our faith...to identify areas of work that need the Board's attention, to be responsive to the needs of the Board, to ensure UUA resources are being directed to "implement our principles", and to be a clearing house for matters that others inquire about needing BOT attention. The work of the Justice Working Group is different from the work of those carrying out justice work. We are not the administration or the congregations. Hopefully we are able to creatively think through justice issues so that justice work can be moved forward. I think it important that you know we had a conversation with Rev. Bill Sinkford, as it pertains to the Board charge to the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee, to "implement our principles around the anti-racist/anti-oppression landscape and journey. As you know the JTWT Committee was created in the mid-90s by the BOT. At that point the Association was trying to begin work in this area, and be in relation to the work of the congregations. At that time the BOT charge to the JTWT Committee was to "plan, guide, facilitate, coordinate, and monitor the work of transforming the Association into an anti-racist/anti-oppression institution". Today the terrain is significantly different than it was just a few years ago. There are many anti-racism/anti-oppression transformation teams in many staff groups, affinity groups, and UUA committees doing good work, embedded throughout our staff and organizations. The Justice Working Group feels it is time for the BOT to review the charge given in the past, and possibly give a new charge to the JTWTC based on a current discernment of what will help us continue the journey.

While we were meeting the other three Working Groups were so involved; all of the working groups came together at some point to discuss and review each other's "work". The Association Working Group has the responsibility for overview of Unitarian Universalism as a system of many institutions, the UUA being one of them. These include our internal "sponsored organizations, professional organizations, associate organizations, some Board and GA committees, and possibly UU international organizations. This working group considers its mission as assessing the systems within UUism and promoting healthy relationships among them, relationships which uphold our Association's goals and values. The Growth Working Group heard from Tracey Robinson Harris, Director of Congregational Services, who updated them on the successful mass media campaign in Kansas City. She also told the group Anti-oppressions Consultancy has been launched to reach out to congregations with support for justice work already being done, with an offer to work with them to identify their next steps and help build on their strengths. A new growth team, working with Rev. Bill Sinkford, is being developed by the UUA Leadership Council, the goal being 5% growth per year in membership for the next five years. The Growth Working Group also had a discussion of transparency as it relates to electronic communications with Deb Weiner (Electronic Communications) and Jim Austin (IT). They have been looking at new systems for content management that would increase UUA/BOT accessibility. It was reported that over 90% of UUA congregations are linked to www.uua.org. The Congregations Working Group discussed and dealt with issues concerning ministry, congregational services, Church of the Larger Fellowship, District Services, and General Assembly.

Another area in which I am involved is the Anti-Racism/Oppression BOT Committee. This team began process observing the BOT meetings through an anti-racism/anti-oppression lens in 1998, and the process continues into the present. This team also provides anti-racist/anti-oppression process observing for the General Assembly Plenary sessions. The UUA BOT is responsible for becoming leaders in anti-racism/anti-oppression throughout all of our work.

The actual BOT meeting was on Saturday, October 18th and Sunday, October 19th, including holding our own church service on Sunday morning. I have jokingly said to friends there is so much business being conducted and information provided during a Board meeting it is akin to "jumping on a moving train and then being asked to drink from the fire hose". I spent the great majority of time listening and thinking and voting, of course, when necessary. The Board's major business on Saturday morning was interviewing and discussing in executive session the five candidates for Moderator. Each candidate had 20 minutes to respond to questions on the roles the Moderator plays, what the candidate's philosophy of accountability is vis-à-vis the position of Moderator, and optional questions, including the difference between youth as a constituency and YRUU as an organization, and what is the single most important function of the General Assembly. The secret ballot election was held on Sunday morning after church. The rules governing the election were distributed via UUA-L, briefly calling for the elected Interim Moderator to receive a majority of votes (a total of 13) with a runoff election among the finalist candidates to take place if no clear winner was determined in the first round of voting. As most of you know, Gini Courter, from Traverse City, Michigan, won by a clear majority. Again, I encourage you to go to www.uua.org for complete and detailed information on the election.

Of note is the report from our financial advisor, Larry Ladd. He always starts his report with a mini-history lesson and this time he featured Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, who was the Ware Lecturer in 1932. Larry told us adult membership in UU churches is up 0.7% continuing a modest growth trend but religious education enrollments are down 1.7% and remain relatively flat. The fiscal year 2003 budget balanced. Beacon Press is ahead of schedule in the plan for management of losses, but will remain a risk due to the volatility of the industry. The investment performance of our endowment was a 4.2% return, while other endowments our size averaged 1.9%.

Two important motions were passed that may be of interest: One was approval of registration fees for GA, and weekend rates will be eliminated; one-day rates will be reduced for early registrants to $85, for late registrants to $100. The other motion invites the GA Planning Committee to join the Board in allocating up to %125,000 of the funds in the GA reserve to provide free GA registration to Congregational Presidents or their equivalents who come as delegates to the Long Beach GA.

The Board engaged in a wide-ranging discussion about FA. Ultimately, GA is for congregations. There is a growing realization that congregations have been cut off from access to workshops. This year the planning committee will give two workshops to each district, instead of one. The hope is that one workshop will be allocated to a congregation.

Again, if I can provide additional information about a particular topic please let me know. I very much appreciate the comments, questions, and reflections you make. Happy and peaceful holidays to you all.

Joan Lund
jlund@uua.org