Trustee Report, April 2004
Joan Lund
Although the weather in
The Board meetings were on Saturday, from
The Saturday morning meeting began with a ?show and tell? by Devorah Greenstein, the UUA?s Accessibility Program Associate. Three easy-to-implement ideas for enhancing accessibility at meetings were demonstrated: the Pocket Tucker ($180) is a wonderful aid for individual use in rooms that do not have microphones/speakers. About the size of a cigarette pack (remember those?) with an earphone, it amplifies sound for an individual user; and a page magnifier (about $10), widely available for times when agendas of hymnals are not in large print format. Below you will find my report arranged by reports/topics. As always if you have questions or comments please email me at jlund@uua.org, lundjb@verizon.net (a NEW email address, for some of you), or telephone me at 813-931-9727.
President Bill Sinkford?s Report
The credentialing program for religious educators will be celebrated in
Bill let us know our witness in support of same sex marriage has energized our faith community in ways no one could have anticipated. There is much information to be found on the web about our UUA work in this area and it must be stressed that same sex marriage has dominated much of the UUA staff?s attention in these last months. UU ministers in many communities have helped to celebrate the love of committed same sex couples in very public ways. The President?s Freedom to Marry Fund will provide flexible monies that will be used as this issue moves across the country. If you would like to contribute to that fund you can find a form in our UU World. Bill wants us to remember we are not looking for publicity for our position. The goal is to help change our world, a far more demanding standard than mere publicity. Reaching our goal which is deeply grounded in our theology will take years.
Voter registration is also very prominent in our social witness work. The UUA has partnered with the League of Women Voters, as well as the Earth Day Network, to encourage citizen participation in our democracy, and the ?Faithful Democracy? website has just been launched. Also we are collaborating with the UUSC in this voter registration effort. I urge you to make certain everyone in your church who is eligible to vote is registered. Once all members are registered, use your skills to conduct registration outside your church. Encourage members to register others by putting 5 voter registration cards in each order of service, more than once. The best way to get involved in voter registration and mobilization efforts this election year is through community partnerships.
By the time you read this the March on
In the area of Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression/Multi-culturalism a new Anti-Racism Consultancy Program is being piloted with ten congregations this year and the Multi-Cultural Welcoming Congregation program are well along in development. Our work in this area is not finished but commitment to transformation of this faith is solid.
General Assembly at
Major gifts for the Campaign of Unitarian Universalism bring the total of signed gifts and pledges over the $32 million goal. The gifts to this campaign will support Unitarian Universalism into the future. There will always be a need for investment, the opportunity to support the growth of this faith that we love. Bill stated the next capital campaign will not exist just in balance sheets but it will be about vision for a faith which lives in our lives and works to insure it can live in the lives of others.
Executive Vice-president Kay Montgomery?s Report
There is interesting news regarding UU & Me, our children?s UU magazine, formerly produced by the Church of the Larger Fellowship. In the September issue of the UU World, UU and Me will be a four-page insert, not a pull-out but a fully integrated part of UU World. Beacon Press is doing well editorially and financially. Terry Sweetser continues as Acting Director of the Stewardship and Development staff group; no decision has been made as to the permanency of this role.
Secretary Rev. Wayne Arnason?s Report
Nine-hundred sixty-three churches are certified this year compared to 953 at this time last year and this is the first time online certification has been available. Concerning elections this year only one candidate, Gini Courter, has filed for the one-year Moderator position. There will be a delegate vote on the plenary floor, even though there is no other candidate. Next year President, Moderator, Financial Advisor, and some other positions will be elected. An Election Practices Campaign Committee will be appointed.
First Vice-Moderator Ned Wight?s Report
Ned reported on the eight-member Open UUA Task Force, four from the UUA Board and four from Open UUA. There had been one conference call and many emails in this regard. The Board members on the Task Force expressed the struggle in finding language that honors the spirit and intent of openness while supporting the integrity of the Board?s work. There may be a rule change, not a bylaw change that would go into effect immediately upon its passage at GA, and be in effect for only one year.
Financial Advisor Larry Ladd?s Report
Larry traditionally begins his report with a historical retrospective and this time we learned about Ethelred Brown, an African American UU minister who was the 7th black man to attend
Working Groups
Living Our Faith. Among the guests at this meeting were Beth McGregor and John Gibbons, of the Partner Church Council. Work is being done on a Board vision statement which needs, to begin with, acknowledgement of ?the goal of world community?. Then the questions were asked, ?who? is going to do this work, and what is the Board?s engagement? The Board?s focus will be at a policy level, rather than specifics. The report and recommendations of the Committee on Social Witness Review Panel was acknowledged and received by the LOF working group. Wide-ranging discussion flowed around questions of the purpose of General Assembly and whose GA it is, relating to the Board?s role in discussion the CSW Review Panel?s work. There will be opportunities for church leaders and other participants to discuss and express their views at GA. The LOF working group asked guests Meg Riley, Director of the UUA Washington Office for Social Justice, and Rob Keithan, Director of the Washington Office for Advocacy of the UUA, what the Board can do to give support to their work. The response was to encourage Rev. Sinkford to do what he does so well, for us to consider looking at the International Vision Statement with a justice lens, and to give feedback about what kind of training/consultancies will help our congregations to learn how to do social justice work and public witness. David Pettee, UUA Director of Ministerial Credentialing, reported our elected and appointed committees need more anti-racism/anti-oppression/multi-cultural training. Informing committees on training needs to be more pro-active, and prioritization of which groups should be reached in a given year needs to be addressed. There is a need for self-administered training curriculum for congregations and for District Boards; and a high priority placed on training new UUA trustees. Expectations for board elected and appointed committees in AR/AO/Multi-culture training must be stated as well as the recommendation to provide training every two years.
Growth. There were a number of guests at this meeting who reported on their work. The UUA Growth Team?s focus is based on four pivotal points: promoting what has been learned from growing congregations, promoting radical hospitality, promoting family ministries, and promoting small group ministries. Gini Courter met with the Growth Working Group (GWG) and encouraged using a ?growth lens? in all of their work. Peter Morales, Director of District Services, met with the GWG and distributed and discussed the most recent growth statistics for our Association. The GWG has continuing concerns about the wide meaning of ?growth?. What is the Board?s role, responsibility, or influence in promoting growth in our movement and then what is the responsibility of the GWG? As has been indicated on a number of occasions the Board believes the growth of our movement, our Association, and our congregations are our highest priority. To that end how would resources be allocated and how would we go about learning what we need to know to be more successful? The GWG believes its job is to help the Board apply a growth ?lens? to all of our work.
Our Association. The youth Trustee nomination and election process is a topic the Association Working Group (AWG) has been trying to get clarity on since the Boston General Assembly. It was moved and passed that the Board affirm the YRUU process for electing the Observer and the Trustee for youth in the even-odd year process already in place: Youth Trustee, odd numbered years; Observer, even numbered years. There was a lengthy discussion recognizing that the youth are a historically marginalized group who are needed at the ?Board table?, but the Board has not yet determined how to integrate youth in its work. The Board has committed to using the next two years to make the youth seats on the board right. The AWG discussed independent affiliates in terms of diversity representation, and questions were asked about what the purpose of UUA support for affiliate status is and why affiliate groups get two workshops at GA when congregations do not have that opportunity. Continued research and discussion will occur in terms of affiliate relationship to congregations, Districts, and the Association. The AWG brainstormed topics for discussion opportunities to be had with congregational presidents at GA, among them the role of affiliate organizations and participation at GA, the role and purpose of Districts in the Association, and religious education credentialing. The AWG recommended the Board approve the motion proposed to change the names of the levels of RE credentialing found in the by-law amendments coming to the June, 2004 GA. The AWG made suggestions to the language and recommendations of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. The final report on redesigning the fellowshipping process from the MFC will come to the October Board meeting.
Our Congregations: Mary Miles, Annual Program Fund Director, reviewed the background on a proposal amending the policy regarding changing certified membership numbers. The changes requested are that after July 1st, numbers can be changed if the congregation agrees to pay the annual requested contribution to the UUA and to their District. If the number is changed then the congregation will be full fair share. A motion was made, and passed, to approve this change. There was conversation about the financial relationships between the UUA and districts and a major review is being planned. It is troubling that our Association growth in numbers is essentially ?flat?; we are close to going down in absolute numbers. The official forty-three large churches have not been growing. We do have congregations that are vital, growing, and dynamic, and it must be found out what they are doing, and how they are doing it. The Congregations Working Group (CWG) believes that we need to have an independent assessment of our growing congregations conducted by external professional evaluators to identify the characteristics of these congregations in order that the findings may be applied to planning for successful growth for all congregations. The CWG enthusiastically supported the proposal for incorporating the Greening of GA into future planning and urged the Board to act favorably on the GA Planning Committee?s request.
Best Practices Committee
The Best Practices Committee (BPC) assists the Board in our continuous learning mode by evaluating new operational and management methods, guiding a regular-self-evaluation process, serving as a clearinghouse for tasks or issues that are ?homeless?, and assigns tasks to existing working groups, committees or task forces, or recommends to the Board that a committee or task force be formed to deal with an issue or opportunity. The BPC is looking at how better to manage Board Liaison responsibilities and some possible steps that the BPC can take before moving to adopt policy governance. Two motions from the BPC passed: the appointment of the Assistant to the Executive vice-president as the repository of a master copy of all board, committee and task force reports; and the Board Policy and Procedure Manual be made available electronically and available on the website.
Finance Committee
In her opening remarks Lyn Conley thanked the 19 Trustees who joined Jerry Gabert and her to discuss the FY 06 budget and continue the conversation on right relationship from Friday night?s ?Big Chunk? session. The following motions passed: (1) proposed FY 04-05 budget; (2) BOT received the proposed FY 06 budget and affirmed that the highest priority of that budget is to increase staff salaries, with the understanding that they are central to the mission, ministry and vision of our movement; (3) BOT authorized the designation of unrestricted endowment funds of up to $646,825 to cover capital campaign expenses in the stewardship and development budget for the fiscal year ending 6/3/05; and (4) the BOT with the UUA Administration continue to develop a plan and timeline involving all interested parties to further the discussion of living the promise of our polity, right relationship and generosity within the Association. There was considerable discussion about raising the Annual Program Fund fair share to $52; what message does this send to congregations? No amount was set for the 2006 ?ask?, deferring until the June Board meeting. This represented much discussion about generosity and what ?right relationship? with our congregations would look like.
Anti-Racism Assessment and Monitoring Team (ARAMT)
(A standing committee of the UUA Board, a team on which I serve and consider of utmost importance) Tracey Robinson-Harris, Director of Congregational Services, submitted and walked us through the update to our Team. At GA in 2002, the Board passed a motion in support of anti-racism, anti-oppression training for members of committees elected by GA. Prior to 2002 there were annual trainings for elected and appointed leaders. There are several reasons why varying needs and expectations could not be well met. In 2003 there was a shift to anti-oppression consultancy approach and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee was the first group to move forward with consultation under this model. The goal is to work with all Regional-subcommittees of the MFC. It was moved and passed that the UUA Board receive the above-discussed Report from the UUA Staff. The ARAMT suggested that the Board continue to ask how the Commission Social Witness process is helping us to be accountable to underrepresented groups and if CSW justice issues are being looked at the an AR/AO lens. In regard to Independent Affiliate Organizations ARAMT wants to make sure that social justice work by these organizations is situated in congregations. An important question was asked: can we expect the status and legitimacy of Affiliate status will mean a need to be involved in AR/AO or have it as a priority/part of their mission?
Other news of note (briefly)
At GA Clark Olson will facilitate a session with congregation presidents asking what are the gifts and challenges they bring, what would a one-sentence statement of purpose for the Association be, what would the presidents like to see the UUA look like in 4-5 years, and if this is achieved what actions will we have to take to get there?
Rev. Bill Sinkford reported that Robert West will receive the Distinguished Service Award this year.
The $32 Million Dollar Capital Campaign has been successful with $25 million of the gifts as planned bequests, providing for capital over the years.
That?s it. Thanks to anyone and everyone who has read these six pages. This is by no means a comprehensive report. Contact me if you wish additional information about any particular topic. I missed being with you at the District Annual Meeting and thank you for your friendship, support, and faith in me.
Joan
