Monday, April 13, 2009

April Board Meeting Agenda

At 407 pages, the April Board packet is not for the faint-hearted. Closer examination though shows that the length is dominated by three reports: a 90 page evaluation of the UUA Health Plan (kudos to those who conceived of and have made this plan so successful), 115 pages on the Mosaic Project, and the 24 page Youth Ministry Working Group report. The latter two should be must reading for every Unitarian Universalist -- click on the link above and download both. I especially like the index on the Working Group report!

The agenda includes planning for General Assembly, a major opportunity for the Board to interface with members. In addition to the presidential election, GA includes UU University as an integral part this year, featuring tracks in Stewardship, Multigenerational congregations, Multicultural Congregations, Governance, Justice, and Theology. There will be an interfaith public witness on immigration issues. Entertainment includes comedian Kate Clinton and Sweet Honey in the Rock's Ysaye Barnwell. For further information, housing, and registration, click here.

The Board will also be reviewing the feedback collected over the past few months on the draft Ends: "what difference the Association makes to whom" and adopting our initial set of "ends". Although not all trustees have reported back on their meetings, we have met with (at least) 8 district boards, 6 groups of congregational presidents, 4 UUMA ministers/chapters, 3 district annual meetings, 2 religious educator chapters, 1 theological school, and the GA Planning Committee. The overall response has been positive - 71% said the global end captured "most" or "almost all" of what they wanted for the UUA, and 84% said the nested ends capture "most" or "almost all".

Saturday night will focus on Excellence in Ministry. This is a difficult area, because no matter how broadly the topic is posed, there continues to be a sticking point around the UUA's relationship with the UU seminaries. Look for posts on this and many other topics starting next week.

2 comments:

Art Ungar said...

It's now three weeks later, and I've seen nothing posted on "Saturday night will focus on Excellence in Ministry. This is a difficult area, because no matter how broadly the topic is posed, there continues to be a sticking point around the UUA's relationship with the UU seminaries. Look for posts on this and many other topics starting next week."

Linda Laskowski said...

You are right, Art -- the reason I have not posted on this session is because it was not a discussion about the Summit or any kind of report out of activities. The Board recently reorganized their working groups to include one on "Excellence in Ministry" so the session was used to get Board input into the general topic. The result was fairly generic at this point.