From Orlando to The Mountain: Southern Region Collaboration and Transformation
The four UUA districts of the Southern Region met at The Mountain in September, 2013. There they created and announced plans (Mountain Meeting - Sept 2013) to further the goals and aspirations articulated in The Orlando Platform, which the same organizations (along with UUA Trustees, UUA Administration and UUA professional staff) jointly created at a meeting in Orlando, FL, in December, 2010. This is one article in a series that pertains to this transformative work to grow the impact of our faith in our UUA’s Southern Region.
I wasn’t in the room when you made decisions at the September 2013 meeting at The Mountain, how is my voice being heard/am I being represented?
One of the many gifts of our Unitarian Universalist faith is the commitment to our Fifth Principle, the use of the democratic process. So often as humans we feel not listened to and unheard. When we bring our whole selves, our most vulnerable selves to our faith community in church, we have a deep desire to be respected and appreciated for our unique selves, and recognized for our contributions. Our adherence to our Fifth Principle sets out a process and a promise that allows us to participate in determining the direction of our congregations and of our religion, where all can contribute and be heard.
The other part of our democratic process includes electing representatives who act on congregants’ behalf. Use of democratic process underlays the way all districts in the Southern Region are proceeding with their work. The process decisions made at the September 2013 meeting at The Mountain will culminate in recommendations all boards would like the congregations in their districts to adopt at upcoming annual meetings each district will hold. The work included commitments to complete due diligence and planning required to ensure recommendations are viable and appropriately shared. It included the creation of four Task Forces to work on separate concerns:
Communication, Democracy, Elders and Fiduciary. Each Task Force is comprised of members from each Board. In January, the four Task Forces will bring recommendations to the four Boards for consideration Annual Assemblies/ District Annual Meetings in April, 2014.
Nominating Committees are charged with seeking out leaders and elders in the faith to serve the interests of their Unitarian Universalist constituents. A new wave of Nominating Committees are transitioning into Leadership Development Committees reflecting a transformation that recognizes the focused investment in growing leaders our districts and region have made over the last several years.
As elected leaders and as elders of our Unitarian Universalist faith, the Trustees of the boards of the Southern Region Districts represent the interests of our 30,000 Unitarian Universalists in 218 congregations. We engage with our constituents at district events and in our own congregations. Further, we are informed by meeting together either in person or virtually across the region, and at General Assembly. Part of our fiduciary responsibility is to ensure vitality and growth of our congregations and of our faith. We have been elected to serve this purpose to our best ability, and
what we have discerned is in the best interests of our faith. What have we been called to do? We have been called, as elders, to help one another. And as you see, the Democratic process is two-way communication.
Additionally, we work in a shared ministry model with the Southern Region Field Staff Congregational Life Consultants. These currently seven faith professionals provide resources and perspectives from their work with congregations, and at district and regional events. Their focus on leadership, faith development, covenant and healthy congregations brings the best elements of our aspirations for growth – organically, maturationally, incarnationally, as well as numerically.
The final recommendations that boards would like their respective district’s congregations to adopt will be finalized and documented in official Annual Meeting Notices that each district must send for items to be voted on at Annual Assembly. Only at Annual Assembly meetings can the recommendations made at The Mountain become decisions. This is where your voice can be heard April 25-27, 2014.
Carrie Stewart
Trustee, Southwest Unitarian Universalist Conference Board
Member, Communication Task Force on behalf of the Southern Region Leadership
