District Presidents’ Report – February 25, 2014
Unitarian Universalists in the Southern Region are on an exciting journey – a journey with a goal of ensuring the UU principles and the values we uphold in our liberal religious tradition can make a difference in the world.
We invite you to join us!
The path we are following on our journey has often been referred to as “regionalization” or “regional collaboration,” and what that really means is we are bringing the way we organize ourselves, our relationships and our structures, including our boards and staff, into line with a key part of our theology – our interdependence and the realization that we are stronger together than we are alone.
Starting point: Orlando, Florida
While the impetus for the journey has been years in the making, we stepped onto the road more than three years ago when representatives from the four districts that make up the Southern Region (Florida, Mid-South, Southeast, Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference of the UUA) gathered in Orlando in December 2010 to talk about how we serve our congregations and how to make the best use of resources. This gathering was the first step to heal a disconnection that was keeping us from doing our best work. What emerged was the Orlando Platform, an agreement to build working relationships among our district boards and create a sense of religious purpose for our work, while also identifying changes in our governance and shared ministry that could best support congregations and grow the impact of our faith.
Since then, each of our district boards have reduced the number of trustees who serve, with the idea that more volunteer talent might be put to use doing “hands-on” work and evangelizing (that is, spreading the good news) about Unitarian Universalism and its ability to change lives. Districts have ended co-employment of our field staff, who are now employed by the UUA and work in an integrated team, with each Congregational Life staff member able to share their own unique knowledge and strengths across the region. We put aside our own district “ends” or goals, in favor of the UUA ends, which are developed by trustees we all elect at our General Assemblies. We are piloting a new way of sharing our financial resources – the GIFT program, designed to bring fiscal equity across the region.
Mile marker: The Mountain, North Carolina
More recently, in September 2013, our four district boards and Southern Region staff met at The Mountain, a retreat in North Carolina, to evaluate and build on the work done in Orlando.
Also present was Jim Key, our UUA Moderator, who works with our UUA board to develop ends and strategic direction (the governance piece of our structure, which ensures the voices of our congregations are heard through the democratic process, or linkage), and Rev. Scott Tayler, the UUA Director of Congregational Life (DCL), who is responsible for staff management and program development (the operations/management element of our structure in which we “live the faith.”)
Just as our congregations gain strength from collaborations, the Southern Region is strengthened by drawing on and adding to the resources of our UUA. Jim and Scott’s understanding of and contributions to the evolution occurring in our region are vital to our ongoing success. Our work with them has helped us more clearly discern confusion and conflict that was occurring from duplicative roles district boards had with UUA Trustees setting policy, and it helped us clarify the distinction between our board’s governance and management related roles.
One outcome of the meeting at The Mountain was the formation of task forces whose members are made up of representatives of each of the four districts, working to develop ideas about the new ways we could be in relationship with one another.
As we worked through this process, each of our boards has re-affirmed our commitment to the Orlando Platform, including living in covenant with fellow districts in the Southern Region, and our fiscal strategy of a unified budget with regional equity.
We have affirmed our willingness as board members to becoming the initial facilitators, or Elders, who mentor, advise and connect congregations, often in clusters, so that those congregations can be more effective. In those roles, board members will focus on generative thinking – the process of creating new ideas – and away from governance work as much as possible, as that is the role held by our UUA Board of Trustees.
We have affirmed that as we live further into a common regional structure, we will work in collaborative groups made up of both district board members and regional staff, partnering in shared ministry to ensure that congregations develop strong relationships with other congregations, understand the resources that are available to them and have the opportunities to go to a deeper level. We also empower staff to further enhance their role in fiduciary and management activities.
We will continue to communicate what our boards and councils are doing, including planned upcoming reviews of district bylaws in the 2014-2015 fiscal year to assess how they fit with the new structures we have created. That could include dissolution of the district boards. The intention is to eventually get to one legal organization representing the region with appropriate fiduciary responsibilities.
The road ahead
Although district boards have entrusted staff management and program development to the Director of Congregational Life and have acknowledged that there is little for them to govern, we will keep them intact for now. The Chalice Lighter Program will continue at the district level, with districts sharing best practices, while we evolve into new structures.
The task forces on which our board members serve will transition into six multi-district councils:
- UUA Board Linkage Council - designed to strengthen the connection between our congregations and our UUA Board. This is key to our system of governance, to ensure that the voices of our congregations are heard, so each district board would appoint one member to serve on a regional linkage team.
- DCL Advisory Council - made up of district board presidents initially (and eventually a wider group of regional stakeholders) who will work with the UUA Director of Congregational Life as thought partners and advisors in the DCL’s role of staff management and program development. Their common goal is to make programming impactful to local needs.
- Clusters Council - with the intentional effort to foster development of groups of congregations around a common purpose, allowing them to grow stronger as they develop interdependent relationships. Clusters are a form of small group ministry for congregations and a recognition that we are stronger together than alone.
- Elders Council - will work to identify Elders - wise leaders in our faith, no matter what their chronological age. Using the output from our initial Elderhood Task Force, the Elders Council will create systems for matching Elders with areas in which they can serve, such as cluster development or mentoring.
- Regional Fiduciary Council - provides unified regional budget oversight and asset management with cross-district representation.
- Regional Communication Council - assesses strategies and tactics appropriate to our new structures, including producing media and content that supports our relationships, while also serving an input function, facilitating inclusion and involvement of congregations in linkage to our district leaders and UUA trustees.
The Linkage and Communications council will collaborate to advance recommendations from the Democratic Process task force.
These councils will collaborate with each other as they do their work. While councils initially are being formed with leaders from district boards, other Elders will be tapped to participate as well.
Forward progress
Our journey has taken us a long way from the isolated silos in which we previously lived, to new relationships, crossing arbitrarily-drawn boundaries and into fields that are wide open with possibilities and promise.
Our district boards are excited about the foundations we have put in place and the road we continue to build, a road wide enough to accommodate all the congregations in the Southern Region as we collectively and joyfully journey towards a Unitarian Universalism that can most effectively change individual lives and the broader society in which we live.
Are you ready for what we can do together?
Respectfully submitted,
Ila Klion, President, Florida District
Kirk Bogue, President, Mid-South District
Denise Rimes, President, Southeast District
Kevin Bolton, President, Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference of the UUA
-On behalf of our District Boards of Trustees
