By Larry Meisner
Many of you may wonder, what is a Presidents’ Convocation? It is a gathering of congregational presidents and presidents-elect who all want to learn more about how to do their jobs and to strengthen their congregations. The Mid South District has been hosting these events for several years, while they’re fairly new to the Southeast and Florida Districts, and to the Southwest Conference. We had our first regional convocation last summer, held in each of our districts to reduce travel time and expense. Attendees gave high marks to the staff, the sessions, and the informal connections made over the weekend. Many of the ideas presented at the convocation, such as using a non-board member as process observer, were immediately implemented as standard board procedures.
Three recent attendees shared their PC experiences, including the important lessons they learned and suggestions as to how the experience could have been improved. We included a cross-section of congregational presidents, with varied experiences and representing a variety of congregations.
Gay Lambirth of UU Congregation of Asheville has been a UU since she joined the Community Church of New York in 1970. She later served as president of the Houston congregation before moving on to Asheville and eventually serving as president there. Gay also has attended Dwight Brown Leadership Experience (DBLE) and has served as a congregational consultant. She attended the PC in 2013.
Denise Miles of Georgia Mountains UU Fellowship in Dahlonega has been a UU for only 3½ years. She was elected president of her congregation after being a member for only one year, and had only just started her term when she attended the PC at the Mountain in 2013.
Jerri Meisner of UU Fellowship of Beaufort has been a UU since 1981. Like Gay, she had previously served as president of another UU congregation (Raleigh) before joining UUFB in 2007 and being elected president in 2013. Jerri attended the SE District PC in 2014.
All three of the presidents believed that they brought back useful information from the PCs. Two of them had at least a portion of their expenses paid for by their congregations, and they were encouraged to attend by their congregations – either directly or because it had become an expectation of incoming presidents.
An important reason to attend a PC is the connecting and information sharing that takes place with your colleagues. All three women interviewed felt that they got as much out of the networking with other presidents and learning about how similar-sized congregations handled various issues and situations as the content of the sessions. Some of the concepts were added to their boards’ operating procedures and policies. They felt that break-out groups divided by congregation size were especially helpful. They have kept in contact with people they met and looked forward to seeing them again at future events such as district or cluster meetings, GA, or special conferences.
Overall, all three of the presidents praised regional staff and lay facilitators and all felt that it was a valuable experience, well worth taking the weekend to grow into the role of congregational president. If you are a board president or president-elect, plan to attend the 2015 convocation in Dallas, Raleigh, Birmingham or Orlando on July 10-12.
