Transformation

One of the key things I didn’t address following our January meeting, because it was rather incomplete, was the Board’s agreement in principle to initiate a transformation in Association governance. With fairly minor changes, we have the same governance structure that was created when the Us and the Us merged in 1961. We have studied our organization many times and come to substantially the same conclusion each time: our organization is too complex to be effective. So, now is the time to make some substantial changes.

Basically, in San Antonio, we ran out of time. I was pleased to be part of a small committee charged with drafting the specific language that was to become the motion initiating transformation, but I have to give Rev Jake Morrill, trustee from the Thomas Jefferson District, credit for doing the lion’s share of the actual drafting. Earlier this month the whole Board had a virtual meeting (web and telephone meeting) in which the full Board considered and approved the motion.

Click on this link to read the meeting agenda (gotta have an agenda even if there’s only one item on it), supporting contextual paragraphs, and the motion itself:
http://uua.org/documents/boardtrustees/100204_agenda.pdf.

Click here to read Gini Courter’s cover letter.
http://uua.org/documents/moderator/100204_special_meeting.pdf

Or, click on this link to read what the UU World had to say:
http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/158307.shtml

Members of the Board are already working with key leaders in our Association to take substantial steps toward implementation of the vision of a smaller Board and a much more effective governance structure throughout the Association. The president of the District Presidents’ Association, Mary Ellen Morgan, attended most of the meeting in San Antonio and contributed valuable insights from her perspective. Next month I will meet with the MDD Board. Certainly I’ll talk with them about what the UUA Board is doing and hopes to do, but I expect to do a lot of listening, learning from their perspective on how we can best implement the changes that will make our Association a better, more effective organization. I’m pleased to report that the UUA Board has emphasized during every conversation about this transformation that the major focus must be support to congregations.