It's opening day at GA! Today is the first day without rain since we got here. We need some of it back home.

The day has culminated with a performance at the Opening Ceremony of Sources by Jason Shelton and Kendyl Gibbons. This cantata draws on the six sources and was a mixture of musical styles a s rich as our sources. What a close! It is available online at http//:uua.org so check it out.

This afternoon we had the in-gathering of our own Pacific Southwest District. There are about 140 of us from the PSWD. Our new president elect, Michael Sallwasser from Long Beach, received the gavel from retiring president, Tom Stapelford. District field staff, Ken Brown and Tera Little led us in song and celebration to get us off to a good start. Representatives from various congregations shared some success stories of notable events going on in our congregations. Of special note is the fact that Pacific Unitarian Church is being honored at GA as one of only four congregations in the country to be listed as "break-through" congregations in the UUA this year. They are honored for their remarkable growth, commitment to service and strengthening Unitarian Universalism. Congratulations to all the members of PUC who helped make this happen.

We had a visit from Reverend Lindsay Ramsden, Executive Director of the UU Legislative Ministry in California. She reported on the remarkable success we have had in getting the laws on marriage equality to become real but she also talked about the proposition to remove this precious right in November. They have formed a PAC to raise funds to fight the good fight and get over 46,000 volunteers to help in the upcoming campaign. Those opposed to marriage equality will be well organized and funded and we need to now stand shoulder to shoulder to defend this new-won right. I am making a contribution to the PAC. You can too at: http://www.uulmca.org/main.html.

More from GA in Ft Lauderdale tomorrow!

Tom

Greetings from Ft Lauderdale and the 2008 General Assembly!

Things get going officially on Wednesday with the Opening Ceremony at 5 PM Pacific time. It will be streamed online at http://uua.org. If you look at it I would love to get some feedback on how it works for you.

Today was the UUA Board meeting which meets today and then next Monday following GA. Today we dealt with some reports from various committees about happenings of GA. We did do some business work though including appointing several people to committees. First and foremost I am happy to let you know that Michael Sallwasser has been appointed as co-chair of The Journey Toward Wholeness Committee replacing our own Reverend Monica Cummings. Reverend Greg Stewart, minister in San Francisco and formerly Minister of Religious Education at Neighborhood Church in Pasadena has been appointed as a member of the Ministerial Fellowshiping Committee. There are other appointments and they will be reported in the minutes for the meeting shortly.

We found out some good news and bad news about the UUA finances; first, the bad news: the attendance at this GA is significantly lower than projected with about 3,200 being registered. This is about one-half, or less, than Portland last year. The result is that it is expected to lose over $200,000. The god news is that the UUA as a whole is in the black this year, despite the projected losses of GA, by about $300,000 plus.

Do follow along with what is going on at GA both online and from my blog and let me know if there is anything you would specially like to hear about. I will be talking to you again soon!

In faith and trust,

Tom

Here is my report to the 2008 PSWD District Assembly in Del Mar last week:

UUA Trustee Report to the Pacific Southwest District Assembly

I am amazed that it has been two years since I first had the privilege to serve as your trustee to the UUA Board. Time does go quickly. Let me bring you up to date on some of the major issues I think we are dealing with on the UUA Board and some of my impressions about that work. If you really enjoy details you can go to the UUA website and read the agendas and minutes for recent meetings at: http://uua.org/aboutus/governance/boardtrustees/index.shtml

A major transition is occurring right now with the Board and its governance. We are moving to policy governance as developed and interpreted by John Carver. It is a model in use now by our District Board. The Board started their work on this new way of conducting our business before I came on the Board. At virtually every meeting we have had sessions to learn new aspects of policy governance and in the last year we have been making decisions about how this will all work with our by-laws, roles of elected leaders, congregational polity and traditions. It is sometimes tedious, controversial, logical, exciting and even occasionally emotional work. We will soon start the “ends” policies, to which I have been looking forward. This is where we begin to define how we want the work of the Board, the staff and the leadership to be making a difference in how we function. It is very intentional and will be critical to a process in which we have an enormous investment of Board time and resources. I will be updating you regularly on our progress but I hope if we are succeeding it will be readily apparent to you.

At the April Board meeting which is yet to take place as I write this, we will be discussing the future of the continental organization of YRUU. A recommendation was presented by the Youth Steering Committee recommending the dissolution of YRUU and that it be replaced by some other entity serving youth. This evolved from a Consultation To and With Youth conducted last summer in which 60 recommendations were made to the Board. This was later boiled down to 11 priorities. There is a very good article on this at the UU World website:
http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/100284.shtml and I would encourage those of you with a more detailed interest to take a look. From my perspective it is important to note that the Board has taken no action to dissolve YRUU nor have we approved a budget with no funding for YRUU next year. These things may happen but it will only be after a very thorough discussion. I very much would like to hear your thoughts and concerns after you have taken the time to inform yourself of the facts surrounding the issues. Please let me know what you think.

There are other issues we are dealing with; two years ago the Board approved a new approval process for Independent Affiliates. It has had the effect of dramatically reducing the number of Independent Affiliates. The idea is that we are an Association of Congregations and as such should be devoting our energy and resources to the support of congregations. Part of the approval process is to demonstrate the value of the IA to congregations. What it has not done is restricted any organization's right to continuing doing its work. It has reduced the ability to automatically have workshops at GA. Now former IAs have to compete for a GA slot as every other group does – on the merits of the workshop. The problem for me in this is that I think we may not be considering a new reality in what makes up a “congregation”. Of course, we have a definition of a congregation but it may be based on a model that does not really take in the way we congregate anymore. When I heard there is a UU congregation in Second Life I realized that the Internet, email and the interfaces to electronic communication have blurred the definition sufficiently that we may need to expand how we think about where devoted UUs find their “congregation”.

There are other issues, including our ongoing relationship with UU schools of theology and their support through the Panel on Theological Education; the upcoming election of a new president of our Association; the location of General Assembly in Ft. Lauderdale and the special requirements for entry to the convention center at this site; becoming a truly anti-rascist, anti-oppression and multicultural organization; developing excellence in ministry; maintaining relationships with the ministers, religious educators, musicians, administrators, district presidents, international congregations; filling important committee positions with qualified and capable volunteers; fund raising and budgeting and a hundred other no less important issues and tasks.

So what am I concerned about in the year to come and beyond? I remain a skeptic to be convinced that a governance based on a board that only develops policy and monitors staff compliance toward meeting defined ends is an improvement that will make a difference in our Association's work toward congregational success, social justice, institutional witness and bringing our saving message to a broader community. I am concerned that we have yet to find a right relationship with persons and groups that are committed to UU purposes and principles outside of traditional congregations. I am concerned we have failed somewhere in serving our youth and young adults in a way that honors them and their promise of new vitality. I am concerned about the demands on our resources and our inability to fully fund them. I am concerned about the influence that money and our fund raising efforts have on leadership, staff, programs and relationships.

And why am I encouraged that we can deal with all these issues? We are blessed with creative, intelligent, compassionate and very hard working Board members, volunteers, staff and leadership who are dedicated to addressing these issues head on and bringing to bear all their best efforts. It gives me hope that we can rise to each occasion, ask for help when we need it, get help when we ask, be forgiven when we fail and have to try again and most of all be focused on how our decisions will effect the people who ask us to serve and respond as faithful servants of Unitarian Universalism.

To that end I remain dedicated, I ask your assistance, your inquiry, your good wishes and your blessings for our collective work.

Please feel free to contact me at tloughrey@uua.org or just call me at 714 997-1973. I am available to meet with you and always appreciate invitations to congregations to celebrate, deliberate or just congregate.

In faith and trust,

Tom Loughrey
PSWD UUA Trustee

Here is my article for the May edition of the PSWD NetwUUrk:

UUA Trustee Report

What a busy and exciting two week period!First the UUA Board meeting in Boston followed by the PSW District Assembly in Del mar last weekend. It is always wonderful to be around so many devoted UUs.

This was the last UUA Board meeting before GA in Ft. Lauderdale and a good deal of time was spent on Friday going over preparations for workshops sponsored by the Board at GA. It appears the registrations for this year are falling short of where they were at this same point last year before GA. Nonetheless, it looks like we can still expect to see a gathering of more than 4,000 UUs at Ft. Lauderdale. GA will kick off with a pre-opening gathering of Districts. This will be an opportunity for us to get together with others from the PSWD to see who is there, meet some of the District leadership and hear from some of the UUA leadership. I hope you will make it a priority to be there then and I look forward to seeing as many PSWD folk that can be there.

The UUA Board is going through a process now that is nearing completion on changing our governance process to a form known as Policy Governance. This type of governance focuses on specific ends for the Association and defines some roles of the staff and the Board in that process. Have approached this work critically and have had to be convinced it is an appropriate way for a religious organization that has always depended on volunteers to conduct its work. As we approach developing these ends I remain critical but also supportive. We are taking our time, adapting the process as we need for a religious body such as ours and being guided by other UUs who have done this work before. We use this type of governance on our own district board and have been working with it effectively.

A major item for the Board at this meeting has been working with youth. Perhaps you have heard that YRUU Steering Committee has disbanded. You can see a letter on this at

http://uua.org/aboutus/governance/boardtrustees/letters/96668.shtml.

The Steering Committee has inactivated itself and the Board has decided to work with youth to develop a successor organization that would develop a new youth organization that comes out of the work of the Consultation To and With Youth Ministry. The Board has not removed YRUU as a sponsored organization and it has given the successor organizing committee the same funding as was provided last year. The Board unanimously voted to place a motion before the GA on the empowerment of Youth and Young Adults. In passing this the following text was included with the recording of the vote:

“VOTED: The administration shall make the transition in youth ministry an institutional priority now. This process must be transparent and those responsible for implementation must be in authentic relationship with the youth community and its elected leadership. During this transition, the administration must provide monthly progress reports to the Board. The administration shall ensure that UUA support for youth ministry programming is maintained throughout the transitional period.”

The Budget for 2009 was approved and calls for a very modest increase in spending of about .4%. The 2010 budget was accepted and calls for a $2 increase per member in support of the Association from each congregation. This will make a total contribution of $58 per member by 2010.

I did vote for the budget this year (last year I did not) even though I have some reservations about the $2 increase. For every year for over twenty years the level of support has been increased by $2 each year. Obviously the $2 increase in recent years has much less purchasing power than the same $2 did nearly twenty years ago. Increases in the congregational support of the UUA have trailed increases in congregational budgets virtually every year. This means the UUA must find alternative ways to fund programs that are much less stable than congregational funding from the Annual program Fund (APF). I believe in paying our bills and being good stewards of programs we want. I think we can do a better job of funding these than we are doing now with less dependence on our endowed funds and fund raising appeals such as Friends of the UUA. I must note I have the same concern for our district and how we fund its work.

One of the most exciting events of the Board meeting came during the report of Beacon Press. First, we were thrilled to hear that Beacon Press is continuing to operate profitably. The only subsidy to the Press is for space at the UUA offices in Boston. But the best news came on several announcements: Mary Oliver's poetry continues to be very popular and a very good seller and should continue to do so. Second, the Press will be publishing the Graphic novel version of Howard Zinn's “Peoples History of the United States”. It is anticipated to do well. Finally, and most notably. Beacon Press is the only publishing company currently in negotiation with the family of Martin Luther King, Jr to publish all his writings, letters and sermons. This is not a done deal but we are the only ones they are talking to right now. This would be momentous on the order of the Beacon Press Publication of The Pentagon Papers. We shall see where it goes but we hope for the best.

The full agenda for the past meeting including all reports is on line at uua.org. I encourage you to take a look. If you have any questions about any of he work we are doing (or not doing) please let me know. I would enjoy talking to you about it. You can also see my blog at tomloughreyuuatrustee.blogspot.com.

Tom Loughrey
714 997-1973
tloughrey@uua.org

Visiting with family this Thanksgiving and writing from Carbondale, Illinois. A great day with our kids and two grandsons! 

I have added a few new links to this site you may find useful. UUpdates has a compendium listing of UU websites and blogs that they follow on a regular basis. It is very helpful in locating many different sites, views and perspectives. I have also put in Philocrites which is done by Chris Walton, editor of UUWorld. It is very well done, as you expect from a professional editor and one I refer to frequently.

I have also included a link to my colleague, Linda Laskowski, Trustee from the Pacific Central District. Linda and I are both on the Living Our Faith Working Group. I enjoy reading her comments and perspective and thought you might also.

Finally, the latest PSWD newsletter, The NetwUUrk is out and you can take a look at my comments as well as news from around the District. 

My best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

First let me start with some brief comments about the fires. As I came home from Boston last week I could see fires burning on both sides of the plane as we came into LAX. Many of us on the plane had not heard about the winds and fires before leaving Boston and during that seven hour span the flames really picked up. As I drove home I could see the Santiago fire burning in the hills to the east of our house about eight miles away. It was going to be an ominous night.

The next day at work we started dealing with employees who were evacuated or too bothered with smoke to be able to work. Since our job is the management of medical practices including five urgent care centers we began to get inundated with patients coming in with breathing problems and more. So to say this was an uncommon week is an understatement. I know it has been far worse for others particularly those in San Diego and the mountain communities to our east. I hope you will consider a donation to the fire relief efforts being put together on the PSWD website:  http://pswduua.org

And now, more about what was happening at the UUA Board meeting last Saturday and Sunday:

A good part of the Saturday meeting is taken up with reports from the various committees and working groups along with reports from key staff as well as the financial advisor. Many of these reports are online at http://uua.org. 

My own working group (Faith In Action) dealt with some of the issues involving our work on Katrina relief efforts along the Gulf Coast and lessons learned (which may become a GA workshop), a report on a program targeting successful ministries for ministers of color emerging from seminary training in the next few years and finally a brief discussion issues related to accessibility and the move of the inaccessibility's work to the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee (JTWTC). We will be inviting leadership of this committee to meet with us later next year to discuss specifically how the committee is handling issues of accessibility as part of its new charge. I introduced a motion to the working group to consider meeting outside of Boston occasionally and as a result we sent a motion to the whole Board to meet from time to time in a place other than Boston and to do so no later than January 2009. The motion was generally received favorably but members wanted to know at what increased cost so it was tabled until our next meeting for staff to develop some costs of meeting elsewhere. Specifically, we were thinking of New Orleans but that will be up the Coordinating Council to determine. We think we need to be more visible and present with our congregations outside of Boston (not that we have done much with the ones near Boston). Additionally, we will be looking at recommendations that come from the Consultation on Youth ministry late next year. This will give some opportunity to implement some of the recommendations made by the group

The Governance working group spent two hours with each committee looking at policies that we may adopt in the future under policy governance. It was productive work but it shows how much more education we need on how we and the Association will benefit from this style of governance. It will probably be know earlier than June 2009 before we adopt this change if even then.

The Finance Committee reported the UUA audit resulted in a "clean" report by the auditors meaning no material deficiencies or problems. The Association is in sound financial condition. Several recommendations include: raising the GA fee by $5.00; change the budget cycle so that the administration presents its first pass to the board on July 1st defining new initiatives. At the April meeting the administration will present its proposed operating and capital budget; approval of the Beacon Press budget (operating in the black by about $200K); approved additional organizations that may participate in the health plan; also approved for the Board to consider a request to increase the guarantee time period for Canejo Valley UU from 9 years tot he life of the loan. This wa later approved by the Board.

The Committee on Committees approved a new Task Force called the Fifth Principle task force whose job is to look at GA and consider all aspects of it and to later report to the Boad and the Association on any recommendations. This will be a five person task force appointed by the Board. this will be finalized at the January meeting.

Rev. John Morehouse of PUC was approved as a member of the Annual Program fund.

Rev. Cynthia Kane was approved for membership on the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. Phyllis Daniel currently is the interim chair and will be succeeded by Rev Wayne Arnason.

Rev Sam Trumbore of Altamont, NY will join with Carol Agate on the Open UUA Implementation Committee with Chair Evelyn Spurgin.

The Accessibility Coommittee has been sunseted and their work moved to JTWTC, chaired by Rev Monica Cummings and Carolyn Cartland. Michael Sallwasser of Long Beach also serves this committee. Two new persons were added including Arthur Tackman of Honolulu and CJ McGregor of Fitchburg, MA.

The complete list of all committees will be published on the UUA website soon along with the minutes.

Reports from Bill Sinkford, Kay Montgomery and Gini Courter will also be online soon as well.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions and also feel free to leave comments for all of us to look at. I do not moderate the comments so please remember to honor each other electronically no less than you would if you were talking directly to others.

The January meeting will be the 16-18th. As items of interest come up I will be in touch.

In service and in trust,

Tom

 

Today was our first meeting of the Living Our Faith Working Group of which I am the convener. I have to admit I was somewhat apprehensive about leading this group. Only one member had been a part of this group in the past. What this gave us though was the freedom to reinvent ourselves and our mission. We did not have much time though as the bulk of our time was spent doing the first Board review of prosective policies under policy governance. We were charged with reviewing and revising the policy on the treatment of people. Each of the groups did this with different policies and we then met in the afternoon to review them as a whole Board. By Sunday we will have a chance to do a straw vote on them. It was an interesting process that I think will help me with our own governance on the District Board.

At dinner we met with the Council of UU Camps and Conferences or CU2 C2. de Benneville Board member Clarice Turney from Riverside and LA was there representing the camp. I am sorry I missed Janet James who was here earlier this week. It was a nice get together.

This evening was quite powerful as we spent over two hours working on Antiracism antiopression and multicultural work. We saw a very powerful documentary on issues of race and then had an opportunity to discuss them in small groups. It was a real learning moment for me. Ask me and I will tell you more about it.

As you might see from the pictures fall is definitely here but I understand it is a little late and the peak is not expected for several weeks. These two pictures are from the Boston public gardens. This is a short walk down Beacon Street going toward Arlington Street Church. It was as beautiful as it looks.

More tomorrow when the actual Board meeting starts.

Tom

What a long day! We started at 8 am and finished at 9pm. Mostly it was the retreat today. It was a very good session and I got a lot of very good ideas for working with other boards that I think will be helpful. It certainly will be helpful to our own work on the Board.

This evcenings session was time spent working with a consultant on policy governance. The Board is well on its way to adopting this model and has begun working on it it in earnest. We sahll see how it works with an organizartion in which the CEO is elected and accountable to the member congregations. I shall keep you informed.

More tomorow.

Today starts the first of five days of the October 2007 UUA Board meetings. It was quite a trip to get here today. A canceled flight and getting here slightly later than planned to start. Not much to report yet. I met with the Committee on Committees where our work is to act as nominators for committee positions. Since it involves people and decisions about them the work is confidential so not much to say about it.

Tonight we opened with a short worship service that opened with a sharing from our moderator, Gini Courter, that Natalie Gulbrandsen had passed away this week. Natalie was a former moderator. I did not know her well but I always enjoyed her leadership at GA. Here is a link about her passing:





www.uua.org/news/newssubmissions/49375.shtml

Of course in the past few weeks we have lost several people in the PSWD who will be sorely missed; Len McConkie from Ventura and Abe Ohanian from Throop who for me was the face of the UUSC for so many years in this district.

Abe's obituary:

www.legacy.com/LATimes/Obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=96306983

Len's obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/VenturaCountyStar/Obituaries.asp?Page=SEARCHRESULTS

You will have to do a search on McConkie


Tomorrow we start the Board retreat. A full day of taking the time to really meet and get to know the board we will be working with for the next two years. Working groups on Friday and the Board meeting starts on Friday night and goes through Sunday. More tomorrow!

Tom