Linkage

Board Sources of Accountability

Linda Laskowski

Linda Laskowski, UUA Trustee

You want to talk to WHO?

Forgive the grammar. We want to talk to our vision of Beloved Community. And the heritage, tradition, and ideals of Unitarian Universalism. And current and future generations of Unitarian Universalists, as well as the Spirit of life, love, and the holy.

When the UUA Board first identified four groups we were accountable to in addition to our member congregations, reactions from outside the Board varied from thinking only member congregations counted, to appreciating the poetry, to averring that we should be accountable only to our mission. We called the five groups “sources of authority and accountability” (Sources), avoiding the Carver term “moral owners” because of its historical connotation with slavery. I suspect almost no one expected us to actually be in some sort of dialogue with these Sources.

With significant guidance from Unity Consulting, a small team from the Board has been identifying methodologies to do just that. The Board approved working definitions of these Sources (what are their voices? how do they speak?) at this past meeting. We anticipate using these working definitions to get valuable feedback from all of our Sources on the draft ends from next January’s meeting.
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Board News, Linkage

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Walking North

On Monday, January 18, 14 members of the UUA Board of Trustees will walk across the border with other UUs and members of the group No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths, a ministry of the UU Congregation of Tucson) to Nogales, Mexico, where we will speak with migrants and just-deported migrants. The afternoon includes a panel discussion with human rights and immigration rights activists.  Tuesday will find some of us in court, observing the deportation process; and some of us back in Nogales, doing hands-on service work for the same groups of people we saw the day before. On Wednesday we return to Tempe and the start of the January Board meeting, part of it jointly with the 2012 GA Advisory Team. This team, chaired by the Rev. Leslie Takahashi Morris, was convened to represent many of the stakeholders in a “justice GA” and reports to both the Board and the GA Planning Committee. (more…)

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Immigration, Linkage

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What were they thinking?

What were they thinking?

Who would the UUA Board talk to if a trustee wanted to talk to a “member congregation”?  What in that conversation could move both trustee and congregation to the kind of connection and mutual appreciation that would ultimately result in “one strong body”?  What differences do our congregations want us to make together, and are they similar to the goals that were established by the Board after two years of input from various UUs and groups across the country?  And can anyone believe – really believe – that these goals are not merely aspirational – that together we really could make them happen? (more…)

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How the Board works, Linkage

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