Rev. Susan Ritchie, Lew Phinney, and John Hawkins
Writing for the UUA Board of Trustees

Last year, the UUA Board Trustees unanimously approved a motion calling for a transformation in UUA governance.  They noted that five task forces in the recent past have all reported hearing the same thing from the members of our congregations: that our governance is too complex, and needs to be more truly representative.  So, at its April meeting this year, the UUA Board voted to recommend two sets of bylaw changes to General Assembly, aimed at making the governance process less complex and strengthening the association’s commitment to democratic processes.  These bylaws changes would take effect at the end of the 2013 General Assembly.

The first change would reduce the size of the UUA Board from 26 to 14, and have all trustees elected at-large by the General Assembly.

The second of these proposed changes would modify the term of members of the Nominating Committee from one six-year term to two three-year terms.  The Committee would be charged to make trustee nominations that reflect a full range of diversities – “especially in regard to  historically marginalized communities, but also balancing amongst size of  congregation, lay and ordained, geography, age (including youth and young  adults), and gender, among others” – making these current practices of the Nominating Committee mandatory.

This January, the Board convened a Task Force on Board Restructuring and Representation, and charged it  with crafting a proposal to shrink the UUA Board, while increasing democracy and creating a board that would reflect the broad diversity within the Association.  The Taskforce’s vision was for a “board that is culturally competent and accountable to historically marginalized groups (including youth and youth adults), faithfully synthesizing the highest aspirations and practical concerns of Unitarian Universalism. It will be a board for moral, spiritual and numerical Growth.”

To support the requirement for diversity in membership, and to provide more opportunities to serve, the proposed changes shorten the terms for trustees to two three-year terms (from two four-year terms).  This approach will help ensure trustees’ diversity in skills and demographics, including geographic diversity.

Our current system of electing trustees ensures only geographic diversity. With the current district election system, there is no way to balance the skills and demographics of board members.  The Board is large enough to (rather accidentally) include people with different skills sets.  A smaller board will need to be more intentionally formed to ensure that the Board has the right skills to work as an effective team. Shorter terms will allow the Nominating Committee to continually balance and rebalance a smaller Board, as well as guaranteeing that more people move into and through these leadership positions.   Shortening Board terms is one way of both signaling and institutionalizing our commitment to ongoing empowerment of new leaders for our Association.

Rev. Susan Ritchie, Lew Phinney, and John Hawkins
Writing for the UUA Board of Trustees