| Allies for Racial Equity Conference in Rockford, IL Fri Mar 15 @ 4:00PM |
| Alternative FAIR FOOD Spring Break Wed Mar 20 @ 4:00PM |
| Jr High Election CON Mon Apr 01 @ 4:00AM |
| PSD Annual Conference 2013 Fri Apr 05 @ 3:00PM |
| WEBINAR: Pastoral Care Thu Apr 11 @ 6:45PM |
| Heartland District Assembly 2013 Fri Apr 12 @ 3:00PM |
| WEBINAR: Pastoral Care Tue Apr 23 @ 6:45PM |
| LREDA Days pre- District Assembly Thu Apr 25 @ 6:00PM |
| OWL Training (UCC) in Midland MI Fri Apr 26 @ 1:00PM |
| Central Midwest District Assembly Fri Apr 26 @ 4:00PM |
WEBINAR: Pastoral Care |
WEBINAR: Pastoral Care |
If you’re curious about the ways our current District Staff will be serving the new region, we have a draft document for you to read. The document contains our philosophy, as well as more detail about the areas of responsibility we each will take on. This is a draft, and we welcome your comments. Our District Boards and the UUA’s Director of Congregational Life have seen it. Please contact any of us with your thoughts. To read the draft ...
How can we remake our region’s governance structure to strengthen our congregations and other spiritual communities to more visibly live our UU faith, create connections, grow our membership, and welcome all persons who share our UU values in what is a new era in Unitarian Universalism? In late August 2012 members of the boards of Central MidWest, Heartland, and Prairie Star districts, along with lead staff from each district, and the UUA Director of Congregational Life, met to explore exactly these momentous questions. “How” was the frequent focus. “Why” was a given -- to enrich our congregations in MidAmerica.
In her recent article, writing for the MidAmerica Steering Committee, Amy Taylor described the extensive preparatory work being done in the MidAmerica region, work on bylaws, on communications, on finances, and on smooth transitions to this new structure. When a family decides to build or remodel a home, the best architectural structure is one which supports the the lifestyle of the residents. Decisions are made about creating welcoming spaces, cozy spaces, spaces for work, and spaces for play. As we restructure our region, we are making similar decisions. How can we use our staff’s skills and abilities, our available finances, our shared areas of interest to provide a structure which will enrich the congregations?
Creating our regional structure we wish to both learn from the best wisdom of our congregations and reflect good practice to them. I interviewed Stefan Jonasson, UUA expert on growth and on large congregations regarding what he sees as key issues our larger congregations are working. It was fascinating to see how closely many of these issues mirrored things we have been considering in creating our new region. Here are Stefan's thoughts on the first of the issues he mentioned. I will post more of Stefan's thoughts in the next couple of weeks.
Accept with agility continuing staff transition. It is fascinating how naïve many large congregations can be about the reality of frequent transitions of key staff. They need to regard staff transition as a continuing reality. If a year passes when there isn’t a transition of a significant staff member, it should be considered an odd year. I constantly see our larger congregations thrown back on their heels by the departure of a staff member. Our congregations need to be prepared for continuing transition—for the comings and goings of staff and the need to re-form.
At a Spring 2012 Heartland District Ministers’ Chapter meeting, once again I presented information about the planned move from District-based service delivery and governance to Regional-based models. I’ve been talking with the ministers and religious education professionals about this for the past 18 months, and once again I asked “What are your questions?” One of the ministers sent me four specific questions. I’ve addressed each of them in a separate blog entry.
Here’s the fourth one: Is there a regional presence regarding justice, support of other non-congregational UU institutions in the region, state legislatures, embodied by . . . ?
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