Conference Call Minutes

C*UUYAN Steering Committee Conference Call
Sunday, November 23, 2008
6:00-7:05 pm

Present: Andrew Mertz, Linnea Huston, Liz Weber (Facilitator), Tom Bozeman

Agenda:
•    Task Forces update
•    Nancy on Listserve
•    Open At-Large position
•    UUA Presidential candidates info

Decisions:
•    To ask Nancy to remain on the list and actively reading it/staying up to date, with the understanding that it can take some time and that we will continue to contact office folks directly when direct questions arise.
•    At-Large position: To both advertise broadly and encourage qualified folks we may know to apply.
•    At-Large application:  To state that we would love to have someone appointed and able to attend the Dec 20 weekend meeting without including a strict deadline.
•    At-Large position should be advertised on YA News, CYF, FUUSE, and through district staff.
•    To compile info on and questions for UUA Pres candidates; to send questions to candidates; to write a voters’ guide; to endorse a candidate if we feel called to do so.

Continuing discussions for email:
See “Decisions” above.

Action items:
ALL: let good candidates know about the open At-Large position
Andrew:  Follow up with Nancy about facilitators for TFs.
Andrew: send UUA Pres Candidate notes to SC.
Andrew: draft letter of questions and concerns to SC/Liz.
Andrew: send minutes to Liz
Liz: respond to Nancy’s email about YahooGroup
Liz:  Use At-Large job description to draft wording for new position; send to SC for feedback.
Liz: send Candidate notes to SC
Liz: contact Erik about YA news for open position, and UUYAN.org is up and running.

Minutes
Check-in
Task Force Update
Liz-  Sent emails to each TF to check in; haven’t heard back yet but wasn’t necessarily expecting to.
Tom-  Any news from the large one since GA?
Liz- No.
Andrew-  At LREDA Conference, talked to Nancy and asked if office knows any professional facilitators that can help out the TFs.  Not followed up about that.
Action Item: Andrew will follow up with Nancy.

Nancy on Listserve
Liz- We have had staff on the lists before, and Nancy would like to know if we still want her on it, and if we want her to weigh in on it.
Liz- we are doing popcorn style conference call discussion
Liz- Nancy has been on the list as long as she has worked on it.
Linnea- doesn’t see reason, or harm.
Liz- would like to keep her on list.
Andrew- feels we should keep an office member on the list, and be clear if we expect them to read it or not, and how we will be connecting with them.
Tom- feels we should keep status quo.
Liz- sounds like we are Ok with keeping an office person on list.
All agreed
Liz- feels Nancy should be reading everything on list if she gets it.
Andrew- feels she should read it all, but know she has 2 weeks or so to get to it.  And time sensitive stuff will be direct email.
Liz- feels Facilitator is often the main contact and should continue that.
Consensus to ask Nancy to remain on the list and actively reading it/staying up to date, with the understanding that it can take some time and that we will continue to contact office folks directly when direct questions arise.

At-Large Position/Sadie’s departure:
Liz- Any comments about Sadie’s stepping down, or can we move on to next steps for replacement?
Liz- Next steps:  Does anyone feel we should be a 4 person committee?
All agreed we should be at 5.
Brainstorm: Potential advertise on YA News, CYF, FUUSE (but has less traffic), district staff could be helpful. Any runners up for positions earlier that we could contact?  Former committee members like Mary- who wouldn’t, Raegan who is done, Tomoko- project person, Anthony-?, 2 folks who ran against Andrew for his position.
Linnea- perhaps we should advertise first
Andrew- maybe Jan 1st as an application deadline
Liz- since we appoint, we should have folks fill out volunteer application sheet.  We should advertise broadly, but also encourage specific people, just be careful we are encouraging folks to apply but not offering them the position or recruiting per se.
Consensus to both advertise broadly and encourage qualified folks we may know to apply.
Jan 15th as a good date for applications in.
Action item- Liz will contact Erik about YA news for open position, and UUYAN.org is up and running.
Action item- Andrew will follow up with Nancy about facilitator for TF.
Action item- all, let good candidates know about the position
Liz- let folks know about position, deadline jan 15th, but let us know ASAP just in case we might select you before the Dec meeting.
Andrew- or, say the position is open, and get in touch with us shortly, but not give a deadline, just in case a good candidate shows up before December meeting.
Andrew- say dec 7th is when we start reviewing candidates.
Linnea- what’s driving this discussion is having someone in place for the December meeting.  So we could say our goal is to have someone in place by Dec 19th,
Liz- concern is when district staff can get the word out, it might be late, so stating the hope of having someone at the meeting but that we will continue to review appications until the position is filled sounds good.
Consensus to state that we would love to have someone appointed and able to attend the Dec 20 weekend meeting without including a strict deadline.

Liz- Can we continue for 5 mins past our end time?
Agreement: We are going until 7:05

UUA Presidential Candidates
Our 2 candidates:
Liz- it’s fine to endorse candidate, YRUU has done it before.  Not sure if CUUYAN has done it for presidential candidates, but we have taken positions on various issues through GA YAC.  It’s ok for us to do, especially b/c we are not employed by or getting money directly from the UUA at this point.
Andrew- thinks we should say a guide is just from the SC of CUUYAN (not generic CUUYAN).  We should also send a letter to each campaign to allow them to clear up areas we are concerned about, or answer direct questions.  And then go from there.
Liz- What’s our experience with each candidate?  I did the GA stuff and invited peter to YA caucus.
Linnea- limited experience
Tom- slightly more impressed with peter, but would rather put out voters’ guide.
Action item- Andrew and Liz will both send notes to SC.
Action item- Andrew, draft letter of questions and concerns to SC/Liz.
Liz- Once we get all this together, and review letter over email, we can send them.  And only if we feel called to do so, endorse a candidate.
All agreed
Action item- Liz will look at job description and draft wording for new position.

Call Logistics
Action item- Andrew will send minutes to Liz
Next meeting Sunday, Dec 7th 4pm.

Check out

C*UUYAN Supports Groundwork

C*UUYAN: The Continental UU Young Adult Network
c/o Liz Weber, Steering Committee Facilitator
39 Tower St. #2
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

26 October 2008

The UUA and the Groundwork Collective
25 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108

Dear colleagues in faith,

We are writing in support of the Groundwork Collective.

The Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN), the denomination-wide network of UUs ages 18-35, has worked with the Groundwork Collective for many years.   Groundwork has facilitated many anti-racism and anti-oppression programs for us—including the most recent Opus (our annual spiritual retreat) and ConCentric (our annual business meeting) conferences—with much success.  Over time, with successive Groundwork trainings, we have seen our individual and collective AO/AR analyses grow.  For example, with a view to further deepening our understanding of issues surrounding oppression and the ways in which it impacts our community, C*UUYAN has institutionalized its engagement in this work by adopting a policy of offering at least an hour of AR/AO programming per day at our events.  In addition to this regular programming, several Groundwork members have also served in leadership positions in C*UUYAN.  We look forward to continuing to work with Groundwork on engaging oppression issues in our communities, both through these kinds of more-formalized relationships (programming and leadership positions) and through less-formalized relationships (such as ongoing inter-organizational communication), cross-pollinating new ideas and information.

We advocate for the UUA’s continued support of Groundwork for several reasons:
1)    Trainings led by one’s peers can have a powerful impact.  At our conferences, we have seen this be a key for people to open up to anti-oppression work for the first time.  As a youth- and young adult-led, multigenerational collective, Groundwork is well-positioned to be that key.
2)    This work cannot truly be done in isolation—just as participants learn from each other in a workshop, facilitators also need a group of colleagues to return to between trainings and organizing work.  This allows processing and revision of content and presentation, deepening the work that Collective members carry out.  As a community-minded organization, Groundwork provides this vital home to its members.
3)    This work is spiritual work.  Our community benefits greatly from undertaking it through a Unitarian Universalist lens.  While other organizations could bring a secular or interfaith analysis to AO/AR work, Groundwork is unique in that its UU members call us to begin from our UU faith.

For all these reasons and more, we urge you to recognize how crucial this multigenerational, multiracial collective of Unitarian Universalist anti-oppression trainer/organizers is to our faith and our world.  We whole-heartedly support the Groundwork Collective, and trust that you will, too.

Yours in faith,
The C*UUYAN Steering Committee
Tom Bozeman
Linnea Huston
Andrew Mertz
Sadie Kahn-Greene
Liz Weber (Facilitator)

Oct. 22 Conference Call Minutes

C*UUYAN Steering Committee Conference Call
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Present: Andrew Mertz, Linnea Huston, Liz Weber (Facilitator), Tom Bozeman

Agenda:
•    Conference call check-in
•    Fall meeting check-in
•    Letter of support for Groundwork
•    Linnea’s email
•    Summer conferences

Decisions:
•    To write a letter of support for Groundwork if it would be helpful

Continuing discussions for email:
•     Conference brainstorming and visioning for this summer

Action items:
•    Everyone:  Send Liz opinions about how to do conference calls
•    Everyone:  Respond to meeting wizard for next conference call date/time
•    AM:  After booking travel, send email with your arrival time in Bos for fall meeting
•    LH: After booking travel, send email with your arrival time in Bos for fall meeting
•    TB:  Help LW with letter wordsmithing (Sat eve)
•    LW:  Check in with Betty Jeanne about letter from C*UUYAN; draft letter and send to Tom by Sat noon; send to BJRW by Sunday morning
•    LW:  Meeting wizard for next call
•    LW:  Figure out fall mtg homestays/meeting spaces before next conference call
•    LW:  Check in with Robin/Conferences TF and Tomoko by next call

Minutes
Check-in
Conference calls
EW:  I’ve heard from a couple folks that conference calls are not working as well as they might.  I have asked for the conference call resource guide from the YAM Office, so that may help me as a facilitator.  I also am open to trying them differently.  i.e. having a general discussion that doesn’t necessarily follow an order.  We would need to do a full go-around for decisions, though, so that we can make sure everyone’s voice is heard.  Let’s try that for this call and see how it goes.  I’ll also make sure that we don’t go over time unless we’re deep into a discussion and everyone agrees to a time extension.  But I would hope that would be rare.
AM:  Willing to try it, but also like having an order.  Order works well with larger groups.  Since we’re smaller, I think it’s important that each voice be heard.
TB:  Interested in trying it to see what happens.
LH:  Interested in trying “popcorn” style.  I think the discussions sometimes take longer because of the go-around.  Not sure how well it would work before trying it, but interested in trying.  Should still ID ourselves, but I think we might be a small enough group that it might work and save time.
LW:  Let’s try it, will evaluate at end of call.

Fall meeting check in
LW:  Dec 19-21.  Fri as soon as we can meet, Sat all day, Sunday afternoon with an optional dinner.  Do folks have any conflicts?
AM:  No, and not yet booked flight.
TB:  Times work.
LH:  Good with those times, fine with Sunday dinner.  Amtrak, can book whenever.
LW:  Even Fri before Christmas?
LH:  Yeah, but will try to book more ahead of time.
LW:  AM and LH, please let us know when you’ve booked travel so we can know when and how long we’re meeting Fri night.
LH:  News on homestays and meeting places?
LW:  Will organize by next conference call.  Will be T accessible.

Letter of support for Groundwork
LW:  Email from Betty Jeanne Reuters-Ward: “A meeting has been set between representatives of Groundwork (the multigenerational, multiracial collective of UU anti-oppression trainer/organizers – whew!) and the UUA. This meeting will shape the future relationship of these two organizations.  Groundwork has been asked to gather positive testimonials about the quality, effectiveness, and impact of our work. I’m asking you to please take a few minutes this week to write a brief testimonial. Your note will help ensure this vital program’s future success.  We welcome testimonials either about Groundwork-led trainings, or the leadership of collective members overall.  By next Monday, October 27.”  Since Groundwork has done trainings for C*UUYAN, particularly during Opus and ConCentric, do we want to write a letter of support?
TB:  I would love a letter of support.  I got BJ’s message and would love to write a letter and think highly of Groundwork folks.  I wasn’t so in to their trainings at the last Opus/ConC, but would like to sign on to something someone else wrote.
AM:  Likewise, would love to sign on to something someone else wrote.
LH:  Ditto.  Would like to support them but don’t have a lot to say.  Last ConC I wasn’t able to participate b/c too much else going on…
LW:  What about a letter from C*UUYAN SC as an organization in support of the UUA’s support of Groundwork/AO-AR organization.
TB:  Support that, but couldn’t write it.
AM:  Do they want testimonials or support letters?
LW:  Testimonials
TB:  Or collective leadership and organizing skills.
LH:  I’m confused about whether it’s a testimonial about Groundwork in general or their specific work within it?
LW:  Isn’t about individuals, but about the Collective—their trainings, their organizing, the benefits from their existence.
TB:  “We welcome testimonials either about G-led trainings or the leadership of collective members overall.”
LW:  We can do personal testimonials individually, but not as a committee, since SC represents organization, not a person.  But if BJRW says it would be helpful, do we want to write a letter as an org saying we support GC, their work, that they’ve done stuff for us and we’ve seen our AR/AO analysis grow, collectively, and that we support the UUA’s support of GC?
TB:  Yes
AM:  Neutral, would be fine with it.
LH:  Yes, neutral as well, but yes.
LW:  Will contact BJRW and can head up a letter, which seems to make sense since I have the most institutional memory in our group.  Does anyone else want to work on it with me?
TB:  Will help edit/wordsmith
LW:  Letter due Sunday, if I send it Sat by noon, is that cool?
TB:  Yes, can work on it Sat eve

Linnea’s email
LW:  I have some historical clarifications that I will send over email.  But I mostly wanted to give us an opportunity to talk about this… anyone have thoughts to share?
AM:  I had a few thoughts but need to check that again b/c I’m not sure what they were.
TB:  Really appreciated the email b/c it was more digestible than the original email and helped me develop my own opinions.  For the questions: “Was it a mistake for YACM to take over conference work? Was it a mistake for them to provide funding (instead of us coming up with fundraising projects to get funding ourselves)?”  I would say yes, as far as my understanding of the dynamics, I think that the YACM Office getting involved was probably more problematic than helpful.  And I would be interested in any info about the database or publication b/c I don’t really have a full understanding of those.
AM:  My thoughts were about future.  I don’t want to put on an Opus 2.0, but if no one else will, we are responsible.  I agree with LW’s email and that we need to get the project committee or whomever to do it.  And a lot of the thoughts were familiar to me from my beginnings on SC a year ago.  Ideas about publications, databases, etc, giving us an ID.  My feeling is that we don’t need to find an ID, but we need to figure out what needs to be provided.  But not to find our definition or ID based on something that’s 10 years old.  I don’t want to create something out of nothing just for an ID, but more of the question who are we, why do we exist, what should we do?  I don’t really have an answer for that, though.
LW:  Agree that the question to ask is what the need is, rather than an abstract idea of who should we be.  Any other comments from the email other than conferences stuff, or ready to move on?
LH:  I think what would be lost without C*UUYAN is the “brand name,” an image, product, whatever in which YAs are able to see themselves, literally, within the denomination.  That was an interesting thought LW and I had at the recent YACM training that I wanted to share.

Summer conferences
LW:  Hoping that our conversation here and on email will start to pick up compared to what it’s been.  Will own that I haven’t been the most proactive on getting the ball rolling, either.
LH:  I would love to throw out that I think this has been a difficult issue to attempt to get into b/c it’s so wrapped up in the vision question of what we want to be and it’s kind of impossible to contemplate the idea of a conference without questioning all of the problems and whatnot that we’ve been aware of.
TB:  Agree and also wonder about AM and LW your experience on SC not expecting to have conferences in 2008, what that was like.
AM:  I thought the Conferences TF was really supposed to take on having another conference.  To me, it seems that the summary of the vision for C*UUYAN, beyond keeping a brand name, is to recognize that there are many other services addressing the needs we claim to address, except for having continental conferences.  So for me, I suspect that C*UUYAN will continue to exist only as a continental conference.  So I think it’s up to the CTF to figure out how it will be sustainable, and we can help plan conferences for this year, but it needs to be hand in hand to put new, sustainable measures in place.  Also, I think it’s important that before we (C*UUYAN) can change any of this (keep going, dissolve, whatever), we do need to have ConCentric to do that.  Whether it’s part of GA, separate, whatever, we are required to have a conference to make that happen.
LH:  I had two thoughts.  1.  I feel like if we were to make a conference happen, I feel like first something needs to be done to find out way back to C*UUYAN being something that everyone contributes to.  If we went forward and perpetuates this idea that C*UUYAN plans two conferences for people as opposed to everyone brings something to the table, that we need to address that issue before we plan anything.  2. I’m not sure how helpful this comment is, but I think it is important to go by the by-laws as much as we can, but as far as trying to have ConCentric and making quorum… that was always weird to begin with.  It always involved desperately seeking out people across the country who fit the demographics and buying their plane tickets and everything… just to meet quorum… I don’t know if that’s valuable, and I don’t know if this comment is even helpful, but…
LW:  I think the quorum discussion is more for later, first figure out the conferences, then figure out quorum and district rep position questions.  As far as the conundrum of fixing v. planning the conferences, I agree that this year we can’t fix them AND plan them at the same time.  I think there are maybe three levels: One on which we acknowledge that the best we can do while waiting for the CTF’s work will be a band-aid.  One at which we know that that will still be a  bit of an improvement.  And one at which we know that the changes that will be long-term will be implemented in 2010 or later.
TB:  I think it’s important to have conferences for the reasons LW spelled out in her email.  Even if it’s just a band-aid, I think it’s still worthwhile, but I would also like to strive to have it be more than just a band-aid this summer.
LW:  Is there anyone at this point who is really dead-set against the idea of us planning (or being responsible for them happening) this summer?
AM:  Not against it, not fond of the idea, but think it’s necessary.
LH:  I’m not interested in blocking it if that’s how the group is going, but there is a bit of a sense for me of I didn’t sign up for conference planning.  Maybe that sounds bad, but it’s a pretty big job, so I would have to really look at what I have going on because I don’t know that I can say, I’ll take on responsibility for that b/c it wasn’t what I had in mind when I volunteered.
LW:  I hear that.  Also know that this is definitely something PC can and would take on.  TT has contacted me about that.  I’m not asking any of us individually to plan it.
AM:  time check
LW:  Thanks.  3 more min?  Ok, at this point, I will check in with Robin and TT and report back.  I think it makes sense for our discussion to head towards our vision for the summer.  Sound good? (Group says yes.)  Great.

Schedule Next Call
Over meeting wizard.

Check out

C*UUYAN Supports Groundwork

C*UUYAN: The Continental UU Young Adult Network
c/o Liz Weber, Steering Committee Facilitator
39 Tower St. #2
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

26 October 2008

The UUA and the Groundwork Collective
25 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108

Dear colleagues in faith,

We are writing in support of the Groundwork Collective.

The Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN), the denomination-wide network of UUs ages 18-35, has worked with the Groundwork Collective for many years. Groundwork has facilitated many anti-racism and anti-oppression programs for us—including the most recent Opus (our annual spiritual retreat) and ConCentric (our annual business meeting) conferences—with much success. Over time, with successive Groundwork trainings, we have seen our individual and collective AO/AR analyses grow. For example, with a view to further deepening our understanding of issues surrounding oppression and the ways in which it impacts our community, C*UUYAN has institutionalized its engagement in this work by adopting a policy of offering at least an hour of AR/AO programming per day at our events. In addition to this regular programming, several Groundwork members have also served in leadership positions in C*UUYAN. We look forward to continuing to work with Groundwork on engaging oppression issues in our communities, both through these kinds of more-formalized relationships (programming and leadership positions) and through less-formalized relationships (such as ongoing inter-organizational communication), cross-pollinating new ideas and information.

We advocate for the UUA’s continued support of Groundwork for several reasons:

1. Trainings led by one’s peers can have a powerful impact. At our conferences, we have seen this be a key for people to open up to anti-oppression work for the first time. As a youth- and young adult-led, multigenerational collective, Groundwork is well-positioned to be that key.
2. This work cannot truly be done in isolation—just as participants learn from each other in a workshop, facilitators also need a group of colleagues to return to between trainings and organizing work. This allows processing and revision of content and presentation, deepening the work that Collective members carry out. As a community-minded organization, Groundwork provides this vital home to its members.
3. This work is spiritual work. Our community benefits greatly from undertaking it through a Unitarian Universalist lens. While other organizations could bring a secular or interfaith analysis to AO/AR work, Groundwork is unique in that its UU members call us to begin from our UU faith.

For all these reasons and more, we urge you to recognize how crucial this multigenerational, multiracial collective of Unitarian Universalist anti-oppression trainer/organizers is to our faith and our world. We whole-heartedly support the Groundwork Collective, and trust that you will, too.

Yours in faith,
The C*UUYAN Steering Committee
Tom Bozeman
Linnea Huston
Andrew Mertz
Sadie Kahn-Greene
Liz Weber (Facilitator)