YRUU Steering Committee Meeting
September 8– September 11, 2005
Thursday 9/08/05
Check In
Welcome and intro packet stuff
Sharing expectations/goals four SC
Community Building
Rules and Policy and PandE Policy Expectations on Drugs and Alcohol
BREAK
Covenant
DINNER
Phone Chain
Liaison Discussion
Community Building
BREAK
Worship
Time Check
Focus Person
Energy Person
JobJot
Bike Rack
It is agreed that Dale will facilitate
Check ins:
In Anonymous collective Formation:
Looking forward to this weekend
Red eyes are bad
Sister Act Back in the Habit, causes problems with doing laundry, oh no! Boo! SABITH!
Whoopi Goldberg makes distraction
People don't like flying
Got a ride from family member
Nature is Good
Things are good
People are busy
Got a lot of sleep
Hanging out with the same six people
Glad the schedule is almost all together
Lehna is hero
Excited
No more words
Schedule was eating on my mind
Glad about seat positions
Torn about home stuff, glad to me here too.
Glad to be here with you.
Positive year, good influences.
Glad to not be in church.
Doing good.
Family is important.
Work is in existence.
Beginning of everything, which makes tiredness.
Things are waiting for tiles.
In third person: didn't sleep last night, tired, flight attendant thing talked to much and JFK smells funny
I hope everything goes well
Nervous and Jittery
Supernatural reasons
Friday Revised Schedule is looked at:
8-9 Breakfast
9-12 Visions Training
12-1 LUNCH
1-5 More Visions Training
5-6 ID GROUPS SC
6-7 Playing games with CUUYAN and Dinner
7-8:15 GA Update probably BOTH
8:15 - 9:15 Community Building - People! People will be making community!
(back up plan on ID groups, the CB time can be cut short to make time for ID Groups)
9:15 -10:00 Learning Styles
10:00 to 10:30 Positions in SC and YO Part I
10:30-11:00 Break!
11:00 Worship
Saturday Revised Schedule is looked at:
Oh wait, let's do introductions!
Everyone talk about how they are, huu ray!
Saturday Revised Schedule is looked at:
8-9 Caucusing Breakfast
9-11 Consensus Training
11-12 Consultation Discussion - Beth/SC questions/Discussion
12-1 Bridging Discussion over Lunch! With CUUYAN!
1-1:30 ConCon Replacement Discussion
1:30 to 2:00 Community Building, super awesome friends for ever action fun
2:00 -3:00 Discussion BOT/Administration/YPS/YMA/Right Relations
3:00 - 4:00 Transformation Team Talk
(If not, we can go to Cambridge and point at things.)
4:00 to 7:30 Cambridge!!! Dylan!!!
8:00 to 10:00 YRUU AR/AO Disucssion
10:00 to 10:30 Upcoming Events Discussion
10:30 to 11:00 Break
11:00 Worship
Sunday will be done later…
Welcome and Intro Packet Stuff
Facilitation:
Facilitation will change from topic
There are jobs though, so can they keep, Phone Chain, etc other jobs…
List roles at the beginning of the day, so then we know who will do what through out the meeting
Energy Moderator: Alice
Time Checks: Nan
Facilitator: rotating
Stacks: Paul
Phone Chain: Dale
Bike Rack: Tony
Job Jot: Becca
Expectations:
1. Get back in right relationship with board and administration
2. Better communication on list serve
3. transparent communication with everybody connected and involved with SC, YRUU, Board, Administration, all the org.
that we are linked into, not just what we are doing but how and why
4. Communication goes both ways, that the board also is communicating expectations and talking with SC and hopefully administration
5. Better Canadian Youth and Canadian Youth Bodies
6. Keep up with the Consultation and representing YRUU
7. Accountability - Queer Youth, Canadians and POC
8. How we serve the youth community, how we serve YRUU, just have a really good understanding of our role when comes to
Steering Committee Leadership, things are changing and to have better clarity about what that means.
9. Honesty as far as what you need from people within the SC.
10. Personal growth and Community Growth/Skills, and developing leadership skills
11. Have great youth council
12. Honoring importance of Silliness, while doing what we need to do
We talk about:
Are we ready to be done?
Jesse has to leave.
His family is locked out of the car.
Learning Styles note.
We go in a Circle:
13. Turn Concon into something better and bring it back
14. Continue AR/AO work and welcoming POCs into YRUU and creating accountability
15. POCC and POCAC descriptions more developed and work on tokenism, devlop relationship with DRUUMM and DRUUMM YAYA
16. Wider perspective of AR/AO
17. Giving people the recognition that people deserve
Community Building
-peanut butter and break structures based on themes
-the themes were: cooperation, having fun, healthy communication , dedication to AR/AO, spirituality
-it was really fun, and people made really nice things
-and we ate some of them
Rules and Policy and P and E Policy and Expectations on Drugs and Alcohol
Covenant:
SC talk about how they want to talk about covenant, should we do covenant first
or talk
about rules?
Broke into small groups and talked about what things each person would like
to see on
the covenant.
1.) Be accountable for your words and actions as individuals and a group
2.) Step up, Step Back
3.) Open communication between youth office and steering committee
4.) Be aware of your role
5.) Follow through one commitments
6.) If you can't follow through, be clear that you can't so others can pick it up
7.) Forgive and support people who can't follow through with commitments
8.) Be aware of power dynamics
9.) Being aware is the first step, but acting on your awareness is the next step
10.) Be supportive, affirm each other's success
11.) Be aware that people are 3D
12.) Commit to being as present as possible/Self Care
13.) Be green; be oriented towards personal and collective growth
14.) Engage in conflict lovingly
15.) Have fun! Fun is cool!
16.) Keep in touch/keep each other in check, communication
17.) Speak for yourself, but be mindful of people who are not at the table.
18.) Respect for learning styles
19.) Be aware and celebrate of our humanness/humanity (be aware of all parts of ourselves, we make mistakes, we are creative,
and resourceful)
20.) Be aware of stress levels and danger/abuse zones as individuals
21.) Being an accountable ally
22.) Be mindful of our resources and be aware of the space we inhabit
23.) Create a space where everyone can speak
24.) Stay at the table
25.) Be willing to add things to the covenant
(People picked one answer, and then the next group went, so everyone got to add stuff)
The covenant was read over and then okayed with hand signs.
We have decided to make space for more covenant additions later in the week.
Then, there is a discussion about freegans.
Elandria Says:
Cleanliness
Respect our environment
Including the Dining Room!
Rules:
Rice Room: Directly below here, is where the fetus which is now a baby, and the care taker and his partner live there.
So please be conscious of making a lot of weird noises, it makes a lot of echoing.
So please be very respectful of Morgan, the care taker of the building.
Quiet Time: 10 pm is the beginning of quiet time, TV would be down low, be respectful in common spaces and in hallways, keep noise at a minimum.
Furniture: The furniture is, well, a lot of it is antique, please don't jump or tilt stuff. It's old, so that's really important.
Deck: The deck is not supposed to be used after 10:00 pm
Smoking: Is out front, please use the ash tray
Cleanliness: It's really important that we pick up after ourselves. Please, let us NOT add to their work load.
It is a matter of respect, you will get to know the P and E staff, over the year.
Open discussion:
Signing out and going out in pairs - make a cell phone sheet and a sign out sheet to let YO and rest of SC know where you and your buddy are, and a guestamation as to when you will be back.
We talk about curfew stuff, we talk about self care.
There are computers in basement, if you need one.
Computers are right next to Morgan's space, so please be aware of loudness
Let's be conscious of who we represent and what responsibility it is.
9 times out of 10, there will be other leadership groups here, and so it's important to represent.
We talk about smoushzing
Talk about right relationship
Reflect on what it means to be part of the executive body of YRUU, leadership, being leaders. ETC.
Leaders getting breaks, for things that quite possibly, non leaders wouldn't get.
Agree on the rules and having respect for one another by respecting the rules.
Keep the covenant in mind, and we won't have any problems.
We talked about Boston Common, Park Street, Comm Ave (Being too far) and Downtown Crossing.
Please do not use the public transportation at night.
Becca is facilitating.
PHONE CHAIN
Joo Young talks about phone chains.
Dale got a call, once a year.
The SC seemed to slack off about phone chains - in the opinion of one person.
I would like to do them, maybe I'm being naive.
I liked being called, it was a couple of year s ago.
It's supposed to be before and after SC meetings.
But maybe we could just try to be intentional about it once.
Web-chain
The problem with web-chain, may not work because phone calls are better because you can be more supportive over the phone and it should be more personal.
It's nice to have someone from SC to be able to talk to, and know you, and it's nice.
It was a good and useful conversation.
It is important to talk to people, but I also feel that the web blog is good too, because also I know that if someone makes a big blog, I won't really read the whole thing, I might just look at the pictures, it would be good to do both.
Because of the fact that there is a lot of new people, it would be a really great way to do community building.
I have a quick question, it was supposed to be an even switch, with the amount
of YCRS that turn over, but it seems like, we need to do something 'crazy' and we should…
WE
BIKE RACK IT
Calling Cards … BIKE RACK IT
We add AFFIRM YOUR OWN OPINIONS on to the Covenant
Make sure that people are in the same time zones to do phone chains.
Conference Calls with all of the?
USING CONSENSUS TO TALK ABOUT BLOGS and PHONE CHAIN
Clarifying questions
1.) could we be shown how to use it
2.) live journal is really popular
3.) my space
4.) FUUSE? Would it be good? Would it be more trouble than it is worth?
5.) Could there be a committee formed from SC to work with Youth office to make the blog? Kat and Sara
The proposal is to do both.
Call for consensus:
YEA!
YES! So we will be using blogs and phone chain.
Alice and Sara will be assigning the phone chains
Don't forget the phone chain jot!
Alice is now facilitating!
LIASONS
YRUU has a long list of people that they liason with every year.
Kat: I think it's a good idea, so then other organizations know that we are doing stuff. I would like to at least send a letter or get in contact with an outside organization.
Paul: Can we make a list of organizations we would like to contact?
Liaison List
DRUUMM
IARF
C*UUYAN
Dale: Does LINC still exist?
Jesse: I don't think so, erm, I think it was young adults that were pushing for that, I know that SC was doing that for a while, but I'm not so sure.
ARTOP Anti Racism Trainer Organizer Program
ARID Anti Racism Identity Development working group of UUA staff, mostly made up of youth and young adult office, also the Washington office, etc.
CUC
YAG Youth Advisory Group
LREDA liberal Religious educators association
BOT UUA
UUMA UU Ministers Association
Satuurday Visioning Team
UUA Administration - Bill, Kay, Leadership Council (?)
YRUU Working Action Manager
Youth Observer to the Board - Jazmin
Interweave
Youth BOT Youth Trustee
Transformation Team
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
WAM and Co-Social Action Coordinators
Outside Organization:
UCC - yeah, they're really nice, they have a body similar to youth council, similar structures., Nan talks about ways that smaller churches together.
Crossroads Ministry - what about them? What kind of relationship with them?
Dale: Talks about how certain groups are connected which is good, like IARF and UCC.
Joo Young: Strategizing on how we want to create liaisons and talk about what our commitment to our liaison is, and also the importance of local grassroots work.
Paul: talks about strategizing
Nan: Notices that there are certain generic things that could be sent out.
Dale: Reminds of us to wait to delegate liaisons, until after everyone is here.
Paul: Volunteers to be coordinator for this type of stuff
Friday 9.09.05
Kat is facilitating
Checking in: How are we doing and funny stories about the airport travel.
Strangers asking people's names
Altoids and hallucinogenic drugs are different
Being aware to how ze was feeling
My travel here wasn't funny it was good
Tired
People getting taken by police after flight
Customs agents can be UU
A Custom agent said: "Bad time not to be Christian in the US"
The taxi can agent was very nice.
Chicken Buses
People getting their Doctorate.
Looking at Schedules:
Dale: We might be able to use Saturday's schedule from the old schedule.
AR/AO - What do we need?
Kat: It would be good to discuss that in caucusing, it might be more productive that way.
Becca: Maybe we should wait to have that discussion, when Lehna and Dylan
Paul: AR/AO discussion would be about how we want to do YRUU AR/AO and our own personal needs
Dylan: I think it's good for part of it to be caucus discussed but part of it should be together brainstormed
Sara: It's be good to first do caucusing and then come together and plan
SCHEDULE ON SATURDAY
There is a concern that AR/AO is very late in the day
SCHEDULE ON FRIDAY
We can move things from Saturday to today.
Things for today's schedule:
GA Update
Con Con
Becca: let's not be too set in stone, with our schedule
Dale: we def. should have some flexibility, let's move things etc.
Oh, we don't have enough YO to have that discussion on GA
Youth Empowerment
Right relationship Bill/BOT
Issues beyond YRUU and their effects Doing OUTside AR and Social Action
Canadian Resources
Out of wack YCR turnover rate
Calling Cards
Geographical Diversity/Different Time Zones
SC AR/AO Work
Finish discussion on Liaisons, talk to Lehna about what they did last year
Agenda Planning
YCR Turn over rate
Becca: YCR turn over for the position, was planned so then, people would be starting and ending equally so then it was like fifty/fifty.
Now because of people getting sick and things changing, there will be about 75 % new folks.
The reason why this is concerning is the high turn over rate, affects AR/AO and how YC goes.
Talking to YCRs to even it out.
Two issues to deal with:
1.) Too many new people
2.) Make it not happen again
Paul: (Is facilitating) is it possible to look at the records to figure out how it got out of whack?
Dale: We still have bylaws, that say that different districts would go this year, and etc.You can't just make someone come for two years, it's really too big to control that way. A history of something that was tired and doesn't seem to work too well.
Kat: Our Chair, was wanting to have our YCR position to only be a one year position. I am worried that districts might just not come if they don't agree with us.
Lyn: Two things, one, I wish Beth was here. This is connected to the Consultation. And 2nd, polity, the districts get to decide what they want to do. The board is divided into two groups, half and half, about the same way. Being in a continental group, you must follow continental guidelines.
Nan: A written recommendation, SC could come up with a written piece.
Sara: I agree, we could enforce, but I really don't think we want to take that position. Some districts don't even understand what the position is, etc.
Becca: Do we want to make something structurally to change it, or do we want to just talk to them about it.
Alice: What are the expectations of the past.
Paul: It has been a two year terms, sometimes it's because they move away, and some have a bad experience and they just don't want to go back. We should explain to districts, because some people just don't understand.
Dale: Let's put this on the phone chain. To be a little more inflexible and this is the bottom line, or maybe we can be more flexible and change it.
Kat: Writing a letter is really great, send it out to the districts, dyscs, yac, youth council 101 for the beginning, one for YCRs, pocac, pocc, tarrs, at larges, for intentional structuring.
Paul: Can we job jot someone to research this, and figure out where the mess
ups started,
Becca will volunteer!
Joo Young: Survey
Nan: If there could be at Youth Council, some specific trainings, different types of orientations, like the YC 101, learning styles are different, so being in more dialogue would be really good, the work could be split up, like orientation for adults, what are our roles, what are our duties, we could introduce various pieces.
Dale: I lost it sorry.
Paul: Let's add a Youth Council Job Jot, without names, but get it all written down.
Nan: Can I help with that?
Dale: I got it back, umm, one thing, stress the importance of the out going YCR working with the new YCR. Ask people through phone chain how long of a position they are willing to do.
Sara: It's really unfair for the POCC position to be one year.
Alice: Yeah, it's not okay, the power dynamics are all messed up, and not being able to speak,
Paul: I talked with someone about this before. We don't really have defined structures, eventually POC would just roll in and we should talk about and develop.
Becca: AR/AO consultation work, I don't know what they are doing. POCAC has a really important role, maybe there is something more that we want to be doing. Maybe there could be more that we could be doing, not recruiting, but maybe that is being addressed in the consultation, maybe youth groups will be re-developed.
Sara: We shouldn't wait around for the consultation, because it's us, we're the body of/ we're representing
Alice: Maybe this would should be bike racked, POC involvement on a district level.
Dale: I totally agree that one year is not cool, but I think it's really hard to get POCC, I think that it's hard to get POCC for two years, but maybe we can redevelop it.
Sara: My understanding is that POCAC decided who POCC would be, pay attention to analysis, and basically recruit. POCC should have a meeting, before Youth Council.
Joo Young: Says some background
Sara: Should we start asking for people for two year positions? Sara is willing to network with them
Paul: Develop more of a position, I'd be willing to help with that.
Sarah: POCAC will talk about it and bring it back to the table.
Joo Young: We need positions to actually fulfill
Alice: District stuff is really important, and district POC involvement is crucial
Sara: Can we bike rack that.
Becca: The district to continental stuff is hard, really ridiculously messed up racist stuff happens and it's really messed up. Could SC address districts that are messed up. I know we can give them detention or a time out, but ask them why did this happen. There would be a place to call, write emails, and voice concerns, and something we can send out.
Nan: Could there be some way, to organize three people, in districts, to be able to be in conversation when something goes down, like good officers, so folks that they can talk to when things go down.
Alice: POC position? Let's bike rack it.
Paul: It may seem weird over the next two years have an ARADC in every district and region in the next two years.
Nan: I missed what she said, oops
Dale: Encourage districts that are surrounding them, why don't' people network?
Share trainings and have districts and regions share trainings
Becca: Advisor and adult advisor trainings, is there any AR work in those trainings? Are they exposed to any of that?
And also, like uh, if um, wait no, I had another thought, well yeah, it's way, adults are really important, I don't know,
it could be another level how we can make, if you have adults that have that training, to be a support system to the youth,
then if there is a crisis they could be helpful.
Dylan: It's not officially in the sample schedule, but in training notes, that if you can make time for AR segments, so it's like, sort of, but not really.
Nan: One of the things about the advisor trainings, I use things from past YC trainings. When you do trainings, and the community is really difficult, a lot of things, the group was so not, and didn't get anything about empowerment, and so it was really hard to do AR training with that group. The trainers that do training, need to do more AR, to lead trainings. How do we do AR/AO?
Sara: Encourage districts, to give scholarships to youth so they can go to trainings, because some trainings are really far away. Encourage districts and churches so then everyone can get the opportunities they need
Dale: We can recommend and provide resources, we can't tell them what to do, but we can advise, and we can provide praise and support, and let people know what successes they have had, people go unrecognized.
Sara: It's what they should be doing, so don't make them look like saints.
Joo Young: The people of color support is important to look at
Paul: Regions? It might get confusing.
Kat: I'm concerned with the district I'm in, I see a lot of Social Action Trainings, but it doesn't really talk about AR, it only skims the surface. There are a lot of leaders in my district, and I could imagine them saying that stuff to not have to work with AR work. Because there is a lot of stuff surrounding the LA area, and so there is a lot of really messed up stuff, and I worry about it, I'd be concerned about my district not wanting to do AR and saying messed up things to defend it.
Marissa: PSWD, is one of the first reasons, they were at the forefront of AR, and it seems like it has to get to the next step, I have noticed that in other districts. It's the next step.
Lyn: It's the UUA also, it's the whole system.
Nan: When they chose to the those trainings,
Joo Young; Talks out of turn, and explains why AR trainings wouldn't be funded by POC YFUUD money
Becca: There is a mandatory training for DREs do a mandatory AR work. Since ministers have to do mandatory trainings, then can they bring them back? Do they bring it back? Are ministers good people to approach?
Lyn: Yes. That is the short answer. It varies, it is a great way, to be able to say to them, we feel this is really important. The district executives need to know about that, that being, when crises dealing with AR happen.
Paul: I'd be a bit afraid, of talking to district execs, cause they might nix conferences.
Lyn: If something is a dangerous situation, it is an opportunity to make some advances in AR. The district execs get this training too. Do the district program specialist take this training too.
Paul: Can we look at what we have done, and delegate?
Dale: break.
We take a break
Sarah: Can we do gender caucusing?
Alice through job jot
Alice:
Youth Council Orientations and Surveys- Nan
Out of whack YCRs -
Lyn: Steering Committee making a letter to send to districts about Youth Council
Becca: Working with districts already, about what has happened or maybe just finding some way to contact them, and being intentional about support for districts that are having problems.
Dale: What are we talking about?
Becca: It's about terms, yc, and support about incidents that have happened, what sort of things are they having problems with, getting accounts as to what is going on, to learn about how people can be accountable to people in districts, just see where districts are at.
Dale: Issues about racism?
Sarah: Not just in regards of
Paul: Resources for the districts
Alice: A collection of resources, for district
Paul: steering committees
Nan: Divided up by phone calls and phone chains, distributed by people on the phone chain.
Lyn: Is it for YCRs or Districts
Paul: For districts to make a connection
Nan: Can it be simplified
Kat: What if we made resources specifically for resources for people of color for youth council
Joo Young and Kat are job jotted to make resources for Youth of Color at YC
Paul and Lyn are job jotted to do the phone/letter
Dale and Nan will work on the orientations
Joo Young talks again too much.
So there is great talk!
Alice, Sara, Kat, and Paul talk and others input and it's moves a killer break down of caucuses and groups
Gender Caucus
Race Caucus
ID Group
WOO HOO!
Learning Styles Workshop led by Nan
-Nan shares her story
-"Exploring Learning Styles" packet
-Audio, Visual and Kinesthetic
-Conscious mind, Subconscious mind, Unconscious mind
-Thinking Patterns Inventory test - to determine your style
-Everyone writes up their style on newsprint, talk about how this will play out on SC
-We have a diversity of learning styles - and we need to attend to these in meetings and at Youth Council next year
Kat - AVK
Joo Young - AVK
Paul - AKV/AVK
Dale -
Lyn - KVA
Tony -
Dylan - AKV
Sara - VAK/VKA/AVK
Becca - AKV/AVK
Alice - VKA
Nan - KVA
Jesse - KVA
Lehna -
Beth - VKA
Marissa - KVA
We take a break
Dale is reporting back about breakfast caucus tomorrow
Now, we are going to talk about GA
There is a lot to say about GA, one thing is that there was a dialogue online, about picking a speaker, and there was a deadline, and it was past, and we were not able to get an application in on time, but that's not a problem, we have about 5,000s for programming for GA, it would have been just a 500 bucks.
Closing ceremony, should we talk about it? Ginny Courter and Bill Sinkford has made a committee to investigate what happened at GA at the Closing ceremony but also racism across the whole association
The commission met Labor day weekend, they just met.
Janice Johnson
Hafidha Acuay
Jose Ballester
Rachel someone
And someone else we can't remember, whom is a white minister from somewhere.
The board will get a preliminary report about it at their next meeting.
Nan: Will the board minutes be public?
Lyn: There will be direct notes, the minutes will need to be approved first.
The board meeting is October 15th or 16th
GA planning meeting, Bart Frost one of the HUUPERs will be going to that meeting and the GRID meeting!
Grid meeting will evaluate what happened last year.
Jesse and Marissa will attend half of that meeting.
Both Greg and Bart will talk that through the day before.
Lyn: It looked like we used to select the HUUPER at our meeting.
Jesse: It got changed, it had to be selected at YC. So that is happening
Marissa will be getting out a workshop idea form
Marissa: A form will be out around December 1st, and it will be to plan what will be at GA for workshops.
Jesse: If the youth caucus staff is selected by then the workshop coordinator will help pick it.
Marissa: Regarding speakers, we're looking at, the only person is named Paul Lowe, he wrote a book the Impossible Take a While. It's a really excellent.
Joo Young: YK Hong is interested.
Nan: Lehna had recommended Upski
Beth: He does a lot of different things, so there's a lot of different topics that he could speak about.
Jesse: Joo Young and I talked about the fact that most of the speakers we've had for a while have been white men.
There has been talk about global all GA anti-racism training. I'm hopeful that, that might be something that could happen.
It's going to be in St. Louis, we have to figure out what hotel would be best suited for us.
Dale: It's not necessarily paid for by the youth office.
Jesse: We'd need to your budget 101 stuff, is it on the schedule? I'll need to do some printing. The way that we, how much money we have, we have enough money to get you all to these meetings, fully paid, but depending how well we do, in terms of money, through these three meetings, depends on how much money we have available for GA.
Sometimes people do stuff with other organizations, some people's congregations will send them, some people have money to send themselves.
We'll have to do some brainstorming. Because we are more geographically diverse we may not have as much money.
It actually ended costing more, to have it in Chicago.
We couldn't get the things we needed from the office.
Marissa: Is there actually GA evals from past years.
Jesse: Yes, and we will get them, there is usually a handful. Any other questions.
Becca: Have we had problems with youth spaces?
Jesse: The committee stopped the 24 hour space, was because, there is no convention center will not let you have a 24 space, that means tha the 24 space would be some where away from the convention center, it was a terrible drain on the staff, it was really hard to pull off. It was allowing for a lot of people to try and camp out there. That was problematic on a lot of various levels.
Organizing youth housing was a colossal, it took hours of time to organize, it also inferred responsibility that we weren't providing, and sponsors were taking their responsibilities as serious as they should.
Dale: What does SC do at GA?
Kat: They have a meeting, they also support Ga Staff, we can bring them food. And just like support be there.
Beth: And the SC will help staff the youth booth in the exhibit hall.
Jesse: It's a great way to network with other parts of the Association, we have met with Bill and the commission of appraisal and other organizations of the UUA. Largely you can very strategic if you put a lot of thought into it.
Becca: It seems to me that the levels of sexual misconduct and abuse of alcohol has gone way done, if that was anything intentional or if that's the way it naturally has happened.
Kat: I've heard of people taking drugs and alcohol but it didn't affect the community, and that it was done away from GA, and didn't seem to affect the community. Cause it could have hurt people, but it just wasn't out there or visible as it could have been.
Jesse: Long Beach, there was a fairly large party, the GA before that was a mess, that was - Quebec was a awful, Texas was fairly chill, I hope that, it is encouraging to me. I talk to a lot of adults from GA, and the feed back was very positive about youth.
Boston - pretty negative
Fort Worth - really positive, workshops and business meetings
It makes me think that the work that we did, collaborating to make effective change.
We have more programming slots at GA than anybody else, we get to put in programming
in every slot in the book.
Nan: It is important to note how many people were there this year. It was a lot smaller, around 300, the programming has
made a big change. The youth were offered drinks this year, there was a couple of situations.
The queer dance: Someone was asked if they wanted a shot of bourbon in her sprite.
Commit to Community: Someone asked for water, they were given a beer
Other people from C2C, I was working with, were concerned to the amount of alcohol that was available.
Jesse: I've started an intentional discussion with the GA planning committee about alcohol, I've been in dialogue about having cash bars at the evening programs, the Radisson had a hard sell policy, they were pushing the alcohol pretty hard, and they weren't carding, and so the cash bars was an issue for both youth and people of any age that are in recovery.
Letting people just use the hotel bar, could contain the alcohol.
Also talking about, if we want to create community, then, why have alcohol at all?
Sara: The investigation committee, what is the GA Planning Committee doing?
Jesse: I guess that the GA PC is going to meet with the Investigation Commission. I've had informal discussion and doing some brainstorming. The name badge rule, has been a big concern is something to think about also. It's not fair.
Lyn: SAID SOMETHING I MISSED
Sara: What is a concern is AR is not support for POC, so what is the planning around supporting POCs.
Jesse: I hope that this commission will discuss that. I think that SC will hopefully talk about that, and also the Youth Caucus staff will have to brainstorm around working on support
Joo Young: How are we supporting YOC at GA, and how their churches can engage in conversation appropriately in their churches, support and follow up.
Jesse: I don't have an answer, but a dialogue would be good to have here. We
could maybe write a letter to the GA Planning Committee, Board or the Youth Caucus Staff, you do have as the SC is a leadership
body whose voice should be heard, it's up to you all what that voice is and have a discussion on it.
Kat: Are there regional AR Training like there were last year?
Marissa: Is there?
Beth: I don't know what the status on that is. It was something that Brian started, but it was supposed to be passed on.
Nan: The things that I'm concerned about, we really need to look at how we can support POC and Youth of Color and I think that I would be helpful if we could get into some small group discussions to brainstorm about it. And as a group we are not addressing it. I think it's important that we need to start addressing the harassment. It makes me feel sick, it's my physical response.
Kat: I think I should repeat what I said, we highly suggested to them to all youth caucus staff leaders go to a regional AR training. Encourage them to go, they need some kind of analysis on AR.
Paul: When are they selecting staff? Is experience a qualifying factor?
Jesse: Yes, it is.
Kat: It think we tried to have the staff have an acceptable analysis.
Some talking that I couldn't get cause it was fast weird talking.
Sara: Nan's concern wasn't addressed, and so I would make a decision, as to when we will talk about support for youth of color.
Jesse: I feel like personally it would be a great time to do that now. I would feel more comfortable if we divided into groups.
Dale: Don't forget to end 5 minutes early, to do get ID coordinators.
Sarah: Five minute break and then back.
Break into race caucuses.
DINNER
Paul: We are doing a processing thing, with note cards and reading them, everyone writes down how they are feeling about the meeting in progress and reads someone elses.
We share care cards.
Discussion.
Alice is facilitating.
(NOTE the first three, don't have good notes, because, I wasn't sure whether we were taking notes)
Alice talks about, we know this is a problem, but we haven't addressed it.
Sara, talks about age caucusing and agrees with Alice.
Becca, talks about white people being at a loss and that not being an excuse.
Dale, talks about what they can propose and suggest. This is a problem we should address this.
Alice: I want to hear everyone. But what are we planning?
Paul: I think putting it in the agenda would be good.
Beth: Age caucusing is really important, and _____? Caucusing, we need to develop something and apply it to the business.
Alice: Do we want to set a time for this discussion and also a discussion with defining roles.
Jesse: It would be helpful to get active, what this group has a tendency to
just keep talking about stuff, it's fairly clear, exactly what is up, let's set a time for these things.
Can we propose some times, and a proposal as to what we are going to do.
Alice: What is the plan for the rest of the night, so we can make a schedule now.
7:30 to 8:30 Joint Community Building,
Kat: Maybe we could put something about caucusing based on our positions. Disucss our roles.
Becca: I personally shut things out, we should do this writing process everything day, it would be nice.
Kat: Caucusing about roles.
Alice: Caucusing about roles for a ½ hour
Sarah: Would that be age roles too?
Kat: Yes, I feel like it is like age caucusing.
Sarah: Clarifies age stuff.
Kat: Should we separate by POCAC and other roles.
Dylan: I would like to do them separately and at large roles. Let's talk about our roles and then people of color.
Jesse: They are curious how much more time we want.
Alice: It is 20 after, so ten minutes
An agenda propositioned.
Joo Young : Talks about the importance of attacking elephants when they first
occur.
So we can prevent this from happening in the future.
Jesse: Says Elandria and Sofia would be interested in helping.
Paul: This is my job as a POA
Becca: Paul, everyone should too, but we should have him an anonymous mail bag.
Dylan: Caucus about roles
Have the discussion have the supporting people of color
Age caucusing
Sara: Supporting youth of color
Becca: Talks about adding discussion time for how we will address concerns in the future.
Sara: Says, we will discuss it in our roles
Dylan: We will do age caucusing if we are up to it, tonight.
Jesse:We will get to it eventually.
Nan: We are open to it, can we be open to it.
7:15 to 8:30 Joint Community
We commence at 8:46 pm
Jesse: Is it cool if Elandria comes
SATURDAY
Caucusing over breakfast
Break for self care
11:08 a.m. back to business!
Sara facilitating. Kat scribing (Lehna is too tired…oh no!)
Sara: When the youth caucused last night about their roles we developed a rotating facilitation list.
Let's go over youth roles.
Sara: Try to be accountable to all in YRUU and outside of YRUU and people who are interested in YRUU.
Alice: Serve our constituents.
There's a secret part, but SC will not share that. For youth eyes only!!!!
Becca: Be accountable to each other. Do it!
Dylan: Youth - don't be afraid to step up and take on roles.
Kat - "Don't fuck up, step the fuck up!"
Paul: "Adults - kick them out when needed." Don't be afraid to do age caucusing when needed.
Dale: Youth are responsible for phone chains and making sure minutes get out on YC listserve. Stay in communication. ACTUALLY do the phone chain, because it's cool to get called by SC.
Sara: We have a plan to keep people in check, and to make sure stuff gets called out. A regular process check after each segment. Caucusing is really really really important. The POCs don't have to be the only ones calling for caucus - white folks should feel like they can call for it too. Process observations - pass a note to Paul suggesting an anonymous (index cards) process observation. Some interesting hand motion ideas…but decided not to get that complicated! But it was fun. Pay attention - don't wait for someone else to call it out when something fucked up happens. Pass Paul a note if you're not comfortable with things.
Lehna: Make sure to support the adults and YO on SC. They're in a weird place too - it's not just us. It's important for all of us to be in community with each other. Be aware of how much space you're taking up with each other - youth, adults, and the YO.
Sara: Have adults delegated someone to speak?
Joo Young: We wrote some notes. We realized that we wouldn't have as much time to do everything we needed, so we created an agenda of things to talk about. We need to take more time for the adults to meet. We will check each other at every meeting.
We talked about creating resources for adults - developing handbook about ways to be involved and invested and not overpower/take up too much space.
Importance of adults having a covenant together, so that we can agree on how we will be here and be supportive of this group.
Discussion about youth empowerment and how adults fit into youth empowerment.
Keeping a journal report, instead of always raising our hands. We could write down ideas and submit them with the minutes. Adults consolidate our thoughts and make them available, but not forcing them onto the group and falling into ageist role of telling youth what to do. Validating all, letting youth make the decisions.
Strategize better communication between youth and adults.
Adult role is traditionally an advisor - what is our role here though, because we wear other hats that bring power as well.
Lyn: We talked about the dual accountability of YO staff.
Jesse: For the YO we're in an in-between place. We work very closely with the SC and have accountability to SC. In a real way SC helps direct work of YO. But we're also accountable to the UUA and administration - who is our boss. It's a tension in the role that's hard to see.
For example, YC passed resolution last year to include GLBPTQQI youth support and anti-heterosexism in YPS job description. But on the other hand we work for the UUA, who hires all of us. So we have a structural accountability to the UUA.
YO isn't the only UUA staff in that position. Others are the GA Planning Office (between UUA and GA Planning Committee), district staff (hired by Association and district boards).
Joo Young: We also did a nice exercise that took a long time. We talked about our lives outside of this organization so we'd better understand where people are at, b/c we all come here with our own stuff. Important to share what work we have also. Able to work with each other better when we know what we need.
Sara: Did adults talk about how to check each other and be accountable?
Jesse: The commitment we made to need to check in with each other and work with each other. Our conversation has just begun. Work within our small community.
Lehna: It's not that simple. We don't always know when we've done something wrong. There might not be able to be a set process, because it depends on what the issue is.
Sara: People will inevitably mess up. There are different levels of fucked-uppedness. Our goal isn't to use process checks to eliminate things, but to talk about them before they build up too much. Will help build a stronger community so we won't feel alienated. When stuff does happen we'll know how to come back to the group and not dread being with each other.
Joo Young: We need something intentional, like a process. If we leave it free-flowing, it'll flow back to the oppressive ways of dealing with problems, which ignores aspects. Intentional structure is good. Are all the adults OK with this?
Hand knock. Yes.
It's 11:43 a.m. The next thing on the agenda is the YOC support talk. How much time do we have? Lunch is at 1 p.m.
Kat is the next facilitator on the list. Let's post the list.
Lehna: Let's make sure to ask the person if they're comfortable facilitating that piece before assigning it to them.
Sara: It is just a suggestion, to give some order to things.
Let's make an agenda for the rest of today, since we're off-schedule. Paul scribes.
Prioritizing the agenda for the rest of the meeting:
Before lunch - Roles Discussion about POA, YO, etc.
1 Supporting Youth of Color Discussion - caucus and then share/discuss
1 YRUU AR/AO Discussion
Lunch with CUUYAN SC about bridging issues and jail game concerns
1.5 Consensus/Facilitation Training
1 Consultation Discussion (Sunday, 30 minutes)
2 Right Relations Discussion
Budget (conference call)
1 YC Teams and YC Debrief (Sunday)
1 Dinner at Dylan's
1.5 Community Building (including energy breaks at end of each piece)
Con Con Replacement Discussion (conference call)
Upcoming Events
1.5 Worship
PROCESS OBSERVATION
-When people missed what was said it was often POC who spoke.
-POC's ideas were forgotten, and noted only when white folks picked them up.
-POC said something, then another POC reiterated, and it was still ignored.
-A lot of adult-bashing.
-Facilitation was good. The way it was presented and the way it was done was excellent.
-Energy was low, and that contributed to a lot of questions and unaccountability.
-Audiocentric and discussion-based and popcorn style. Supported extroverts. Not a lot of circles allowing everyone to
speak. Silence = consent is not cool.
-Male voice in conversation wasn't too dominating, not as much as in other conversations. We've stopped looking at Paul
and Dale to tell us what to do.
-Need energy breaks when we're having long audiocentric conversations.
-Lot less male voice. More clarifying questions. Awesome.
-Women give a little more space for males. Mixed feelings - don't want them to not talk enough, but don't want them to
talk too much.
ROLES for 20 minutes
Dylan facilitates
Let's start out by identifying all of the roles.
Becca scribes.
POA (Paul)
POCAC (Lehna, Sara, Alice)
At-large members
14-16 (Kat)
16-18 (Becca, Dale)
18-20 (Dylan, Tony)
Adult (Nan)
Board of Trustees Liaison (Lyn)
Youth Office
Youth Programs Director (Jesse)
YRUU Programs Specialist (Joo Young)
Youth Ministry Associate (Beth)
Youth Ministry Associate (Marissa)
Youth Office Assistant (Ethan)
Discussion of why we are uncomfortable with the "Jail Solidarity"
game
-Experience of white activists who go to jail is different from POCs' experience. It's about choice.
-Spent more than an hour playing a game that didn't build community.
-Lots of people on one side and few people on the other side - uncomfortable.
Agenda for the rest of the meeting
Saturday:
90 minutes - Roles Discussion
90 minutes - Support for Youth of Color and WARAs
Back by 8 p.m. - Community Building and Dylan's
45 minutes - YRUU AR/AO discussion
30 minutes - Consultation Discussion
15 minutes - Consensus Training
Worship
Sunday:
8 a.m. - Breakfast
45 minutes - Right Relations Discussion
30 minutes - YC Debrief
15 minutes - YC Working Groups
30 minutes - Closing Worship
ROLES CONTINUED
POA:
-give process observations
-historian of YRUU's AR/AO work
-networking with organizations, learning about what they do in terms of AR/AO
-different role as a white POA - a responsibility to keep other white people accountable and work with them to better
understand process observation
-evaluates AR/AO work and makes suggestions for evolution
-writes reports on YC and SC meetings
Jesse's explanation of the history: POA is selected by the YO through an application process. "Paul is my fault." Appraisal part means the POA has a focus. A while ago YRUU chose this appraisal focus to be AR/AO. This focus was renewed a couple times, but then we forgot to keep renewing it and it pretty much became the other part of the job.
Nan: It might be helpful to look at past POA reports at YC.
Joo Young: Short "weather updates" should be scheduled into future agendas. Questions whether it's too much for POA to be both observing AND facilitating.
Consensus that Paul should not be responsible for facilitation.
Paul heard feedback that his pointed observations at YC were not appropriate, and put certain people on the spot.
Break into small groups to discuss how POA should do process observations?
Kat suggestions we put newsprint for each role on the table and circle around writing what we think their role is, then discuss this as a group.
Suggestions from pairs:
-understand that everyone is at a different stage with their analysis
-be aware of your identity when making reports, be aware of your wording
-like the straightforwardness of YC observations
-in business settings, don't use specific names when making process observations, but be direct in other settings - can
be more direct at SC meetings
-telling people something is fucked up is not helpful
-need to be tougher with each other on SC
-process observations should be regular with positives and deltas, but bring up things urgently when needed
-tallies - roster and checks when people speak
-bring in resources about anti-oppressive meetings
-workshop about POA technique so we can apply it to what we do
-important for POA to let anonymous concerns be raised, make a way for those to get to the POA (mailbox?)
-visualize power dynamics - power dynamic mapping
-check in on how people are doing
-frequent observations, not just from Paul (but also other SC members)
POCAC:
-finding resources to organize regional POC events
-spread the word of events and leadership through YOC UU community
-organize resources and network with POC to get to conferences
-not leaving networking and support for POC up to DRUUMM; YRUU needs to take action not just through AR/AO work
-making support for POC
-help advise POCC and POCAC, change the names to represent what they do
-work directly with Marissa
-be accountable and supportive to leaders in YRUU/SC/YO and other POCs in UUA
-outreach for non-UU POC
-create a committee to decide what's done with YFUUD money
Youth At-Large:
-represent concerns of all YC members
-represent and be accountable to all age-ranges, but specifically to ones they're voted to represent
-striving to be accountable to all YRUU and UU youth in our decision-making
-take into consideration YC concerns, but not necessarily following them completely because YC is specifically for YRUUers
and not very accountable to UU youth not in YRUU
-Dale clarifies: When YC is not meeting, SC is its voice. We are empowered to make decisions for YRUU.
-Jesse: Prophetic voice. Thinking beyond where your constituency might go.
-being accountable to all marginalized groups whether we identify with them or not, we all have to be allies
Board of Trustees Liaison:
-bring information to SC from the Board, and bring info to the Board from SC
-support youth leadership development
-carry the message and learnings from SC to other adult groups
-be of use in the right relationship discussion
-to use power for good and not for evil
-provide resources and support for adult advisors at Youth Council
-be mindful of the relationships between the BOT and the YO
Joo Young: What about including commitment to using consensus process - either in roles or covenant? Don't want people to not agree with consensus, and so block everything.
BIKE RACK consensus process as part of role.
Adult At-Large:
-support youth in leadership roles
-be a resource and advocate for SC work and youth work
-taking the role of a youth advisor in the SC and use it as a guide
-encourage spiritual development as a presence of support
-share experience with youth work by building youth-adult relationships
-be a resource for adults on SC and not on SC
-embrace and acknowledge my imperfections and do the work to the best of my ability
YPS:
-take notes
-give points of reference
-realize there are some things not hired for, but must do for my job in relationship to YRUU SC
-advising when it's proper
-offering to put on the advisor hat
-providing and revising resources
-being a support person for POCs
-being in a cooperative team with white allies
-DandS
-check myself and all of my identities
-encouraging an environment where all people have space and I'm not taking up too much space
-support queer youth
-paying attention to things that get lost
-being in relationship with other adults
YPD:
-provide a historical perspective (i.e. beyond 2 years)
-keeper of knowledge about the budget issues
-support and advise around leadership and facilitation
-UUA administration representative
-mentor white youth particularly white male youth around AR/AO issues
-be mentored by the rest of the SC - adult or youth, POC or white, hetero or GBLTQ, male and gender-oppressed
-support other adults
YMA:
-to provide information, updates and transparency about the Consultation
-to be a resource for community building, facilitation techniques, consensus/meeting skills as requested
-to support white youth on SC in furthering their analysis, bringing my resources from the YO and WA work I do
-logistical/gopher support as needed - food, supplies, etc.
-to take what I learn from SC meeting and use it to inform my work
-support Joo Young in note-taking, points of reference, etc.
-back Paul up in process observation, from a different POV
-checking in with other adults and being in relationship
-not participate in decisions
PROCESS CHECK
-a lot of adults talking
-hands not being used as much, facilitation looser
-different people interested in different things/topics
-when we don't raise hands, people get cut off more often
DINNER AT DYLAN'S! Fun walking.
Back to the Meeting
Dale is facilitating:
Let's caucus, caucus, caucus.
Lehna: Are we still going to break down into smaller groups.
Kat: How small would the caucuses be?
Lehna: I don't think it is the best way to talk about that subject, caucus, talk together, not something we should do…
Sara: We move faster when we work into pairs, we need to move a little faster tonight
Dale: I'd like us to do some small groups, it's easier when you are more engaged in the conversation.
Jesse will not be able to go past midnight.
CAUCUSING
SUNDAY
Supporting Youth of Color and White Allies Discussion
WHITE FOLX:
Made a covenant.
Support each other by asking questions that provoke awareness in regards to power dynamics and oppressing people and invalidating
POC's ideas.
If someone brings a concern to us, do our best to internalize it and not become defensive. Be open to what's being said.
Long-term
Safety for PoC
Thought structure
Fall conference - DRUUMM and White Allies
Develop a YRUU-specific sustainable structure
Talked about the different white allies groups being formed - two at the same time, very little youth involvement. Need to unify.
Broke up into 2 groups - networking with white allies groups on continental
level; supporting Youth of Color at district/regional/local level
Networking - Beth, Lyn, Dale, Paul, Jesse
Support in regions/district - Dylan, Becca, Nan, Tony
Dylan presents district/region support:
-Follow the revolution that was passed at YC for Chrysalis-type accreditation or mentorship program for local AR/AO trainers
(Nan, Sean Jones, and Al Jensen)
-create some kind of mediation process for when situations in regions/districts get fucked up (like LREDA good officers)
- may consist of one or more youth, SC member?, DRUUMM YaYA member, minister with analysis, white folx with analysis
-work on pre-crisis institutional support system for regions and districts to try to prevent things from getting out of
hand
-support for creating district/regional events for Youth of Color
-support outreach to get Youth of Color involved in leadership - POCC, POCAC
-create RE curriculum for AR/AO for younger children in congregations
Paul present ideas for networking with white allies continentally:
-Write a letter as white SC members to the white allies SCs saying we want to be a part of their group. Address issues
of:
-time - we have to get our act together soon or an alternative youth WASC will be created
-youth empowerment - maybe get advisor trainers to first WA meeting
-consolidate the two existing WA SCs
-name: not to have "white ally" in the name
-make them aware of current YRUU AR/AO structures (ARTOP, etc.)
-talk to Gini - she is a key player but address issue of her being too busy if need be
-Board should support WA SC creation. Consult DRUUMM/POCAC if it would be appropriate to ask for money from the Board.
Don't want to take away money from YoC support.
-Support GA AR/AO/MC track of programming, send letter to Planning Committee by next week
-Develop structures and resources for white Canadian youth, and AR/AO/MC programming for them, and hopefully Youth of
Color support will follow
-YO develop Canadian resources as YRUU is continental, plus Canadians might not have the small amount of adult support
Americans have - talk to YSJT trainers (who are Canadian)
-get youth on the White Allies conference planning committee
POC CAUCUS:
Alice presents.
-Regional support and local support.
-POCs in the community already - where do they go home to, how to support outside of conferences?
-Revise POCC to make it accountable to certain regions/districts.
-Blog for POC. Communicate when and where events are.
-Resources - pamphlet on creating support groups in local areas for POCs
-Revise ID groups to include new people - take notes
-Resources for working with bi/multiracial and transracially adopted youth
-AR/AO conference just for POCs - talk about linked oppressions and gender issues
-Sara explained AR/AO programs that exist for RE - we should push for these to be used more
-Call up churches to get a list of who is where, what congregations have Youth of Color
-Create video to pass out to churches
-Congregational mailing - YOC brochures in it
Joo Young: Marissa had some resources on her laptop. Will get them and send out to listserve.
Paul: Can you explain the ID groups idea?
Alice: Many times it turns into a debriefing session.
Lehna: We don't get to talk about IRO and other personal things - at home and at church. Too busy debriefing about specific content.
Kat: Video idea - interested in trying to create resources with different mediums. Or a CD with music or inspirational stuff. Recordings. Things to support PoC, help healing.
Nan: Sara, I'm interested in some of the resources that you know of for children.
Sara: It's frustrating because a lot of DREs don't know about the curricula. We want to let DREs know it's available, so that they can bring it back to their churches. Will send info out to the listserve gets it.
Kat: Shouldn't forget this. Needs to be in a job jot, not just in the minutes.
Joo Young commits to sending this out to the list and including it in next year's SC handbook. Also change the name of the "anti-racism" section so it's not just about "anti-."s
Talk about what to do next on agenda.
Jesse: We could have a conference call about the Consultation sometime this month before the taskforce meeting. Invite
Jova and Ian. Would be helpful for SC to have a strategizing discussion on how to support Jova and Ian.
Youth Council Debrief
Alice facilitates. Jesse scribes.
Let's do a plus/delta. Going in a circle.
| Plus | Delta |
| Good support within the POC community. Tomoharu was there. Training wasn't focused on white stuff only. | People assumed that everyone there had been there before - language was the biggest thing. Acronyms. |
| Community was built very well by the end of the 10 days. | Hated the site. Depressing. |
| Were able to work well together in very rushed times. | More planning of schedule should have happened before hand. More of the programming content, besides the grid. |
| SC was good at making rushed times, making decisions, doing work. | White folx structure should have been formed earlier. |
| Business process worked well - with stages. | Need more Adult of Color support/mentors/advisors. |
| Worships really great - designed for audience of both POC and white people. | Need to work with Board much earlier to get adults at-large selected. Happened way too late. Committee on Committees specifically. |
| White folx accountability structure was great. | Didn't like classism involved in assuming everyone didn't need the 10 days to work, support themselves, didn't have children/dependents, etc. |
| YOC organized unlike ever before. Spectacular. | Like hearing all district/region reports from people, not just reading them. Need to connect faces with stories. |
| People instilled with what it means to come to consensus and make changes for YRUU. Community was built well. | Very stressful times at the beginning of YC. A lot of things people didn't understand. People didn't understand what was going on, so there was tension. |
| Longer YC allowed us to take more time for things, more AR/AO training. Made business part at least slightly less oppressive. | Self-care time every day intentionally scheduled. |
| Quality of AR/AO trainers. New activities. Their presence in the community was very positive and helpful. | Too much social smoking. |
| In very difficult situation, SC really came through. Were very flexible. | Food. |
| Lucky the puppy! | |
| Helpful for people in regions to come together - clusters by geographical location. Find out how districts can collaborate. Felt more connection with folks. |
Let's talk more about the site so the YO can choose better site for next year.
-Food needs to be healthy.
-Cell phone reception. Need to keep in touch with family. Safety concerns.
-Rooms were good. Things in site were close together.
-Outdoorsy. Could see the stars.
-Didn't have control over the camp site. Restricted. Couldn't go where we wanted. Couldn't go to open spaces.
-Would prefer more autonomy.
-Took a lot of time to get there.
-A place that's cheaper to fly to.
-Site was racist. Fucked up. Tee-pees, signs, wall decorations.
-Always rural areas that POC might not feel comfortable in. Don't see POC at the sites, unless they're cleaning up our
stuff.
-Price was right.
-Nice to have place with comfortable chairs to sit on for business.
-Hated control staff had over the children there. Military aspect of the place - lining up, bugle, etc.
-Hard for introverts to have 4-6 roommates.
-Meeting space wasn't adequate. Visual site-lines bad.
-Bunk-beds bad.
-Liked having multi-gendered bathrooms/single bathrooms.
-Need more water available.
BREAK
Youth Council Working Groups
Alice facilitates. Joo Young scribes.
Kat: In planning YC, we divide into working groups. A few will be responsible for planning each aspect.
SCHEDULE - Lyn, Kat,, Dylan
-overall orientation
-taking it home stuff
-regular scheduling, creating the "grid"
BUSINESS - Lyn , Tony, Paul, Sara
-create and write agenda for empowerment/plenary sessions
-coordinate resolutions, encourage people to write them
-coordinate outreach to different groups/YCRs to see if they have any business that needs to be put on the agenda
-coordinate YFUUD and other reports - reminding people to prepare them
-workshop/monitoring to make meetings anti-oppressive
AR/AO/SOCIAL JUSTICE TRAINING - Alice, Becca, Lehna
-find trainer team with balanced identities
-finding people to lead ID groups
-organize orientations for both white folx and POC about YRUU's AR/AO work, what we'll be doing at YC, and why
-gender dynamics workshop/discussion/programming
-work with WAM and CSACs to coordinate social justice workshops
Becca takes over facilitating.
WORSHIP - Nan , Sara
-coordinate the planning of worship
-coordinate the planning of vespers
-take into account needs of all people at YC - worship that speaks to people with all beautiful identities, respecting
different learning and working styles
-incorporate worship and spirituality into other times of day - morning, empowerment, etc.
-be in direct relationship with AR/AO group
COMMUNITY BUILDING AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT - Alice, Becca, Nan, Kat
-coordinate/find chaplains
-set up group to deal with crises
-someone to monitor the health and self-care of the community (work with Paul)
-mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being of the community; address physical boundaries, emotional state,
etc.; support in these areas
-connect with Chester, who will be the minister at YC again next year
-orientation for new YC members, YC 101
-ensuring the nutritional health of the community
-organize community building activities
-keep in mind ableism in activities, also physical support (good chairs)
-focus on safe community and what that means
-figure out smoking issue, Inside Out Groups
SPECIAL EVENTS - Tony, Paul, Dylan, Lehna
-plan special events
-make sure they're not oppressive
All working groups should post notes and ideas on the listserve so everyone knows what's going on with each other.
All people will help plan orientations.
Kat suggested, during overall orientation, split people up into first timers and returning attendees.
*****MAKE SURE THAT A FACILITATION WORKSHOP HAPPENS AT JANUARY SC MEETING SO EVERYONE KNOWS HOW TO FACILITATE AT YOUTH COUNCIL!!!!*****
YAY WE'RE DONE! Need to shift groups around a little bit, but can do that over e-mail.