THE CONTINENTAL YOUTH ADULT COMMITTEE

The Continental Youth Adult Committee (YAC) is a committee of the UUA Board, with members generally appointed for coincident two year terms. The 1982-84 YAC was appointed in October, 1981, by the UUA Board of Trustees. Its members include: Beth Cox (chair), of the Joseph Priestly District YAC (adult); Kevin Clark, member of the 1981 Youth Assembly Planning Committee (youth); Lisa Feldstein, member of the 1981-82 LRY Executive Committee ('Youth); John Gibbons, Central Massachusetts District clergyman and YAC member (adult); Jane Park, of the Pacific Central District YAC and LRY Board (youth); Lori Pederson, Central Midwest District member of the UUA Board (adult); Mara Schoeny, of the Thomas Jefferson District YAC (youth); Bruce Southworth, Metro New York District clergyman and former Chair of the Continental YAC (adult); Wayne Arnason, UUA staff member and Executive Secretary (ex-officio).

All members of the committee were participants in the 1981 Youth Assembly.

The YAC met four times between November 1981 and May 1982, with all meetings held in Boston. The YAC regularly invited and included members of the 1982 LRY Executive Committee in their meetings. Individual copies of the minutes of the YAC meetings are available from the Consultant on Youth Programs.

At its first meeting, the YAC spent considerable time discussing the issue of rules of behaviour at the 1981 Youth Assembly. In response to confusion and controversy about the implications of the rules, the UUA Board asked the YAC for recommendations on behavioural policies to apply to all UUA sponsored youth events. Those recommendations, in the form adopted by the UUA Board, are embodied in the Behaviour Policies for the 1982 Youth Assembly printed in Appendix D of this report. There were no concerns raised or violations reported with respect to the behaviour policies at the 1982 Assembly.

The Youth Adult Committee made the following major decisions with regard to the 1982 Youth Assembly:

1. To hold the Assembly immediately following and on the same campus (Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME) as the 1982 General Assembly, in an effort to increase youth participation at GA and reduce travel costs for youth and adults committed to both events.
2. To reaffirm the delegate system and limited size of the 1981 Youth Assembly, in order to ensure representative decisions.
3. To limit the number of institutional and constituent at-large delegate positions, and increase the number of age-specific at-large delegateships, increasing the potential size of the assembly as a whole.
4. To maintain the 3-1 youth-to-adult ratio established at the 1981 UUA Youth Assembly.
5. To use a standard parliamentary business session as the vehicle for decision-making, in view of the body of Bylaws which constituted the main business of the assembly.
6. To seek a staff with considerable expertise in workshops, in order to increase the program (as opposed to business) aspects of the assembly.
7. To seek additional sources of program and travel funds for the 1982 Youth Assembly, be- yond the money allocated from the UUA budget.

Much of the last two meetings of the YAC were spent in hammering out the detailed Bylaw recommendations that would be presented to the delegates. Beth Cox presented a draft of these recommendations to the UUA Board in April, 1982, for their discussion and suggestions.

This report contains the minutes of the 1982 Youth Assembly, and a full text of the final Bylaws that were passed. It does not, however, contain the original recommendations of the YAC due to concern regarding the length of this report. A very limited number of delegate workbooks from the 1982 Youth Assembly are available at no charge from the Consultant on Youth Programs.