Youth Council 2004
Whittier College – Whittier, CA

August 2-8, 2004

 
Plenary Session 1 August 3, 2004

 

Community Building

(All my friends and neighbors)

 

Check in

(Meggie is sweaty and pumped for youth council)

(People are tired maybe they need to get to bed earlier)

 

Announcements

Resolutions need to be done by 7pm Thursday

 

 

 

YCR District/Region Reports

 

Joseph Priestly

Lack of respect for DYSC

Their web site was hacked in to by an old con go-er

Held a LDC (love youth office)

They had decide to never have a con in PA in December

Increasing communications about events

Both their disks (old and new) met and talked about positives and deltas and how to work on them

CAC (con affairs committee) (deal with breaking rules

No AR this year but will be having an AR con in January 2005

 

New Hamster Vermont

Had a AR work shop at their election con

Younger crowd

YAC is mostly under 18

Breaking down in communication

Canceling cons because of not having churches booked

There age range may be changing to 14-20 \

 

Massachusetts Bay

They had 5 cons

At second con they did YCR selections

No having cons in Malden too much snow

They had an LDC (had problems with advisors and there behavior)

They had a really successful SAC con

Massive con (resistance to AR work, advisors behavior)

Next year want to do a SDC and AR conference

Advisors taking control of meetings being disempowering

 

Northeast

Had a SAC con (did workshop about homelessness)

Elected new YAC

Had a problem with distrust with youth

Youth want co-ed sleeping areas and adults don’t want

Youth are trying to come up with solutions

Adults do not want it to happen and are holding process up

Had AR training

 

Pacific Northwest

Hold 2 large cons fall and spring (250-+ people)

They have smaller “clusters” which are small groups that lead smaller conference

Gold mine  (youth leader ship camp) (people from other districts can go)

Youth work camp (UU youth and muckle shout youth) if successful hope to do more in the future

 

Metro New York

6 cons

Not a lot of problems

Problems with not having a spirit committee meeting when they feel they should have

Had a good bridging con

Now they have 5 chaplains (both youth and young adults)

Maybe having a SDC in 2005

Also may have a AR con or SAC con

AL and Sean worked a lot so there was at least 1 SAC workshop

Mookie is trying to work with YAC bringing things from local to district

 

Thomas Jefferson

Had to let go of a couple of their disk reps

How to further incorporate their adults in their district

Maybe changing the name of the district

 

Quebec, Ontario, Maritime

Central and eastern Canada

YAC is having trouble with

            Large (land mass

            Not enough money

            Hard to communicate with local youth

            Communication issues

            No social justice done yet

            SAC has disappeared

YAC is really tying to have at least one con in this coming year

They had the Quam con

            Elect YAC

St. Laurence district cons

Had an Advisor trainer

 

Clara Barton

Had problems with YAC

            No communication with each other

            Low attendance due to no flyers

            No Bonding activities

            The web site person was feeling unheard so dropped off YAC

Last YCR has been MIA

They have a new website

Going to be sending out flyers to churches

People will be going to churches to Hype Cons

 

Pacific Central

Little attendance to cons

Need more adults to come to cons

YAC 19 people

            Fears not having younger youth not wanting

Board will be revising the Youth and young adult relationships

            Made before looking at YRUU’s policy

Having a large con that includes

No AR work

            For the

 

Energy break called @ 10:30 am

“Gigolo”

 

Southwest

Lot of problems with rule violations

2 major violations at SDC LDC

Big 4 a problem

But trying to work on skits to solve

Spirit Committee at all rallies and chaplains

YAC is revising their election process because of under qualified people running for positions

There are 5 dates broken up between the regions

They are trying to clarify what it means to be on YAC with binders and notes explaining Job

Jedi Program-Older experienced youth helping younger youth

Looking for a TAR to head up the Jedi Program

AR con was small but people who went got a lot out of it

Working on another one with more people

Problem was that it was right after a rally

 

Florida

9 cons

Each con is run by local youth group funded by the district

There were 6 all age cons 12-20

2 Transition in cons 12-14, which are introductions to cons

1 social action con but it wasn’t very social action oriented

No Anti-Racism or Anti-Oppression no diversity

YCR would like to work on creating more diversity.

District Board wants the YAC to go to the AGM

But it conflicts with the election con and there is no youth programming at the AGM

There are 9 more scheduled for this year

Lost the website because of a buyout but then bought it back

 

Western Canada

DYSC is called RYSC

A bunch of members were voted in last October.

Newsletter is up and running and looks awesome!

Working on email list serves

Only one regional conference a year

Upcoming conference has a junior high con as well as a LDC

AR/AO there were workshops at the election and at the LDC there will be a component of AR/AO there too

 

Ohio-Meadville

3 senior high cons

1 junior high con

1st overall conference size small

Might be due to a higher registration fee

Cons ended up being on the same weekends as holidays

Social Action conference grew quite a bit

New SAC and Chair

Held and LDC went great

High level of tension between Youth and Adults

Many rules broken

Having problems with cliques and popularity vs. leadership

AR/AO little

Problems with Communication between YCR and district and old YCR

Trying out the cluster model

2 YAC events

Summer elections

Website is hopeful

Financially set

The future of YAC is safe

 

St. Lawrence

Did some AR work

            Movie

People look at cons as a hang out time

Made up of white people mostly

Advisor training in Oct.

Trying to connect with Canada

Not allowed to give them money

Social action has not been happening

Joint YAC meeting somewhere

 

Central Midwest

Youth adult relationships really good

The relationships between YRUU and the congregations is not as good

People were tense at the last con because the church it was held at was very touchy

Social action work was food drives and clothing drives

AR/AO is not very good

3 Cons a year 150-200 people @ each con

Running well

Working on a Con manual to help churches plan a con

Thinking about holding and LDC and a SDC

Worried about costs

Had some problems with drugs at last con

Sex Death Squad looks for people having sex and doing other bad things

 

Ballou Channing

Interim DYSC

Interim YCR

Very first election con coming up in December

Having problems with the district youth consultant

Having problems with youth empowerment

Finally pushing their way through

AR/AO is not a main focus but after the DYSC is set there will be hardcore planning

Social action is a biggy at cons

No bylaws

District has not been quite as supportive as hoping

Working on a project to bring a youth caucus to district events

Cons are great with very few problems

Out reach program right now to get more youth involved

Adults at Large have been great

Communications are poor

 

Mountain Desert

Mistrust between the adults and the rules

Due to a sexual assault at the bridging con last year

Trying to fix through group discussions on a local and district level

The issues of mistrust seem to be dissolving

A couple of the new rules have been affecting the community in a negative way

There is a district rule change committee

New website! And there is a District Newsletter

Communications officer has been doing a good job

There has been much about bridging the gap between YA and youth

Outreach to Texas and Montana

They now attend con

There was a Junior Senior conference held in Montana which was good

13 Cons

3 Social action cons

4 cluster junior high retreats

Week long summer con

And junior high senior high retreat

And an advisor training in Bozeman

No AR/AO

 

British Columbia

Trouble with elections

Got a SAC

LDC in the fall, which was a success but a problem with a youth leader

A ginger bread-making workshop for fundraising

Wasn’t too successful and there was trouble selling some of the houses

7 principle T-Shirts was another fundraiser

11 people going to cunoodle

Plans for an SDC in the fall

For spring con 2005 there was trouble finding a youth group

BC YAC is going to organize

Joint meeting in Victoria BC

PNWD YAC chair took full chair

Communication issues

Coffee houses have been other fundraisers

 

Mid South

YAC has made final steps to the emergency system task force

Revised many of the Bylaws

Advisor Training

1st YAC meeting was canceled due to poor planning

1st con was Social action con

Set calendar for the rest of the year

Supposed to be an SDC but it didn’t go through

Discussed Youth adult relations at YAC meetings

Large focus is on Youth Events Manual

March small con Consumption

April Contemplation

First youth led AR workshop

May Last High school youth con of the year

June Junior High Con

Southern Poverty Law center led a workshop at con

Trying to strengthen AR/AO

And working on youth empowerment

A website is new and a Spirituality Development coordinator

 

Heartland

Biggest con at the beginning and smallest was at the end

Only 40 at the election con due to poor outreach

Advertise more to get more people

They need to update their list serve

Con staff was elitist

A few people have been in the same positions

Need new leaders

AR/AO was not so great

Social Justice Con Concern was good but only twenty went

Some youth said they have noticed change in Anti Oppressive language

Hope for a solid AR/AO work

New cluster system

Hoping to beef it up

AGM many many accounts of youth disempowerment

AR/AO is not very great

SAC moved

Tried to have a SAC con but cancelled due to poor registration

Not very many people push for stuff at their district

Cons are well attended but the cons are very good

A lot of people view mandatory as lets go take a nap

Upwards of 200 people

YAC has been really bad with power dynamics and Youth Disempowerment

Spanking committee

A newsletter called Visions

Drug problems need help

 

Southwest

Much more opportunities

Several largely attended AR cons

Great senior high camp

PSWD is getting more involved in continental YRUU

Large attendance to GA

3 our whole lives cons

Outreach to Arizona

SDC this year

Winter con on Social Justice

Several rule infractions executed by youth in leadership positions

Reformative Justice

Board resigned

No scholarships

Brainstorming possible ways to avoid these problems in the future

 

 

 

Logistics of Plenary

 

Steering Committee (SC)  elections

Elected by members of Youth Council

3 members are elected by PoCC

5 At large positions

18-20 Rep, 16-18 Rep, 14-16 Rep Bring the viewpoint of the age duuhhhhh………

Elections will be Sat during Plenary 6

 

People of Color Caucus (PoCC)

1-year position that can be run again

Same jobs as at large

Share the work

 

Adult at large

Like a youth advisor

Support the SC

And brings an adult perspective

 

Position on Appraisal (POA)

Process observe the group

All SC meetings as well as Youth Council

Not elected but the Youth office decides on using consensus

Research other organizations for reference

Strongly support the AR/AO work

 

Board of Trustee (BOT) Rep

Works with the SC as a member

Tries to offer the view of the Board of Trustee to the SC and tries to be a liaison

 

SC basics: HARD but REWARDING

 

 

 

Covenant:

 Description of a covenant- a promise with the community that we all create together and promise to with hold during our time together

 

 

 

Anti Racism with Jenny, Clare and Chris

(ARTOP and Challenging White Supremacy)

 

Day 1

-Introductions

-Covenanting

-Group Culture

-Learning Zone

-Goals

-Building Common Analysis of linked Oppressions

-Resources

-Evaluations

 

Jenny introduces her self

Chris introduces what Challenging White Supremacy and the history of how it became

Clare talks about how she got involved with CWS

 

Covenanting

Step up step down

Challenging assumptions (ask non confrontational questions)

Stay at the table (be present)

Talk to each other

Engage in Conflict Lovingly

Share what is said (not who said it)

Get out of your comfort zone

Think out side the box

Right to pass

Challenge the statement and not the person

Be aware of power dynamics

Plus group covenant from plenary

 

Group Culture (dynamics)

Strive for equal participation from youth and adults

Wait 10 sec. Before talking (pop corn style)

White people asking POC to explain them selves and educate

 

Learning Zones (from training for change)

How do you know when you have gone in to these zones?

 

Comfort zone

Bored, heard it all before

Feel safe

Routine

Agree with every thing

Muscles loose

Stop caring what is said

You’re in controlled

 

Growth zone

Afraid

Intimidated

Questioning

Excited

Inter act more

Stretching

Sit up more and you are alert

Heart races

 

Red zone

Angry

Defensive

Can’t communicate

Frustrated

Every one else is wrong

Clenching muscles

Melt down

Sadness

 

Goals

  1. Support YRUU in its on going work to be an effective organization
  2. Help develop a base analysis if white supremacy as a 
  3. Connect AR politics to grassroots organizing and social justice
  4. Help

 

People write their personal goals

                 

Active participation activities

 

People Sculptures of:

Capitalism

-A system of government based on money

            -Oppressive power (People with lots of money over people with out money)

            -Pawns in the system

            -Works in with other systems

            -Goal is profit

            -Consumerism

            -Rigid and controlled

 

Patriarchy

            -Had power over the “clay”

            -Superior

            -Ability to disapprove

            -Masculinity

            -Dominating power

            -Nothing but what “I” said mattered

            -Socially it is handed down to people

            -Domination of white culture

           

Heterosexism (with a little emotion)

            -Males are more arrogant

            -Females are submissive

            -Over-sexualized

            -Plays in to patriarchy

            -Close mindedness

            -Assuming everyone is in heterosexual

 

Gender binary System

            -Gender does not exists

            -There is nothing past male and female

           

Group Sculpture of:
White Supremacy

            -Had the power or did not have the power

            -Not many POC were in it

            -The POC who were in it were put in positions of powerless

            -White folks with most of the power

            -Some white folks stepped in and tried to “protect” the POC

 

Group Sculpture of:

Liberation

Observation

            Lots of white people taking over POC’s sculpture

            Surrounding POC doing their own thing

            People using the Black Power symbol (a symbol of the black power movement but was stolen by white folks)

            Not many youth and young adults

           

All these systems are connected and support each other

 

The interaction of white folks doing liberation work and working with people of color and these all inter weave

 

 


Plenary 2 - Wednesday

 

Canada at large

            They have a slightly larger RE budget

            Conuudle went well

            The radical religious people are helping pull together

            Age rang issue they were told By the CUC that the age range for the national conference

 

Continental Social Action Coordinator (C*SAC)

            Have been defining their roll

            Working on a system where there would be chapters where district SAC’s organize the local SAC’s

            Sean- made some great connections at GA

            Both- YSJC pre site was good

            SAC-Pack is going to be done by YSJC

            The first Regional YSJC is going to be in CMWD

 

Post High Transitional Age Range Representative (TARR)

            Created a questionnaire to find out the needs of 18-22

                        5 sets of questions

Received 5 questioners back

                        Need to have more transitioning

            Re-think AR/AO programming

           

Junior High TARR

            Clarification of position

            From Heartland

            Create a resource for junior high events

            Help start junior high work in your district

            Tried to have a JH welcoming circle at GA did not go so well

 

Working Action Manager (WAM)

            Education Reform and Multiculturalism

            YSJC-Inner City Struggle did a great job

            At GA did a lot of networking

                        Met William Upskie Wimsatt

            The SWAT PoAT is amazing

                        Education reform

                        Un schooling

                       

Super Working Action Team  (SWAT)

                        Working on education reform and multiculturalism

            Challenging- not many people know about the SWAT POT

            Need a congregation to support the issue

 

Lifespan Learning (Canada)

            Established a Youth advisory group

            4 Reigns

            Building Communication

            Grateful for the YFUUD grant

            Tim and Jessie went to the Conference

            Sylvia made Tim an official CUC member Gave him a pin

            Had SDC’s and LDC’s

 

UUA Youth Programs Director

            We got 30,000 dollars for Youth Advisor Hand Book and Youth group Hand Book (will be printing soon)

            Youth advisor handbook has been re-printed

                        5 steps on how to higher a paid youth advisor

            Youth group handbook will be coming out before GA 2005

            Go to the web site for great resources

            Youth office is with the Life Span faith development

                        Coming of age resource

                        Poetry resource to spared poetry (social justice, etc.)

            Talk to youth office about your ideas for new resources

Jesse is nervous because Bill and Nada are watching

Jesse talks about budget

 

UUA (filled with nice people who need to be paid)

            APF annual Program Fund (your church gives money to UUA)

            Friends of the UUA- fund raising effort (on line you can find out how to donate)

            Just did a capital campaign that raised 35.2 million

            UUA endowment

            And large gifts

            Talk to your parents about giving to youth programming

Story time with Jesse (oh I love story time with Jessie)

            Youth can pledge also

            If your family have means talk about making a large gift

           

Youth Office

            Money            

                        Operating budget

                        Capital campaign (bucket with money in it and can use it for special                         Projects) (not a real bucket)

 

            YRUU

                        Money (Can be used for scholarships, etc.)

                                    Gets money through events (Youth caucus, Con Con, etc.)

                                    YRUU checking account (small scale fund raising)

                                    T-shirt from GA

                       

Are we going to get back our 3 YPS?  No time soon

                       

            Capital Campaign

                        Used money to support DRUUMM and youth and young adults of color

ARTOP (Jason found an out side source from the UU Sunday School Society)

                        Utilizing volenters to help get their work done

                        Also summer interns

                       

In the upcoming year

                        Keep funding DRUUMM

                        Resource development

           

Staff

                        Megan and Jason were AMAZING

                        They did so much and started so many new things

 

Nada Speaks

            Worked with LRY (back in the day)

            Why we had common ground

                        Myths of LRY and its falling

There was stress between adults and youth

                        The scapegoat period; if there were any problems they were blamed on youth

                        The youth thought that if you gave the youth all the money it would all be ok

                        Adults checking out (not showing up)

                        The Truth of LRY

                        Adults were getting frustrated with the direction

                        There were adults who were doing youth empowerment

                        Local groups were in disarray

                        Youth were doing organizing

                         Lots of things political and social justice in the country

                        Adults did show some times and they were shut down

                        Yes there may have been nudity

                        Did not have any formal training for advisors

           

            Concuss shuts people up

 

 

 

Anti Racism

Defining Racism

Development of us racism

Institutional racism

Internalized racism

Allies

Evaluations

 

Siri does a reading

 

Common analysis

Picture of person

                        It’s a woman

                        Putting down seeds

                        Child/youth

                        Pollution

                        Hope

                        Dark ness falling on her

Comment about how people assumed it was a woman

Next picture

                        No smoking

 

Racism = racial prejudice + institutional power

Development of U.S. Racism

 

Genocide- the violence/intentional killing of people and a culture 

 

Genocide

Japanese concentration camps- during WWII took Japanese

Christopher Columbus coming to America- landed in to the Caribbean and

Taking of children of first nations taking and putting them in schools not teaching their native langue

The sterilization of women of color

 

Enslavement and slave labor

The abuse of Chinese labor building labor

Prison/drug laws and how they target people of color

The Patriot Act- putting people of Arab decent in jail for no reason

 

Theft of land and resources

Manifest destiny-

 Europeans puritans coming and spreading gods will that they span from cotenant

to save the native people from them self

            Trail of tears- moving the native peoples away from their land

           

 The first time white came up referring to people

            -You could vote if you owned land

            -You had a choice

            -It also has manifested its self in other countries and the colonization of them

 

White

The term white (people) was created by Virginia Slave owners and colonial rulers in the (7th century) it replaced terms like “Christians” and “Englishmen” to distinguish European colonists from African and indigenous peoples.  European colonial powers established “whites” as a legal concept after Bacon’s rebellion in 1676 during which indentured servants of European and African descent had united against the colonial elite.  The legal distinction of “white” separated

 

The term People of Color

People of color in the U.S. share the common experience of being targeted and oppressed by racism.  Unfortunately one of the ways racism operates is to keep People of Color divided.  Many people only think about their specific ethnic racial group when discussing oppression or the need to keep political power.  By using the term people of color, we begin to push people to think more broadly.  We need to build relationships with other groups of color the term people of color has movement building potential. 

Western States Center

(Not a black white issue)

 

Universalizing White Experience

When “white” is presented as standard/normal/good, people with white privilege internalize this superiority and sense of being “normal”, viewing the world through that lens.  Images of leadership, beauty, “average Americans” in institutions like schools, the media and popular culture; presentations of history that foreground white figures and their influence; and other ways in which whiteness is made central led to an institutionalized standard of experience.  This phenomenon is often invisible to those who experience. This phenomenon is often invisible to those who experience and protesting are the right/best/only ways.”

 

Deracialization

Deracialization is to remove an issue from its context, treating it in a way that does not recognize the impact of racism or that reduces the propriety of directly challenging those impacts.  Deracialization an issue restricts the self-determination of the people who are most impacted by that issue to be defining their won struggle.  In a white supremacist society, all issues intersect with racism; the privilege to reframe an issue with out understanding the impact of race is not available. 

 

Blinded by the White

Reinforced by deracialized politics, this is a blindness of white activists to seeing and understanding resistance coming from communities of color.  500+years of liberation struggles on this continent have been led by people of color, from colonization on through today.  The backwards idea of “recruiting” people of color into “the” movement, defined as white radical struggle, ignores this historical and contemporary reality.  Instead of “recruiting” people of color into majority white organizations in an attempt to “diversify”, white social justice activist can focus on participating in anti-racist struggle. 

 

Contradictory Resistance

Non-ruling class white people caught in the intersection of experiencing privilege and also oppression, and so their resistance often expresses this contradiction: protesting that which oppresses while fighting to maintain privilege.  Along racial lines, this often has maintained privilege.  Along racial lines, this often has manifested as white activists sacrificing long-term strength and the goals of activists of color, in order to win short-term gains for their own agenda.  The resulting dynamic has historically shattered the potential of various multiracial movements, which were making real progress toward radical social change.

 

These definitions are used by Anti-Racism for Global Justice, a project of the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop.

 

 

Plenary#3

 

YPS reports

 

Jason:

·   -Hey I’m September. YPS

·   -We lost January YPS. So each YPS has more work

·   -Anti-Racism Identity Development (ARID) resource group includes design team, Anti-Racism Trainer-Organizer Program (ARTOP), Youth Office

·   -Been working with the design team

·   -We don’t have enough money to do AR…SCARY!!

·   -The money just isn’t there

·   -Please keep talking about how to raise that money

·   -Trying to network with YA

·   Lot of recent AR STUFF HAS BEEN YAYA

·   -Been working with Laurel in the Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministry; Petra is Laurel’s replacement.

·   -We been working with our strong adult allies

·   -We need to keep UUA accountable to AR work

·   -GA went well, it was huge

·   Sheraton letter said awful things that aren’t all that true but been working with the GA Planning Committee and Revisioning Taskforce to change the bad things

·   -We also been trying to do more drug and alcohol awareness so we don’t develop leaders into this addiction problems

·   -SATUURDAY was cool,

·   -Didn’t do local support, we don’t have the structure for it

·   -No new leadership coming up

·   -There also needs to be more two-way relationships

 

Betty Jeanne

 

·   -Had an exciting start

·   -Went to GA; GA staff was awesome

·   -Impressed with id groups

·   -SATUURDAY awesome looking forward to continuing working on queer caucus

·   -For SATUURDAY has a great interim group to keep momentum going and finding new youth leadership for SATUURDAY

·   -Big event YSJC, good pre-site, this year will connect a lot more with faith

·   -Working toward regional YSJC to empower more local and regional leadership to take over

·   -Trainings…. every year training or trainers people who go will be sent out to work on helping local/district youth to develop leadership skills

·   -Shout out to Nan Moore for doing amazing work on trainings

·   -AR being apart of AR working group, hard because of lack of funding

·   -Excited about fundraising for AR programming

·   -Excited about supporting DRUUMM and white allies

·   -Working with interns on synapse theme is anti-racism

·   -Thrilled about BOT here at youth council encourages people to talk to them about important concerns

·   -Jason in for a few weeks call him and say hi!!!!!!!

·   -Call Betty Jeanne and say HEY really inspired by all of us people at youth council

 

 

SINKFORD SPEAKS!!!!!

 

·   -Thanks for welcoming him back to YC

·   -Truly blessed with people serving as YPSs gives thanks to them

·   -In an effort to make a better communication path agrees that YPS and bill would meet so that he could get a person sense of what’s going on with YRUU

·   -Came into UUism through LRY, culture with YRUU and LRY connect

·   -Lots of hair colors in YRUU….hehe

·   -Likes the openness that UUism gives to youth

·   -Likes how it has felt friendly to some but unfriendly to others and the dynamic and strength of YRUU and culture works for many but has not worked for all. Common Ground 3 (CG3) might help to fix this dilemma

·   -CG1 AND 2 different from the situation today with YRUU

·   -YRUU is healthy doing positive things and leadership for AR/AO is out passing the adult community

·   -Because situation is different sees CG3 as a way to continue strength and that it will help us take steps forward to strengthen youth and adult relations

·   -For cg3 to happen planning for it need to happen very soon

·   -Funding needs to be from a variety for sources

·   -Imagination calls for planning team, which is largely represented to do the work

·   -Requires us all to say we trust planning committee to do the best job that they can on CG3 so that we can do good work

·   -Thinks it’s a big opportunity for strength to be built

·   -Youth programming very good at GA

·   -GA this year a pivot point for UUism made worship central for the whole community 

·   -Important change was the presence of congregational-based community work

·   -Covenant groups at GA these groups changing the way we do religious intimacy

·   -How to get adults and youth to stay UU

·   -4th important thing that happened at GA for the first time made intentional effort to get congregational presidents to GA not just members/ GA junkies

·   -GA this year very big pivot point, moving ahead with building better community

·   -Happy to be here!

 

Questions asked to Bill

 

What if people aren’t a part of one congregation what do they do?

  Bill replies- if they belong to CLF we help to connect them with the larger community

 

We are 1st generation with principles how do you think leadership will change in the uua?

   Bill replies-wants us to look at religious language ethical to a fault but don’t contain religious language believes that principles have grounded much of the work we have done on AR and economical justice. How it will play out he doesn’t know

 

Heard him say CG3 is next summer or is it going to be GA 2006?

Bill replies -it will be GA 2006 active conversation with board on cg3, BOARD EXCITED about it.

 

What kind of work does uua do to support queer youth do they support SATUURDAY?

Huge support of marriage initiative.  Couldn’t have stronger support for queer youth. Not institutional support for SATUURDAY but supports the idea of it

 

Can you further explain changing the language of reverence?

As long as we don’t have a language and practice of reverence we need to recognize that we don’t walk alone and participate with something larger than ourselves thinks we need a language to practice ways to get deeper spiritual connection. UUs don’t like talking about power other then our own wants us to understand that there is a love which has not broken faith with us and we need to open ourselves to it.

 

What is your definition of youth empowerment?

Hopes cg3 will clearly define it wants kids and youth to be considered part of the community.  Knows some work in uua to increase leadership positions for youth what are these?

 

Board and committees working to have more youth and YA apart of things wants congregations to understand that youth leadership starts at home fundamental change needs to start there

 

Is it true that youth and YA don’t come back after they become adults?

Not in all cases but most people drift away after a period of time UUs seem to encourage it instead of work against it

 

There are challenges in districts/regions. To bring adult advisor trainings how can we help districts/Regions fund this?

-         It’s very easy in this faith to have a hub and spoke of what UUism is centered on authority. UUA is really us congregations and groups the way we do outer work I can direct things to happen but the work that we do is coming together to decide what need to happen around a cluster of youth work thinks cg3 will help this move forward

 

END OF SINKFORD SPEAKS, EVERYBODY CLAPS

 

 

 

Thursday

 

Anti-racism part III

 

Part two of the poem

 

Anti-racism Journey

            Being in the red zone

            Overwhelmed

            Examining why we censor ourselves (why we do it,

Feeling discouraged)

Transforming guilt into something else useful

Feeling like the blame is being placed all the white folks

POC- feeling like they have to justify every thing that they say having to do with AR wok

POC- having to censor self to white people so they don’t feel bad and feeling tokenized

 People are feeling uncomfortable

 

S.S. YRUU

           

Personal Racism

Most of what’s labeled” racism” on TV-land in news media is acts of personal racism- one person acting out their racial prejudice.  If we accept that Personal Racism            

 

Institutional racism

Education system   -imprisoning of so many People of Color   -“Justice” system   -stricter laws on crack than cocaine    -People of Color being paid less for the same work as white people   -poverty  

 

Cultural Racism

“Flesh” Color Band-Aids            -white is norm       –all white models in stores and advertising            –airplane emergency pamphlet people are white    -people of color playing stereotypical rolls in movies and TV shows        -color and how it relates to what good and what’s bad            -mascots for schools and how the are taking from different cultures       -comic books and super heroes  -over sexulizaition of Asian woman        - cultural misappropriation/theft

 

Cultural Misappropriation (what does to it feel like if this happened)

            -Changing the meaning

            -Violated

            -Taking away community

            -Create association

            -Destroying shared meaning

            -Issue of respect

-It can be hard

 

Most of the time when people are oppressed they can see it and those who are not oppressed do not see it because they have the ability to ignore what is going on

 

 

 

PLENARY 4 with Bill Sinkford

·        Overview of Consensus and lead into the discussion of the proposal for Common Ground III to happen

o       Question to the Board folks about how they intend to work with youth to help them feel empowered.  Answer from Bill Sinkford in addressing the power dynamics that exist hopes that the youth and adults could work together.

o       Lots of great ideas came out of Long Range Planning meeting but nothing came out of that and CG III needs to be sure that does not happen.

o       Question about the planning groups structure.  Answer from Laura Manning includes a direction to look at the letter that precedes the resolution.

o       Bill expands on the idea that there are areas to work on to address power dynamics that might come up

o       What are we trying to change?

o       When people were going around in their reports there are lots of the same problems around communication and adult support.  The current structure of Steering Committee and Youth Council do not meet the needs of all the youth in UUism.  Plus we haven’t revisioned YRUU in 20 years.

o       Where did this all come from in the first place?  Are the problems consistent from year to year?

o       The By-laws are really out of touch with what we’re working on now and the way to change the by-laws takes a long time and since we often don’t follow the By-laws they seem to be useless. 

o       The idea behind Common Ground III is about getting youth who aren’t involved in the conversation at all to come together.  The youth who don’t come to Youth Council and aren’t involved but are part of our denomination. 

o       Calling this a Common Ground meeting is in some ways a disrespect to the first Common Grounds.  We’re not exactly working to come to a Common Ground as everyone wants to expand YRUUs constituencies

o       How are we going to get the results of Common Ground III back to the districts?  There are often people in power who feel threatened by YRUU and whatever structure is in existence. 

o       This is not a visioning meeting; it’s a revisioning meeting.  How does this get out to everyone, including affiliated YRUU groups?  How do we make sure this is not just a continental change?

o       Some congregations will probably jump right on board with what comes from Common ground III and others will not, very similarly to AR/AO work in the Association.  Plus the support from Boston UUA is really helpful.

o       Common Ground 1 and 2 dissolved one organization to form a new one and we may want to change the language if that’s not what we’re looking to do.  It doesn’t seem that important to revision on a continental level to change the district problems.  When there are strong outreach projects in districts more youth might come to continental events and then revisioning may be needed.  If CG III happens and things change the way other groups have to work is this body being accountable to those constituents?

o       CG III resembles a meeting that happened in Florida from which some believe nothing came out of it. 

o       Common Ground could be so huge and will encourage all those churches and congregations that have been trying to change things to actually do that. 

o       Common Ground is about drawing out inactive youth and if this meeting happens and these youth come at all then already there is a start in change because more people are getting involved.

o       If local participation is what is desired maybe what would be helpful is to have cluster conversations before we try to do a top/bottom approach.

o       If Common Ground III decides things is everything then going to have to go by Youth Council?  It seems that it would make sense to do things that way.

o       Estimated cost???

o       A thought is that decisions could be passed at CGIII and that would be good enough

o       There is a lot that needs to happen for change to happen and this meeting might make sense but called something different.

o       How do we deal with the concerns that are really different in districts?  It’s really disempowering to youth to hear that congregations need to hear it from the UUA to make changes and that the voice of youth isn’t respected enough.

o       Bill’s goal for CGIII is to have a BIG conversation about youth ministry and being sure to include youth involved in congregational ministry, district ministry, and YRUU.  This is not just about the structure of YRUU but also about having a BIG conversation about meeting the needs of ALL our UU youth.  Too many UU congregations are not willing to be in relationship with YRUU in district or continental levels and that’s distressing.  At each step along the way we need to model the change we’re looking for which means authorizing the leadership of the planning committee to take the leadership needed.  This will be VERY expensive but Bill is committed to finding the money.

o       How many folks will be at Common Ground? 

o       Thoughts that the planning committees will make the decisions about how many folks are at Common Ground.

o       We’re talking about this at a level of happening and not leaving room for us to say “no” to this.

o       What happened to the Long Range Planning Meeting?  Why aren’t we implementing some of the ideas that came from that meeting?  We’ve already started this discussion and we need to have some of these ideas explored before CGIII happens

o       The Long Range Planning Meeting came up with the idea that there were more people needed to have the revisioning discussion

o       The rubber stamp from Bill Sinkford and Steering Committee makes it very difficult to say no and not feel bad.

o       The UUA is trying to improve relations with YRUU and this is a step towards that

o       Maybe we could bring this back to our districts/Regions

o       There is a survey and that brings up a lot of the concerns that people have

o       How can we ask youth who are not involved in YRUU to revision things if they haven’t even tried our YRUU?

o       There are many people who feel alienated by YRUU and many people have ideas on how we can change things to better meet their needs.

o       Slightly under 400 people is not enough to get an answer to this survey

 

 

Plenary 5

 

It’s a resolution party plenary baby (Jason sings)

Meggie goes over consensus and how we are going to go through this whole process.

 

 

“It ain’t just about marriage!”

·        INTERWEAVE, the UUA affiliated organization for queer folks and allies, is not an acronym even though it is capitalized in the resolution

·        Concerns brought up about unpacked acronyms, lack of inclusion of Canadian inclusive language, use of the term heterosexual instead of straight

Call for consensus: resolution passed with 4 amendments

·        Change “districts” to “Districts/Regions”

·        Unpack “SATUURDAY” to read “Sexually Accepting Teenage Unitarian Universalists Respecting Diversity Among Youth”

·        Change “INTERWEAVE” to “Interweave” as it is not an acronym

·        Change the word “straight” in Long Term Goals to “heterosexual”

 

 

 

“Making Education Reform and Multiculturalism Long-Term Working Action Issue (WAI) of YRUU”

·        “Short Term” Goals needs to be changed to “short-term” goals

·        “District” needs to be changed to “Regions/District”

·        Third bullet under long-term goals, which reads, “to revolutionize the purpose of education…”

·        Under “How will this further the greater denomination and the world?” there is concern with the sentence that reads, “Further the focus on multiculturalism…”

·        “Organizations/Books” should just read “Organizations”

·        Need specification on the letter writing piece about the

Betty Jeanne ate the silly putty instead of gum, folks laugh in a very distracting way.  

·        The youth office needs to be sure not to change definitions of words when doing grammar and spelling

·        Change “Bell Hooks” to “bell hooks”

·        Add something about the WAM working with Canadian structure

Resolve the Concerns:

·        Third bullet under long-term goals which reads “to revolutionize the purpose of education…” could be changed to “to revolutionize the purpose of schooling in the US and Canada”

·        WAM and C*SACs will each write two letters:  one to Steering Committee and one to Youth Council

·        Add under short-term goals something about collaborating with Canadian leadership

·        Under short-term goal change “inform” to “work with”

·        Strike the sentence that starts with “Further the focus on multiculturalism…”

·        “Organizations/Books” should just read “Organizations”

·        Change “Lie My Teacher Told Me” to “Lies…” 

Call for consensus: it passes!

 

 

Project Proposal: UUNI TARP (Unitarian Universalist Transitional Age-Range Programming for Post-High Youth)

·        Spell Dylan Uscher’s name correctly, please

·        Where will we get the money for District/Regional TAR Program Consultants, or for developing a new COA resource?

·        We need to get buy-in from C*UUYAN about this or the ball we be dropped on their end.

·        Why do we mention jr. high resources in the resolution? Should be post-high only. 

·        Isn’t a lot of post-high programming up to individual congregations, rather than Youth Council?

·        In terms of resources, aren’t there lots of resources already available? Do we need another one, is that effective? There seems to be a lot of overlap of resources or resources that are out there, but not being utilized.

·        Based on a lot of the YCR reports, it doesn’t seem that YCRs can take on a project like this.

·        The resolution doesn’t bind YCR’s to the resolution in general – instead it’s showing Dylan, Greg, and Nora’s commitment which is awesome.

·        Would like to replace “guru” with “specialist” or “expert”.

Cosmic Trucker Butler taught Annie all about consensus at GA, holler.

·        Don’t think the Youth Office has the time or $ to do all of this, and it’s not their job. Should be Lifespan Faith Development and C*UUYAN

 

Resolving Concerns:

·        As far as $ is concerned, Nora will help seek out funding in the form of a grant. Also, it’s a long-term goal so we don’t need the answers yet. Right now, there is a commitment to searching for money.

·        Add an amendment about being in conversation with C*UUYAN during this whole process. Put this in the short-term goals.

·        Change “junior high” to “senior high” in local and district/regional resources.

·        List resources already available from C*UUYAN, LFD, etc. and utilize these.

·        Remove “guru”.

·        Add an amendment about YRUU (not Youth Office) needing to ask for support from C*UUYAN and Lifespan Faith Development to develop resources, particularly financial support. (Need to decide where to add this amendment.)

·        Change the hyphen in 16-22 to n-dash.

Call for consensus: One person stands aside with no listed concerns. Resolution passes!

 

 

 

Resolution to Establish a Joint YRUU-C*UUYAN Anti-Racism Transformation Team

·        As far as requirements for selection of Transformation Team (TT), i.e. “some members” and “majority” having AR or organizing experience, this is a decision of the Design Team (DT) – they will decide the specifics around how members are chosen.

·        CUC isn’t mentioned in any part of this except potentially asking CUC for $ to have a paid staff position. CUC needs to be a part of this beyond just YRUU and C*UUYAN.

·        The proposal isn’t consistent about whether the TT is working on AR/AO and multiculturalism, or just AR.

·        Should provide a gender-neutral pronoun in the Accountability section.

·        CUC needs to be in relationship with TT, but other organizations as well, i.e. LUUNA. But probably many others as well!

In keeping with Youth Council tradition, Betty Jeanne puts silly putty in Kyle’s hair. It doesn’t stay because his hair is way too gelled.

 

Resolving Concerns:

·        Recommendation to the TT/DT that in the TT/DT mission statement, add something about outreach to other orgs like CUC, LUUNA, etc.

·        In regards to CUC specifically, TT/DT realizes that the goal of having a paid staff position, both with UUA and CUC, is a long-term goal, which will require intentional outreach and accountability between TT/DT and these organizations.

·        Recommendation to TT/DT to name as many stakeholders as currently known.

All these recommendations to the DT/TT about CUC and other stuff should be typed up as an amendment to the resolution.

·        Change “s/he” to be more inclusive of folks who identify outside of a gender binary system. In order to do this Youth Office will provide space for input and dialogue around how to best achieve this. For now, “ze/she/he” will be used.

The stuff about dialogue around gender inclusive language goes for everything YRUU/Youth Office does, not just this resolution. A related suggestion was making an YC resolution for next year that would institutionalize gender inclusive language.

·        In anti-racism history, specify that AAUUM and LUUNA came together to form DRUUMM. It is important to make sure this change happens so that the history will be accurate.

·        Write a letter to recommend to TT/DT that they clarify whether their work is around AR or AR/AO or AR/AO/MC. The title of the Transformation Team as an AR TT differs from their mission which refers to AR/AO rather than AR. One person stands aside.

Call for consensus: four people stand aside. One person standing aside notes that the process has broken down and the way this conversation has been going has broken down community. It passes.

 

 

 

SATURDAY, August 7, 2004

 

SC elections:

 

Let it be noted that we need to have a better understanding of the process around POCAC elections and how they relate to at-large SC elections. This is highly undefined and has happened in different ways in the past.

 

Let it also be noted that there is no definition with whether 14-16 reps, etc. have to be within the age range at the time of election or during their entire term.

 

And the new SC at-larges are Siri, Nora, Greg, Jennifer, Laurel, and Heather. The POCC reports back that the PoCAC members will be Jova and Lehna. While the POCC has decided to adopt a two-year position on PoCAC as well (see YC resolution on Steering Committee Continuity), that position has not been filled as of yet and a process will be developed around that. Sean Jones is the new DRUUMM YaYA rep from YRUU.

 

 

Resolution: In the Spirit of Canada

·        $1 extra should be optional, only if able.

·        Bullet added to acknowledge classism inherent in the lack of funding for AR and the need to ask youth for this money as opposed to other sources

·        Need for a sliding scale: $1-$2 option

·        How well will this actually get followed through on? A lot of districts won’t pick it up or may drop the ball after a while

·        There is a need to organize within individual congregations to raise $ for AR.

Resolving Concerns:

·        Adjust “$1 for every conference” to “roughly one dollar per conference attendee” and leave the specifics to each district/region.

Specifics on this language are written out in the steps to achieve section. Should read: “Ask districts and regions for roughly one additional dollar for each attendee to their youth conferences, leaving specific methods of fundraisers to each district/region.

·        Add an amendment about other options for districts/regions, such as simply taking one dollar out of conference fees, rather than adding a dollar to the registration fee.

·        Change word “continual” to “continental” in long term goals

·        Change word “national” to “continental” in long term goals

·        Add language in an amendment around encouraging local congregations and youth groups to fundraise for YaYA AR work as well.

·        Add amendment around classism: “We acknowledge the fact that any monetary requests systematically perpetuate classism, how ever, actively challenge racism oppressions and prejudice that we ask for support of this resolution.

Call for consensus: one person stands aside. Reason noted is that it might be more effective to take this to the UUA Board of Trustees Finance Committee instead. The resolution passes!!

 

 

YRUU’s Commitment to Involvement with the Paper Campaign

·        Need to change the US and American to USA or some other more accountable language to be inclusive

·        Man, woman and child should be changed to person

·        “The” foundation to “a” foundation

·        Repeating sentences

·        Don’t list the companies

 

Resolving Concerns:

·        Need to change all “US” references to “US of A”

·        Questions about whether or not “Corporate America” is the appropriate term to be used in this resolution can be addressed by the writers and the paper campaign folks

·        Man woman and child is changed to person

·        Changing “The” Foundation to “a” foundation

·        Deleting the repeating bullet points

·        Listing the corporations but changing it to “Certain corporations”

 

 

 

Resolution to Establish A Reading Panel for the Selection of Youth Trustee

·        Need to explicitly state that consensus should be used to decide which candidate to recommend.

Resolve Concerns:

·        Add a statement in the resolution about how consensus must be used to decide which candidate to recommend.

·        Add a note on the actual resolution that two people were not in attendance when the resolution was passed.

Call for consensus: two people were absent from the plenary. No stand-asides. Resolution passes.

 

 

 

YFUUD Report: Did lots of work and awarded the following:

·        Drug Use/Abuse grant - $1000.00

·        DRUUMM Youth and Young Adult and POCC meeting $1000.00

·        BAGSLY - $500.00

·        Transformation Team - $2000.00

·        Interfaith (Uncommon) – $500.00

·        Chaplain Training - $1000.00

Consensus

 

 

 

Common Ground III:  Can we just change the world already?

Concerns:

·        Planning Committee – selection, who will be in it, youth/adult ratio, youth empowerment

·        How it will be accountable to youth and how the people attending CGIII will be chosen

·        Purpose of CGIII, who YRUU serves and what is youth ministry

·        After CG III don’t want what happened to LRP to happen to this

·        Concerns about the name, it’s not appropriate for this event

·        Grammar

·        Before CGIII got to get buy in and get people interested

·        Want involvement of LRP in the creation of the CG III

·        Date and the length of the actual event

·        Is there an alternative

·        Bill’s role

·        Role of relationship with BOT

·        Somewhere it should be noted that it was originally proposed by the youth, youth ownership of Common Ground. 

·        Doesn’t need to happen

·        Next steps and implementation

 

Resolving the Concerns:

·        Does it or doesn’t it need to happen?  Is there an alternative – Want to have this because the UUA is supporting this and this is a good chance to work with them.

o       At first feelings of pressure to vote for this but thinking about local district makes it seem important

o       Heather, the adult, strongly encourages it and thinks that the community needs to deal with issues

o       The pressure from the UUA about this models exactly the relationships that are a problem in YRUU and this should be done

o       This is not just about youth in YRUU but also about youth ministry in all of our UU community.  This is about revising youth ministry as well as revising YRUU.

o       It’s part of what UUism is.  There is constant institutional evolution in order to represent the current status of UUism. 

o       The Long Range Plan needs to be implemented.  We already did this revisioning

o       In terms of YRUU there are a ton of churches and youth on a local and district level that are not involved and thus Youth ministry even in YRUU is not fully represented

o       CG III needs to deal with larger issues that were not thought of at the LRP

o       The LRP report describes a process similar to CG III as a next step

o       The presentation of the resolution was not done in an accountable way to youth on the local, district, and even continental level.  It appears that there is a lot of politics, money, and other issues coming into the reason behind the motivation for this.

o       Can’t agree to something that has the aura of simply needing the stamp from Youth Council but that it is already backed by the institution

o       Either implement the entire LRP or none of it at all.

o       Not enough buy-in from the constituents about whether or not CG should happen

o       This does not seem to be just an evaluation, but a complete restructure of YRUU

o       A large part of Bill’s commitment to the presidency included working and revisioning with YRUU

o       CG will help build on the youth/ adult relationship issues that are going on in YRUU

o       This is an opportunity

o       It is concerning that many times questions about the history of this resolution

o       This could be a good chance to really revision

o       We’re not being accountable to all of our constituencies and that’s the need for CGIII

o       We sure could use some money to make YRUU a better organization and CG III could do that.

o       There are lots of problems in YRUU that need to be addressed.  We’re not meeting the needs of all youth in our organization and key stakeholders in the UUA are supporting this work.  YCRs were supposed to bring this back to everyone last year and it didn’t happen.  There are big cracks in this organization and CG is the best way to revision these cracks.

o       Can’t represent district well enough on this issue

o       Long Range Planning is not a tool and is instead something that we need to follow through on and implement. 

o       Blocking Consensus may be about devaluing the LRP and the LRP could be heavily incorporated CG3

o        

·        What the purpose is, including who YRUU serves and what needs to be fixed if anything at all does

·        LRP, Involvement of LRP results and ideas

o       Commitment on LRP from the UUA and they have said that they are financially committed to CG3, need financial support on LRP to move forward with the LRP and maybe not CG3

o       Honors LRP work but that LRP is hopes and dreams. Not a long range plan, more a set of dreams and wishes

o       Sounds like CG3 came out of the LRP

o       Maybe 40 people isn’t enough

o       LRP was almost 50/50 (adult/youth) and maybe that was too much adult involvement

o       Has issues with empowering or supporting a idea that doesn’t come out of our constituency basis, SC resolution not youth council

o       Clarification- 3 youth: 1adult

o       Unclear why the UUA would not be willing to fund some other way to “revision” YRUU

o       Discussion on funding for CG3 (yes) but is there funding for what is after CG3 (funding has not been talked about because UUA doesn’t know what is going to come out of it)

o       People have expressed that they wanted LRP implemented instead of YRUU

o       UUA not sure what is going to come out of CG3 so they don’t know about funding

o       Thinking about cost but something else to consider is how much money is realistic

o       If CG3 is held with the funding has been promised to CG3 and if we come out with the same things as the LRP that’s a whole lot of money

o       Add amendment to say that LRP would be a guiding force for the decisions that they made at the CG3 in planning process and on site

o       How is the LRP mutually exclusive from CG3

o       LRP was not an accountable group to YRUU

o       Resolution that formed LRP maybe should be looked at

o       LRP wasn’t involving Non-YRUU people

o       CG3 is part of evaluation that came out of the LRP (page 14 LRP document)

 

Discussion of whether or not the inclusion of LRP results as a part of CGIII is resolvable

 

Proposed Implementation of the LRP of have CGIII

Proposed Amendments to the Amendment

·        That LRP is a guiding force for CGIII and that CGIII is an LRP suggestion

·        Decision making within CGIII should coincide with the results of the LRP

·        With the exception of the goal which would hold a CGIII to keep the amendment the same

 

A POCC member has a problem with the current process of decision-making

 

Answer to above proposed amendments

Putting parts of LRP into CGIII makes it more viable for the UUA

 

Discussion

·        The question of many people uninvolved with YRUU will continue to grow

·        Possible inpass because of: lack of information, not listening, not knowing how to “deal” with LRP, sleep deprivation

·        Before we can call for consensus, we have to touch all those other concerns, right? There are lots of irresolvable concerns out there.

·        Need to remember Jazmin’s suggestion to name any unresolved concerns currently out there.

·        Issues going around and around in circles means they’re irresolvable. But not sure that is the basis to call for a block.

·        Need to name irresolvable concerns right away. There is an irresolvable concern. Irresolvable concern that would block consensus must state principle concern.

·        Principle concern is that YRUU has other options instead of CG3, i.e. the LRP, which was ratified by YC 2001 and is more representative to our constituencies than the present CG3 resolution.

·        Don’t have the information needed at hand right now to proceed with this. Namely, don’t know what the LRP resolution says about implementation, etc.

·        LRP implementation couldn’t be carried out fully due to lack of funding. Would like to note that yesterday’s UUniTARP resolution resembles one of the LRP recommendations.

·        Need to call for consensus immediately, there is an irresolvable concern.

·        Folks are raising voices; community is unhealthy, need to look at that, not in a good place right now.

·        This entire process has been corrupted by personal agendas and opinions that did not change on all sides of the issue. This whole thing is disgusting right now that we’ve been here for hours, saddening that folks in support of CG3 now prefer a committee, and the resolution can’t be passed.

·        General statement about the resolution: if folks right now weren’t solved by current youth ministry, the resolution wouldn’t be in front of us. People are putting too much of their personal experience into this. There are obviously UUs that are not being served by the youth ministry structure.

·        New irresolvable concern for the community: problem with accountability. Struggling with it, but it cannot be resolved.

·        Sending it to committee is not an easy answer, need to decide who’s going to be on it, how they’re accountable, how they will report back, etc. There will be a lot of decisions made about this committee because this can’t just be sent away and not dealt with.

·        Lots of concerns brought up about this community not being healthy, needing personal care, lots of dynamics have been brought up. It’s important not to disregard these things as we continue.

·        As SC member, it is important to note that SC and BOT have been struggling to form a relationship. Bill and BOT is hugely in support of CG3 – can they go ahead and do CG3 even without the passing of this resolution by YC? Answer: yes, the Board and Bill have the authority to review any structure in the Association, including youth ministry. Difficult to review youth ministry without the buy-in of the youth, but Board will nonetheless take responsibility needed to review youth ministry.

·        Necessary to now move this forward and call for consensus. Call for consensus: ten stand asides, three blocks.

Reasons for stand asides: we didn’t address all of the concerns listed. Can’t support CG3 without addressing all of the concerns. Still confused as to why we even need a CG3, we already had LRP. Feel very strongly to pass CG3 but that seems to block consensus, and this resolution wouldn’t have been brought up if everyone in UU youth ministries was being served. During this process people have not listened, not represented constituencies, have gone off topic and been led off topic. This CG3 can happen whether we buy into it or not, feel lonely here about that. Mental capacity is not allowing to pay attention long enough to understand what is being said. Need self-care and can’t pass this without going through all the concerns. We can’t possibly solve this without sending it to committee. Can’t agree with resolution as it stands.

Irresolvable concerns: Feel that we would have better accountability for our constituents under the precedent set by LRP; since we don’t have resolution in front of us there’s lots of information missing. Really disheartened by the fact that Bill came out here to build a relationship and made it clear that this wouldn’t necessarily pass but that YC must come to consensus on this resolution before any more steps can be taken; see too much conflict. Seems like a problem of youth empowerment vs. youth entitlement.

 

Clarification: Lyn said the Board can do this without youth buy-in, but won’t necessarily do that.

Suggestion: YRUU evaluates its decision process. Thank you so much for staying at the table, it means so much, this says volumes.

Suggestion: assume good intentions on both sides of Board and YRUU.

Question: if this doesn’t pass, will Board look into any of the concerns listed here if they choose to evaluate youth ministry anyway?

Answer: The entire Board will get Lyn’s notes, which have times on them. Board will probably refer this to the Board Working Group.

Concern: If we don’t pass this the Board still could.

Concern:  Hidden agenda from the Steering Committee through the entire process and that broke down the community.  Feelings of being betrayed by people who were controlling the process.  It is disruptive to the consensus process for this breakdown to exist.  If people are so outside of their needs from self care that they are falling asleep during the process they are not representing their constituencies and are hurting the consensus process. 

 

Sending the Resolution to Committee:

Proposal:  old Steering Committee would get the names and information from people who are interested specifically from Adults, youth at large, People of Color Caucus, Youth Council Representatives, New Steering Committee, and Old Steering Committee