Conference Host – Tulsa, OK Rick Fortner rickfortner@aol.com Susan Swatek ssswatek2@juno.com Conference Planning Committee Chair John Hubert john@firstuniversalist.org Conference Planning Consultant Bea Ann Phillips bphillips@bplanning.net Conference Registrar Donna Fisher uumn@uumn.org

Make plans now to attend the 30 th annual Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network Conference, July 18-22, 2012 to be held at the All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK and the DoubleTree by Hilton Tulsa Downtown . It will feature:

• Daily choral repertoire reading sessions with music appropriate in UU settings, including the following categories, Easy-Unison, Medium-Difficult, UU Composers.
• Conference Choir conducted by Tim Seelig , Artistic Director and Conductor of the Golden Gate Performing Arts and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
• Workshop sessions on a variety of topics related to running a Music Program in a UU congregation
• Daily recitals by participants
• Friday banquet and variety show
• Vendor area with lots of UU friendly music and related items
• designated and undesignated networking times
• Musical Source, Inc. will once again provide reading rep packets and will be staffing a table in the vendor area
• Optional mentoring for first time conference attendees
• Designated and undesignated networking times
• Optional Professional Development Day, all day Wednesday July 18: Musician as Religious Elder by the Rev. Susan M. Smith, District Executive of the Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference
• More information on website and in newsletter by Jan. 15.

 Important DEADLINES:

• UU composers – March 1 is the submission deadline for self-composed music to be considered for inclusion in the UU Composers reading repertoire packet. Blind submission process will be used. Click here for instructions.
• Workshop proposals – Jan. 15 is the submission deadline for possible conference workshops. All proposals must be submitted using the designated form. Click here.

2012 Professional Development Day
UUMN Conference, Tulsa, OK
Pre-conference session July 18, 2012
DoubleTree Downtown Tulsa
$50 fee – separate registration required

Musician as Religious Elder

by Rev. Susan M. Smith, District Executive of the Southwestern UU Conference

Through our Unitarian ancestors, we can trace our Congregationalist heritage directly to the puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and our current practices to their Cambridge Platform of 1648. Therefore we are meant to be led by a circle of lay and ordained elders working together to teach the faith and keep the covenants. This commission of the musician to serve as Teaching Elder can seem a daunting task far removed from providing music for worship. To function as this kind of leader in a congregational system requires self-differentiation and a sense of one’s own authority. Our time together will explore the historic and modern roles of congregational elders, systems thinking and professional boundaries.

Rev. Smith has been District Executive of the Southwestern UU Conference for five (six by the time this event comes around) years and previously worked as an emerging congregations consultant for the Florida UU District. She has served as parish minister to congregations in Texas, Michigan and Florida. She has been Chair of the UUA Commission on Social Witness and President of two district chapters of the UU Ministers Association. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University where she was recipient of the B’nai Brith Award in Social Ethics. Besides her M.Div., she also holds a B.A. and M.A in speech and theater. She lives in her hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana with her husband and adult daughter.

Recommended reading (required for MLCP candidates), with UUA Bookstore links:

The Cambridge Platform: Contemporary Reader's Edition

Introduced By: Alice Blair Wesley   Editor: Peter Hughes

http://www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=763

Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What

Author: Peter L. Steinke

http://www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=409

Conference Planning Committee:

Donna Fisher, UUMN Executive Administrator; Director Children’s Choir, UU Church of Charlotte, NC

Rick Fortner, Music Director, All Souls UU, Tulsa, OK

John Hubert, (Committee Chair), Director of Music, First Universalist Church, Denver, CO

Connie Jahrmarkt, Music Director, UU Congregation of Phoenix, AZ

Bea Ann Phillips, Director Children’s and Youth Choirs, UU Church of Arlington, VA and Conference Planning Consultant

Susan Swatek, Music Director, Hope Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK

Martha Swisher, Music Director, Unity Temple UU Congregation, Oak Park, IL

Mark Vogel, Director of Music and Arts, UU Congregation of Fairfax, Oakton, VA

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