YRUU Steering Committee Meeting
January 14 – 17, 2005
Friday, January 14th
Present:
Gregory Boyd (Post-High Transitional Age-Range
Representative)
Lehna Huie (People of Color Advisory Council)
Nora Lindsey (Junior-High Transitional Age-Range Representative)
Jova Vargas (People of Color Advisory Council)
Laurel Newton (British Columbia Region Youth Council Representative)
Jazmin Sandoz-Rosado (Position on Appraisal)
Siri Larsen (Heartland Youth Council Representative)
Jordan Kennedy-Mosz (People of Color Advisory Council)
Jennifer Bell (Southwest Youth Council Representative)
Rick Roehlk (Adult at Large)
Kathryn McIntyre (Board of Trustees Liaison)
Jesse Jaeger (Youth Programs Director)
Betty Jeanne Rueters-Ward (YRUU Programs Specialist)
Brian Kuzma (YRUU Programs Specialist)
Elandria Williams (Support/Process Observer)
*Also known as: Jogrenosirelehnazminova Yokathickifer.*
Jova starts us off by going over the proposed Friday agenda.
Step up, step down
Be direct, open and honest
Respect the space
Tell people before you leave Picket and Eliot (leave time coming/going and cell #)
Try things on, at the same time respect the right to pass
Practice self-care
Engage in conflict lovingly
Be patient
Try and avoid side conversations
Be supportive of the group
Take more energy breaks than necessary
Have fun!
Be present/stay alert
RESPECT
Be willing and open
Be on time
Listen, be heard, support others in being heard
Use “I” statements
Be as inclusive as possible
When you screw up, do it with grace
Hold each other accountable
Confidentiality (share what is learned and not what is said) NOTE: Steering Committee minutes go on the web and if you don’t want things shared you can ask for them not to be in the minutes)
Leave judgment behind and accept others
Remember whom you represent!
Ask clarifying questions
We add: No cell phones except during breaks, and if you’re expecting a critical call give the group a heads-up. If you’re in one part of P&E and need to contact someone else, don’t use cells but rather knock on the door of the room, etc.
In order to work together at this meeting, we need to see where each other are at. We need to ask ourselves the following four questions:
Jesse leads us in an energy break that involves gently/quietly stomping out oppression (so that Morgan and his girlfriend can sleep downstairs).
We have a lot to do in little time! So we need to rework the schedule. Thanks to Siri and Jordan, who will work on it tonight and preset it to SC tomorrow morning.
YPS Personnel Issue (confidential)
Sunday,
January 15, 2005 (Jova’s Bday!)
Facilitator: Jazmin
Phone Chain: Nora
Job Jot: Greg
Time Keeper: Jova
Note Checker: Rick
Bike Rack: Siri
Energy Monitor: someone
The site (Camp Hentessa in Boone, Iowa) is reserved from July 21-30.
Greg: As for schedule, I am already pre-obligated and would like Youth Council to start two days later. Is that possible with the contract?
Jesse: The camp is only available until the 30th.
Kathryn: When do dates for Youth Council get decided?
Jesse: YO starts looking for dates/sites in the fall. One big money-saving idea for the future is having General Assembly and Youth Council be right beside each other.
(Bike rack this idea – having GA and YC one after the other.)
Jazmin: Can we have a Steering Committee day at the end of Youth Council? That way SC can get closure, debrief Youth Council, etc. (Seven full days for all of Youth Council, and then a full day for SC to meet at the end. YCM’s leave July 29th, SC/YO leaves the 30th.)
Greg: Could we have a transitional meeting with the new and old Steering Committees in October?
Jesse: I can give some helpful ideas in terms of money issues around that, if that’s okay with the group.
(It’s okay with the group.)
Jesse: If you were to do Youth Council right after General Assembly, you would save a whole chunk of money (travel for all SC members) which would probably give you enough money to do a joint transitional meeting for two SC’s in October. There’s issues around the fiscal year to work out – basically the SC would be making a decision for a SC two years from now, but it would enable a joint Oct meeting happening in the future. For this year, the SC would need to find the money for a joint Oct meeting.
Jova: Want to schedule a Youth of Color/White AR Allies retreat for right after GA in Fort Worth. So this year it wouldn’t be feasible
Nora: Like the idea of a closure day, but would there be logistical issues with transporting Youth Council members home on the 29th?
Jesse: Ethan will do that. He’s going to help do gopher-stuff so I’ll be at all of Youth Council (woo hoo!)
SC decides to have January 30th be a full day
for SC to do debrief/closure. SC will go home on January 31st.
Schedule:
July 20th
Steering Committee and Youth Office arrives; stays at a church
July 21st
Youth Council Members arrive; Orientation
July 22nd – July 29th
Full Days
July 30th
Travel Day (Everyone Goes Home)
SC goes to a church to do debrief/closure
July 31st
SC goes home
Break into working groups to begin planning:
Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression: Jova, Siri, Lehna, Jordan
No definite decision made about what trainers to bring to the event. Want to bring Elandria and Jyaphia to the event to be support for whatever trainers are there, doing AR/AO throughout. Need to talk to Elandria about an organization she knew of that did good work supporting both White folks and People of Color.
Business: Nora, Greg, Laurel
In our bylaws it says resolutions should be posted 60 days in advance – we should be doing that, then folks at district/regional/local levels can check them out, voice concerns, have input. Want to allow people a chance to make amendments ahead of time – that way more people can suggest amendments, and we won’t spend as much time on the plenary floor. Need to do a formal SC report in addition to YCR reports and YO reports. Want to recapture ideas that were made resolutions in the past –what do we . Talk about the purpose of YC, really get into that, “leaving the mark that rocks the body” (making Youth Council awesome!) Trainings (i.e. consensus) could be done in small groups i.e. A-Teams so that quieter folks feel more comfortable speaking/participating.
Definite business items:
Transformation Team, Youth Observer to BoT, Youth Trustee, other BoT members, consensus trainer.
Jazmin: We should put YCR reports, etc. in the prepacket so we don’t have to spend hours listening to folks read the reports. People need to write theirs (and read the other ones) ahead of time! Then on-site we can just take questions about those, or announce the really critical pieces of information.
Greg: No one will read the reports if they’re in the prepacket, we need people to hear it in person, that’s why we do YO reports in person.
Jova: Can we do them in small groups instead? Or list the major themes/important points, and just focus on those? Really easy to get distracted. Can we at least come up with some kind of creative way of coming
Jesse: Are you going to have a business manager/moderator this year?
Jazmin: Maybe it should be all of the business team do that, or just have various SC members lead plenary as we did last year.
Ideas include Theme Dance; Coffeehouse; Field day; Movie Night; Carnival; Nighttime Capture the Flag; Improv Games; Karaoke; Ice Cream or Peanut Butter/Jelly Social; Bonfire.
Concern that some of these events might be ableist – shouldn’t just be aware of this, but come up with alternate activities that aren’t as physical. (Would accommodate both folks who are differently-abled and who aren’t interested in physical activities.) So lots of different events going on at once when we do the physical activities. Make sure we have biodegradable water balloons J (Ha ha, ConCon 2003.)
Worship: Rick, Greg, Laurel, Jordan
Principles to keep in mind when planning worship for Youth Council:
Emphasize spirituality/worship is at begin/close of plenary, monitor spiritual health throughout plenary, morning spiritual practice stuff, evening worship, “easy day” in the middle with a lengthier morning worship. Blastacular worship at the end. Grace before meals. Ways to honor spirituality in all that we do at Youth Council.
A-Teams: Jova, Siri, Jennifer
At least two People of Color in each A-Team, setting up members of A-Teams much more strategically around age, experience, gender identity. Strong white AR allies in each group that would be ready to help folks with less experience, lots of talk about accountability.
More structure, actual things for A-Teams to do, discussion questions around serious topics, team-building/community-building, have them do Field Day in teams. Set up concrete plan for people to communicate throughout the year (timeline, i.e. check in in October, December, February, etc.) A-Teams should do something goofy together for coffeehouse. Could plan worship together (divide up the nights). Ideally 6 people in each A-Team, adults should have their own A-teams (maybe? because they have their own issues).
Scheduling: Lehna, Nora, Jazmin, Kathryn
The group is working out a specific schedule, will have that done very soon.
We want to have a solid few days of training (consensus, AR/AO, social justice, Education Reform and Multiculturalism) at the beginning of Youth Council, followed by a solid few days of business. Community building, special events, A-Teams, worship throughout.
15 hours AR/AO training
3-6 hours consensus training (30 people at a time – Elandria knows two people who would be great but who would rather not work with 60 people at once. Instead we’ll split the group into two groups based on A-Teams – one group will do consensus training the whole time, the other group will do workshops. Then the two groups switch!)
*Added from conversation with Lydia: We will have a solid 3-6 hour block of different ERM workshops (on sub-issues of ERM) to go opposite the consensus training so that the 30 people who aren’t doing consensus at that time are doing ERM sub-issue workshops. There will also be a general overview of ERM for all of Youth Council – about 2 hours.
We are joined by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, the YRUU Working Action Manager, who focuses on Education Reform and Multiculturalism.
Lydia: Hi friends! I’m Lydia and I’m the outgoing (as of this June) WAM. Education Reform and Multiculturalism is now the long-term Working Action Issue of YRUU. One way that Betty Jeanne and I were brainstorming around incorporating this work into YRUU is bringing back the “social justice theme” idea to Youth Council. It would be awesome to have workshops, discussions, resources etc. at Youth Council. It’s true that we do ERM stuff at YSJC, but we don’t have as good representation there as we do at Youth Council – it would be the ideal place to “spread the word” and get people excited so they could bring it back to districts/regions. We’ll have a new WAM by then, but I could also come to Youth Council to support them and we could lead them together.
Jazmin: That sounds awesome! This really fits into Greg’s idea of having consensus training and workshops at the same time. We could have both going on at once – 30 folks go to consensus training, 30 go to ERM training. How much time would you need/like to have?
Lydia: Basically whatever you all would like.
Jova: I like having a general overview workshop with everyone there, and then while consensus training is going on for half of the folks at a time, have workshops on sub-issues. (Offer two or three at a time?)
Kathryn: I get really excited when I hear about InterConnections within the UUA. What kind of support is there from the Washington Office for this?
Lydia: Well, a part of having a Working Action Issue is eventually making it a Study Action Issue. So that’s one part of it. Also, one of the ERM sub-issues is Sexuality Education, which the Washington Office/Youth Office/YACM Office are collaborating on right now.
Kathryn: Are there specific things you want Youth Council members to implement in their communities/districts/regions when they go home?
Lydia: I really want to give people as many tools as possible, so that they can tailor what they want to do to the needs of their communities. People can’t tackle everything at once, so I want to give them lots of different information and then they can pick the resources/issues they want to focus on. Even if Youth Council members don’t want to do the work themselves, they can bring it back to their Social Action Coordinators.
Kathryn: What about incorporating district/region boards and district/region trustees?
Lydia: Not as focused on adult or other formal bodies of leadership and having them exclusively focus on ERM. Want youth to get excited about the issue and find out how they can work on it – whatever works for them. It’s a really grassroots effort, trying to get folks to do it bottom-up rather than top-down.
Jazmin: I love the idea, we should have that consensus/ERM block be more than 3 hours long.
Rick: We haven’t had a lot of connections between Youth Council and the Working Action Issue before. This is a hot hot idea! Let’s make sure we carve out time for it.
SC decides to hold one general workshop on ERM (for all 60-ish folks at once), and offer ERM sub-issue workshops (two or three of them) Jazmin will follow up with Lydia about scheduling this. AR/AO working group will work with Lydia on who the trainers could be (i.e. Lydia and the new WAM and another experienced person – Leon Spencer is a recommendation.)
Siri: Can Lydia come to Youth Council? As an invited guest, along with the other WAM?
Jazmin: I don’t want to put more work on SC, but I also think the AR/AO working group should do it. Can
Kathryn: Have an issue around SC accountability and who is part of our youth community. There is a lot of revisioning going on right now with youth ministry – is there a way to really get BoT members at Youth Council better connected? I understand the Youth Trustee and/or Youth Observer attend Youth Council?
Jesse: The BoT and YRUU have been talking for several years about who the Youth Trustee was accountable to. Because the BoT has set up the Youth Trustee as not directly accountable to YRUU, YRUU has decided to rather focus on getting the Youth Observer to attend Youth Council. This past year (2004) Megan Dowdell, Youth Trustee, was invited to come, but she couldn’t make it. It’s up to SC to decide who they want to invite – they could invite both the Youth Trustee and Youth Observer.
Jazmin: How do people feel about inviting both Youth positions on the BoT?
Kathryn: I think I would like to be part of this discussion, but also I can leave the room because it might make you more free to discuss this. Also, I want to make clear that the position of the Youth Trustee is to be accountable to the institution as a whole at all times. They may come from certain communities, and share some of that wisdom, but they have to represent the whole, not just the community they’re from. Trustees don’t advocate for or act as an agent for specific communities, but rather share wisdom they have gathered from them. If you would like both the Youth Trustee and Observer (and any other BoT members) to attend Youth Council so that they can gather wisdom from you, I need to know soon so I can ask the BoT for money.
SC bike racks the issue of Youth Trustee’s accountability / who they represent.
Con Con Decision (Youth Office leaves)
*Note: these minutes include the individual opinions of the members of the Steering Committee, and does not include those of the members of the Youth Office or UUA Administration. Individual comments are based on opinions of individual Steering Committee members, and not solely on facts presented by the Youth Office.*
SC does a go around.
Steering Committee Member: I feel the Youth Office shouldn’t have kept fit from this, but I don’t want to support the reincarnation of ConCon.
Steering Committee Member: I’m real pissed that they made that decision but I’ve dealt with the anger so I can do righteous stuff with it. The Youth Office should not have made a decision that could be contradictory to the YRUU by-laws, but I’m working to get something like ConCon back with a member of CU2C2. I’ve expressed myself to the Youth Office so there isn’t much else I want to do, I felt like it was sneaky, and they made the Steering Committee out to be an inactive beast.
Steering Committee Member: I don’t know enough but I know background and I think that the Youth Office must have had good reasons to make that decision.
Steering Committee Member: I was frustrated that it was just dropped on us, I was expecting something but not something that drastic, and we need to address the concerns, however I feel we need to uphold the decision. I don’t agree with the process; but I think we can grow from this.
Steering Committee Member: ConCon has been changing negatively, and it needs to be looked at. I’ve had issues with it being classist, and in some ways I think the Youth Office made a good decision, but I was really uncomfortable with how it was made. Given that other people know a lot about ConCon, I feel that the Youth Office should not have been the only ones making the decision. I also feel like the Youth Office was pushed into making that decision in a way; I know it needed to happen.
Steering Committee Member: I’m pretty much in the same place as everyone else, I was really looking forward to this ConCon, my first experience was in ‘94, I see a big difference between the most recent ConCons and the first ones I attended. I’ve talked to past ConCon staff members about the problems it has had, and how it’s progressively gotten worse, and that things were going to blow up soon, so I wasn’t surprised. Even if we had an ultimatum I would have been mad, but it would have been less of a power dynamic. I think that this decision is the only way the necessary kind of change could be made. Can we form a Steering Committee-appointed group to help make sure that that change really happens?
Steering Committee Member: Since people have expressed discomfort, we should write a letter.
Steering Committee Member: I didn’t say I didn’t like the way the decision was made, and that the news came to us.
Steering Committee Member: Maybe we should put specific names on it, of the people that feel that way.
Steering Committee Member: I don’t feel comfortable with using my power as a Steering Committee member to not do things in solidarity as a group. We need a collective statement that recognizes how we all feel.
Steering Committee Member: I think we should be able to put specific names on because then we can express individual opinions that may not all be the same.
Steering Committee Member: I think we need to look at the by-laws to propose changes, and at least conform our by-laws to our practice (this discussion, on by-laws, is going to be “bike racked”, put on a later agenda to follow up on)
Steering Committee Member: I feel like we need to make some response as Steering Committee, to Youth Council at the very least, that we were not a part of this decision, but that we want to uphold and support the decision.
Steering Committee Member: I think that would be interpreted as “we’re not they’re bad but we are”.
Steering Committee Member: All of you feel that way, so I’m always going to feel like it’s coming off in all y’alls opinion, even when it’s not. I’m just trying to figure out a way to deal with that so we can make a response as a group.
Steering Committee Member: We need a letter that people wouldn’t interpret us as saying the Youth Office is bad.
Steering Committee Member: I know that everyone is concerned but I feel very alone.
Steering Committee Member: Does everyone think that we should respond?
Steering Committee agrees that we need to respond.
Steering Committee Member: What might have happened is that the Youth Office may have gone to look for money for YRUU, looking to increase the overall budget for youth and was told that there was no money, which is a reality. Given the limited YRUU/Youth Office budget granted by the UUA, and budget cuts in general, the Administration may have asked the Youth Office “What can you cut?” The Administration may have said that they don’t think ConCon is successful in serving the needs of the people that the Youth Office and YRUU serve. People have had concerns, and have wanted to get rid of it for years. To that, the Youth Office may have said that they (and YRUU) haven’t had time or resources to figure out what do to about the concerns around ConCon. The Administration may have said, you have to figure it out. The Youth Office may have said, they will take the heat for the decision being made. That could have been what happened. There’s no “bad guy” in this. The Youth Office did what was best. I would have to abstain to any letter, given that there were time and money constraints, and the Youth Office have had to make a choice.
*Note: Some SC members had discomfort with this hypothesis.*
Steering Committee Member: I don’t know that we shouldn’t say that there is a “bad guy”. From what was just theorized, I don’t agree that there would have been no one responsible. I’m very uncomfortable because this would not have been the first time the UUA Administration had laid something on us last minute. Remember the letter from the UUA Administration about Common Ground 3 / Convocation on Youth Ministry stuff? I feel like there’s a trend of UUA Administration being very sneaky and disrespectful to our emotions as leaders. I feel disrespected, taken for granted, put on the line.
Steering Committee Member: I would feel really uncomfortable with the Steering Committee not making a statement. We need to have a letter that puts out everything; both the good and bad. We need to be responsible for who we represent.
Steering Committee Member: I agree. I feel there is a strong voice of youth in favor for ConCon; they shouldn’t be neglected.
Steering Committee Member: I still have a concern that we would be making out the Youth Office to be bad in this letter.
Steering Committee Member: I have no problem saying the Steering Committee regrets that the institution wasn’t able to provide the necessary staff time, money needed for ConCon. understands that for people this is a strong connection. I hope the institution can help YRUU in picking up the pieces and supporting folks. While I’m sorry this decision had to happen; I hope we can make the best of it.
Steering Committee Member: I feel like that kind of response isn’t very supportive of the communities that feel like they’re being pushed aside.
Steering Committee Member: I feel that as youth we need to be more “fightery” in our response.
Steering Committee Member: Who is responsible for designing the events like ConCon?
Steering Committee Member: I know that lots of people have said that somebody should take this up; there have been suggestions of who could do it and no one has really stepped up yet.
Steering Committee Member: ConCon could possibly have a membership in CU2C2 (Council on Unitarian Universalist Camps and Conferences) in which case, we could send someone to be in charge of ConCon, who could be on that board and then they can provide funding assistance and ideas.
Steering Committee Member: Can we have another proposal?
Steering Committee Member: Maybe instead of a formal letter we can show our constituencies the minutes from this discussion.
Steering Committee Member: Would we say this wasn’t Steering Committee’s decision?
Anti-Vegan Fetus: Steering Committee wasn’t a part of this decision, but we will uphold it to support youth.
Hot Damn Fetus: Let’s put something about who we support.
Damn Fetus: I feel like some of the Steering Committee feels like we are
victims of this decision.
Fetus 4: I feel victimized by this decision; I want to say we have obligation to support youth programming and youth in general.
Jam Fetus: We agree to decide to say that Steering Committee wasn’t a part of the decision, but we intend to do things (let’s give a list) to support youth programming in YRUU and include the minutes in this letter.
Subterranean Fetus: The letter is about ways we need to express that we weren’t a part of the decision. We need to express accountability.
Fetal Fetus: The anger I feel is not about having to cut something. It’s about not having the ability to make the decision to cut it.
Fetus 2: The drive and reason behind the letter is not about anger. There are youth out there that need to hear from youth, need to hear from the Steering Committee. We feel a need to respond to youth who are confused and don’t know what’s going on.
Steering Committee Member: The word “anger” could possibly be used here as “frustration.” Maybe they’re the same thing.
Steering Committee Member: I can’t really focus, we need to pick up the pace.
Steering Committee Member: Let’s propose something and assign a group to write the letter.
Steering Committee Member: The Youth Office wasn’t acting out of a vacuum of information. The Youth Office had enough from this group and to say we didn’t have a role in this decision is an abdication of responsibility.
Steering Committee Member: The intention of the letter is not to say that Steering Committee wouldn’t have made this decision. It’s saying that the we are not a part of the Youth Office and that the Youth Office made a decision that we may have made. We didn’t have enough discussion around how we felt. We’re still working out the content.
Steering Committee Member: Let’s not assume that everyone is of the same opinion on this issue.
Steering Committee Member: I don’t think the ConCon task force that was formed out of Youth Council 03 had enough support to make it convenient for them to make action. This year’s elected Steering Committee didn’t have enough of a chance to give any clear feelings about what it thought about ConCon. Maybe last year’s Steering Committee did, but we don’t know.
Steering Committee Member: We’ve planned on putting some sort of plan forth in the letter. We are claiming responsibility and not just abdicating it.
Steering Committee Member: It’s very important that we say that we didn’t make the decision. We need people to not attack us, so they need to know that we weren’t a part of it, regardless of how we feel about it.
Steering Committee Member: We need to assign some group to write this letter, because this is not going to be easy to bike rack.
Steering Committee Member: I can’t be expected to have the same type of information and emotional investment in this. I’m standing aside.
Steering Committee Member: We could take a break and have a group come up with a final proposal and determine which steps we need to say we’re going to take.
Steering Committee Member: We need to check out the letter from the Youth Office before it goes out, to glean what they were saying about support from youth.
Steering Committee Member: We agree to say Steering Committee wasn’t a part of the decision, but we intend to do these things (put list) to support youth programming and YRUU and include the minutes in this letter. Letter needs to include some information about why the Youth Office made the decision that they made and that it was not out of malice. We are going to support the establishment of an anti-racist/anti-oppressive/anti-classist/multicultural continental conference of youth. Express that there are mixed emotions on this issue and that we support and hope to address and resolve all the concerns of our constituency.
Steering Committee Member: We need to commit to something less vague. People need closure.
Steering Committee Member: We should commit to something more vague.
Steering Committee Member: I have some concerns over committing to bring back ConCon.
Steering Committee Member: We are committing to bring back or start something like it. As a body, not as a group of people, we need to commit SC to certain things.
Steering Committee Member: We should include something on budgetary constraints. I’ve heard that budget and staff time made it difficult. The Youth Office didn’t want to have to make this decisions.
Steering Committee Member: Some of those reasons were already outlined in the initial letter. We don’t need to repeat them.
Steering Committee Member: Maybe we could include the Youth Office letter, in case someone didn’t get it.
Steering Committee Member: I’m worried that would link us too closely with
their letter. It wouldn’t emphasize
that we are youth speaking as youth on behalf of youth.
Final Proposal: we agree to decide to say SC wasn’t a part of the decision but we intend to do these things (put list) to support youth programming and YRUU. include the minutes in this letter without names. Letter needs to include some information about why the Youth Office made the decision that they made and that it was not out of malice. We are going to support the establishment of a truly anti-racist/anti-oppressive/anti-classist/multicultural continental conference of youth. Express that there are mixed emotions/opinions within SC on this issue and that we support and hope to address and resolve all the concerns of our constituencies.
Erm the Steering Committee says that Greg will write this letter. The letter and minutes will be run by the rest of SC, “gleaned” by the Youth Office, and then sent out by Friday, 21 January 2005.
Facilitator: Siri
SC would like to talk about accountability within the group, specifically:
What exactly are we supposed to do with liaisonships? Ask them about what they’re up to, what they’re working on, how youth are or might be involved, what resources they have that we could use for our work. Also tell them what we’re up to, how we would like to or could get involved. Not sure what we’re supposed to do, hard to speak for all of the SC when they ask what YRUU is up to. What do we hope to get out of liaisonships? Support from other organizations/bodies of leadership; an open channel of communication where we can share resources and ideas.
For conference calls, it’s very important that we’re all there. We also need to really use the buddy system – i.e. check in with them a week before the conference calls to catch up with them and see if they’re going to be on the conference call. (You should do your best to try to be there but if you absolutely can’t make it, tell people ahead of them!)
We need to all realize that it’s very important that we’re active on the listserv; it’s been a lot of the same people talking and part of our covenant is “Step up, Step back”.
We should limit the amount of subjective/sensitive information that we discuss over the listserv, because people can feel attacked or not heard. Instead try to set up phone chats with individuals who you need to talk to, make sure it gets talked about in conference calls, etc. If you have an issue with someone or need to call something out, keep it brief and ask to chat with the person/s about it over the phone, etc. (Seriously, try to sum up what you’re trying to say in a paragraph or two, and if you need to write much more than that save it for the phone.) Speak out of love.
If you get an email asking you to for information, or to do something, respond to it right away to at least acknowledge that it was received and that you’re working on it and will respond ASAP. Check your email as much as you can in order to be accountable to the people being active on it – push your comfort zones regarding responses to emails.
Job Jot: The Youth Office will re-email the list of liaisonships from the October minutes.
Buddy System:
Jova, Nora, and Jordan
Siri and Lehna
Laurel and Greg
Jazmin and Jennifer
Rick and Kathryn
Nan Moore is coordinating a summit to begin to examine issues that youth in UU communities have around drug/alcohol use; how to uphold covenants and codes of ethics but also provide support for people with addiction issues, as well as support for people who are uncomfortable with etc. She has sent us a proposal asking for a Steering Committee member (or two) to attend.
Jova: This really connects with the drug issue at Youth Council and supporting this program would help us solve and prevent some of those issues. I really want to go.
Lehna, Jazmin, Nora, Laurel and Jova are all interested in participating in this. Nora will call Nan to see how many people should go (two? three?) and get back to everyone who’s interested to confirm.
This event is being held in the last weekend in February. There will be four Steering Committee (Laurel, Lehna, Jova, Rick) members attending, as well as other Youth Council members, as well as members of several other constituencies. The Steering Committee and Youth Council folks attending are supposed to represent all of the concerns brought up with the Common Ground resolution
Travel will be paid for all attendees, through the UUA Administration. That office is doing all of the logistics on it. It will be in Essex, Massachusetts.
Laurel is going as a representative of the 2004-2005 Steering Committee.
Lehna and Jova are going as representatives of People of Color Caucus of Youth Council.
Rick is going as a representative of the Adults at Large on Youth Council.
Hannah Eller-Issacs is going as a representative of the 2003-2004 Steering Committee.
Al Jensen is going as an At-Large member of Youth Council.
Weston Miller is going as a Youth Council Representative.
There will also be:
This convocation will begin to look at how to do ministry to and with UU youth at all levels, from all communities. Megan Dowdell is co-convenining with Bill Sinkford, and Megan really wants to make sure all of the youths’ voices are heard in this process, no matter who they represent. Megan encourages you all to be in touch with her about your concerns.
Greg: We want to make sure, since neither of the co-conveners are YRUU leadership, to make sure YRUU’s voice is heard. The people there need to really uphold YRUU’s values and goals.
Jova will talk to U.T. Saunders to fill him in on where YRUU is at.
Facilitator: Greg aka Mr. Rogers
Brainstorm: What are some of the possible marginalized identities that YPS’s might claim? (Remember – people could have multiple marginalized identities, or a combination of both marginalized and privileged identities).
Brainstorm: What are ways that current or future YPS’s with marginalized identities can be supported?
How can the Steering Committee support YPS’s with marginalized identities, help those YPS’s get the other support they need, and help zir co-workers find the support they need to educate and empower themselves to be allies?
This is a good start, and it will need to be an ongoing conversation with this and future Steering Committees.
Can we present our current and incoming YPS’s with this list, and see if they have anything to add?
Still a bit concerned that some marginalized identities aren’t up there, and some of them aren’t as addressed. Want to make sure this gets taken seriously even when SC isn’t in Boston. The Youth Office is really busy but supporting YPS’s with marginalized identities needs to be a priority. That said, it’s such a great list and I’m really proud of it.
Jesse: Thank you so much for this conversation, it is one of the most helpful I have ever had with any Steering Committee, particularly in my role as a supervisor. I hope we can have conversations like this again so I can support YPS’s and SC better.
We have come really far since we started this meeting. Before the work we did on Thursday and since then, we would not be able to come up with this kind of list (about supporting YPS’s with marginalized identities) or with the other work we are doing that is striving to be anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural body of leadership, organization, and institution.
Came to the meeting with worry and dread; leaving with profound respect and gratitude for everyone here. Everyone really came in with agendas and goals, but were able to work together, build community, and embrace others’ goals as well. Feel blessed to have been here.
Siri: I love the Steering Committee so much, wonder if there will be enough people at Youth Council to fill our spots! I admire you all so much, as SC members and friends.
Nora: This last conversation about supporting YPS’s with marginalized identities gives me so much important stuff to think about, wow. I love you all so much, want to make you all mittens.
One of the most important things we can do as a Steering Committee is to remember that all Youth Office staff are human beings, with their own needs and challenges, and have their own needs for help and support. We need to keep that in mind as we keep piling work on them, and keep the individuals in mind as we take care of our own work.
Feel really optimistic about everything we’ve done, really sad that we have to leave.
I continue to have universal experiences of revelations unfolding as I do the work of Unitarian Universalism. This is a learning institution that pushes me ahead wherever I go, in whatever I do. My message to the Board will be one that was beyond my wildest imagination on Thursday. What you don’t know about the Board is the things we most fear, and after spending time with you I don’t have those fears anymore. Going into the YPS hiring process and not knowing what you all know was tough. The Youth Office has such stinking integrity that they wouldn’t help me at all. (haha, sarcasm.)
As a person who is paid, I’m so grateful for the people who gave up so much to be here and work so much out of love and passion. We have a lot of work to do and I really want to hold up the volunteers who do it.
Know that as a guest I’ve made some mistakes, but also been so honored to support you all and learn from you.
As a YPS and as a queer white womyn, I am blown away by how supported I feel by each and every one of you in this room, in so many different ways. You are all so amazing and have taught me so much; you’re some of my role models. I appreciate so much the work you’ve done; this meeting called for some really really deep, emotional, stretching, difficult work and you blew me away in doing all of it and much more. This meeting has made me realize in ways I never even knew how much I love and am honored to have this job, and serve every one of you, YRUU, UU youth in general and UUism as a whole.
And we’re done! Time to continue building community, giving thanks and having a BLAST!
Jazmin: I hear some xenophobia in the room…
Jova: What is xenophobia?
Betty Jeanne: Fear of Xena, Warrior Princess.
Greg: (dorkily singing as well) I’ve got the job jot!
Betty Jeanne: Can I add something I heard Jesse say? And by heard, I mean heard telepathically.
Jesse: Actually, Betty Jeanne and I have never talked
about this topic before.
Betty Jeanne: Yeah, we never talk.
Jesse: That’s right.
Betty Jeanne: Who are you again?
Jesse: Huh?
Special thanks to Elandria Williams for making Brian wash his hair for the third time in the five months he’s been working in the YO. Special thanks as well to Jova Vargas for giving Rick a snazzy new hairdo. Once again, Betty Jeanne loves the SC with all her heart and thinks they are all doing great work. Woo hoo January meeting!!!