Young Adults represented at UUA Board of Trustees Meeting?!
On January 18th, 2013 I was honored to be invited to speak with the UUA Board of Trustees in Philadelphia, PA. The UUA Board of Trustees sets the policy and direction of the religion (fiscally) and this provides UUA Staff direction on where to execute said policy. The Board asked me to represent the concerns of Young Adults when it comes to policy decisions around some proposed GA (General Assembly) changes and overall decisions made by the UUA Board of Trustees. Coming into the meeting I was REALLY nervous. It's a big deal to speak with the 24 Member UUA Board of Trustees. There were many well known and respected members of the faith in attendance including @Gini Courter and @Peter Morales. It was a big deal, but the entire Board was very humble and welcoming.
The main concern was how GA Delegates currently work. Currently, GA Delegates are not required to be responsive to the needs of their congregation. Many delegates are self-selected to represent their church based on having the free time and money to attend. Rarely do these people report back to their congregation, or are truly representing the opinion of their congregations... they're typically representing themselves.
The proposed solution to this can be found here:
http://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/board/packets/281823.shtml
With this solution there are some concerns for historically under-represented folks in our faith (Youth, Young Adults, and People of Color to name a few). The main concern is that these under-represented folks are less likely to be sent as a congregation's delegate. This is a problem, and the UUA Board of Trustees wanted to address that.
We discussed how power needs to be shared:
There is power in being a GA Delegate, but even more so there's a power in being heard on the floor of plenary. It's important to allow under-represented folks to STEP UP in their voice, while others who may already have means to be heard by the religion STEP BACK to listen. Young Adults DESPERATELY need a voice in order to feel fully connected to our faith.
We discussed how GA is a platform for leadership development and connections to other Young Adults, and that we don't want to lose these elements (regardless of if they are done at GA).
We discussed the financial burdens of Young Adults, and suggested for the new structure of GA to be a sliding scale: Allowing those who have more financial means to pay a bit more, and those who need financial aid to attend to pay little or nothing out of pocket.
We made it a point that there needs to be Young Adult representation in order to have an ongoing dialogue with Young Adults.
Two concrete suggestions that were made...
1. A Young Adult UUA Board of Trustees member (elected by a combination of the "Congregational Young Adults" and "Conference Culture Young Adults".
2. A set number of voting Young Adult members in the new vision of GA. These would be similarly elected by Congregational and Conference Culture Young Adults so that all perspectives are represented and voiced.
The UUA Board of Trustees really and truly listened to these concerns, and will act accordingly. The next step will be a series of proposals presented at the April UUA Board of Trustees meeting, so be watching for that!
