Financial Considerations
11.1 How much does the program cost?
There is no cost
from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) to enter or complete the program. The Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) requires a mentoring fee of
$150 for non-members of LREDA. Visit the
LREDA website for information about LREDA memberships, especially the
inexpensively priced membership for students and new Directors of Religious Education (DREs). The most significant
costs will be incurred for any academic work that is undertaken as part of the
program, especially graduate work. A graduate course typically costs anywhere
from $600 to $1400. Workshops and books can be an additional expense.
11.2 What kind of financial assistance is available?
The
Office of RE Credentialing can offer a limited number of RE Credentialing
financial grants (maximum $500 per year) to program participants. These are
primarily given for academic course work, and proof of registration must be
submitted before the grants are awarded. Modest scholarships for professional
workshops and conferences are also available to all religious educators. It is
reasonable to expect that the congregation contribute to the financial support
of undertaking this program through professional expense or continuing
educations funds, especially if the congregation is encouraging their religious
educator to participate. Keep in mind that the amount needed for the program
could be larger than the typical yearly expense or continuing education
budget.
11.3 Will my compensation be negatively affected if I don’t
participate in this program?
The recently published UUA Salary
guidelines are meant to recognize the achievements of those who complete the RE
Credentialing Program. They are not meant to penalize those religious educators
who are not participating in the program. Unfortunately, the inclusion of RE
Credentialing levels in the guidelines coincided with the use of new salary
measuring standards that significantly lowered most salary recommendations. In
other words, the recommendations for “DRE” would have been the same whether RE
Credentialing levels were included or not. Ralph Mero, Office of Church Staff
Finances Director, has sent a letter to all congregations. In this letter he
recommends that for a religious educator in an existing position, the
congregation base compensation on multiple factors, not just on whether or not
their religious educator has completed a particular RE Credentialing level.
Ralph encourages congregations to consider length of experience in religious
education, length and quality of service to the congregation, and other
credentials, knowledge and expertise that religious educators bring to their
positions to determine how they will be compensated. Compensation Consultants
are being trained to help congregations in these matters.
For more information contact recredentialing @ uua.org.
This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors and congregations. Please consider making a donation today.
Last updated on Thursday, August 18, 2011.
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