Good Jobs for Potential Leaders
Almost any conference task can be a good beginning leadership experience. Just make sure you delegate a manageable task. Pairing experienced youth as mentors with younger leaders can be helpful.If your conference has touch groups, ask a younger person to be a group leader. This works well for people who are shy, since it involves working with a smaller, close-knit group.
Ask a younger person to co-lead a workshop in an area of personal interest. This job is also good for a shy person; teaming an experienced leader with a less experienced one can boost confidence and provide a key learning experience.
When you plan worship, ask fresh faces and voices to contribute a reading, chalice lighting, song, meditation, or music. Often all they need is to be asked, and it keeps worship new and exciting.
Jobs such as meal organization, transportation, sign-making, etc., can always use an extra hand and are a good way to include people who are hanging back from the community. You never know who the next leaders will be; most of the time people are flattered to be asked.
Deliberately introduce new faces to the planning of a conference. Many groups have assigned roles for people "in training". Each person on the core planning committee teams up with a younger person. The more experienced leader communicates what she or he is doing to the person in training, and they share tasks. This shared responsibility gives the new person a chance to be on the inside track of planning without the intimidating feeling of sole responsibility. The senior staffers receive extra help and the entire staff gains extra brainpower which keeps things from getting boring.
For more information contact youth@uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
