New To Your Board of Trustees? Or Feel New?

Leadership

New To Your Board of Trustees? Or Feel New?

It’s that time of year where many of our congregations are holding annual meetings, electing new leaders and new leaders are stepping into their new, or in some cases, returning roles. (Even if you’re a seasoned leader, when there’s a new configuration of leaders it always helps to take an “everyone is new again” approach!) To help with that transition, our CER staff have some resources we’d like to point you to for both new and returning leaders.

Board Foundations

To learn more about how UU Boards work and how they are different from other boards — including other non-profit entities you may be familiar with — we recommend you or better yet your entire board take UU Board Foundations together. Designed and presented by your UUA Congregational Life Staff, this training covers:

  • Spiritual Grounding for board members with a deep understanding of covenant, personal and group spiritual practice, and group discernment.
  • Perceiving Meetings as Ministry, so that we balance the work to be done with the core values that we hold as a religious community
  • Understanding Communication as Relationship, where our practices of interaction as leaders have a deep impact on the congregation as a whole.
  • Leading Our Congregation as a System so that we can make our decisions out of a place of both self-awareness and an awareness of group dynamics.
  • Practicing Governance as Stewardship with accountability to the mission and vision of the congregation through clear and thoughtful policies and procedures that guide decision-making.
This training also includes case studies, and planning and goal-setting materials for your board to use at your annual retreat.

Leadership Trainings

UU Institute provides a series of core Leadership Trainings, with a $30 fee, on Congregational Leadership. There is a series of three courses to help you develop your personal skill set and learn more about how systems theories work in our congregations. These courses can provide just the right framework to make the work of the Board coherent and purposeful.

  • Centered Leadership Part 1: Beloved Community — The first in our suite of Leadership Development Trainings, Centered Leadership Part 1: Beloved Community is designed for people considering leadership, who are beginning to lead or who have leadership experience in contexts other than Unitarian Universalist faith communities.
  • Centered Leadership Part 2: Leading in Systems — The second in our suite of Leadership Development Trainings, Centered Leadership Part 2: Leading in Systems is designed for people who are brand-new to leadership or have been a leader for decades. This training is ideal for your leadership team to develop a common language and enable you to lead toward health and vitality.
  • The Strategic UU Board — Offered as a “next level” training for boards that understand their basic role in the congregation, or for Policy or Strategic boards in larger congregations. This training offers a deeper dive into boards as fiduciary agents, spiritual leaders, strategic thinkers and change agents. Case studies and other materials for use at your board retreat are provided.

Board Retreats

Your congregational board may also be asking about a board retreat. We offer three different supports for that.
  • Your board can opt to hire an adjunct consultant through CER; please contact your primary contact to start that conversation.
  • Your board can opt to attend our online board retreat with two dates offered in July and August where we will come together for some joint learning and then break into rooms with each congregational board working on their goals for the year with CER staff on hand to answer questions. Stay tuned for dates and times.
  • Your board can opt to do your own retreat; we offered a workshop on this in 2022 and you can watch the recording (YouTube).
  • Or be creative! Maybe your congregation can partner with a neighboring congregation and each board send someone to facilitate the other’s retreat as a swap? Or maybe your cluster can hire a consultant to come in and facilitate a group retreat, with breakout times for the separate boards to work together, sharing the cost. The possibilities are endless.

Additional Resources

The Partnership Portal has the basics of some very important topics for congregational leaders. Here you can find quick references on Church Management, Connection, Care, Growth and/or Conflict, Supporting your Worship Team, Supporting your Religious education Team and Supporting your Social Justice Team. This is a part of the LeaderLab.

LeaderLab has a section on Congregational Vitality, Growth and Renewal. Here you can learn about congregational life cycles, find the UUA’s Congregational Handbook, and find resources on outreach and membership growth strategies. In general, LeaderLab is a great starting point for any questions you may have.

Your regional staff are here to answer your questions and help you find the right answer for your congregation’s leaders to start off the new year right.

Welcome to our new leaders and welcome back to those returning to congregational leadership. Thank you for carrying our life giving faith into our next chapter together.

There will be no blog next week, May 26th because the UUA offices are closed for Memorial Day. We’ll be back on June 2nd.