THE RESULTS ARE IN! Summer Institute finally has a new name, chosen by an overwhelming majority vote of members of the SI community, and that new name is… Central East Region Summer Institute! Our new name is practical and descriptive, it echoes our old name (switching OMD to CER), and, as a huge bonus, we now have an easy-to-pronounce acronym—let’s give a big welcome to our new nickname, “CERSI”! A new logo and website are coming soon...
40TH ANNIVERSARY OF SUMMER INSTITUTE! Next summer will mark the fortieth time that UUs from the region gather together for the magical week-long multi-generational conference that we will now call CERSI. All year the Planning Committee will be working on ways to make next summer’s gathering extra-special—if you have ideas to offer, please send them to sichair@omdsi.org.
YSAYE BARNWELL TO BE THEME SPEAKER! The 40th anniversary of SI is already ramping up the awesomeness with the announcement of Ysaye Barnwell as the 2019 Theme Speaker. A former member of the vocal group Sweet Honey in the Rock, Barnwell is an energetic and beloved workshop leader in the UU community. She has a deep knowledge of the African-American vocal tradition, and of music’s power to connect, motivate, inspire, and teach. Come and share in the experience of building beloved community through a collective voicing of our shared joys, concerns, and humanity.
CERSI WORKSHOP PROPOSALS BEING ACCEPTED NOW! One big way that you can help make CERSI 2019 awesome is to help us offer strong programming that will appeal to a range of people. Morning seminars for adults meet with the same group every day for 75 minutes, with content building from day to day. Early (inter-generational) and late (sometimes age-specific) afternoon workshops tend to be more open-ended, with folks coming and going during the 90 minutes of activity. All of them can be learning-based or activity-based, and topics might be spiritual, practical, physical, intellectual, gustatory, artsy, musical, or more! If you have an idea for an interesting morning seminar or afternoon workshop, please submit a proposal by October 30, 2018.