Featured Resource: UUA Yearly Certification
Has your congregation completed this year's certification? It's due by February 1 at 5 pm PT.
Why should your congregation certify?
- Your congregation's honor share to the Annual Program Fund is calculated based on what you submit as your expenses each year.
- Only congregations who complete certification are permitted to send delegates to General Assembly. This includes delegates who participate off-site.
- It gives you an opportunity to participate in the congregational poll, which is part of our social witness process.
Emails with a direct link to your congregation's record were sent to the president, minister, and administrator of record of each congregation back in November. If you did not receive yours, check to see if your congregation's leadership information is up to date. If you did not receive your email, it may have gone to the person who is on record or ended up in your spam folder. Alternatively, you can login with your congregation's code and password at the Data Services webpage.
Learn more about certification and what is being asked this year at the Data Updates and Certification Page.
And congratulations to the four congregations in the region who have already completed the process. You can check to see if your congregation is done at the Annual Congregational Certification Page.
New Day Rising Conference
Identifying Your Congregation’s Next Steps in the Struggle with White Supremacy Culture
Slightly overwhelmed by all the options in tackling white supremacy culture** in your congregation? Feeling stuck, or coming up against resistance? How do you know where to start? Or what comes next?
Join with Central East Region staff and UU congregational leaders for this day of learning, growing and rising. Hear from each other about what has worked and why, assess your congregation’s next fruitful and faithful step, and see some of the great resource options available. Send your congregational team! There is something for everyone when a New Day Rises!
Don't miss it - January 26, 2019, Fairfax, VA. Registration is open!
Registration is Open for Spring Online Leadership Courses
Deeper than a single webinar or workshop, the UU Leadership Institute offers core leadership courses online with on-demand materials. They are perfect for the congregation who wants to learn together at an affordable cost—only $30 per course per semester. Courses open on January 25, 2019. For more information contact info@uuinstitute.org
- Centered Leadership, Part 1 syllabus sample
- Centered Leadership, Part 2 syllabus sample
- Strategic Leadership syllabus sample
- Adaptive Leadership syllabus sample
Summer Institute Opens Campership Positions for Application
Whether the weather is balmy or blustery, we invite you to join us in community for the 2018 Winter Institute at Salt Fork State Park in Ohio for a relaxing, intimate, fun, and relatively "schedule free" gathering for UUs of all ages! There are outdoor activities like sledding, hiking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing (BYO equipment). For those who choose to stay in their slippers all weekend, there is a beautiful lodge with many cozy corners and fireplaces for reading or deer watching. The pool and hot tub are perennial favorites! There will be half-hour morning and evening casual worship services, activities organized on-site by interest, plus pre-dinner cocktail hours in the Hospitality Suite. Breakfast and dinner meals are included with registration. Lunches are on your own. There are fellow UUs always ready to play board games, knit, hold jam sessions, watch movies, converse, or join in the communal jigsaw puzzle!
Winter Institute is February 15-18, 2019 at Salt Fork State Park and Lodge outside Cambridge, OH. Registration is open, early bird rates end January 25th. Learn more.
Better Together Blog: O Holy Darkness
I get supremely edgy this time of year.
You can blame the upbringing in sunny and warm California and Asia if you like, or the subsequent long gray winters in New England or Ireland…but I do not like a lot of dark or cold. I work from home on many days, a home surrounded by hills, tall trees, and apartment buildings, and I swear, these days I have to turn the lights on at 3 pm. Three o’clock in the afternoon. I may as well get out a paper bag to breathe into.
News from the UUA
Compensation and Benefits News:
Are you aware that the cost of benefits is often 40% or more of an employee's salary? Our Compensation Worksheet can assist you in budgeting appropriately for benefits for all of your staff. The Office of Congregational Staff Finances created a video that offers advice and perspective on each line of the Compensation Worksheet:
- Completing the UUA Compensation Worksheet (2019) video (30 minutes)
- Completing the UUA Compensation Worksheet (2019) slides (from the video, with live links)
Salary Recommendations for July 2019 - June 2020 are now posted on the UUA's Salary Recommendations for Congregational Staff page. Keep in mind that our charts are based on national wage surveys: they do not take into account state wage laws or local norms. Also remember that while our recommendations have increased 1.8% from 2018-2019, the cost of living is projected to rise about 3% in 2019. (The Social Security COLA for 2019 is 2.8%.) When adjusting salaries for continuing staff, this is a key benchmark.
2019 Intergenerational Spring Seminar - "Equity in Action: Gender in an Intersecting World" - New York City, April 11-13, 2019. Registration is open through February 25; rates increase after Jan 21. Applications are now open to apply for reduced registration rates. We also have a special discount rate for young adult participants (age 18-35) which includes lodging at the hostel where youth and their sponsors stay. The UU United Nations Office is excited to host this year’s Intergenerational Spring Seminar on gender equity in collaboration with the UU College of Social Justice. Programming will be interactive and intergenerational, encouraging participants to challenge their assumptions, connecting their activism with grounding in UU faith, and empowering them with the tools to bring back to their communities to make change locally and globally. More at www.uua.org/unspringseminar
New publications from the UUA - New from Skinner House books is After the Good News: Progressive Faith Beyond Optimism by Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd. The January GoodReads book is Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (Beacon Press). Check the Publications Page additional reviews and book details.
The UUA is hiring for several positions. Find job descriptions and application information at their Job Openings webpage.
Calendar Items and News
For events, webinars and congregation news and events visit the following pages:
