What Is Congregational Certification of Membership? Is It Required?
Certification of Membership is an annual process whereby member congregations report a current certified membership number, and statistical and financial information from their previous fiscal year, to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), following the established procedures for this reporting. Submitting this annual report before the deadline is a requirement for congregational membership with the UUA. The upcoming deadline for congregations to submit these materials to Data Services is Monday, February 5, 2024, at 5 p.m. PST.
The certified number of members and other statistics your congregation submits will be used in part to calculate your congregation's Fair Share contribution to the UUA Annual Program Fund, as well as District dues. The certified number also determines the number of voting delegates your congregation may send to represent the congregation at the annual General Assembly.
Congregations should file this report online (available in early January 2024) by logging into the congregation's Data Services account, using the 4-digit congregation ID number and pre-established case-sensitive password. When you visit this log-in page, you'll see a Certification Worksheet that you can view, print, and use to collect the necessary data so that it's ready when you want to log in and submit the certified data online.
Repeated failure to complete the Certification of Membership by the posted deadline may result in a congregation being moved to Inactive status. This is one of the UUA's Bylaws and Rules.