These four guiding principles are the fertile soil for your garden. Be sure to refer back to this page as you work on cultivating and pollinating administrative capacity.

1. People

Whether you’re thinking about a broad administrative area like finance or a specific task, such as payroll, make sure everyone is clear about who is involved and what their respective roles and responsibilities are. Explore these models to help you achieve greater clarity:

• Starting a RACI Chart Conversation, (Rev. Jonipher Kwong, UUA LeaderLab)
• MOCHA Framework (The Management Center)

Ensuring shared understandings around who is doing what is a game-changer!

2. Priority

This simple tool, created by one of our wave cohort members for her own work, can help you prioritize:

• On Fire: Must be attended to immediately or according to strict timetable. Avoid putting too many things in this category! Examples: legal requirements, payroll, facility emergencies.
• When Grounded: Items that are important but won’t result in legal, financial, or other serious consequences if you don’t get to them right away. Examples: report not required by bylaws, newsletter.
• Down the Stream: Organizational work geared toward enhancing the effectiveness of administrative functions or improving the staff and/or member experience. Although not time-sensitive, such tasks are important and you should make a plan to work them in. If a down-the-stream task continually gets pushed out, can you delegate, find a collaborator, or recruit an accountability buddy? Examples: researching alternative member databases, administrative procedures manual.

Read about how Sense of Urgency is a characteristic of White Supremacy Culture and antidotes you can put in place to be countercultural.

Priority relates to Risk. See immediately below.

3. Risk

As you consider administrative tasks, try asking yourself:

What if it doesn’t happen? What if it’s not on time? What if it’s done wrong? Are there scenarios we should be planning for? What types of risks are involved – legal, financial, reputational, safety, morale?

UUA Executive Vice President Carey McDonald led a Fall 2025 wave cohort on risk management, supported by Hugh Dennis (property and casualty insurance), Jan Gartner (employment-related risk), David Pyle (basic congregational security), and David Stewart (financial risk). Check out the materials from What Keeps You Up at Night? and consider how to manage risks associated with your administrative ministry.

4. Boundaries

This is a broad category that in some ways incorporates the other three. It’s about staying grounded. Whether you are a staff member or a volunteer, are you clear about what your work is (and what it isn’t)? How do you avoid burnout and conflict? To whom can you turn if you have trouble with a task or need a sounding board to talk through a tricky situation? Good ideas and practices can be found in these resources:

UUA LeaderLab

• Staff Development and Support (collection of articles on caring for staff, staff team development, performance evaluations, and more)
• Self-Differentiated Leadership (sense of self in relationship to others)
• Antidotes to Conflict Poisons (video and supporting materials)
• Supervision Tips for Lay Leaders (Much is also applicable to minsters or other staff who supervise.)

UU Institute

• Effective Boundaries for Lay Leaders (to strengthen the relational and organizational foundations that sustain thriving UU communities)
• UU Board Foundations (spiritual leadership, communication as relationship, and much more)

Additional Support

• Association of UU Administrators (This organization for administrators in UU settings offers networking, professional development, a resource library, and a Good Offices program for confidential collegial support.)
• UUA Regional Staff (Every congregation has a primary contact or primary contact team.)
• UU-Money Listserv (Information-sharing among UU finance leaders, open to anyone but mainly used by treasurers and finance team members)