Discernment Process for Contract Search Teams

Part of A Guide to Transitional Ministry

A team looks at a large screen with a March calendar on it.

When the contract search team receives applicants, they need to review and sort though information, check references, and do research.

At 5:00pm EDT on “release day”, each member of your search team will receive an automated notification email from the MinistrySearch system when your team has applicants to review on the MinistrySearch system. The names and ministerial records of your applicants will appear in the profile when you next log in.

If your congregation does not see any names, please reach out to the UUA Transitions Team.

The search team should acknowledge each application and send a link to the search packet of documents so your applicants can learn more about your opportunity while your team learns about them.

Preparing for the Interviewing Process

Search teams should fully and fairly consider all applicants, using an inclusive process that honors the unique needs, perspectives, identities, and skills of all search team members and applicants, in alignment with our Unitarian Universalist shared values.

In the week or so between the publishing of your congregational record and the receipt of ministerial records of those who are interested in your position, your search team can prepare interview questions, along with a rubric to assess the candidates equitably:

Three people standing around a modern desk, with two of them shaking hands

Interviewing Tips for Congregational Leaders

By Renee Ruchotzke

From LeaderLab

Hiring new staff is a task that most congregational leaders have little to no experience doing or have done so in a business environment. How might we conduct job interviews in a way that incorporates our shared values? What kind of diversity do we want on our search team?

Interview Tips

Important Practices for Interviews

  • Everyone on your search team should read each ministerial record in preparation for a discussion about whom your team wants to interview.
  • You may want to interview all your applicants if you have time to do so in the consideration window.
  • Every member of the search team should participate in each interview.
  • Ask the each applicant if there are dealbreakers in the draft agreement, or any additional expectations applicants would like to share. Doing so maximizes the chance of a smooth negotiation if an offer is extended.

Declining Applicants

To let an applicant minister know, at any point, that your team does not wish to move forward in considering them, you should dismiss them using the MinistrySearch system. Click on the “dismiss” option, then you will have the opportunity to write a personalized note (especially if you have interacted with them). Otherwise the system will send an automated message.

Checking References

A torso of a person in a grey cardigan holding a smartphone as if making a call

Checking References: A Guide for Search Teams

From LeaderLab

Along with background checks, interviewing the references provided and due diligence research are essential to finding a good match for your open position.

Checking References

Make An Offer (for Open Searches)

For an Open contract search, the search team (or board) may make a verbal offer and move into negotiations whenever they feel they have found a minister who is a good match for the congregation’s needs. There is no need to share your rankings with the UUA.

If the governing board needs to learn about the recommended candidate before the search team can make an offer, or if the board needs to make the verbal offer, the search team may ask the top applicant(s) for permission to share their ministerial search materials with the board.

Rank Your Choices (for Primetime Searches)

Once you have read ministerial records, checked references, and interviewed applicants, your team should meet to assess and rank your applicants with the priorities for your contract ministry in mind.

  • If the governing board needs to learn about the recommended candidate before the search team can make an offer, or if the board needs to make the verbal offer, the search team may ask the top applicant(s) for permission to share their ministerial search materials with the board and be prepared to share their reasoning for their rankings or recommendations. In the Primetime search, this should happen before submitting rankings to the UUA.
  • On or by the ranking due date specified on the search calendar, please provide your ranked yes/maybe/no list to the UUA Transitions Team using the Search Team Ranking of Contract Candidates form. (Ministers have a similar ranking process for congregations.)

Primetime Search: Matching Process and Protocol

Because of the linked and interrelated nature of a search process with a finite number of candidates and congregations, the results of one party’s search may be contingent on the outcome of another party’s.

The UUA Transitions Team asks for search teams’ and ministers’ lists to gauge how things are going to play out and to try and make the overall process smoother and less anxious for all. The day before offer day, the UUA Transitions Team lets everyone know what will happen on “offer day” based on the rankings.

Timing

The time between submitting the ranking form and hearing from the UUA Transitions Team about a match may feel longer than you might expect. We share information as soon as we have it during offer week, usually the day before offer day.

Please plan to be responsive to inquiries from the UUA Transitions Team in the days before the offer date.

  • Ministers and search teams with mutual first choice alignments and folks with no possibility of a match may hear their news earlier because these announcements are simple and obvious.
  • In cases where Ministers and search teams have “tied” first choices or second or third choices, we ask folks to confirm that they are still enthusiastic about moving forward before notifying the other party.
  • Subsequent announcements depend upon the timing of ministers and search teams confirming that they are happy to move forward with their tied first choice (or second or third-ranked “yes”) before we inform the other party. Then we can inform all the ministers and search teams whose matches depend on whether this alignment works out.
  • In more complicated situations, such as when the strongest alignment is with a congregation’s “maybe” or there is an alignment “tie,” the UUA Transitions Team staff will reach out to support their discernment before offer day if their revised ranking would make a difference.

The UUA Transitions Team will not meddle in this process. We do not make matches; we tell everyone which matches have naturally aligned. While the UUA Transitions Team wants all congregations and ministers to have a match, we commit to fairness, good timing, and honesty as your ranking lists dictate outcomes.

Communication from the UUA

Once the UUA Transitions Team has complete information, they will say to each search team and minister before offer day:

  • You will be very happy on offer day when you reach out to (or hear from) your first choice, _____!
  • It looks like your first choice has a different alignment, but your next option is available. Are you still good with this option?
  • None of your yeses are going to work out. Let’s talk about who’s on your maybe list and give you a day or so to ruminate about this.
  • Nothing is going to work out; let’s talk about what comes next.