Process for Business Submitted by Congregational Action 2023

Save the Date – MidAmerica Region Annual Business Meeting

Thursday, June 8, 2023 and Congregational Action Items for Annual Business Meeting

This year, the MidAmerica Region will not be holding Regional Assembly, but we will be holding the Annual Business Meeting online. The Meeting will be on Thursday, June 8, 2023, at 7:00 pm Central, 8:00 pm Eastern time. We expect that it will last no more than 90 minutes. Because of staffing changes that have left us shorthanded for a few months, we realized we didn’t have the bandwidth to create a full Regional Assembly. Yet the business of the Region still needs to be done, so we will be having this meeting early in June. (We are already beginning plans to hold a Regional Assembly in 2024, alongside all the other Regions in the UUA. Stay tuned for more information on that! We will be sending information on the meeting and how to register your delegates in mid to late March.

Congregations may propose business items for the agenda of the Annual Business Meeting as follows:

Context: The MidAmerica Bylaws (Article IV, Section 5, Business Submitted by Congregational Action) state that “Member congregations wishing to have business considered by the Annual Meeting shall do so following a process to be determined by the Board and communicated to the member congregations.”

Regional Business Submission Process

A congregation in good standing (meaning that the congregation has made an identifiable contribution to the UUA in the period from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022) may propose an item of business for consideration by the 2023 Annual Business Meeting of the MidAmerica Region in the following manner:

  1. The leadership of the congregation should contact the Region President, Patty Notch, or Vice-President, McKenna Revel, for a preliminary discussion of how the proposed item of business relates to the authority and jurisdiction of the Region prior to submitting any items for consideration. Contact either Patty or McKenna through midamerica@uua.org.
  2. The item should be formally proposed by vote of the congregation’s governing board or its membership.
  3. The proposed item should be formally endorsed by at least four additional congregations in good standing, in each case by vote of the congregation’s governing board or its membership.
  4. The proposed business item and the endorsements should be received by the Region President, Patty Notch, or Vice-President, McKenna Revel, by April 7, 2023. Send to midamerica@uua.org.
  5. Upon certification by the MidAmerica Board that the business item is within the authority and jurisdiction of the Region, it will be added to the agenda of the Annual Meeting.

Some possible categories of business submitted by congregational action could include:

  • Social justice statements on issues specifically affecting our region;
  • Policies affecting the governance of the Region and/or its congregations; or
  • Other business appropriate for consideration by the Regional Assembly.

Please submit your proposals to midamerica@uua.org.

The above process was approved by the MidAmerica Board of Trustees on December 6, 2022, for the 2023 Annual Business Meeting of the MidAmerica Region.