The search process leading up to calling or hiring a minister (or other program religious professional) sets the tone for the covenantal relationships vital to the congregation’s ministry. Along with the search covenants, here is some guidance as you use the MinistrySearch tools and process:

Timeliness

Different than immediacy (which can create an unnecessary sense of urgency), timeliness in communications helps to build trust.

• Send an acknowledgement when a minister first shows interest in your congregational record and whenever they sends materials.
• Keep everyone informed of timelines and deadlines.
• Be on time for interviews and meetings.
• Be gracious when there are last minute changes.
• The MinistrySearch system provides a simple and efficient way to express gratitude for
  interest.
• Promptly notify a minister when you are no longer considering them in your search. Simply use the “dismiss” button in the MinistrySearch system, which also allows you to send a message of gratitude for their interest in your congregation.

Clarity

• Avoid congregational acronyms or nicknames in written communications with others in search communications. There is more than one “UUCB” or “First Church,” so please use the complete name, and city so there is no confusion. (It is acceptable to abbreviate UU!)
• Avoid acronyms or nicknames when referring to committees or groups. E.g. use “Committee on Shared Ministry” instead of CoSM. If you have a group with a “poetic” name, add a descriptor afterward, e.g. “The Rachel Carson Society, our environmental justice group.”
• Please include city and state/province in communications.

Grounded in Shared Values

• Many UUs have experience in corporate, academic or non-profit hiring processes and are tempted to act in ways that are considered professional in those settings. The ministry search process is designed to help ministers and congregations find each other in a hurting and chaotic world, so that our congregations may be places of hope, care, and transformation. We want our search processes to be grounded in our Shared Values.
• Our shared values remind us that “good manners” are not the same across cultures, regions, and identities. Interim work that include the Break Barriers, Build Beliefs workshop helps congregations identify differences and biases that will serve them in the search process

The UUA Transitions Team transitions@uua.org is available and willing to listen if you have frustrations or stories of hurtful interactions.