Overview of Phase 4 Calendar

Frequently Asked Questions

We can’t decide between two choices. What should we do? 

Search teams should review the results of the congregational assessment and small group meetings that gave them direction about what the congregation needs in the next ministry. If a tie still seems unbreakable, talk with the Congregational Transitions Director or UUA Transitions Team staff, who may offer suggestions or clarifying questions. Ministers unable to decide should consult with family, colleagues, and the UUA Transitions Team. as well. You may submit a tie on your rankings, but we may have to ask you to break it if your tied options ranked you the same.

One of our pre-candidates dropped out of consideration. Can they do that? 

This is rare, but it does happen. If they have absolute clarity that a ministry with your congregation will not work out for them, they may drop out of consideration. Sometimes a minister has changing care-giving needs, a family or health emergency, or a spouse with changing employment needs and they might need to drop out of search. Historically, this has been uncommon, but it happened in several cases in the 2025 settled search process.

How did the process evolve into what it is now? It seems very rigid and controlled. 

That’s true, and any restrictions came out of desire to increase fairness and reduce chaos for everyone. At one time, there was no offer date. Search teams could simply make an offer, and that often happened after the first pre-candidating weekend. Other search teams and ministers cried foul. To even the playing field, we created an offer date.

That evolution continued when at noon Eastern time on the offer day, ministers figured out how to avoid phone calls from their second options in order to hear from their first option. Additionally, some ministers didn’t return phone calls as they waited to hear from first options who never let that minister know they weren’t being offered the position. Some positions weren’t filled, and nothing was known about how things would go for two full days after the Thursday noon deadline.

A system of tipping off first options evolved and came to an unfortunate end when a search team learned their first choice was going elsewhere. They came back to that minister at 11:50 am on Thursday and said, “Would you change your mind if we offered you $5,000 more?” The minister did, and at the time, this wasn’t against the rules. However, it did leave an imprint on the other search team who thought it had its first choice. That one change of mind had a ripple effect on the search, and multiple congregations who thought the search was going to work out one way discovered this was no longer the case. The resentment was understandably significant.

As a result, the UUA Transitions Team asked for a finalized ranking list by Monday prior to the offer day. To date, that has worked better for all, though it’s still very hard to find out you do not have an offer to extend or accept. The fairer process does improve the odds that deals are not already made.

The process will always evolve toward greater fairness. That is the ultimate reason for our rules.

We don’t have a match, and we’re devastated. What do we do? 

It’s much better to talk about this sooner rather than later. Some search teams would do well to have a pastoral conversation with the interim minister, the Congregational Transitions Director, or the UUA Transitions Team. It’s important to be proactive in responding to the situation at hand. A new perspective is often helpful—so is support.