Candidating week—occurring toward the end of April or into early May—is not just a time for congregational leaders, staff, and members to spend time with the candidate. It is also a time for the congregation to experience the candidate as their minister. The interim minister (who often arranges to be away that week) will have conferred with the candidate about any special circumstances that may arise.

There should be a quick check-in on Friday between the search team and candidate. All parties should have a sense whether things are going well in anticipation of a successful vote to call that Sunday. If there are any concerns, the search team and minister should check in with the UUA Transitions Team at once.

Candidating Week Components

• The search committee takes care of the travel needs and lodging situation of the candidate.
• The candidate usually arrives a day before the first Sunday, then typically leads services on both Sundays; a “getting to know you” service a the beginning of the week, and their best preaching at the end of the week
• Offer at least one congregation-wide open session with the candidate.
• Arrange a meeting with the governing board and any other significant leadership groups
• Arrange meetings with other key teams, committees, or groups, including families and youth.
• The candidate usually schedules meetings with staff (often as a group, then with individuals), as well as area clergy and communicates with the coordinator so everything is integrated into the schedule.
• On the Friday before the vote, schedule a short check-in between the candidate and the search team to talk about how things have gone during the week.
• The interim minister and candidate can meet during the week and should discuss ahead of time any looming pastoral emergencies or other pieces of information the candidate would need to know. During the week, the candidate is the go-to minister for the congregation should something arise.
• Since the candidate is expected to function as the minister for the week, the week should include the typical amount of time off. There should be at least one day off during the week for the candidate to search for housing, as well as a unscheduled portion of each day for restoration and getting to know the area.
• The final schedule should be mutually approved by the search team and the candidate.

Candidating Week Models

Theme-Based Candidating Week Model

The primary model is theme-based (pdf), with each day having a theme. Meetings are limited to three a day, and we recommend that they last less than an hour and have breaks in between (whether in person or virtual). The theme-based forums replace specific committees as the focus of alignment between the minister and congregation. This approach may be particularly useful as we think about the congregation in a modern context.

Specifically, Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday could be invitational to all committees and task forces to reflect on how their work has impact for the individual spirit, congregational well-being, and the congregation’s role in the wider community. This may be new for some committees, but it might be a good, shared exercise to expand thinking about the work of the congregation with a minister in new ways. It might also bring some communication and connection between groups in the congregation. We also encourage people who are mainly interested in the life of the congregation to take part in these forums, even if they aren’t on a committee or task force.

The abiding questions for ministers and congregational members provide a place to start conversations.

Make sure the minister has a real day off (e.g. Friday)!

Traditional Candidating Week Model

This model—that has been around for decades—tends to engage the most active members, but can feel superficial. It also is exhausting for both minister and search team.

Sample Schedule

• Saturday: Arrival of candidate and family, meal gathering with search team, negotiating team, and governing board and spouses.
• Sunday: Sunday service, congregational lunch, and question and answer time. Perhaps one other meeting with groups within the congregation.
• Monday: Staff meeting during the day, individual staff meetings after all-staff, one evening meeting.
• Tuesday: Meeting with area clergy, meeting with governing board, possibly one other meeting with committee/task force (often the finance committee).
• Wednesday and Thursday: Meetings with various groups within the congregation, lunch with past presidents on one day, possibly a short open meet-and-greet during one of these days, if the search team and candidate want a second open meeting.
• Friday: Search team check-in meeting, special time set aside in evening to meet with religious educators, parents, children, and youth.
• Saturday: Day off.
• Sunday: Candidate leads Sunday service. The minister and family go to lunch with a search team member who votes early. Ballots are counted. The search team notifies the minister of the results. The minister may return to the congregation for a celebration if doing so was planned.

The above schedule should, of course, be adjusted by the search team and candidate, as needed.

Virtual Candidating Week Model

In the pandemic lockdown of 2020, every candidating week was virtual; all had successful call votes. Most congregations spread these out over two weeks, though some did them in one week. Here are some insights from that time.

We tended to see fewer committee and small group meetings and a real craving for more informal social time. We learned that this informal time is more important than we realized—the one-on-one interactions that often take just a moment or so can leave very important impressions on both the congregation and the candidate. Interfaith clergy or UU clusters were gathered virtually to meet the candidate.

Some ideas to foster these moments were to open Zoom meetings a few minutes early or stay open late for people to drop in and chat (which we see happen in congregational meetings in general), having unscheduled open conversation time, allowing for a certain number of short phone calls—all might be possible.

Candidating week was even more exhausting, so it will be more important to maintain a schedule that allows for down time for the minister. “Zoom fatigue” is real—which could be more dramatic during a candidating week. It’s important to create a schedule with pacing that works for the mutual benefit and health of all.

During this time, congregations learned how to have meetings online and even vote. The UUA created Technical Guidance on Virtual Voting for congregations needing to conduct online congregational votes.