Letter Concerning YRUU and C*UUYAN

February 19, 2008
On behalf of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Board of Trustees, I'm writing this message to set some facts straight regarding recent announcements affecting Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) and Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN).

Over the past few weeks, there has been much discussion about letters sent out by the YRUU and C*UUYAN Steering Committees announcing the decisions by the UUA staff to discontinue their budgets, decisions which would effectively result in the dissolution of YRUU as a continental organization and severely affect C*UUYAN.

In this discussion, two facts need to be emphasized:

  • The fiscal year 2008-2009 budget will not be approved by the UUA Board of Trustees until its meeting in April, so there has been no decision to end financial support for YRUU or C*UUYAN.
  • YRUU and C*UUYAN have status as UUA sponsored organizations that can only be changed by a vote of the UUA Board and we have never voted to change those arrangements nor even received such a proposal from UUA staff.

In short, no decision has been made about the future of YRUU or C*UUYAN and no decision will be made until, at the earliest, the April 18-20 meeting of the UUA Board. And any decision we make will continue to be informed by consultation with all stakeholders in youth and young adult ministry, including both organizations' Steering Committees and the community of youth, young adults, and their adult allies.

In faith,

Paul Rickter, UUA Secretary