CERG

Elements from the Proposal

Following are a few select, edited paragraphs from the much larger proposal. The full proposal, which includes details of financing, assessment, administration, etc., were presented to the four district boards and district assemblies in the spring of 2010 for approval.

There are currently five different ways in which we typically work together as Unitarian Universalists - in congregations, clusters, districts, regions, and in national association. The proposal strengthens the regional component of that structure, while keeping the other four important components intact and better able to perform their key functions.

It offers two distinct, but interconnected, strategies. Part A details a regional staffing initiative which makes expertise and specialized knowledge available to all congregations across the region. Part B details a program to build a broad vision for congregational growth.

We thank the CERG Proposal Team (pictured above): Rev. Tom Chulak, District Executive, St. Lawrence; Rev. Richard Speck, District Executive, Joseph Priestley; Rev. Joan Van Becelaere, District Executive, Ohio-Meadville; Ted Fetter, District President, Metro New York; Janice Marie Johnson, Director of the UUA Office of Racial and Ethnic Concerns; and Gail Forsyth-Vail, Adult Programs Director in the UUA Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group.

Regional Staffing to Support All Congregations

• We propose to reorganize our current staffing model, which has full-time Program Specialists assigned to certain specific districts, and instead make them available to congregations across all four districts in the region. Congregations will have access to professionals who are familiar with current best practices and ready to provide expert consultation. (note: OMD has never had a full-time, UUA subsidized Program Specialist. St. Lawrence has none. Metro NY and JPD have 1 each.)
• Because of size and available financial resources, some districts within CERG have already been providing certain specialized services to congregations. But, to date, no single district has been able to provide an adequate level of expert support in all areas that healthy, growing congregations need and crave. Making specialized staff available to congregations across the region will enhance our capacity to address the gap and enable a better match between challenges and opportunities facing congregations and staff expertise that enhances a congregation's ability to respond creatively and effectively.
• While the needs of congregations might change over time, research tells us that the highest priorities for congregations at this juncture are in leadership development, lifespan faith development, strategies for growth, and communications technology.
• To meet the challenges of our time, all regional staff will be expected to effectively use multigenerational, communications technology, and antiracist/anti-oppressive/multicultural lenses in their work.
• In the future, additional areas of expertise may become available to congregations either by adding staff or by enhancing the skill sets of existing regional staff. Social justice outreach, youth and young adult ministry, and stewardship and capital giving have already been identified as areas for possible future expansion of regional staffing expertise and there may be other needs that emerge as well.
• A regional staffing structure will make it easier for congregations to benefit directly from the specialized expertise of national staff. National staff will be able to alert regional staff to the availability of applicable resources and help enhance their skills and knowledge in particular areas, such as multicultural competency or multigenerational ministry.
• The district executives will remain in place. While it is important to offer specialized staff to help with certain areas of congregational life, it is equally important that congregations have access to generalists who know them well and can assist them with ministerial transitions, staffing questions and transitions, and congregational conflict, as well as supporting lay and professional leaders.
• Districts will continue to employ district-level staff to work with congregations in a variety of areas. District administrators and youth program specialists, for example, will continue to serve primarily a single district.

A Regional Growth Plan

• We want to develop our faith and our movement beyond the small but influential level we see today. In short, our energies, our outreach, our means to make the world better must grow. To accomplish this, our congregations must grow- in numbers, spiritual depth, commitment, and outreach.
• We propose a multi-year program of attention and service to particular congregations that show a real potential for growth. While the regional staff will be expected to assist all congregations, their particular emphasis will be to offer expert help to threshold congregations.
• Congregations will apply for this greater emphasis from the regional staff. The application process would identify those new and existing congregations that are ready, willing, and able to reach beyond their current level of activity and expand their numbers, their outreach, and their visibility and impact in their community.
• The specific help received by a congregation chosen via this application process will depend on its own assessment of need, its own strategic plan, and its own dreams for building the religious community it wants to be. These threshold congregations will receive this added assistance for three years, during which time their progress will be measured against goals agreed to in advance with the regional staff.
• The benefits of this model will extend well beyond the particular congregations chosen to participate. Those congregations who do not apply or are not selected as threshold congregations will still be invited to participate in all regional and district programs, and regular needs will be addressed as they arise. The hope, though, is that all congregations will learn from the project by observing transformative changes in the selected congregations and be able to adapt them to their own situations and priorities, thus increasing the likelihood that they will be selected for this special focus in a subsequent round of applications.
• In seeking to leverage our resources toward growth by linking the best and most creative work of our congregations with the best expertise of our staff, we seek nothing less than a transformation of our denomination into a major source for liberal religious thinking in the United States.