Fair Share Giving Guide is stewardship aid

Looking for a way to help congregants understand responsible levels of giving now that it’s time for the annual stewardship campaign? Share the UUA’s Suggested Fair Share Giving Guide with them.

It suggests a minimum financial commitment of 2 percent for congregants earning up to $25,000 and goes up from there, all the way to a full tithe of 10 per cent at the other end of the scale.

The guide can be especially helpful for new congregants who may be accustomed to different giving styles. Those who have been unchurched will appreciate knowing what appropriate levels of giving are. The guide can also be a reminder to longtime congregants who make small financial commitments that one of the responsibilities of membership is appropriate giving.

The amounts on the guide are suggestions only, of course. Congregants should also be made to understand that these are not goals to necessarily be achieved in a year, but goals to work toward.

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College of Social Justice needs our hands

The Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice has a number of justice-oriented trips planned for the rest of 2014 and into next year to places including Haiti, Mexico, and India.

It is also offering Youth Justice Trainings in Boston, New Orleans, and Seattle, and it has twenty summer-long Global Justice Internships available for college-aged young adults. The internships are focused on issues that include justice for restaurant workers, immigration rights, and the right to water.

Internships are unpaid, but interns may apply for a cost-of-living stipend to cover basic living expenses and local transportation. Full information on all these programs is on the UU College of Social Justice website.

 

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UUA Announcements

‘Welcoming Children with Special Needs’ available as PDF

Welcoming Children with Special Needs, the 2004 book by Sally Patton, is out of print but is now available as a PDF on UUA.org.

The book is a resource about accepting special needs children into congregations. It includes information on common physical, mental, and emotional disabilities and disorders. It also has teacher training guidelines and strategies and techniques for inclusion. It is designed for religious educators, ministers, lay leaders, and parents.

Patton has advocated and worked with children labeled as disabled for more than 35 years. More information about Patton and her work is on her website, “Embrace the Spirit of the Child.” Her latest book is Don’t Fix Me, I’m Not Broken: Changing Our Minds About Ourselves and Our Children. She also has a post, “Teaching All of Our Children,” on the Call and Response blog of the UUA Lifespan Faith Development staff group.

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Looking for a Skinner House discussion guide?

Wondering if there’s a study guide for that Skinner House book that you’d like to use for a religious education course? Now there’s a page on UUA.org devoted to Companion Resources for Skinner House Books.

In addition to study guides prepared by UUA staff and others, the resources include videos and UU World articles.

People are also invited to suggest other resources or create their own and submit them for posting on the site.

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Restaurant workers subject of UUA Common Read

All Unitarian Universalists are invited to read the book Behind the Kitchen Door this winter and spring. The book, by Saru Jayaraman, is the 2013-14 UUA Common Read. Congregations are encouraged to use the book as part of adult education and book group discussions and also in worship, as a way of reflecting on congregants’ dining-out practices and the lives of those who create and serve restaurant meals.

The book describes how restaurant workers live on very low wages, and how poor working conditions, including discriminatory labor practices, exploitation, and unsanitary kitchens, affect the meals that are served to us. The author, who launched a national restaurant workers organization after 9/11, tells the stories of ten restaurant workers in cities across the United States as she explores the political, economic, and moral implications of eating out.

She explains that what is at stake is not only our own health, but the health and well-being of the second largest private sector workforce—10 million people, many of them immigrants and many of them people of color.

The author is cofounder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an organization working to improve conditions for restaurant workers. The book is a resource for the new minimum wage campaign announced July 18 by the UU Service Committee and the UUA. The campaign has a goal of raising the minimum wage to $10. The book, published by Cornell University Press earlier this year, is available from the UUA Bookstore for $21.95, with discounts for multiple copies. The book includes a free discussion guide.

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Resources, UUA Announcements

Tips for recruiting volunteers

The UU Growth Lab in Facebook recently featured an article by Karin Hurt titled “How to Recruit Leaders in Your Volunteer Organization.”

Among Hurt’s tips:

• Create “bite-size” roles so volunteers won’t feel overwhelmed.

• Set term limits so people know when their service ends.

• Don’t micromanage once someone has accepted a role.

• Communicate volunteer opportunities widely, not just among a select few.

There are also useful observations in the many reader comments to the article. The article, dated January 13, 2014, also can be found on Hurt’s blog, Let’s Grow Leaders.

The UU Growth Lab is a useful place to find and discuss a range of topics relating to growth issues in congregations. There is also a UU Young Adult Growth Lab. Both can be found by searching for “UU Growth” in Facebook.

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Growth

RE spiritual preparation webinars offered

The UUA’s Faith Development Office is launching a monthly series of free webinars in late January for religious educators, other religious professionals, and lay leaders who plan, lead, or support programs with a faith development component aspect.

The webinars will be presented by the UUA Faith Development Office, which is directed by Jessica York. The first webinar, “Why and How to Do Spiritual Preparation for Leading RE,” will be Monday, January 27 at 9 pm Eastern time and then repeated on Wednesday, January 29 at 4 pm Eastern time.

Email Faith Development Editor Susan Lawrence for call-in information. Indicate which session you wish to attend.

Lawrence says, “Many religious educators and others who lead programs with a faith development component recognize the benefit of taking even a few moments to spiritually prepare for a session, workshop, or meeting. Yet we often feel we do not have time. The UUA’s Tapestry of Faith curricula support a regular practice of spiritual preparation with unique, reflective exercise for leaders/facilitators to do before every session or workshop. The January webinar will present theory, examples, and an experiential exercise to encourage and guide participants to make spiritual preparation a practice of their own. FDO staff will also solicit suggestions for future webinar topics.”

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Certification deadline is February 3

The UUA’s online system for annual certification of membership for UU congregations is now open. All congregations are required to log in to their online accounts and submit this report before the deadline on Monday, February 3 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Congregations must submit their certified number of members and financial statistics from their recently ended fiscal year, including total operating expenditures. Learn more and review the certification process online, or contact data_services@uua.org with questions.

Congregations that do not certify by the deadline are not eligible to send voting delegates to General Assembly 2014.

Congregations can use their online accounts throughout the year to update their lists of member names and addresses to ensure delivery of UU World magazine. Changes in leadership can also be recorded throughout the year using the my.UUA.org account system.

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UUA Announcements

Building Bridges, new youth world religions curriculum

Building Bridges, a new free, online UUA curriculum for grades eight and nine, is designed to help youth understand the varied histories and expressions of many of the world’s religions. It also includes a strong sense of what our own faith offers, according to the author, Mary K. Isaacs.

The goals of Building Bridges include increasing knowledge of world religions, understanding how religion addresses basic human needs, building awareness of the diversity of followers within each faith, and empowering youth to respectfully discuss religious matters with people with whom they disagree.

Isaacs is a lifelong UU who has been director of religious education at congregations in Texas. She currently lives in Austin. Building Bridges is part of the UUA’s Tapestry of Faith curricula series. Susan Dana Lawrence, Managing Editor for the UUA’s Ministries and Faith Development staff group, says, “This is an unusually rich and deep curriculum containing solid information about many faiths and belief systems. We’d like to see congregations adopt it for individual learning as well as a resource for teaching RE groups.”

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