Report on Strategic Plan (Summation) Presented May 9, 2012 Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Virginia This document comes from the team ministers at the request of the Board Chair and represents a shared commitment to have the Strategic Plan (SP) for 2009-2014 be a living document that is revisited and revised annually. Last spring, the ministers and staff provided a detailed, comprehensive review and assessment of each of the SP s points. This year, the ministers offer a summation of progress on its six goals. Goal 1: Nurture Each Person s Spiritual and Personal Growth Among the people that attend UUCA s worship services, we receive consistent feedback that Sunday morning worship music, sermons, readings, joys & sorrows contributes greatly to their lives. Worship services are diverse in the context of the congregation s bandwidth : It is varied, without alienating most regular attendees. No plan is in place at the moment for an alternative large-scale worship experience, with the accompanying financial and staff commitments. This winter and spring, we further explored our capacity to livestream Sunday services over the internet, and even to attendees at the Joseph Priestley District Assembly at the Key Bridge Marriott April 15. Our Religious Education programs, likewise, provide opportunities for learning and awakening for leaders and participants across the age spectrum. Children s Chapel/Festival Sundays continue throughout the year. Enrichment happens in the context of the many aspects of our creative arts programs, and members and friends experience training and development in the context of our stewardship, membership and social justice ministries. An example of the link between our outreach to the wider community was our Common Ground service, which brought children and youth together from across economic and ethnic backgrounds, through music, poetry and personal testimony. At the moment, we do not have the financial wherewithal to add a volunteer coordinator to the staff, and our Membership Coordinator, Sarah Masters, is stretched to meet our present needs for membership and stewardship support. The leadership development model we suggested last spring, using Rev. Dr. Linda s acronym NATE (Newcomer, Apprentice, Teacher, Expert) did not gain traction this year. However, leadership development did continue with a leadership RE series designed by Sue Browning, and in the stewardship and outreach efforts coordinated by Bill Fogarty, Allen Keiswetter, Diane Ullius and Warren Wright. The interim period may prove to be the ideal time to initiate such a program, intended to transform congregational culture as well as individual lives. Goal 2: Become a Welcoming, Relational, Diverse Congregation Due to the energy and dedication of Louise Van Horne this year and the foundation provided by Mike Evering last year, the Welcome Desk program has become that much more vibrant and inviting. Our services and programs reflect our commitment to diversity, including the visit from Bishop Christopher Senyonjo and services featuring Rev. Mark Kiyimba, both LGBT-allied clergy from Uganda (Mark Kiyimba s tour involved five other local UU congregations). Leaders and youth from the Dream Project have been featured prominently in our services, such as Karen Vallejos and Dr. Emma Violand-Sanchez. In fact, Dr. Violand- Sanchez and two Dreamers will be part of the UUCA contingent at Justice General Assembly in Phoenix this year as presenters. Once again, UUCA hosted an Interfaith Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration, this year bringing together clergy and members from Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, Rock Spring United Church of Christ, and Congregation Etz Hayim, among other faith communities.
We have yet to provide a strong continuous framework for radical hospitality/welcoming as a spiritual practice, though there were certainly glimpses of that in both the Deepening Connections leadership series this winter and spring, and in the Connect and Share events related to the Annual Stewardship Campaign. One-on-one conversations and connections were key to our stewardship work this year, as was the case with the Capital Campaign last year. Many members and friends experience deepening relationships by their participation in the Covenant Group program, which is part of Rev. Michael s legacy. Our leadership in VOICE offers the training and experience of relational organizing, which benefits internal community-building, as well as being in relationship with our neighbors who have a diversity of ethnic, religious and economic-class identities. We have been consistent in our outreach to diverse communities. This winter/spring, the Immigration Working Group sponsored a monthly film series that had very significant participation from members of the Spanish-speaking Buckingham community, and provided for serious cross-cultural engagement around issues such as detention and deportation. The Common Ground worship service under Goal 1 also included an opportunity for food-vending by Buckingham neighbors. We also reached out (with lesser degrees of success) to include the Dreamers in the planning of our multigenerational Joseph Priestley District Racial Justice conference back in October. There was Dreamer participation in the conference itself, though not in the planning. We realized that we would need to start much earlier in the future to ensure youth participation generally, whether Dreamers of not. Other multigenerational programs have included our anti-bullying work, spearheaded by the youth and picked up by Equality UUCA; creative arts and music projects with Partners for Arlington and Guatemala, and; actions and witness provided by Unitarian Universalists for Reproductive Justice (UURJ). We have not prioritized retention of and leadership development across our multicultural spectrum. As an example, for the second year in a row, each of the dedicated and able nominees to the Board of Trustees would be identified as white, at the same time the Board has affirmed its commitment to the Diversity of Ministry Initiative (DOMI) of the UUA. The interim period will be a time to address concerns about DOMI and to revisit conversations about diversity and multiculturalism in that framework. It looks like we will have our welcoming, accessible parking lot within the next year. Bilingual Religious Education probably needs to be placed in the context of UUCA s yet-to-bedetermined general commitment to Spanish-English access. We encourage participation from our multicultural partners in both the criteria for our new Senior Minister and for possible uses of our renewed physical plant during and after the construction process. Under consideration for the 2012-2013 church year is a Immigrant Stories event under the Faith in Action umbrella that would use the creative arts and religious education to create a context for cross-cultural sharing and social justice work. The Ask an Immigrant column sponsored by the Immigration Working Group in The Arlingtarian has provided a context to reflect upon the many immigrants within UUCA already, some of whom would be presumed to have been born on this land. Goal 3: Reach Out to the Larger Community to Work for Social Justice and Build a More Compassionate and Connected World Clearly, the goals we list here intertwine. Cross-reference above to the Interfaith MLK, Jr. Celebration, our immigration and creative arts endeavors, one-on-one conversations, and the Mark Kiyimba tour, the Racial Justice Conference, the Common Ground service, and the Dream Project, among others.
Also worth mentioning here is the ongoing work of Partners for Arlington and Guatemala and the UUCA internet-based radio program, the Journey Toward Phoenix, which has been downloaded more than 500 times since it launched in January 2012. It has a Facebook page and archived editions are available at www.blogtalkradio.com/revcarltones. There s also a link to it on the uucava.org homepage. Our website continues to attract tens of thousands of unique visitors each year, and we continue to provide compelling content. We have more and more groups that are making use of the online church, and finding skype and conference calls as effective ways of connecting off-site. Spinning off a new congregation is an exciting idea, though there are levels of energy, urgency and velocity that are required to do so successfully. UUCA s own membership continues to decline. However, as excitement builds with the completion of the new East Wing and UUCA calls its next settled Senior Minister, there is the possibility to focus the congregation s attention and commitment such that a strong spin-off is achievable. UUCA continues to be a strong even dominant presence in VOICE. Most recently, we turned out dozens of members and friends for an Arlington action promoting affordable housing. Some of the energy from UUCA Core VOICE Team leaders that went into organizing this year will need to go into fundraising next year, as only half of the congregation s assessed financial obligation to VOICE ($7500) will come from the church s operating budget. Justiceand service-minded members and friends are certainly looking for opportunities to put their faith in action, and we would provide them a broader range of options to consider. When Rev. Michael gave a sermon where he mentioned our joining an action to provide meals one evening for those involved in OccupyDC and the October 11 camps, we received an abundance of dollars and volunteers. UUCA is a consistent locus of training opportunities and conferences. The anti-bullying program organized by Equality UUCA and the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in March is an example, and we hosted the Virginia Immigrant Advocacy Summit for the second time last fall. We are also a hub for trainings for the Our Whole Lives (OWL) human sexuality curriculum, VOICE leadership, and the Monday night Insight Meditation gathering, which brings hundreds through out doors each month. In 2012-2013, we have not budgeted to be fair-share with the UUA, though we may achieve that by the end of next fiscal year. As our Board Chair told us, just on the rumor that we would not meet our full assessment, the UUA began adjusting its own budget for 12-13. We are also not in alignment with fair compensation according to UUA guidelines, and some employees still work with reduced hours from previous budget shortfalls. On the upside, there is a cost-ofliving increase across the board for staff. Goal 4: Green Our Church Community With our Earth Day/Earth Month focus in April and the Billion Acts of Green campaign from earthday.org on both the District and congregational levels, UUCA highlighted its commitment to going and being green. Some members and friends have begun to strategize about how to encourage carpooling and getting to church in ways that reduce carbon footprints rather than increasing them, especially as we will have reduced parking during the construction project. The green conversation is spreading, but it is also affected by fiscal realities. For example, the very eco-friendly parking lot that we originally considered cost more than our adjusted capital campaign budget would allow, so we will have a more conventional lot, that will still be an improvement over the current gravel and will be more green than what he now have, in how it corrects the water run-off and preserves some trees and plants some new ones.
Similarly, plans for more efficient windows in the Sanctuary have been adjusted to repairing the window trim mountings and adding sunscreen film. Goal 5: Ensure the Church s Financial Health The Finance Committee, our Treasurer, our former Church Administrator Bill Peters and we ministers all worked diligently to come up with a workable budget for 12-13, factoring for the budget shortfall. We prioritized preservation of staff positions, staff hours and essential programs. The most significantly affected area was that of social justice, where contributions that came out of the operating budget last year for related organizations (i.e., Culpepper Garden, UUSJ and VOICE), will now come in part or entirely from the Share the Plate program, totaling $13,950. In the wider context of the church s finances, however, we can acknowledge that there have been years when the VOICE, UUSJ and Culpepper contributions were covered by the operating budget, but the staff received no cost-of-living increase, which the staff will get in 12-13, after two years with no increase. While we agreed that hiring a Development Director, Volunteer Coordinator or Social Justice Coordinator/Director/Intern was desirable, there was no sufficient funding to responsibly add staff. This was also not the time to double the congregation s endowment. As the renewal of our spaces gets underway this summer, we can celebrate UUCA s most successful capital campaign ever, which occurred in the midst of the worst financial crisis in 80 years. Goal 6: Promote Stewardship of the Whole Assessment of our governance model, internal evaluation processes, staff configuration, membership/attendance trends and overall sustainability are tasks that will be addressed during the interim period. We reviewed the Strategic Plan last year, and this document represents our review for the current year. We have begun to have annual discussions in the spring of our own intentions to continue as individual staff members, and to anticipate leadership transitions. No Land Use Committee has been charged. The current transition schedule roughly outlined is: July 31, 2012: Rev. Michael s retirement after 13 years of ministry at UUCA Aug. 1, 2012: Rev. Carlton begins new contract, renewable annually through July 2016 Sept. 1, 2012: Interim Senior Minister begins one-year contract, renewable for one year June 2013: Search Committee for Settled Senior Minister elected search process begins Fall 2013: Rev. Dr. Linda s sabbatical (tentative) Aug. 1, 2014: Settled Senior Minister begins Winter/Spring 2015: Rev. Carlton s sabbatical Fall 2015: Rev. Carlton returns discernment on whether to call him as a settled minister General Ministerial Commentary on the Strategic Plan: The continuing economic uncertainty and the major transitions in leadership run counter to the stability that would be ideal for implementation of the Strategic Plan. The past year has been expressly focused on honoring and celebrating Rev. Michael s faithful service to UUCA. At the same time, plans continue apace for the renewal of our building yet another factor contributing to directional disorientation. In the broader culture, many long-established, mainstream congregations are facing declining attendance, membership, and finances, so UUCA is by no means unique in this regard. What remains to be seen is how the congregation operates when a broader range of members and friends are developed as leaders, and as such are inspired to work in concert on a deeply shared vision. As the Strategic Plan indicates with its six goals and 33 recommendations, we are a very ambitious group, if an unfocused one. We seem to gather that kind of synergy on a
short-term basis around specific social justice efforts, or financial and capital needs. Like many UU congregations, however, we struggle to articulate a vision that sets hearts ablaze, to paraphrase one of our hymns. But this is not something we are going to be able to calculate and predict. It will emerge like a flower from our practice, our work and our refection as we create beloved community out of nothing, everywhere we go. In spite of the current challenges, there is abundant evidence of UUCA s fulfilling its strategic plan and living out its commitment to multigenerational, multicultural, green and relational lenses. Thanks to the strong foundation Rev. Michael helped UUCA establish, the professionalism of the current and former staff, and the continuing legacy of passionate, skilled and generous lay leaders, UUCA is poised for even higher heights of excellence in the 12-13 church year. Rev. Michael McGee Rev. Dr. Linda Olson Peebles Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith (Scribe)