Why Should We Support the Region and the UUA?

by Bill Clontz

In 2012, the UUA and the Southern Region embarked on a new course to improve how we share our resources. GIFT, Generously Investing For Tomorrow, is intended to be a simpler and more equitable program for providing the resources that enable our UUA and Southern Region team to serve our congregations and to represent our values and priorities at levels we could not do as individual congregations. 

To provide information and to encourage reflection on GIFT, the Southern Region has provided a number of GIFT information tools on this web site, including most recently a set of GIFT FAQs. This blog will, from time to time, focus on one of those FAQs in an expanded discussion. Today we are examining a fundamental question: Why should we share our resources when congregations already feel financially challenged?

As the question and response below emphasize, this goes in many ways to the heart of our relationships with each other, as individual Unitarian Universalists and as an Association of Congregations. 

Q: Congregations are financially strapped, not long in coming out of the recession (and some have yet to do so). We feel that our first obligation is to our own programs and ministries. Why should we support increased commitments that are expected from some to District, Region, and the UUA now?

A: Resources are indeed stretched, as they always are, and so we make any requests for resources carefully. The GIFT program was created with this reality in mind.

Ours is a covenantal Association.  We exist on the basis of mutuality. Each congregation expects the UUA to provide support, expertise, search and settlement assistance, religious education curricula, social justice resources, conflict management, and worship materials. The UUA is expected to represent us regionally, nationally, and globally, and to do those things we cannot do as effectively alone. In keeping with the mutuality that connects us, the UUA counts on congregations to provide the resources that in turn enable the Association to support congregations. us, 

The fact of the matter is that the covenantal nature of our Association means that congregations in your district and region, as well as in all other areas of the country, depend on your support. Your giving locally makes a strengthened Unitarian Universalism available to others. This is what your covenantal support means, and what it provides.  Our relationship is real-time, dynamic, and mutually supportive. We do not have the luxury of taking care of our home congregation first, and then supporting the UUA at some future date, or vice versa. Our tradition will not thrive without all of us participating at a generous level. The districts, regions, and the UUA have undertaken a wide range of cost saving measures, increased efficiencies, and are working hard to ensure best use of our shared precious resources. Staffing is lower at all levels and redundancies have been targeted. The organization is as lean as it has ever been. 

Much of this discussion will revolve around how we see ourselves as a larger community. If we are simply a thousand or so outposts out there alone, then our focus truly is inward, with the districts and the UUA being little more than servicing organizations. 

But as we increasingly see ourselves as an Association consisting of vibrant communities joined by covenant, then we will be both independent and networked. This vision allows us to mutually support each other, to reach those yet to find us, and to stand for our values in ways we cannot do just as individual congregations. If we believe that Unitarian Universalism has something significant to offer the world, then we need to commit to our Association and to each other by resourcing that relationship in a meaningful way.

In other words, the GIFT program is not simply a matter of what congregations get back from the UUA and district or region in return for funds. Rather, GIFT offers us the opportunity to put our values of interdependence, equity, and generosity into practice. 

There is nothing more important to most of us than the transforming inspiration we have experienced in our congregations. Our support of the GIFT program makes that experience available to people outside of the walls of our individual communities. We have a story to tell and work to do – and the only way we can do that, is together.

As noted before in this space, it has always been a source of concern and irritation to me that Unitarian Universalism is so small a movement; we have much to offer and should be a greater presence. One reason we find ourselves so is that we often focus inward, just on our individual congregations. This FAQ discussion reminds us that we are more than just a collection of congregations; we are part of something larger and of enormous potential. How well that potential is realized depends directly on us, and our willingness to share for the common good. 

As always, your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcomed by your Regional Congregational Life Staff Primary Contact, the Congregational Giving Director, or at a dedicated email address at the UUA: southerngenerosity@uua.org.

Bill Clontz is a stewardship consultant with The Stewardship for Us Team, supporting the UUA. Bill can be reached via bill@stewardshipforus.com,via the UUA’s Congregational Stewardship Network, (http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml ), or through your regional staff.

This blog has a new posting no less than once a month. You may find it and more at our website, www.stewardshipforus.com. You are welcome to sign up for stewardship updates at the blog. Comments and discussion are always welcome; share your experiences with us.

Oh, Yeah! I Forgot About That Pledge Thing.

For many congregations, tis the season of the annual budget drive. As a stewardship consultant, I talk with many congregations, especially at this time of year, as well as with the Regions and the UUA. I observe an unintentional trend among us that we all should be interested in eliminating.

If you are a congregational leader or a stewardship volunteer, I bet a conversation something like the following will be familiar to you:

“How is the budget drive coming along? We are at about the three-quarters point on the calendar.”

“Well, the commitments that are in look very good – people seem to be giving this serious thought and are responding generously. But we only have about 20% of the commitments in, so it’s hard to know how we are doing.”

“Oh, swell. That means that once again our volunteers will have to spend hours calling people asking them to make their commitments. Most people do when asked, but what a poor use of our volunteer time. Still, we have to do it, so the leadership knows what they have to work with for a budget.”

Sound familiar? People don’t mean to delay, but doing so puts our leadership in a difficult position for planning and makes our volunteers do unnecessary work. If we would all commit to an early and thoughtful response to the call for contributions, we would make life remarkably easier for a lot of good people. The rule in our house is that no more than two weeks after receiving the information, we make our commitment. That request for a commitment is not wine – it doesn’t get better with age! Let’s respond promptly and generously – please.

Now, let’s take that discussion up a level or two higher. At the same time you and I are working out our congregational budgets, the Regions and the UUA are doing the same at their levels. We all sent in our certified data by 1 February, yet as we begin moving into spring, a number of congregations have yet to make their commitments to the Annual Program Fund (or the GIFT program for the Southern Region).

To highlight what should be an obvious point, the regions and the UUA are we. They serve us and our priorities, and in so doing they rely on us for predictable and sufficient resources. Without timely and generous commitments, they cannot plan effectively or carry out programs in the way we would expect. Imagine if your boss said, “I ‘m sure we will pay you next week, I’m just not sure how much or exactly when. Check with me later and maybe I will have more to tell you.” None of us would like to live like that – and we should not ask our regions or our Association to do so either.

So, how about it, fellow Unitarian Universalists? Let’s get our personal commitments in, early and generously, and let’s have the courtesy and foresight as congregational leaders to do the same for those that count on us and serve us.

Bill Clontz is a stewardship consultant with The Stewardship for Us Team, supporting the UUA. Bill can be reached via bill@stewardshipforus.com,via the UUA’s Congregational Stewardship Network, (http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml ), or through your regional staff.

This blog has a new posting no less than once a month. You may find it and more at our website, www.stewardshipforus.com. You are welcome to sign up for stewardship updates at the blog. Comments and discussion are always welcome; share your experiences with us.