 Issue 37: May 2007, Page 3< Page 2 | Table of Contents | Page 4 > UUA Trustee’s ReportJohn Blevins GA is coming to Minneapolis in 2010!After protracted negotiations between the hotels, labor unions and the UUA’s General Assembly (GA) Planning Committee, new terms were agreed to which gave us the confidence to proceed with plans for the 2010 GA in Minneapolis. The GA planning staff is to be commended for their persistence in bringing this solution together! The 2006 Responsive Resolution on Race and ClassA resolution was passed by the delegates at the 2006 General Assembly in St. Louis, in response to a motion from a delegate. This motion was particularly significant to the Board because it was initiated by delegates and did not come from the Board or staff. The text of this resolution is: Resolved, that the Delegates to General Assembly are charged to work with their congregations to hold at least one program over the next year to address racism or classism, and to report on that program at next year’s General Assembly. Anecdotally, I am hearing that the resolution has generated much activity at the congregational level. The Secretary of the UUA will deliver a full report of these responses at GA 2007 in Portland. To get your work included in the report, each congregation who has acted on this resolution is asked to report your response to responsiveresolution06@uua.org as soon as possible. From everything I am hearing, it should be a moving report. PSD GrowthI just received a report showing that our district, over the past 5 years, has grown faster in both percentage terms and in absolute numbers than any other district! I congratulate you all on your energy, creativity, and commitment! I suspect this may generate even more interest in our GA in Minneapolis, as people come to ask “how did you do that?” PSD Influence SpreadsLong time religious leader Benette Sherman, the director of youth and children’s ministries at our Ames, Iowa fellowship has just been called as the district program consultant for the newly merged New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine districts. This role will be similar to that filled by Phil Lund and Sherry Warren here in PSD, and Benette will be a full time employee of the district. I extend my warmest congratulations to Benette, my condolences to the Ames fellowship on their loss, and also my gratitude to the Ames fellowship for their role in providing the supportive religious community that helped Benette develop her talents in her time with them. Best wishes, Benette! Youth Role at PSD Business Meetings?As an experiment, I gave over part of my reporting time at the PSD Annual Meeting in Minneapolis in April to Nick Allen (St. Paul, MN: Unity), who is PSD’s representative on the Steering Committee for the National YRUU (Young Religious UU’s). Let’s just say that Nick “wow’ed” the audience, and they spontaneously delivered over $1,000 in support of an upcoming youth conference which had been in jeopardy of cancellation due to lack of support. So this leaves me wondering, what should we do next year to provide a forum for our youth contingent at our Annual Meeting? Are there some new ways we can engage with our next generation? I’d love to hear your thinking on this. Or contact any PSD Board or staff member with your ideas. You can hook up with any of us at the Staff or Board Of Directors listings. We’re listening! GA Hotel Rooms in PortlandIt looks like attendance at the Portland GA may reach record levels! Yes, maybe even bigger than the record setting GA in Boston in 2004. And we’re all hearing reports about hotels being full. If you need lodging please call the GA housing office and let them know your needs. They are adding more hotels to the contracts as the need becomes clear. We obviously don’t want to commit to rooms we can’t fill, but the GA staff is doing everything possible to be sure everyone can get lodging. And they are doing their best to find lodging within easy access to Portland’s rapid transit system. See GA’s housing page for all the details and contact info. 
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