Prairie Star District

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PSD President’s Corner

by Kathy Bowman, PSD President

Evaluation and Goal Setting

The Prairie Star District Board would like to thank all our readers who participated in the District Evaluation of Services this last year. The evaluation effort was led by Kathy Bowman, Libby Starling (PSD Secretary), and Nancy Heege (District Executive). Feedback from our evaluation surveys was solicited from a variety of stakeholders, both those who are recipients of District services and those who provide District services. At our annual August retreat, the Board reviewed the results of the survey and used those findings as a basis for setting goals for the next program year. The three top goals for the next year are as follows:

• Making congregational connections — Inspire and facilitate connections among individuals and congregations.
• Communications of district services — Over-communicate to our district stakeholders what services are available.
• Multi-generational lens — Educate and advocate for multi-generational communities in our congregations and District activities.

The Board will follow up with staff on devising action plans to further each of these goals.

Anti-Racism Work

The Board of the PSD has claimed an anti-racist identity for the District. We know that changing institutions requires understanding structural levels and function, and understanding the stages through which organizations move to become anti-racist. The PSD Board began this work by engaging in a day-long workshop on “Equipping Institutions to Dismantle Racism” facilitated by MCARI (Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative) at our 2006 August Board Retreat. PSD Board member, Cheryll Wallace, of First Unitarian of Omaha, was appointed to lead this effort this last year. She attended a UUA ARAOMC (Anti-Racism/ Anti-Oppression/ MultiCultural) workshop this last winter on the Board’s behalf.

At this August retreat, the PSD Board appointed our ARAOMC Transformation Team. It is charged to, first, research anti-racism work being done by other districts in the UUA, and also to identify the assistance and support available from various offices at the UUA as well as from other possible sources in our region.

The next step in the charge is to create a plan for developing a systemic analysis of racism within the District, and then to develop a plan to educate all those affiliated with the District to become conscious of the ways in which the District documents, structures, and practices maintain privilege and access primarily for white people — on the journey to intentionally creating an ARAOMC identity for Prairie Star District, District staff and leadership, and ultimately the congregations of PSD.

The PSD Board has recruited a geographically and racially diverse team of 6-8 people who will begin work this fall on the above charge. The Board has funded the work of this team for the next three years.

Disaster Relief

In other business, the Board voted to give the balance of $1,000 in the Disaster Relief Fund, that remains from the collection and distribution of funds responding to the tornados and floods in Minnesota, to the Winona congregation to be given to a member of that congregation whose organic farm was destroyed in recent flooding.