 Issue 35: September 2006, Page 3< Page 2 | Table of Contents | Page 4 > UUA Trustee’s ReportJohn Blevins Responsive Resolution: Who, me?In June 2006, at our General Assembly (GA) in St, Louis, the congregational delegates spontaneously created and adopted three responsive resolutions. Responsive resolutions are items admitted to the GA Agenda in response to the contents of reports delivered to the Assembly, and must be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the delegates. Gulf Coast RecoveryThe first responsive resolution adopted charged our members and congregations to support all aspects of the recovery efforts on the gulf coast. Health Care PlanThe second resolution charged our delegates to go home and work to get their congregation to engage in the UUA Health Care plan, as a “matter of inclusivity, accessibility and economic justice.” Addressing RacismThe third resolution which was adopted, and to which I want to call your attention here, reads: “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.” From the UUA.ORG Web site, we read: "This resolution, written by a GA delegate, was in response to reports of UUA officers at GA 2006 as well as events impacting Unitarian Universalist communities of color, especially youth, at the 2005 and 2006 General Assemblies. It was overwhelmingly supported by the delegates from over 600 UU congregations. “Some of our member congregations have done significant work on issues of racism, classism, and multiculturalism using resources provided by the UUA and other sources of expertise. If your congregation has done good work, this is an opportunity to share what you’ve done with other congregations in your region or district, so they can benefit from your experience. Use this resolution as an opportunity to reflect on how your congregation is dealing with racism and classism. When delegates representing our congregations gather at 2007 General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, we will have an opportunity to share our experiences. Please email your stories to us: ResponsiveResolution06@uua.org” (See http://www.uua.org/TRUS/minutesga06.pdf, the Minutes of the General Assembly, pages 20-21, if you want the full text of the resolutions. This link is to a PDF file; see About PDF Files for more information.) This responsive resolution process is new to me, and I assume that this is true for many of you. My interpretation of the events at GA is that these resolutions grew from both desire to support our fellow UUs, and also from a level of frustration and disappointment about our progress and level of engagement in the past. My sense of the crowd was that there was genuine enthusiasm for all three of the resolutions.  If you haven’t heard, your District Board devoted an entire day of their retreat in August, to focus on antiracism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism (AR/AO/MC) work. As a Board, this was their first time venture into this arena. I learned when I joined the UUA Board (now three years ago) that they devote a portion of every meeting to training, education or discussion about AR/AO/MC topics. I invite each of you to help your own congregations fulfill the intent of the important work as called for in the Responsive Resolution, and for which your delegates voted. I look forward to hearing your progress reports at the 2007 General Assembly in Portland, and perhaps even at our District meeting in April in Minneapolis. And if you need some help…The web page http://www.uua.org/programs/justice/congresources.html is a deceptively simple looking one-page list of resources available to you in your justice and AR/AO/MC work. I think you’ll find it not only helpful to you, but just plain interesting reading due to the breadth of the resources shown here. With gratitude for all you do, |