The Edges of Our Board Meetings
by Gini Courter, UUA Trustee, Heartland District

"What do you do around the edges of all your meetings?"

Madame Moderator — I volunteered to answer this question, then realized that I had only a small part of the answer. Fortunately my colleagues on the Board were generous with their responses.

With gratitude to my board colleagues and apologies in advance for metaphors of the canine ilk which I did not supply:

My colleagues on the Board tell me
We make personal contact
Find out about district happenings
Arrange informal meetings
Share our experiences
Study late packets
We meet in multiple, smaller units.

We brainstorm, envision, and strategize.
We have more meetings.

We howl, we nap, we sniff and wag, and try to sound like big dogs or porch puppies, not lap dogs.
We talk about the Journey Toward Wholeness, and reflect on where we are personally and collectively. We share our struggles. We try to walk together.
We have more meetings.

We almost walk past rooms where other boardmembers are talking, then spontaneously decide to drop in just in case we're missing a meeting.
We sit at computers writing up notes and reports.
We share news about our families.
We have more meetings.

We grow friendships.
We celebrate the service of colleagues who are leaving the Board.
We celebrate the gifts brought by new board members.
We compare notes.
We ask really stupid questions, test outrageous ideas, check things out with each other.
We have more meetings.

We stay up really late with the youth council and other youth, then get up really early and have more meetings.

We come to the October meeting having had four months to miss each other. We hug, and catch up, and discuss. We look each other full in the face. In our excitement and enthusiasm, we talk for hours. Then we get up the next morning and have more meetings.

We share ministry.
We dare to have visions of a better, stronger, larger, more prophetic UUA membership.
We let our minds and mouths run free.
We build community, trust, and understanding.
We deny that the board meetings have edges.
We get edgy, and silly, and human.
We grab some fresh air on the way to Starbucks.
We ask ourselves and each other if we're doing it right.
We have more meetings.

We hang out, collapse, deflate, compress, kick off our shoes, mellow out.
We worship together.
We build relationships with observers and visiting family members.

We share pictures of children, grand kids, weddings, graduations, new homes, and our congregations.
We look for great deals at the UUA Bookstore.
We have more meetings.

We make music together pretty darn well: guitar, voice, palms slapping table tops or thighs, solos on verses, harmonies weaving through and above and under familiar choruses, humming when we don't know the words in Pickett-Eliot House or in the front lobby of the Sheraton Wakefield where some passerby actually dropped a dollar into one of our open guitar cases — clearly a person of discriminating taste.

We relax and recreate with one another, both in smaller groups and all together. We mend relationships that may have been frayed by controversial Board discussions and decisions. We hold informal discussions about matters important to some of us. We catch up on denominational gossip. We rest a bit, usually too late at night until too early in the morning. Some of us take early morning walks for exercise or practice meditation. Every once in a long while one of us may find a moment or two for solitary thinking and reflecting.

Other than this, we just waste the rest of our time.

June 23 Plenary Report

Formatted for the web by Kasey Melski.