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Candidates Forum
Planning Committee | ||||||
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Candidates Forum
Planning Committee | ||||||
Candidates for uncontested positions were introduced first, then for the rest of the first hour of the two-hour session, candidates for at-large UUA Board Trustees and for the Commission on Appraisal each gave 3-minute presentations. These are a few highlights from their presentations:
UUA Board of Trustees (At-Large Members): 2 to be elected; 4-year term
Tamara Payne-Alex, San Jose, California: She spoke of her two children, fourth generation UUs, and her experience in a variety of UU jobs.
Conrad Ross, Auburn, Alabama: he outlined his leadership experience, including experience on a University tenure and promotion committee, and his work with Common Cause. He is running, he said, because the UUA's support is so important to districts and fellowships.
Rev. Jose Ballester, So. Weymouth, Massachusetts: He spoke of his history as an organizer, champion of causes, minister and executive. He is running because "we are disappearing from the vital areas where we need to be, especially fighting for justice."
Rev. Wayne Arnason, Cleveland, Ohio: He emphasized his experience and record, and his status as an incumbent at a time when the Board's two lead officers and seven trustees will be new. He stressed his support for the UUA's anti-racism work and the organizational strength of the Board.
Commission on Appraisal: 3 to be elected; 6-year term
Mark Hamilton, Toronto, Ontario: He has been involved in youth and young adult ministry for eight years, but now feels called to serve in a different way. The COA, he believes, looks at issues in a deeper way, and he's interested in the big picture and the vision.
James Casebolt, St. Clairsville, Ohio: He found UUism in his twenties, and has done many jobs in congregations. He would like to apply his skills as a social scientist and researcher of religion to help the COA become more productive and beneficial.
Rev. Linda (Stowell) Weaver Horton, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: She believes that the UUA has a significant role to play, and has a vision of healing diversity and celebration. She sees the COA as "the most effective way for me to offer my own skills in service of the movement I have loved since I was eight years old."
Douglas Walters, Knoxville, Tennessee: He pointed to his experience as President of the Thomas Jefferson District and as an active lay leader including APF representative.
General Assembly Planning Committee: 4 to be elected; 4-year term
Elizabeth Collins, Lawrence, Kansas: not present
Lillian Anderson, Concord, Massachusetts: She loves the challenge that comes with a complex problem and meeting deadlines. A labor and delivery nurse, she attended GA in Nashville "and I was so impressed, I wanted to work with the people who created that event."
Carolyn Patierno, Berkeley, California: A recent graduate from seminary, she serves in New London, CT. She served in a national nonprofit organization planning conferences and trainings all over the country, and enjoys the work. She wants to contribute to making GAs more successful for children and youth.
Rev. Bill Murchison, Springfield, Missouri: An interim minister who has served churches throughout the United States, he is particularly interested in issues of financial affordability of General Assembly. He would like to explore possibilities including regional GAs and $50,000 for scholarship funds.
Angus Bramadat, London, Ontario: An East Indian of West Indian descent and manager of a major cultural festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he is hoping to work with the Planning Committee and asked for the support of the delegates.
In the second half of the two-hour forum, candidates for president and moderator of the UUA were heard, those four candidates fielded audience questions and the candidate for UUA financial advisor delivered a statement.
Candidates for UUA President:
The Rev. Diane Miller began her presentation by showing a videotape that stressed her experience in congregational ministry beginning at a time when only 2% of UU ministers were women and her eight years at the UUA Department of Ministry. She outlined her vision for "a UU congregation in every community and a thriving community in every congregation." She called for embodying the UU heritage in our congregations and communities: "Where our faith is practiced, we must thrive." Her plan, she said, is "to build a respectable, adaptive, responsible association." She expressed her vision of an association growing in numbers and spirit, "drawing new members, engaging youth and young adults, encouraging a lifelong deepening of faith…." She closed by saying, "I will do this as the first woman ever elected as president of any community of faith."
The Rev. William Sinkford began by pointing to the flaws in the UUA election system which "precludes so many from offering their gifts." Instead, he said, elections should be understood as religious discernment, choosing religious direction and about the leadership needed. He spoke of the moving stories that he had heard on the campaign trail of eighteen months and 38 presentations. Pointing to the public witness of the Unitarians and Universalists in the 1950s against McCarthyism, of the UUs of the 1960s in support of the civil rights movement and "simple ways of showing up" with advertising and other promotion salvation, UU style -- he called for projecting UU values and sharing "our saving word." He highlighted the practical need for helping congregations, the importance of listening to the movement's youth and young adults, the need to continue work with the Journey Towards Wholeness, to live that out. He closed by stressing the difference between optimism and hope: optimism which may ignore reality, and hope which comes from a deeper place.
Candidates for UUA Moderator:
Patsy Sherrill Madden: Beginning by telling a story of her 17-year-old son reaching out and communicating his values to his teacher who had originally thought him a "heathen," Madden said that UUs need to also reach out and tell people who and what we are. She talked of her varied background in the UUA, the need for goals and for accountability and also love. The moderator, she said, needs to be flexible, with a shared relationship with the board of trustees, a partnership with all.
Diane Olson: Olson expressed her enjoyment at the eighteen months of campaigning, then outlined the technical requirements of the moderator: presiding at General Assembly, the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee; representing the UUA publicly; and assisting "in promoting the well-being of the Association." She expects to apply her not-for-profit leadership experience as well as volunteer experience in congregations, districts and chairing the General Assembly Planning Committee for four years. Her commitment is to UU values and to the need for covenanting. She sees a need for communication and boundaries. She closed by stressing the importance of diversity and wholeness as a source of strength, calling especially for the retention of youth and young adult members.
Questions to the candidates included how each presidential candidate would try to resolve disputes with the Boy Scouts of America; how the moderator candidates would honor both spirituality and the organizational demands of districts and congregations; the attitude of the presidential candidates to the power of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee; how each moderator candidate would handle decisions with which she might disagree; and how the UUA will deal with the loss of Canadian support for a few bi-national districts.
Larry Ladd, unopposed candidate for UUA financial advisor, reflected on his position and qualifications by remembering his own baptism, his early LRY involvement and the importance of remembering history; his conclusion that the UU faith has been his salvation; his early change of heart from a call to the UU ministry to realizing that there can be a call to be the UUA financial advisor as well; and a Secret: that if UUs nourish and challenge the youth, they will return.
Reported for the Web by Jone Johnson Lewis
General Assembly 2001 · Program Grid
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