Speakers: Rev. Linda Olson Peebles and Rev. Calvin Dame
An overflow crowd filled the floor and spilled out the door to learn how spiritual growth can happen during committee meetings. We began by lighting a chalice, singing hymn #188, "Come, come, whoever you are", and doing reading #567, "I want to be with people who submerge in the task, ... The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real".
Spiritual growth at a committee meeting!
Many excellent ideas were shared. A sampling of these suggestions follows.
The UUA Board has developed a Covenant.
Try practicing confession and forgiveness: "I didn't treat you with sufficient respect when I interrupted. Please forgive me."
The Board does a check in at the beginning of a meeting, during which you might ask yourself, "Am I 100% present here and now?" Some Boards ask other specific questions such as, "What have you noticed at church recently?"
Prior work is important: documents should be available before the meeting. Don't re-do the work of committees or the church Council. Focus on policy, not management.
Get to know each other. Instead of the well-known tried-and-true Myers-Briggs
personality test, try the Keirsey temperament sorter at http://www.keirsey.com/.
If a minority feels in danger of "losing," you are not ready to take a vote. More discussion is needed. On the other hand, sometimes you just have to take the grief and accept that someone will go home unhappy. When this happens, stay in relationship, even in disagreement or conflict.
One of the hardest problems is to know what to do if someone breaks the covenant
-- how to hold to mutual commitment? The Thomas-Killmann Conflict Mode Instrument
could help. See http://www.businesspotential.com/conflict_manage.htm.
Or you might close as we did by joining hands and singing, "There is more love, somewhere" (Hymn #95).
Reported for the Web by Mike McNaughton; formatted for the web by Kasey Melski.
General Assembly 2001 · Program Grid
