3005 Risk-Awareness in Recruiting and Hiring

• The Rev. John Weston, Settlement Director, UUA Department of Ministry and Professional Leadership
• The Rev. Harlan Limpert, outgoing UUA Director for Lay Leadership Development
• Glen Johnson, guest, from Oxford Document Management Company

Sponsor: UUA Staff

Charged with finding UUA-wide consensus on appropriate precautions in hiring staff and recruiting volunteers who work with children and vulnerable adults, the Rev. John Weston and the Rev. Harlan Limpert led the workshop in order to present some preliminary suggestions and to solicit ideas, questions, and insight.

Audience members identified themselves in quite diverse roles, as well as from many parts of the US: from the "fiercely protective mother" to attorneys -- including administrators, ministers, congregation presidents, directors of religious education, search committee members and OWL leaders.

Weston and Limpert defined "reasonable precautions" as those which would be easy to do, reasonably priced, and effective in screening out "bad people and good people who do bad, bad things." Challenges faced by religious organizations today are highlighted by the "meltdown" in the Catholic church. They cited a study showing that the Catholics have had 10,667 abuse claims filed since 1950, 4392 priests accused of abuse involving minors, and about half a billion dollars in costs associated with the abuse claims. Beyond the financial costs, "you can only imagine the pain this has caused." The Catholic church situation is clearly due to a failing by both religious leaders and church officials.

How much denial or recognition in our own Unitarian Universalist congregations and organizations is there of the risks of such behavior in our own midst? The speakers disagreed on the level of recognition we now have, but agreed that there are risks, and have been incidents of criminal behavior in UU congregations and organizations. With congregational polity, "we may not known of all the incidents," but of those that are known, about one-third are crimes against persons (abuse, assault) and about two-thirds are crimes against property.

While final recommendations are not ready, the speakers said that they are currently preparing five basic steps for congregations, districts, the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, the Religious Education Credentialling Program, and other UU organizations:

1. A written application for every paid position, and for those volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults (for example, pastoral care assistants). This should provide details "about what you've been doing the past several years."
2. A disclosure statement - a signed statement on the order of "I have not been involved in violence or sexual abuse." This is particularly helpful to "insulate" the congregation or organization from liability, and gives grounds for immediate termination if the applicant is found to have lied.
3. A signed release for background and reference checking. This would release the congregation or organization from liability for making the checks, and would also release anyone who gives a reference from liability.
4. Reference checks. "The best way to find out how a person will be is to find out how they have been," Weston remarked. The UUA's Settlement Handbook now includes recommendations for how to check references for ministers, including a recommendation of telephone contact and a method for seeking additional references.
5. Public records check: a check of public records for criminal convictions, a check of child abuse registries (remembering, as Glen Johnson warned, that some of these are unreliable), and so forth. This step may best be done by "outsourcing," which may cost in the neighborhood of $45, though the UUA recommendations will likely include a guide for "do it yourself" checks.

The major benefit of the procedures, the speakers agreed, is deterrence. "Perpetrators take the path of least resistance" and are less likely to prey on a congregation if they think they might get caught.

Audience questions raised many other issues, including these:

• How should a congregation treat "blemishes"on a record? The congregation needs to weigh the length of time since the offense and the nature of the offense.
• What is the liability of a church? The standard is "negligence," but what constitutes negligence in such cases is "in development" as church-related sexual abuse issues are taken to court.
• Will the recommendations include guidance on how congregations should answer reference questions (for instance, if a staff person is fired for cause) to both protect itself and avoid being part of a "conspiracy of silence"?
• What if the congregation doesn't want to spend that much money? It's important to protect children and vulnerable adults.
• Can the recommendations be made user-friendly? The goal is to put forms online that are adapted for UU use, and that can be customized.
• Can the language be "spiritually based" and not merely legalistic? The plan is to have the material "spiritually grounded."
• Should churches be fingerprinting applicants and volunteers for children's programs? There may be many problems with fingerprinting, including long delays for information.

Glen Johnson, whose company has done thousands of reference and background checks in connection with religious organizations, recommended http://klaaskids.org for the "best" information on the sexual offender registries available publicly, and offered his company's website http://oxforddoc.com as a place to find many free resources right away such as sample application forms and release forms.

The speakers closed by reminding the participants that,"We don't want to find ourselves in the kind of situation others have found themselves in." Protecting children and vulnerable adults is a responsibility of the religious organization.

Reported by Jone Johnson Lewis; edited by A.B. Leiserson

Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St. | Boston, MA 02108 | 617-742-2100