Now's the Time . . .

. . . to begin thinking about candidates for the governing board and other leadership positions for your spring annual meeting. Help the Nominating Committee get an early start so there's no last-minute rush. Gear up the Canvass Committee now, too.

. . . To make sure that someone in your congregation is subscribed to the UUA e-mail list UUA-L. In this time of military activity and threat of continued terrorism, any response by the UUA to events will appear first on this list.

Go to www.uua.org/lists to subscribe.

Congregations are asked to send the names and addresses (postal and e-mail) of their social action chairs to the UUA Washington Office so it can keep them current with social action issues. Also, please let the office know what issues you're working on.

Send information to Larry Egbert at uuawo@uua.org or to UUA Washington Office, 2026 P Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-6907.

In the June issue, InterConnections referred to a program called First Steps, a planning process for adult religious education. The complete name is First Steps, Planning for Adult Religious Education: A Process Guide. The guide helps RE committees and congregations write mission statements and plan adult education programs.

First Steps, written by Rev. Betty Jo Middleton, is available for $15 plus $3 shipping, from Alphabet Soup, 203 West Glendale Ave., Alexandria, VA 22301-2452.

Two Web addresses in the article New Ways to Assess Ministry in our August issue were incorrect. They should be www.uua.org/ministry/assessing.pdf and www.uua.org/promise/assessment.pdf.

Congregations looking for intern ministers and interns looking for teaching sites are getting help from a new Web site set up by the UUA Department of Ministry.

Interns are ministerial students who perform a full range of ministerial duties for a congregation, for six to nine months full time or for two years halftime. In any year 60 to 80 congregations serve as teaching sites for interns.

Congregations that are seeking interns may use the new Internship Clearinghouse Web site to post information about themselves and the position they are offering; interested interns apply directly to the congregations.

The site, www.uua.org/ministry/internship, also includes an information manual on internship procedures.

Internships usually begin in September; congregations should begin planning a year in advance, says the Rev. Ken Olliff, Internship Clearinghouse coordinator.

Congregations are asked to pay at least $1,000 a month for a full-time intern or $500 for part-timers. "Our goal is to enable the student to live in the area without taking out further loans," Olliff says. An internship is a requirement for achieving full fellowship as a UU minister.

Olliff can be contacted at (617) 948-6415; kolliff@uua.org.

Do you have friends or members who are leaving your congregation without another to go to in their new location? Tell them about the Church of the Larger Fellowship, the largest church within the UUA.

CLF, with more than 2,800 members, provides a ministry to isolated religious liberals, offering them a home within the UU movement. The CLF provides a lending library for its members of books, audio and video tapes, and large-print sermons. Members receive the monthly newsletter, Quest, with sermons and essays by UU ministers, including CLF's senior minister, the Rev. Jane Rzepka. CLF Religious Education Director Betsy Williams prepares and sends a range of materials for family use, including Connections for parents and uu&me for 7-to-12-year-olds.

CLF members communicate regularly with each other via e-mail lists and on-line discussion groups. The CLF also has a "church-on-loan" program for small and start-up UU congregations, providing worship and program materials to about 50 small congregations.

Find out more about CLF at www.uua.org/clf; (617) 742-2100, ext. 150.

Calling a minister? In order not to exclude any appropriate candidates consider participating in the workshop "Beyond Categorical Thinking." The workshop helps congregations examine how they might be more open to calling a minister of color, one who is bisexual, gay, lesbian, or transgender, or has a disability.

Congregations completing the weekend workshop are twice as likely to call a minister from one of these categories as those congregations that do not, says the Rev. Keith Kron, director of the UUA's office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Concerns.

Cost is $200 or $1 per member of the congregation, whichever is greater. The entire search committee should attend the workshop but others may also choose to attend.

The workshop should be held between completion of the congregational survey and before pre-candidating visits.

Contact Rachael Brown, rbrown@uua.org; UUA, 25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108, (617) 742-2100, ext. 454.

Congregations are being asked to set aside a Sunday in October 2002 for Youth and Young Adult Sunday as a fundraising and celebration event for UUA youth, campus, and young adult ministries.

This event, with a fundraising goal of $2 million, is part of the UUA's Campaign for Unitarian Universalism that began at General Assembly 2001 in June and hopes to raise $32 million.

In addition to Youth and Young Adult Sunday funds, another $2 million is to be raised in the larger campaign for youth and young adult services, says Peter Bowden, a Youth and Young Adult Sunday coordinator.

The first step for local coordinators is to set aside a Sunday in October 2002 and then set up a committee of three or more interested people to begin work on this event, says Bowden.

For more information, go to www.uua.org/Sunday2002.

March 1 is the deadline for submitting entries for the Beacon Press Sermon Award. Sermons should reflect on the text of any Beacon book in print. Prize is $500 in Beacon books and presentation of the sermon at GA. The sermon must be delivered by Feb. 24, 2002.

Also, leadership guides to aid discussion groups are available for nine Beacon books: