Professional Development
Michelle Bentley,
Professional Development Director
Angela Merkert, Professional Development Assistant
A'ashia Short, Professional Development Assistant
The UUA Office of Professional Development offers career advice to ministers. The staff maintain a library of continuing education opportunities and lead workshops and events for the development of skills and insights for effective ministry. In collaboration with others, they develop processes, instruments, and models for shared ministry, conflict management, and ministerial evaluation.
The Office for Professional Development through its Director and staff provide the following services to UU ministers and ministerial teams:
- Career Counseling: Counsel ministers on professional
development and career enrichment opportunities appropriate to
the size and culture of the congregations or institutions they
serve and considering the differing stages of career development
and professional needs of the minister.
- Career Assessment: Working with the Director of Ministry
and the Ministerial Settlement Director, manage career assessment
work with ministers as they move out of conflicted situations
so that they can better understand their strengths and needs,
seek counsel and support and move ahead in appropriate directions
in their careers. The Ministerial Assessment
Process.
- The Diversity of Ministry Team (DOMT): The
Director serves on this committee (UUA President, and representatives
from the MPL staff and constituent groups) charged with pursuing
one of the central missions of the UUA: to achieve an anti-racist,
anti-oppressive, and multicultural ministry. The key purposes
of this committee is to welcome, recruit, and advise ministers
and seminarians from historically marginalized communities; to
identify and work to remove institutional barriers that prevent
their fullest participation in the ministerial credentialing process
and the achievement of successful ministerial settlements or professional
ministerial employment; and in maintaining their access to ongoing
professional development.
- Continuing Education Resources: Gather, assess, and
promulgate information about effective ministerial development
programs and opportunities for ministers and ministerial teams.
- Current list of continuing education
opportunities
- Bibliography on ministerial leadership
 .
a. Training Programs: Working collaboratively, provide
and schedule training programs that assist clergy, congregations
and agencies make plans for ongoing ministerial development.
- Each spring the Ministry and Professional Development
sponsors a First-year Ministers’ Seminar for clergy
in their first or second year of settlement (see list of CE
opportunities).
b. Sabbaticals: Provide resources and information in support of sabbatical programs to strengthen ministry.
- A "Handbook on Sabbatical Leaves for Ministers & Congregations," edited by David Pohl and Helen Cohen, is available through the UUMA by contacting Janette Lallier at: administrator@uuma.org. Cost is $10.00.
- Sabbatical Planning and Communication during Sabbaticals contribute to successful sabbatical experiences for ministers and congregations. Sample materials shared by colleagues who recently experienced sabbaticals offer models for your consideration.
c. Financial Aid for Continuing Education: Grants are
available through Ministry and Professional Development to
help ministers in fellowship fund their continuing education
efforts.
- CE grants are made on the basis of 1/3 of total program
request to the UUA (to a maximum of $500 per church year).
Apply to Michelle Bentley, Professional
Development Director mbentley@uua.org.
In your message please include: (a) a brief description
and estimated total cost (travel, registration, food,
etc.) for the program, (b) indication that the continuing
education plans are supported by the congregation or institution
that you serve and how the course will benefit your ministry,
and (c) the address to which a check should be sent.
- Evaluation: Explore, develop and encourage the use of
effective systems for the evaluation of ministry in congregational
and other settings.
- Ministerial Fellowship Committee: Serve along with
the Ministerial
Credentialing Director as the staff liaison to the MFC. Responsibilities
include: serve on the executive committee; participate on the
interview team; and, in addition, review renewal and ministerial
track changes/add requests.
- UUMA Center: Work with the committee in its
efforts to design and promote continuing education opportunities
for ministers.
- Obituaries for Ministers: Keep records of deceased UU
ministers, arrange for the preparation of ministerial obituaries
for the UU World and the UUA Directory, and prepare appropriate
memorial material for The Service of the Living Tradition at General
Assembly. Ivy wreaths to services to memorialize the life and
service of ministers. Host the surviving spouses and family dinner
at General Assembly.
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