“Responsible Staffing” (Preventing Abuse)
Office of the President
Unitarian Universalist Association
February 1, 2005
Friends,
I hope you will take Responsible Staffing,
the Unitarian Universalist Association’s new “Guidelines on Screening
Practices When Adding Clergy, Professional Leaders, Staff, and Volunteers,”
with the seriousness it deserves. Its purpose: to protect people in our congregations—children,
teenagers, and persons made vulnerable by disability, grief, or advanced age.
Though its purpose is simple, its implementation will take patient work by
the multitude of boards of trustees and search and personnel committees in our
congregations and UU organizations, and a (modest) financial commitment as well.
My plea is that you do not let the work or the expense deter you. By implementing
these guidelines and those recommended in the companion Safe Congregations
Workbook II, your congregation or organization will indeed become the safer
place it must be.
Not long ago in the Boston area the entire board of trustees of a well-known
private school was indicted for failure to report the alleged sexual abuse of
one student by others. I urge you to recognize that the changed world in which
we live calls us to a new level of duty and care.
Sincerely,
William Sinkford
President
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