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UU Faith Works Summer/Fall 2003 Administration
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Website Created Specifically for Lay Leaders of UU Congregations
Harlan Limpert
Director for Lay Leadership Development, UUA
Boston, MA
How many times have you had a question you knew other lay leaders had struggled with, but you weren't sure how to tap into their experience?
How many times have you wished you could find resources more easily on the uua.org website?
How many times have you found some useful material on the uua.org website one day, and couldn't find it the next?
If you've had any one of these experiences, a new resource might be useful to you.
It's a new website designed specifically for lay leaders and was launched at GA. It's called InterConnections Resources (http://www.uua.org/programs/layleader/). It's a significant expansion of the highly acclaimed newsletter that has been useful to lay leaders (and others!) since 1998. It was designed to be a “one-stop shopping” experience for those lay leaders looking for resources that will help them be successful in their roles.
InterConnections Resources consists of four parts:
QuickStart —a link to the three most useful web links, articles, and books for people who have just assumed a new role and need basic information immediately. For instance, if you've just become Membership Chair, you can click here to find the information about that role you'll need right away.
Events for Leadership —this is a searchable database which will help locate conferences, workshops, classes, programs, and other events to help make lay leaders more effective in their roles.
FAQ —the third part of the website is a list of more than 100 Frequently Asked Questions about most aspects of congregational life and the UUA. Here's one question in the FAQ: How can we improve our annual canvass? There are six answers to this question including references to the UUA's Office of Congregational Fundraising Services, books on the topic, the Congregational Handbook, and articles in InterConnections . Another question: How can we get people to volunteer? There are two answers to this question, both of them articles in InterConnections . Each article has a clickable link to instantly bring up the article.
The most frequent resources cited in the FAQ are UUA staff, InterConnections, and information available at district offices. Other resources include the UUA Congregational Handbook, books in the UUA and Alban Institute bookstores and elsewhere, and UU World magazine.
InterConnections —the fourth part of the website is the InterConnections website itself, which provides access to all five years of InterConnections articles and permits searches by keywords.
This website, like human beings themselves, is growing and changing and becoming better all the time. Check it out and see if it might help you serve your congregation more effectively and perhaps even with less effort.
The URL is http://www.uua.org/programs/layleader . Or lay leaders can simply go to www.uua.org, and click on the InterConnections Resources link on the left sidebar.
UU Faith Works Home | Summer/Autumn 2003
© Copyright 2003 Unitarian Universalist Association
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