GA every other year?

When I first went to GA in 1993 as a youth delegate I was intensely active in Continental and District YRUU (PNWD rawks) and GA was something of an after thought and opportunity to check out something that truly had a youth clique of its own.  There were maaaybe 30 youth that year, Parisa Parsa and Christine Murphy were the YPS (both went on to finish MDIV at Harvard, like moi), I met Alison Miller, hung out with Jesse Jaeger and Chris Halliwell, and really don't remember a ton as I was working with Young Fun Kids.

I went back in 1997 at the invitation of Rev. Donna DiSciullo who asked me to attend a Young Adult Ministries consultation before GA.  It was here that I caught the GA Junkie Bug.  A lot of folks have caught it since, with the numbers rising dramatically to over 3,000 a year (maybe more?).  Youth Caucus is in the 400's, Young Adult Caucus which started officially in 1995 when GA had Young Adult Focus Day grew from 25 in 1997 to 150 in 1998 with a concerted effort by C*UUYAN and the YACM Office to outreach and design a comprehensive set of activities.  There was excitement in the air each year for GA, as it was really one of the only chances to see a huge group of UU Young Adults (and People of Color, activists, etc, groups I was interested in). 

But that has all changed for me now.  As an organizer I recognize that GA is ultimately limited the growth of our UU community.  The time and money spent on GA are incredible given the overall return-on-investment.  True most participants pay their own way, but there is a half-million $ and thousands of hours of UUA staff time dedicated to this annual event that could have an even larger impact at District Meetings and regional events if liberated.  I think that the turning point for me was two years ago when at the September UUA Congregational Services staff group meeting it was announced that it was time to get our GA materials together within the next 6 weeks and I was still in "recovery mode" from GA 2003 in Boston.  I believe GA could be even larger if it was every other year, and the time and money spent in the off-year could truly mobilize and transform district, statewide and regional UU relations.

From time to time I mention my idea to other folks.  Michael Tino and I have comiserated on this, as have Rob Keithan.  Interestingly, I had a deep talk with Rev. Fred Muir of the Annapolis MD congregation this week while we were travelling around the island of Negros together.  He shared his wisdom on the idea as well and said that it has been something raised year-in year-out since he has been a minister (30 years!).  Rev. Mike Young speculated that it was the small congregations and what I would label an elite GA Junkie crowd, of which I am a part, that also reinforces the annual GA culture.  Curiously, the UUA Board has been doing some significant GA re-visioning and I will try to post some relevant information here.  Oh yeah, one more thing, Rev. Ron Robinson who was also in the Philippines with us, and who is Executive Director of the UU Christian Fellowship (a paid 25 hour week position, one of the only UUA Affiliates with staff that he and I were aware of) mentioned that one of the potential outcomes of the UUA Board work is a further reduction of GA Workshop Slots for Independent Affiliates to one slot (from 3 just a few years back), increased documentation/paperwork for GA program slots, and more space made for individual congregations to provide programs.  Sounds good to me, however what about investing this time and $ into District Meetings? 

Comments

[claire]

ok, another "where are they now?" question!
parisa parsa, also a minister? she was also an advisor of mine back in the wayback.
joseph, you are so connected :)

[Alison G. W.]

As a GA Junkie myself since my first GA in Boston two years ago, I'd be really sad to see it go to every other year. As someone *not* involved in planning the event, I find that GA rejuvenates me, renews my energy for activism, feeds my soul, and gives me countless ideas to bring to my work in my congregation. But you're probably right that the money and human resources could be better spent on the district or regional level. I look forward to hearing about the re-envisioning.

[Steve Caldwell]

" ... a further reduction of GA Workshop Slots for Independent Affiliates to one slot (from 3 just a few years back), increased documentation/paperwork for GA program slots, and more space made for individual congregations to provide programs."

Joseph,

For what it's worth, our UCC Congregationalist cousins do their denominational meeting biannually:

2005 General Synod
http://www.ucc.org/synod/

Their business agenda includes three resolutions on marriage ranging from an endorsement of equal access to marriage to an endorsement of "biblical one man-one woman" marriage as what Jesus and the Bible teaches:

UCC could become first mainline Christian denomination to endorse civil and religious marriage equality
http://www.ucc.org/news/r042105me.htm

Back to the GA topic ... The problem I see with limiting non-congregational programming at GA is that UU congregational life can become "denominationally shallow" (to borrow words from Greg Hines in his recent UU World column). From what I've seen, congregations are essential for long-term stability and long-term sustainment of our social justice engagement with the world.

But much of our social justice exploration in the past initially happened in non-congregational settings and eventually migrates from a non-congregational setting to a congregational one. Bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender (BGLT) concerns is one example of this. The first step towards the UUA being a BGLT-welcoming denomination happened in non-congregational setting ("Student Religious Liberals" -- a campus ministry off-shoot of Liberal Religious Youth) in 1969.

Given the 1967 survey results of congregational attitudes on homosexuality ("7.7% of UUs believed that homosexuality should be discouraged by law; 80.2% that it should be discouraged by education, not law; 12% that it should not be discouraged by law or education; 0.1% that it should be encouraged" -- according to the UUA web site), I would have been surprised to see the first step towards BGLT justice happen within a congregation. But I'm glad to see many of the subsequent steps in BGLT justice happen within our congregations.

Who knows what "quirky" or "fringe" UUA affiliate will become the next "mainstream" social justice ministry concern for UUs? Based on UU congregational attitudes in 1967, would we have predicted that same-sex marriage would be a denominational concern in 2005?

See you in Ft. Worth (a 3 hour drive from home).