Thanks to Michael Durall, guest at last night’s webinar

April 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Special thanks to Michael Durall for joining a group of us from 9 districts and 2 countries last night for a conversation on membership, outreach and leadership.   Nice to have a guest speaker for this third in our Ballou Channing District growth webinar series.  You may order all of Michael’s books through his website. His blog is Ten Minutes or Less / Subscribe to Blog Feed.

Next up?

  • There are requests for a repeat of the previously held  Mobilizing Volunteers webinar.
  • Interest in Facebook Fanpages for UU Congregations webinar.  Maybe it would be good to talk the philosophy of congregations using Facebook fanpages and save the how to for a handout.
  • A couple responses to the idea of small group ministry series.

Okay, let’s pencil in the following:

  • May 25th  -  Mobilizing Volunteers
  • June 8th – Topic TBA

If you have requests for webinar topics please let me know. You may complete this form or email me.

Filed Under: Facebook, Peter's Calendar, Webinars

UUA President Morales reporting…

April 21, 2010 By 6 Comments

Reading a UU World.org article on our association’s budget I saw mention of a report by UUA President Peter Morales to the board.

Click, download PDF, open…

Monitoring Report—Global Ends
Peter Morales, UUA President.
March 2010

The monitoring report is a document required to be submitted by the UUA President to the UUA Board per the new governance model our association is using describing the state of the association and its progress toward global end statements / goals established by the board.

What’s in this report? Its a great snapshot of where we are in terms of #s and describes primary initiatives underway and in the works.  Well worth a quick read.  It includes the following  sections:

Assumptions—a discussion of the key ideas that underlie and unify our programmatic initiatives, including how these relate to our global ends.

Logical Model—a discussion of the model of how congregations thrive and grow and how one must lead change in our movement.

The current situation—a presentation of key indicators of the health and vitality of Unitarian Universalism today.

The UUA’s strategic vision—building upon the assumptions, logical model, and assessment of our situation, the administration’s strategy for achieving our ends.

Implementation status—Where we are in the process of implementing this vision.

Conclusion

My thoughts?   Well, its an affirmation that I have my work cut out for me!  Looks like my district is the most declining of them all — but we already knew that.

Good to get in at the ground level.  Right?  I’m fortunate that the people in my district are excited about our potential, interested in new collaborations, and open to change.

For the record, I love that this level of information is being shared publicly.  We need this level of reporting to maintain our focus, the sense of urgency, and keeping the growth conversation going.

Your thoughts on the report?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

VIDEO: Top 10 reasons to attend BCD Spring Conference

April 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Friends, as promised here is a video sharing the top ten reasons for attending the Ballou Channing District Spring Conference this coming Saturday at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, RI.  Register now. Top ten compiled from your suggestions with most coming from Rosemary.  Thanks!  Look forward to seeing you next week. - Peter

Filed Under: Events, Peter's Calendar

“New UU” program from UUA’s Tapestry of Faith

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The UUA’s lifespan faith development series Tapestry of Faith has released a “New UU” program.

The New UU program provides important tools to help congregations welcome, orient, and integrate newcomers into their faith communities. The program addresses the needs of newcomers who want to know more about who we are and what we believe. It provides opportunities for members of your congregation to share with newcomers what it means to them to be a Unitarian Universalist. It gives newcomers a chance to examine their own personal stories in the light of our Unitarian Universalist tradition and heritage. It provides a chance for newcomers to the congregation and long-timers to connect. It provides an explicit invitation to become a member.

This program is designed to accomplish the following:

  • Introduce newcomers to Unitarian Universalism
  • Equip participants to make a decision about membership in a Unitarian Universalist congregation
  • Provide information related to Unitarian Universalist worship, theology, history, social justice, religious education, and governance
  • Provide resources within and outside the congregation for participants to explore topics independently
  • Facilitate integration into the congregation by introducing participants to a cross-section of members.

The full program is available online and may be downloaded as a word document and edited to meet your congregation’s needs. Read more on the Tapestry of Faith New UU program web page.

Filed Under: Membership Tagged With:

UU Social Media in Action!

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Friends, thanks to those who shared examples of UUs using social media in time for my recent computer lab training.

Next up?   Mass Bay Spring Conference on May 1st !

After Shelby Meyerhoff, UUA Public Witness Specialist, offers the keynote, I am presenting social media case studies, ministry applications and discussing associated challenges.  I have examples, but would love more.

I have set up a form, uu social media examples, which you can use to easily share links and thoughts on related issues.  Share as little or as much as you’d like – even a single web page.  Feel free to share the link to this form (email, Facebook, Twitter)  as I have an ongoing need for examples.

http://tinyurl.com/uusocialmediaexamples

I’d like examples to represent  intro to advanced users and a range of social media tools.

How is your congregation engaging with people online?
What are the practical issues you are facing?
What do leaders considering their next steps need to know?

Filed Under: Events, Peter's Calendar, Social Media

Association wide small group ministry survey

April 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As one of the co-founders of the UU Small Group Ministry Network  I’m excited to share the following announcement.  If you have a small group ministry or covenant group program, will you please submit your answers to the following survey questions.  Thank you! My colleagues and friends are doing our association a huge favor by collecting and organizing this information.  I give you permission to send as much or as little info as you have time for, just send something. – Peter

The Small Group Ministry Network is compiling a resource titled “Small Group Ministry 2010: Celebrating Congregations” to be available for sale at General Assembly 2010 as fundraiser for the UU Small Group Ministry Network.

We are inviting congregations to give us a profile of  their Small Group Ministry/Covenant Groups based on the following survey.  Each profile will be edited to fit on a single page less so responses do need to be brief.

Please submit your profile to office@smallgroupministry.net hope to have surveys returned by May 7, 2010.

Thanks for your contributions to UU Small Group Ministry/Covenant Groups movement. We look forward to including information about your congregation in the publication.

Rev. Helen Zidowecki
for the UU SGM Network Board
www.smallgroupministry.net

Small Group Ministry Survey Questions

Copy these questions into an email message or word file, complete and send to office@smallgroupministry.net

Congregation Information:

Congregation Name:

Congregation Address:

Number of members:

Information about your Small Group Ministry/Covenant Group Program:

What do you call your groups and the program as a whole?

When did it start?

How many groups do you have currently?

How would you describe the overall health of the Small Group Ministry?

Briefly list successes of your program:

Briefly name some challenges that you have or are now facing:

If you are in the process of starting or restarting a program, what actions have you taken to date?

What are your plans for starting/restarting a program?

Contact information that can be included in the publication:

Website:

Other, specify:

If your program is not presently active, it would be helpful if you could share some of the factors.  These would NOT be included in the Book 2010, but could be used in a compilation of factors for further assistance to congregations.

Thanks!

Filed Under: Small Group Ministry

WEBINAR: The Almost Church Revitalized next TUESDAY

April 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Friends,  next Tuesday I am hosting a conversation with Michael Durall, parish consultant and author of the Almost Church books.

I spoke with Michael recently and we outlined the following topics for the webinar.

  • First, what it means to be a UU in this place and time, the meaning of membership, and why the Membership Committee is one of the most significant ministries in the church.
  • Second, issues of outreach, mission, and social justice beyond your own four walls — the keys to a healthy congregation.
  • Third, the perennial need for strong and informed leadership, what Peter Drucker often refers to as “A foul-weather job.”

I hope you can join us!  Seats are limited, but a handful are still available.  For my previous webinars people have organized groups to gather round a computer and listen via speaker phone. I love the idea of groups joining in.  Full details and link to online registration are below.  — Peter

Michael DurallFormat:  Webinar
Date:  April 20th
Time: 7:30pm – 9pm EST
Cost: $12  (online registration fee included)
Registration:  Register online here

Peter Bowden hosts a coversation on the health, growth and future of Unitarian Universalism with Michael Durall, parish consultant and author The Almost Church Revitalized.

This webinar will utilize both a telephone conference call and the UUA’s Persony webinar website. All information will be emailed to registered participants 24 hours before the webinar.

Michael Durall is an organizational consultant for churches with the CommonWealth Consulting Group and the author of The Almost Church, The Almost Church Revitalized, Creating Congregations of Generous People, Beyond the Collection Plate: Overcoming Obstacles to Faithful Giving, and editor of Living a Call: Ministers and Congregations Together.

Learn more about Michael’s work at vitalcongregations.com.

Filed Under: Webinars Tagged With: ,

Watch the new UCC 30 sec web video spot

April 16, 2010 By 1 Comment

Here’s the UCC’s new ad.  Read more about it here.

The Youtube version is below. On the day of launch the UCC reports that the mass of traffic led youtube to think the video count was being increased via automation and they shut off the count.  The UCC quickly moved the video to Vimeo.

Filed Under: Outreach, Social Media Tagged With:

UCC moves from old school TV to web video ad campaign

April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Friends,  for months I’ve been following the United Church of Christ (UCC) as it builds up excitement and energy around a new 30 second video spot being released tomorrow.

Here’s the deal.  Instead of putting large sums of money into a national (old school) TV campaign, they’ve invested time and energy via e-newsletters, Facebook, etc… to get every UCC member and friend on board to share the video when it is released tomorrow.

I have to say the UCC has done a great job preparing for the videos release.  I’m looking forward to seeing if the video goes viral after months of there saying “Please share this on April 16th!”  You can learn about the April 16th God is Still Speaking video campaign here.

Tomorrow I will post the video.  I’d love to hear your impressions of the video and the overall campaign strategy.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: ,

Happy 50th UUA! — Join the Party, the Sunday, the Growth

April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Association Sunday 2010

UU Growth fans,  I’m excited to share  that our  2010 Association Sunday is focused on  drumroll …… GROWTH!

Here’s the scoop. Every year the UUA invites congregations to hold one service where we uphold the value of our working together as an association and take a special collection to fund an important area of our shared ministry.  This year the target date for the service is October 3, 2010 with funds from the special collection going to support  growth initiatives.

I should disclose that I am a  growth initiative from a previous year. My part time position is is funded by a district grant from Association Sunday 2007.

I hope you will sign up to participate.  You may learn more on the Association Sunday site and, if you’re ready,  sign up here. Below is some more information about the Sunday.   Now, where will I be speaking on this Sunday?  Hmmmm….

This is a unique year for Unitarian Universalists (UUs) everywhere: we are kicking off festivities for the 50th anniversary of our Association! Join thousands of UUs on October 3, 2010 for Association Sunday, a special service and collection that will celebrate the past 50 years of UUism and the future of our faith.

Proceeds from this year’s Association Sunday special collection will go to ensuring that our faith thrives for generations to come. Beginning in spring 2010, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) will embark on an in-depth strategic review of leadership and growth in order to develop an action plan to strengthen our community for future generations.


Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:
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