Rev. Peter Morales, UUA President
UUA Organization Changes Announced
To: UUA Staff, UUA Board of Trustees and Member Congregations
Re: Organization Changes at the UUA
September 9, 2009
The potential for our faith is breathtaking. The gap between what we can be and where we are calls us to action. In the coming months and years we need to focus our efforts in several areas. Chief among these are:
- Growing our movement—This will involve working in partnership with our congregations as never before.
- Creating a new ministry for a new America—We live in the midst of a historic demographic and cultural shift. Half our parish ministers will retire in the next decade. We must develop a strategy to adapt to this tremendous change. This includes everything from ministerial recruitment to training to certification to continuing education—and includes parish, community, religious education and music ministries.
- Public Witness and Social Action—We must expand our movement’s capacity to be a force for compassion, justice and stewardship of the earth. This involves work at the local, regional, national and even international levels.
- We must become far more effective at using new technology to facilitate communication and collaboration across our staff and our movement. Initial challenges include a redesign of our web site and expansion of video capability.
After extended conversations with staff and others, I have decided that an organizational change will help us focus and coordinate our initiatives. These changes are intended to allow staff to focus more on developmental work and to facilitate coordination and collaboration across staff group boundaries. The essence of the change (which is represented visually in the attached organization chart) is to create two major areas.
The first area, under the leadership of the executive vice president and the treasurer, will oversee the following staff groups:
- Communications
- Beacon Press
- Stewardship and Development
- UU Funding Panels
- Internal Services (Finance, Conference Planning, Operations)
- Information Technology
Kay Montgomery will continue serving as executive vice president.
Tim Brennan will continue serving as treasurer and chief financial officer.
The second area will be under the leadership of the new vice president of ministries and congregational support, will oversee the following staff groups:
- Congregational Life
- Ministry and Professional Leadership
- Lifespan Faith Development
- Identity Based Ministries
- Advocacy and Witness
Harlan Limpert will serve as vice president for ministries and congregational support.
These changes are effective immediately.
Finally, no organizational change can ensure success. This change is intended to help us work together more effectively. Only when we all work unleash the passion and skill of our people can we achieve our goals. Let us all commit ourselves to working hand in hand to grow our faith and help heal our world.
Faithfully,
Peter Morales
President
Unitarian Universalist Association
Last updated on Thursday, September 10, 2009.
