About openuua

For the past three or four years there has been a concerted effort to make the UUA more open. There have been small accomplishments along the way. At the board meeting of October 2000 a lengthy report was presented, raising many of the issues in the current campaign. The only tangible result was that Denny Davidoff agreed to post board agendas on the web site, and most of them have been posted. The board is also posting notes about their meetings soon after the meetings have occurred.

During the campaign for moderator, both candidates supported the concept of being more open. As moderator, Diane Olson spoke often of her interest in greater transparency.

Another report was presented to the board working group on communications at the October 2002 board meeting. The board agreed to work on the ideas presented in that report, and scheduled it for part of the discussion of governance at its January 2003 meeting. However, it appears that open communications was never addressed, or, if it was, no information about it has been made available.

It became clear that the board will always have priorities, and this project really needs a grass-roots effort. In fact, as a result of the discussions on the OpenUUA mailing lists, the board incorporated many of its proposals at its October 2003 meeting.

The board can and is trying to make itself more open. However, it can't do the whole job without GA action. It has no jurisdiction over elected committees. Thus, the plan is to present a resolution for rule changes that will more closely match the type of openness the laws require in our governmental bodies.

This is not an attack on the UUA or the board. It is a recognition that there has to be support from the members of our member congregations to effect any real change.