David Sheh
06/25/2023
Editors note: (7/16/23) It has been pointed out to us that David does not mention that Amanda Weatherspoon was also elected to the Board of Trustees of the UUA. We have added Amanda to this report.
Update: 07/01/2023 (redacted the name of the employee who was fired, and added a note that the video has been posted with these segments removed)
Introduction:
It was a privilege representing VUU (Chandler, AZ) at General Assembly 2023. Jodi and I went in person to Pittsburgh to witness and participate, motivated in particular by our opposition to the Article II revisions. I also wanted to reconnect with the happenings in our denomination as I have not been at GA in 6 years. I came to learn, to participate in debate, to meet people, and re-connect with the larger movement. There were approximately 2500 participants in this year’s GA, both in person and online.
Voting:
My observation is that all items that the UUA wanted to pass passed overwhelmingly and those items the leadership opposed were overwhelmingly defeated. There were no close votes.
Rules of procedure:
This passed with 98.3% of 1216 votes cast and only 21 votes against. This is typically the only item of business on the Wednesday evening session.
Article II Proposal Amendments:
Of the 80 amendments accepted for priority the Board selected 15 to be considered by the assembly in the following order (Also see Anne’s amendment list):
- Add Spiritual Development to purposes By Viola Abbitt. Passed 92.5% yes of 1538 votes.
- Add create UU communities to purposes by David Schwartz. Passed 87.4% yes of 1538 votes.
- Replace worthiness with inherent worth and dignity of each person by Bec Wheeler, A2C opposed, Defeated 71.8% no of 1538 votes.
- Add 7 principles back in as historical reference by Jan Radoslovich. A2C opposed Defeated 73.6% no of 1538 votes.
- Remove accountability and Discipline of Love, replace with “To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another, this is our covenant.” by Howard Tolley. A2C opposed. Defeated 80.2% no of 1538 votes.
- Add back revised sources, including Creative Arts as a source by Janet Leavens. A2C opposed. Defeated 78.6% no out of 1992 votes.
- Revise interdependence value to replace damaged relationships with protection from exploitation by John Millspaugh. Passed 78.4% yes out of 1992 votes.
- Anne Schneider’s Amendment to reinstate the absolute individual freedom of belief. Opposed by A2C, Defeated 77.8% No out of 1992 votes.
- Remove we welcome those who share our values with those who search for truth by Edward Wilson. A2C opposed. Defeated 80.3% no out of 1992 votes.
- Add transcending Mystery and Wonder as a primary source. By Matthew Johnson passed 71.5% yes out of 1992 votes.
- Add Gratitude value by Melissa Egberton A2C opposed 82.1% No out of 1992 votes.
- Add 6 sources back without modification by Patricia Shifferd. A2C opposed. Defeated 88.7% no.
- Revise Justice Value by Kathi Bayne. Passed 72.9% yes out of 1992 votes.
- Liberating Love is Highest purpose by John Gubbings. Ran out of time so not discussed or voted on.
- Add peace value by Mac Goekler. Ran out of time so not discussed or voted on.
Article II vote:
86.3% of 2109 votes cast in favor of replacing Article II with the Study Commissions proposal as amended by the 5 approved amendments stated above. The Article II study commission has 6 months to create a final draft to be approved by 2/3 majority at the on line GA in 2023. The Article II amendment process for GA 2024 will be much stricter, amendments can be put on the agenda only if 15 congregations petition to do so, and then the amendment requires a ¾ majority to be incorporated before the final vote.
Divestment:
This was a proposal to completely divest the unrestricted UUA endowment fund of all funds that directly or indirectly supported fossil fuels. The $14M total would be taken out and used for reparations. This was created by and strongly advocated for by the Youth and Young Adults. This included impassioned and effective speeches during the debate and a disruptive demonstration near the end of Saturday’s general session. This motion required 2/3 majority to pass, it failed 2 to 1, receiving only 31.75% of the 2109 votes cast.
The UUA organized serious opposition, saying it undermines their efforts and would result in budget shortfalls and staff layoffs.
No clapping was heard when divesture vote result was announced by the Board secretary.
My interpretation: the delegates who followed the UUA line and defeated the business resolution were not proud of what they had done.
Elections, including a new UUA President:
Dr. Rev. Sofia Betancourt ran unopposed and received 95.5% of 2320 votes cast. There were 110 no votes.
At the last presidential candidate forum Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson of the election commission stated that there would be no questions posed to Rev. Sofia about the fact that she ran unopposed in spite of the fact that the bylaws require 2 or more candidates. He stated that all such questions have been asked and answered (by the board and presidential search committee 8 months ago online) and in this context such questions are both racist and sexist. He further stated that the UUA has followed the bylaws (!).
Other races were not competitive except for nominating committee, where the petition candidate Dick Burkhart received 607 votes, about 1/3 or less of what the winning candidates received.
Elected candidates were as follows:
Board of Trustees:
Barbara de Leeuw
Bill Young
John B. Newhall
Amanda Weatherspoon
Commission on Appraisal:
Carol Thomas Cissell
Rev. Meg Richardson
Dana N. Moore
Rev. Monica Dobbins
Rev. Lucas Hergert
Commission on Social Witness:
Dr. Sharon D. Welch
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Landrum
Rev Nancy Reid McKee
Financial Advisor:
David Stewart
Nominating Committee:
Rev. Viola Abbitt
Carrie Stewart
Rev. Zackrie Vinczen
Ben Babel
Tin Atkins
Kathey Charles.
AIWs:
All 3 of the AIWs that got to final status were overwhelming approved. Of the 2109 votes:
Rise up and Stop Cop City 83.8% yes
Organizing for health equity 85.8% yes
Protect the Dreamers the recipients of DACA with a path to permanent residence 98.1% yes
Firing:
Youth and young adult advisor <Name Redacted> was fired Saturday at GA.
Care team reported at the start of the Saturday afternoon general session that he lost credentials, had to leave hotel and town immediately and was fired. The reason they believed was that XXXX supported the Divesture motion and was planning to speak in favor of it at that session. The UUA was opposed to this measure. The folks giving this care team report ended by calling the UUA out of covenant.
Empire strikes back:
- Rev. Susan announced at 5:30 Saturday that she knows and stands this decision, with her top executives by her side.
- Different members of the Care team presented the report on Sunday. They stated that their members made a mistake in calling the UUA out of covenant, that they did not consult with UUA or rest of care/covenant team.
- The recording of the Saturday session has not been posted, as other sessions have been. The website only states it is coming soon or no longer available. (Editorial note: The video has subsequently been posted with these events removed from the video)
Workshops, Sermons, and Events:
- The mini assembly for rules of procedure included discussion to restore the procedural microphone. This amendment failed 251 for and 449 against
- Mini assembly for the Business resolution discussed potential amendments, the most notable of which was an amendment to remove reparations from the proposal. This failed 286 in favor and 329 opposed.
- Mini assembly for A2C was a waste of time, no discussion or votes, just a Q@A session. We did learn the final order in which amendments would be considered. This mattered because amendments towards the end of the list did not get discussed or voted on.
- Stewardship: Suggestions we were already doing. Takeaways:
- Make pledging easy, multiple methods
- Make giving accessible
- Build community with stewardship drive.
- Build Spirituality with stewardship drive.
- Encourage Children to pledge
- Mental Health: a 12-step seminar, we left as not a topic we were currently looking for information on.
- Class and Youth: Lots of discussion among ourselves, very little information. Suggestions on how to make Auction more class assessable, which we are already doing.
- Will take in the on-demand videos in the next couple of weeks, as there were relatively few in person workshops at GA this year.
- The morning sermons were generally high quality, in particular Friday morning 2 men talked about their journey together in word and song. One was black, the other white, so they talked about how race shaped their history and experience of life.
- The service of the living tradition was very well done with a good sermon and good music. Rev. Christine Dance at UUCP made full fellowship.
- The bridging service was well done, and the youth and young adults put on an excellent service.
- The Ware lecture I found dull, the presenter was very well trained, but reminded me of some of the poor speakers I had back in college. To her credit she made good points around how to deal with racism and she made considerable effort to pick 19th century Unitarians to discuss in her address.
- I was not privy to special meetings this year, so have no report on the deep state GA.
Where are the 7 Principles? 