GA Roadshow at Birmingham
The Executive Committee of the Unitarians' General Assembly have been staging 'Roadshows' at various centres around Britain, inviting members of congregations to come and meet them to air their views and have questions answered. Janet and Chris Granger, from Derby Chapel, went to one held at at Edgbaston New Meeting on Saturday 5th January 2008. Here is Janet's report:
My husband, Chris, and I drove to Edgbaston's New Meeting on Saturday 5th January, with many questions. Having negotiated the roadworks and diversions surrounding the building, we made our way inside, only to find that the place was freezing, as the heating had broken down. Undeterred, 23 people in total turned out for a useful day of exchanging ideas. The representatives from the General Assembly were Rev Ann Peart, Principal at Unitarian College, Manchester, and Peter Soulsby, the convenor (who also attends the Unitarian Chapel at Leicester). The audience consisted of interested congregational members from places such as Oxford, Cheltenham, Warwick, Leicester, and Edgbaston itself (and us, of course, from Friar Gate, Derby).
The meeting started with Ann and Peter giving a Powerpoint presentation, which described the Executive's recent achievements and future goals. We felt this was rather vague in places, and positively inaccurate in others! For instance, the GA website was described as 'excellent', and having had its 'teething problems solved' - which is, in fact, far from being the case.
Following the presentation, Peter started to take questions from the audience. The debate that followed was lively, and, with only a brief stop for lunch (during which, much networking went on in all corners of the room, the kitchen and the foyer!), continued for about two hours. The points which were raised were answered to varying degrees of satisfaction. Several questioners felt that the replies given were of the "we are trying our best, but we're very busy you know" kind. The main themes covered were as follows:
- Websites and internet use. It was felt by many that the GA website is poorly designed, incomplete, and has faults which need to be rectified. Individual Chapel's websites need to be supported in order to be more useful, both for congregations and attracting new members. District websites could be much more useful - at the moment, however, some Districts do not even have a website. There is no dedicated member of staff at Essex Hall for dealing with website issues, and it was felt that Executive members are not 'up to speed' on the need for the internet to be utilised more. There is to be a 'Unitarian Communication Co-ordinators Network' (UCCN) weekend at the Nightingale Centre, Great Hucklow, in February, which will have a small workshop section on website updating. A Google group for webmasters of Unitarian websites has just been set up by Chris Granger, and several people expressed an interest in joining it. It was noted that about a third of congregations (76 out of around 190), do not have a website at all, yet, and this was seen as a problem. Also, for various reasons, some ministers, secretaries, etc., do not have email addresses, and this was seen as hampering communication.
- Communication - generally, communication was seen as being rather frustrating. People felt that the Executive were difficult to contact (or, it was difficult to find out the correct person to contact). Peter explained the staffing problems of the past year (illness, vacancies, etc), but it was still felt that communication from the top down was not always forthcoming. Peter said, though, that sometimes expectations were too high, and that people were expecting the GA to respond to requests that really the Districts should be responding to. He felt that the role of the Districts was pivotal, and would be clarified over the coming months. The various Panels and Commissions were discussed briefly, but there seemed to be quite a lot of overlap in responsibilities, and again, feedback on what they were achieving was slow to get through to the grassroots. Jim Corrigall has been appointed part-time for two years, initially, as a Communications Consultant, to assist with internal and external communication issues.
- There is to be a Strategic Review meeting in February, which is seen as very important, as it aims to decide policy for at least the next year. The issue of supporting websites more will be discussed then.
- Ruth Archer (President of East Midland Unitarians) asked what the new-style GA Executive had achieved that couldn't have been achieved under the 'old' system of organisation - the reply being that there are fewer people now on the Executive (8 rather than 28), but that they meet more often (every two months, for 2 days, rather than one day per quarter), with more 'joined up' leadership, so they are achieving more for less 'wastage' of staff time. Peter stated that delegation had improved.
- GA Annual Conference. It was strongly felt that the Annual Conference was valued by the people who could afford to attend, but that it was far too expensive (around £400 per person, full board at Hatfield University Campus, for four days). Suggestions that the 'business' meetings could be dealt with as one event, and the 'celebratory' and more social events could perhaps be dealt with as a separate (or several separate) events, so that people could choose just the events that were relevant to them, were discussed but eventually rejected. The combined event, as it stands, is likely to be the pattern for the foreseeable future. Slight discounts and sponsorships are available to certain categories of attendees, but it was felt this was just 'tinkering' with the problem of cost. Showing at least some of the proceedings as a webcast was suggested, as that would enable many more people to feel included, for very minimal cost.
- Growth Day at the GA Annual Conference. The advertising of this event was criticised (the date, Friday 28th March, has only recently been decided upon, and has not yet been advertised in the Inquirer - not even in the full page article appealing for congregational members to attend). The reason given for this was that the full programme for the four day event cannot be planned until close to the event, as the Societies do not book slots for meetings, etc, in time. This was felt to be a poor excuse, especially considering that 'growth' is seen as such an important issue. The problem of the shortage of people coming forward to train for the ministry was briefly discussed, and how congregations with no permanent minister can keep going. We discussed for a while the meaning of 'growth' itself - more people in each chapel, services having deeper meaning, new chapels/fellowships starting up - all agreed it was an important area to focus on, although the problems to overcome in each area are significant. The role of the National Unitarian Fellowship was discussed in relation to how they might be able to co-ordinate finding congregations for isolated 'online' people who wanted a 'bricks and mortar' congregation to join.
- Efforts to raise the Unitarian 'profile' in schools and universities - Jim Corrigall is reviewing the approach to educational institutions. This issue will be discussed further at the Strategic Planning meeting in February.
- Commissions and Panels - a question was raised about how the members of these are found (they volunteer) and if they are paid (they are not).
- New members - encouraging new people who turn up at a Chapel for the first time, feel welcome enough to return a second time, was discussed. Possible 'welcome packs' of literature could be put together. Members from one Chapel might visit a neighbouring one 'with a critical eye' to offer constructive ideas on how things such as foyers, frontages, etc, might be made more welcoming.
- At the end of the meeting, it became apparent that it would have been helpful if everyone had worn name badges, and if a full list of participants had been made, so a note was made for future roadshows to that effect, and a list of current attendees was quickly compiled.