A New Chapter Begins At UUSJ

Greetings, UUSJ supporters!  What an honor it is for me to serve as Chair of the new UUSJ board this year.  As many of you have read, UUSJ has completely transformed its Board of Trustees to make it more national, and more diverse in terms of geography, age, race, ethnicity and other ways. The eleven new members were recruited by a national nominating committee, and only three of us had served on the last board (each for two years or less). I thank the nominating committee for that deeply important service.

I also want to honor the hard work and sacrifice of the past Board, which spent two years on discerning strategically and planning just such a transformation as part of the move to being more national, and more accountable. Then the whole board – whose members in the past were largely named by the Washington, DC area congregations – committed to stepping back and off the Board voluntarily to allow this new approach to take place. In many cases, outgoing members will still serve as “volunteer liaisons” to help implement UUSJ activities under guidance from Executive Director Pablo DeJesús.

This intentional transformation comes from a commitment to become a more justice-centered UU-related organization. As part of that process, the previous Board identified four groups of moral owners we are striving to be in right relationship with and better serve. They are: UU individuals, UU congregations, impacted communities, and organizations led by or representing impacted communities.

UUSJ has also concluded it must widen its circle of concern to strive for better, more equitable engagement and service to our moral owners.

My aim as Chair was first to quickly restructure our officers and committees. This task is now completed thanks to the willingness of new trustees to join several special sessions.  We now will turn to reassessing our priorities for education, engagement and advocacy. A recent survey of 200+ UUs along with the past board’s work on anti-racism has highlighted the need for us to be more intentional about racial justice goals.

At the same time, voter suppression, immigrant and refugee needs, climate change and persistent economic inequalities (our current four priority areas) beg for continued attention. This challenging goal will, I am confident, be achieved through the experience, creativity and dedication of our amazing new Board and volunteers.  We will be doing so as we also strive for much more interaction with partners who represent impacted people.

I am excited for this new chapter in UUSJ’s future and I encourage you to remain involved with UUSJ and find new ways to support the social justice actions as we move forward.  You keep our community vibrant and financially buoyant.

With thanks and respect,
Charlotte Jones Carroll, Board Chair