Submission 312
Dirk Herr-Hoyman
Prairie UU Society
What is your suggestion or idea?
Lay down this entire process.
Throwing out the current Article II is too extreme, at best there should be a small tweeking. At this point, it’s too far along to do even that, so
lay out this effort and revisit say in 5 years.
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
We should have a major catacylsm happen to be rewriting ByLaws and Section II in particular. Bylaws should get done at the organizes startup and then only tweeked as something comes up. This is taking a fair amount of effort which should be placed elsewhere, more nearly on the ground. All the changes I have seen, like systemic racism, have already been addressed in the current Section II and there are better ways to address these than changing Principles. Also, there’s a real chance of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Making it harder to explain “why I am a UU”, which many have figured out over time.
Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?
There are many in our congregration who have a similar view, which I would summarize as “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. We’ve had presentations and online discussions, as well as some 1-1’s I’ve had. There’s a considerable sentiment against this effort. Way too much to go forward, in the consensus decision making style I am used to seeing.