Submission 339 Tim Hirsch UU Congregation of Eau Claire WIsconsin
What is your suggestion or idea?
Start Over!
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
As a lay member of a UU congregation, I am disappointed that the Article !! Commission does not identify individual UU members among the “Stakeholders” from whom they intended to seek suggestions. Members of every congregation should be the FIRST stakeholders identified. Members of the Commission clearly reveal their assumptions and biases in their skewed list of stakeholders.
Have you discussed this idea with your congregation or other UUs?
I am one of very few in a congregation of 260 who has even heard about the potential of Article II revisions. Our Minister is attempting to alert and inform us and encourage feedback, but for many ordinary UU’s, it is too late in the process to begin now. I hope we start over, this time with members as the first and primary stakeholders.
The proposal has MANY components that I am not interested in embracing. Overall it is too wordy and lofty to be fully understood, feels like a step toward organized religion, and feels much too exclusionary.
Agree that the review of Article 2 should be started over from the very beginning with active participation of the congregational members. This is too important to do otherwise.
My experience is that many many congregants have no idea what the Article 2 changes entail and / or do not believe their congregation will be affected. Really ?
I am trying hard to engage and follow the multiple discussions on each of the individual components of the revised Article II but I am overwhelmed. I attended the first UUA listening session on the Inspirations session (and was surprised that was the topic - there was no notice about that - apparently it was noted in the UUA facebook page, but I don’t use Facebook).
I was impressed during that session with the wide ranging discussion and input of the attendees, but the very wide range makes it hard to pick a thread and follow it. And that is just Inspirations! There is so much more to dissect and consider, that there is no way to digest all this before the GA. As a delegate and as a UU member I am unsettled by the runaway train of this revision.
I agree they should start over. I didn’t hear about this until late last year. I was extremely surprised they did a complete rewrite. It was uncalled for. I’ve grown to like what we have now over the last 20 some years. It was on my refrigerator, and it made me think.
I hope it gets voted down so we can have a pause and a do-over.