Winter Growth: Change, Assessment, Progress, and So Forth

Here we are again,starting our new format, focus, and organizational style for CUUPS-Continental...in the Winter! What's up with that, anyway? Many of you have probably just ended your cycle of the seasons, at Samhain, and some of you, just as are some of us, might even be in a dormant period right now, as in, one where you are taking stock internally, cosying up for the winter, snuggling down inside yourself with your own "long thoughts," and waiting for Spring to arise again before you share them with anyone else....Sooooo....Why are we starting off the "new stuff" now? Why not wait until Spring? Well...there's a reason...in fact there are several of them. Some of them are practicalities, and some of them are philosophies. Bear with us here, and let us introduce you to the new crop of Winter Growth, and explain why it is being planted when and as it is.

First and foremost, we have a brand-new CUUPS-Continental Board of Trustees, elected by all of you who chose to participate in this year's election. We say thanks for a great job to our outgoing Trustees, Rev. Bonnie Dlott, Rev. Adam Robersmith, and Steve and Shari Storm, all of whom have given assistance to CUUPS on so many fronts that it would take the rest of this web site to tell you all about it. May all and each of them thrive in their ongoing endeavors, and may they drop in from time to time to tell us all about it. And a hearty CUUPS welcome to Rev. Ann Marie Alderman, Ollis Hughes, and Carol Bodeau, who are taking spots on the Board of Trustees and assisting us to re-format things in a way we hope will serve you better. As an example, we have finally relieved our far-overworked and vastly underpaid (he's a volunteer like the rest of us!) "man-of-too-many-hats", Niko Tarini, of the responsibility for overseeing both Membership and Chapter Coordination, realizing that this is far too large a task for a single person to perform. We have a new Chapter Coordinator, Carol Bodeau, and have also appointed Ollis Hughes the Assistant Membership Coordinator, in order to make it possible for our far-flung net of volunteers to serve the members of CUUPS more efficiently.

As far as, "why now?", well, that is a system which is mandated by the Regulations, (which in other states than Ohio are called the By-Laws), of CUUPS Inc. We are required to hold our General Election subsequent to each year's GA, and therefore our new officers will be taking office after that election. In a way, this does make sense, as each new officer has a period of time when the Pagan Year lies somewhat dormant, a time to use in order to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of their new positions, so that when the light returns they can, as it were, hit the ground running. So a warm winter welcome to all these new faces, and we hope we will all be able to make the operations of CUUPS ever more suited to the needs of its membership.

Another new "winterflower" is our forming collegiate organization, CUUPCAKES. We are going to be meeting at General Assembly to begin the process of creating bylaws for this organization, and there is already a new Yahoo chat group in existence for the purpose of introducing potential CUUPCAKES to one another. If this is of interest to you, please apply to join the Yahoo Group, where we will be beginning discussions about ways and means, ideas and foci. The new group will, we hope, become a source of curriculum for Young Adult and YRUU members whose resource availability may have been changed by the removal of funding for the YRUU program. We hope we'll see a lot of you soon.

Once again we are in the process of doing a "Chapter Check-In" in order to make certain our Chapter Database is up-to-date, as our new Chapter Co-Ordinator takes on the responsibility of making certain we have everything in order to serve our chapters efficiently. If you happen to receive an e-mail from us, please make certain your Chapter Coordinator replies to it, so that we can keep your listing on the web site and in the database. If you have a current chapter, and you don't find a listing for it on our web site, or your listing is incorrect, let us know, and we'll update it for you.

In the past several months, we have run into several situations where members of CUUPS, or CUUPS Chapters, have begun to have difficulty with congregations or congregational boards who do not understand the status of CUUPS within the UUA, now that CUUPS is no longer an Independent Affiliate organization. We have not pursued actively amongst the members of our mailing lists, CUUPsters and cuups-cafe, the ongoing discussion of whether or not the will of the body is that we should actively pursue re-affiliation. I believe this conversation dropped off the radar when we realized that we could not actually name the reasons why we were originally disaffiliated in any way that made sense to our members. There is, however, still much to discuss, since the original disaffiliation, in our opinion, probably took place on a basis of our being interpreted by the UUA Board as a "group which pursues a single theological perspective", and where Pagans are concerned that is manifestly not the case. However, ever since we began thinking about the issue, it has come to our attention that there might be some genuine benefits to our attempting, amongst other things, to move towards a definition of "Unitarian Universalist Pagan" that doesn't merely include Pagans of diverse traditions who come together at the UU Church. The opinions of our members are being solicited on both of these topics, our possible re-application for Independent Affiliate status and our movement towards a definition of "What is a UU Pagan?" Please join one of the mailing lists named above if you would like to join in either of these conversations.

And, finally, we need, even in the dark of Winter, to talk about Summer Solstice and GA. Here in Salt Lake City, we are very excited to be able to host the Summer Solstice Ritual and the Annual Meeting. We are also hoping to be able to put things together to host a Convocation in conjunction with General Assembly 2009. We are very interested in finding out about possible speakers and topics for the General Assembly programming slot, as well as how we might best use our space in the Exhibit Hall. What would you like to see? What would you like to do? Whom would you like to hear from? If you have ideas on this topic, please let us know ASAP. The deadlines for all these things, for our applications and ideas, are coming up much faster than you would think. So let us know how we can best serve you. And Happy New Year, whenever you celebrate it. Let's move forward from the Winter Silence to the Spring Renewal, and let's do it together. And...let's start now, in the Silent Time, when we can think and plan. Thanks for your interest, and tell us what you would like us to be doing for you.

Blessings of the season to you,
CUUPS Board of Trustees

A Unitarian Universalist Pagan Sunday Service