CUUPS Annual Meeting June 26, 2004

The annual meeting of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, is held each year at the General Assembly of the UUA. Mary Gelfand, CUUPS board president, called the meeting to order. Carole Eagleheart took time from her booth to lead the group in song, one that she wrote for the CUUPS Convocation. The song is reminiscent of the Phoenix rising from the ashes and is reborn, as CUUPS rises from its past and moves through its revisioning process.

The agenda was:

• Report from last year's Annual Meeting
• Treasurer's report
• Nominating Committee
• Polling Committee
• Creating the nominating committee
• Work at Convocation from last year and the upcoming year's plan
• Revisioning CUUPS
• Finally, regarding the UUA and what is going on with the independent affiliates

The report from last year's annual meeting will be posted on the cuups-L email list.

A nearby chapter, the Ace of CUUPS , will hold a Summer Solstice ritual, and provided directions. Many felt that a nice tradition would be for a local chapter to do the ritual at each GA. The Denton and Fort Worth chapters of CUUPS are already at work to plan a ritual for next year and to find a place for next year.

One of CUUPS' two workshop slots was used for the Annual Meeting. Scheduling the meeting as a workshop helped attendance and participation. However, not enough speaker passes were available to allow all members of Ace of CUUPS into the General Assembly.

That the Greensboro, NC CUUPS chapter will serve as the Polling Committee, with three members to be named. No members of the Greensboro NC chapter can be nominees and so there is no conflict. They will conduct the election by polling those who are members as of June 30th, 2004. They will assemble the ballot, mail the ballots out, receive the cast ballots, report election results to the board, and keep the physical ballots for a year. Even though this is to be an uncontested election, it is important that fair procedures are followed.

A procedural question was raised about people having the ability to write in candidates on the ballot, to which the answer was no. Nominations from the floor are made at the Annual Meeting when there are enough members. The motion was made to accept the Polling Committee; it was seconded and, without any votes against, was voted in.

No members of the Nominating Committee were present. The following board members are up for election and/or reelection:

• Lydia Smith, incumbent general board member. She is also resurrecting the newsletter.
• Judy Kay Craft, incumbent membership coordinator and keeper of the database.
• Monique Posa is the new candidate. She is a member of the Denton, TX, UU church, where she has been involved in the leadership of the church. (She will set aside those duties, depending on the result of this election.)

Mary Gelfand, CUUPS board president, said that, "It's a wonderful opportunity to serve," in regards to being on the CUUPS board. There were no nominations from the floor. A motion was made to accept the nominations; it was seconded and accepted.

The Nominating Committee for next year is comprised of two people so far, S. Shaw and H. Tompkins. According to the bylaws, the Nominating Committee needs three more people. The board can appoint people to the Nominating Committee, yet it is a courtesy to ask first. It is also anyone's privilege to decline the nomination to the Nominating Committee.

Someone asked about the workload of Nominating Committee members. The task is to find nominees for the board. The Convocation is a good source of leadership potential. The workload is concentrated from December until May. A high estimate is that during those months it takes about three hours a week.

Mary Gelfand said that we need males on the board as well as on the Nominating Committee. She nominated Bob Sunde for the Nominating Committee and will ask him if he will accept. Lance Brown volunteered to be on the committee. Mary will ask members of Ace of CUUPS, the local chapter, for nominees. The motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept this nominating committee.

The treasurer's report was presented and accepted. CUUPS is operating in the black. All bills have been paid, including GA expenses. This is a huge relief after years of operating in the red. At the bottom of the financial report, Treasurer Shannon Cocheo said: "Please note that the fiscal year for CUUPS runs from January 1 to December 31. Therefore, this report comes to you at the midpoint of our fiscal year." The board decided to simplify chapter dues so that they all expire on October 31st, prorated for others that have already paid this year. Currently there are 477 memberships, and the Pagan presence is pretty strong in the UUA.

Mary Gelfand generously purchased merchandise for GA and Convocation. She also paid several honoraria for Convocation. She has been reimbursed $900 and is still owed $3,903.79. CUUPS will reimburse her from proceeds from GA and from revenue. The General Assembly expense line includes advertisements in UU World and in the GA Program, workshop fees and exhibit hall fees.

Two chapter coordinators in a row have had to resign early.

Lance Brown commented that it appears that CUUPS have repeatedly suffered losses of database information. He is looking at solutions, including paid ones, for other nonprofit groups with which he is affiliated. Online providers are available including management systems. There is a need to explore these options.In response it was mentioned that there are now backups being made.

Mary says that Convocation, which was over Oestara weekend, was wonderful. Isaac Bonewits was there, Carole Eagleheart sang, and the weekend was tightly structured. After the ritual there was a massive storm. It had been 70 degrees and by Monday morning, Mary's bottle of water was frozen in her car. They learned a number of important things at Convocation. One was that even without programming anything for adolescents, three showed up. CUUPS needs to outreach to youth. Shari mentioned that you need permission for those who are under 18 to attend.

Convocation had 70 attendees. If it is over a Sabbat weekend again it might be a bad thing as it would take people away from their regularly scheduled group rituals and events. Mary responded that the next Convocation is planned for the weekend following Oestara.

The cost of the Convocation will be $140 if registered early enough and one week prior to Convocation it will be $200. A leadership training workshop costing an extra $90 will be offered by the Mountain staff on the Thursday prior to the Convocation. Friday night is the start of the rest of Convocation.

Stan Cocheo is working on adolescent programming. Mary would like musicians and artisans to have a presence at Convocation. A hope is to grow enough to have Convocation twice a year, one on the east coast and one on the west coasts. Details on the the Convocation will be in the CUUPS newsletter.

Shari Storm, the CUUPS RE Coordinator, spoke of Religious Education and Revisioning. She is working on a youth pagan curriculum. Last year, the book Paganism was introduced. It is for adults, but it is adaptable to high school age youth also. A teacher's guide is also available. The book is available from Amazon.com and CUUPS gets a kickback on it. The teacher's guide is available for free for CUUPS chapters.

CUUPS is trying to find someone to write the curriculum for men, as "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven" was written for women. Sparrow spoke up from the floor and said that the UUCARDS booth carries a really good curriculum for a bridging ceremony for men.

The UU Church in Kent, OH, in response to bible camps of other denominations, created a curriculum for a workshop called Hogwarts Kent. A DVD and teacher's guide are available.

A liturgy guide is available, suitable for UU churches. Shari's group is in a receptive UU church, the UU Church of Boulder, Colorado. At first it there were misunderstandings, then they slowly introduced pagan concepts. She compiled Sunday morning resources for all ages. CUUPS encourages other chapters to do the same as a lot of churches don't understand what CUUPS and paganism are about. Membes are urged to take the Boulder Liturgy book, use it, copy it, and give acknowledgement of the source.

The group talked about revisioning. Networking with more UU Pagan-identified clergy is needed and happening. CUUPS should be a clearinghouse for wheels, not a reinventor of wheels. The board is setting goals. Revamping and updating of the web page is a high priority. At the next GA, we should be able to ask, "Have you seen the new web page?" Judy is trying to get Macromedia to give a copy of Dreamweaver to CUUPS as they give it to nonprofit organizations every year.

Mary Gelfand said, "We've talked about chapters. We're also working on individual memberships. However, chapter relations are most important thing as they are growing the most. District meetings also need to have workshops." Mary will go any place where her expenses are paid. She is able to help chapters in development and many other situations.

Mary mentioned that she has had a couple of meetings with the UUA about the affiliate status. Some other groups may be causing this inquiry into affiliate status, including the Seventh Principle project and the UUPA. None of these concerns are verified, they are just speculation.

The meeting was then adjourned.