At last! The Mosaic Project on-line survey for UU Youth and Young Adults (ages 14-35) of Color and/or Latina/o and Hispanic descent has gone live! If you are a youth or young adult please Click here to take the Mosaic YaYA survey and let the Mosaic Project know how you feel about your experiences at the local, district, and continental level. 

Click here to learn more about the Mosaic Project, including its key question:

The question in essence is: What are the ministry needs of African, Caribbean, Native/American Indian, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latina/Latino and Hispanic, Middle Eastern/Arab, Multiracial and Multiethnic and trans-racially adopted Unitarian Universalist (UU) youth and young adults? How does our Unitarian Universalist faith need to change in order to meet these needs? What structures need to be strengthened or established to support families, congregations, campus groups, districts, and continental bodies in their ministries to these youth and young adults? 

This message was posted on behalf of Laura Spencer, UUA Program Associate for Racial and Ethnic Concerns, as part of the Assessment of Youth and Young Adult Ministries. Laura can be reached at lspencer at uua dot org. 

Proposed Agenda
Mtg with the UUA Board on Friday
General Assembly Security Issues
Interweave Requests for Letters of Support
DRUUMM Consultancy Process
Leadership Vacancies — no Treasurer at present
DRUUMM’s participation on the UUA Diversity on Ministry Team

Board Meeting–(VP1) Danielle DiBona may not be able to attend the Board meeting on Friday because of an illness in the family. We should still ask Adam to go on his own to represent us (Adam joined the call after this discussion took place and is planning to go the meeting). Manish will talk to Adam on Thursday to prep him for the Board meeting. We’d like him to say DRUUMM desires a deeper ongoing relationship with the Board and to propose some kind of social interaction at GA with more than just two of us. Manish will also ask him to raise the financial issues around the Capital Campaign we talked talked about on the last conference call. The notes for that were sent out earlier this evening to the Steering Cmte list serve. (Sorry for getting them to you all so belatedly).

GA Security Issues–GA this year is being held inside the US port security zone in Fort Lauderdale. This means you will need to have a government issued ID in order to get in to GA. This also means any undocumented folks who are part of the UU community will not be able to get in. Some young folks may not be able to get in either. The Planning Cmte is supposed to be working on that, meeting with groups that may be impacted by this. One thing they have devised so far is to have Chaplains present at each entrance to support folks and work through problems that may arise. The Planning Cmte also will address in plenary the painful reality of the high levels of security and the current situation in our country that makes it a reality. Some folks are proposing a second GA site where ID is not required to hold non-business events and worship. Adam has sent a letter to the UUA board outlining his concerns about the security issues and saying he will not attend GA because of them. (After we had this discussion Adam and Hope joined the call, Hope asked Adam if he would mind circulating his letter among us and he has agreed to do that. I think Hope will be sending it to the Steering Cmte list) .

DRUUMM’s official position on the security at Ga is that we see it as a problem and we (DRUUMM) need to be prepared to deal with it as a problem, but that we as an organization will not boycott GA because of it. When Manish talks to Adam on Thursday he will ask him not to let the Board engage him around this issue while he is there to represent DRUUMM’s concerns. But to invite the Board to engage him separately if they are interested in doing so during a time that is not DRUUMM’s time with the Board.

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Dear Bill, Gini, Tom, Beth, and Annette:

The DRUUMM Steering Committee met the evening of 1/16 and we discussed the hub-bub around Ft. Lauderdale.  We have taken a Steering Committee position.

We realize that contractual decisions were made quite some time ago that constrain the Association in some financially very difficult ways regarding Ft. Lauderdale.  It’s equally true that it is very unfortunate that we are in an access-related situation like this at all, one which will likely impact members of our DRUUMM community.

But, the reality is what the reality is, there is only so much that can be done at this late stage.  We are aware that the UUA Board, the Administration, and the GA Planning Committee have been working to address as many issues as possible before GA, in an attempt to ensure maximum, as hassle-free as possible, access.  We expect those efforts to be imperfect, that problems will occur.

We will work with you to handle this as best as we all can, and hope/trust that this type of accessibility problem won’t be re-created.

In recognition of the fact that DRUUMM community representatives are meeting with UUA Board reps on 1/18, later today, I’ll note that our SC decided not to raise this topic from our side.  We realize that the most that can be done is being done.  We have other collaborative agenda items that our reps have been asked to raise, which you’ll be in dialogue over shortly.

Best wishes for productive Board-DRUUMM meetings, writing in my official capacity, Rev. Manish Mishra, President, DRUUMM.

As of November 2007, DRUUMM has entered into a contract with an organizational consultant from Crossroads Anti-Racism Organizing & Training. This consultant, Pakou Her, will work with DRUUMM to, among other things, “assess the organization’s values” and “make concrete recommendations about restructuring, with any eye towards deepening DRUUMM’s institutional health.”

To view a copy of the contract, please click on the file link below. If you have any trouble downloading the document, leave a comment or send a message to the webmistress, and she will send you a copy directly via email.

druumm-crossroads-agreement-final.doc

(Some background of this interview is provided in the minutes from September 17 Steering Committee teleconference.)

A brief comment from Robette Dias, Recording Secretary:

Attached are the notes I took during the conference call with PaKou Her from Crossroads last week. In re-reading them I realize how much of the conversation I wasn’t able to actually capture. Its hard to do verbatim notes on an hour long conversation! I realize a lot of nuance has been lost. I just hope there is enough left here to give you a sense of the conversation. Manish represented us well, asked good, probing questions. And PaKou gave thoughtful, knowledgeable answers. So hopefully these notes are of some value.

Phone Interview with Crossroads Ministry
On the call for DRUUMM: Rev. Manish Mishra (President) Rev. Mel Hoover (Acting 2nd Vice President), Robette Dias (Acting Recording Secretary)

On the call for Crossroads: Pakou Her

Questions and remarks from DRUUMM SC are italicized.

Manish began by asking about the other groups Crossroads works with.

PaKou’s response: Crossroads started as faith based organization but has been changing in recent years. Working with a wider variety of institutions as the antiracism movement becomes increasingly secularized. Currently Crossroads works with faith institutions, city and county governments, educational institutions, non-profit organization, and social service institutions. So, although Crossroads foundations are in religious organizations, it has a growing capacity to work with other groups. In addition Crossroads continues to develop its capacity to engage in conversations about the inherent privilege of Christianity and the relationship between Christianity and racism.

What does Crossroads do?

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Meals
Volunteers are needed to help with food preparation and service at the First Unitarian Society in downtown Denver. Six meals will be served throughout the weekend, so you can sign up to work one meal or all six.

Transportation
Help is needed to drive to attendees between the airport and the hotels on the Friday and Sunday of the conference weekend. All that’s required is a functioning car, a valid driver’s license, and a little patience. DRUUMM will reimburse all drivers for gas money.

Chaperones
If you’re good with youth then this is the place for you. We need adult chaperones to monitor the young attendees during their activities. Additional volunteers may be needed for the sleepovers at the church on Friday and Saturday nights.

To sign up for any of these volunteers opportunities, please contact the DRUUMM Conference Planner Wade Price (email is WadeJPrice at bellsouth dot net).

Fall Conference Planning
Wade reported conference registration materials are ready to go, Hafidha will post to the website.

Steering Committee will meet at the conference on Friday during the day, the conference will start at dinner time. Manish arrives in Denver on Thursday around 2PM. Would be nice for us all to have dinner together. Manish will invite Laurel Hallman (potential candidate for future UUA President) to meet with SC on Friday for a follow up conversation (to the meeting that happened at General Assembly).

Denise talked about publicity, getting the word out to the district so that the DEs, etc. can do publicity within the district for the conference.

Need to work on: airport pickups; meals (dinner Friday-lunch Sunday) Denise suggested Natalie (yay!) Denise will check it out. Joseph Santos-Lyons volunteered to help Natalie if she is chosen. Local MDD DRUUMM chapter (about 12 people) can help with food and transportation. Denise will work with the Church and Wade around securing the whole space for use during the conference. Denise will coordinate chaperones for youth staying at the church. Denise and Wade have been talking regularly, will begin talking at least weekly from now on. Diana Mapes at the Church is the person to talk to about the kinds and sizes of the rooms that will be available for our use.

Conference Programming
Bill Sinkford (UUA President) wants to come to Fall Conference, do we want him to have a specific role? Julie needs to make travel arrangements for him. Chit chat doesn’t seem particularly effective. Mel mentioned capital campaign, suggested having conversation about supporting programming for POC. Changes in youth programming, how is youth of color going to be nurtured with restructuring. Manish suggested Bill meeting with break out groups, targeted roundtables, interest groups something like that on Saturday. Opportunities for more informal conversations with Bill, Elandria suggested people writing questions on note cards on Friday.

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DRUUMM 2007 Conference Parental Release Form

DRUUMM 2007 Conference Registration Form

The first request is for you to tell us who you are and how to reach you.

The second request is share the word with other UUs of african descent that you know. Think of clergy, lay leaders, seminarians, congregational members, and friends!

Please contact Jacqui via email; or send a message to Joyce at africandescentcaucus dot org.

Note from DRUUMM President, Manish Mishra, to the DRUUMM Steering Committee:

Allies for Racial Equity can’t find a church to host them in Denver.  Our DRUUMM planning is too far along, so Annette Marquis (ARE President) and I agreed that it made best sense at this late juncture to meet separately this fall.  ARE is considering sending a rep or two from their Steering Committee to meet with us in Denver on Friday in the day (during our SC’s meeting time).  I told them that if they could pull that off, it would be good for us to liaise in person, since that had been one of our original plans anyway.

It’s an important point that ARE and DRUUMM are not meeting separately for any negative reason. It is purely a logistical issue; they couldn’t find a host church.

Thanks everyone,Manish