Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA
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What is UUCAVA'S Social Justice Line Item Budget?
Following the Nov. 21 UUSJ workshop where 39 UUs from around the region discussed the UU World article "Is Your Congregation Public or Private? (http://uuworld.org/ideas/articles/145381.shtml), I would like to know:
What is UUCAVA's Social Justice Line Item Budget?
I thank Bill Fogarty for his leadership following this article's publication in our church. Unfortunately, I have been unable to attend any of the discussions he has offered about this topic. I hope going forward to be able to attend.
I believe Jacomina De Regt, as one of the UUSJ workshop leaders, described that defining church budget expenditures for social justice is a complex determination to make, and at the workshop. she had a UUCA estimate, but I wasn't taking notes, and I hope that this information could be shared with the entire UUCAVA community in a response to this post (forgive me Jacomina for not asking you directly, but this way all can see the info or whatever is the reason that it must be kept private).
FYI: Here are the questions that resulted from that Nov. 21 workshop:
1. Is your congregation involved in determining outlays that create a more just and humane world and is the giving strategic, based on a survey of which community needs are being met and which are not ?
2. What are the number and monetary value of social justice volunteer hours, not including regular committee meetings?
3. What percentage of members and friends participate in congregational social justice work?
4. What is the monetary value of expenditures for social justice staff and the social justice portion of the minister’s time?
5. What is the number of social justice events and programs held and /or communicated to the congregation including applicable sermons, articles and guest speakers?
6. Does the congregation participate in the prioritization of social justice efforts?
7. What is the number of partnerships the congregation has with those working for the greater good?
8. Are new members expected to be involved with social justice efforts when they join as they are given the expectation that they will financially support the congregation?
9. How many outreach efforts occur with respect to interfaith worship and music?
10. Describe non-quantifiable actions both personal and congregational that are transformational?
11. Are church monies invested in socially responsible/ethical investments, i.e., in companies that do well and do good?
What is UUCAVA's Social Justice Line Item Budget?
I thank Bill Fogarty for his leadership following this article's publication in our church. Unfortunately, I have been unable to attend any of the discussions he has offered about this topic. I hope going forward to be able to attend.
I believe Jacomina De Regt, as one of the UUSJ workshop leaders, described that defining church budget expenditures for social justice is a complex determination to make, and at the workshop. she had a UUCA estimate, but I wasn't taking notes, and I hope that this information could be shared with the entire UUCAVA community in a response to this post (forgive me Jacomina for not asking you directly, but this way all can see the info or whatever is the reason that it must be kept private).
FYI: Here are the questions that resulted from that Nov. 21 workshop:
1. Is your congregation involved in determining outlays that create a more just and humane world and is the giving strategic, based on a survey of which community needs are being met and which are not ?
2. What are the number and monetary value of social justice volunteer hours, not including regular committee meetings?
3. What percentage of members and friends participate in congregational social justice work?
4. What is the monetary value of expenditures for social justice staff and the social justice portion of the minister’s time?
5. What is the number of social justice events and programs held and /or communicated to the congregation including applicable sermons, articles and guest speakers?
6. Does the congregation participate in the prioritization of social justice efforts?
7. What is the number of partnerships the congregation has with those working for the greater good?
8. Are new members expected to be involved with social justice efforts when they join as they are given the expectation that they will financially support the congregation?
9. How many outreach efforts occur with respect to interfaith worship and music?
10. Describe non-quantifiable actions both personal and congregational that are transformational?
11. Are church monies invested in socially responsible/ethical investments, i.e., in companies that do well and do good?
Comment
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Comment by Jacomina de Regt on December 9, 2009 at 9:33pm -
Laura, I wrote an article in the December Arlingtarian with all the figures for last fiscal year concluding that UUCA would be considered a private church if we used the Durall book's criteria. In the presentation at UUSJ I also quoted the percentages. In UUCA's budget, the social justice budget is just over 1.5%. If all expenditures on social justice are counted UUCA members and friends put together about $150k which would be slightly over 10%. Durall mentions that the average is 16% and that the range is 10-29%. One other UU congregation had done the same work and also concluded that its SJ budget was 1.5%, down from 3% a couple of years ago. Also a private church by this criterium. Other congregations present in the UUSJ workshop promised to go back and do the work themselves.
The questions that you quote above from the UUSJ workshop show how interesting the discussion was and that the participants thought that the percentage of budget should not be the only criterium to use to determine whether a congregation is public or private.
I also took away from that UUSJ workshop discussion, though, a concluding remark by Bill Fogarty. He asked whether we were all so eagerly trying to define other criteria in order to be able to say that our congregations were really public churches because if we could not tick off the budget box, we might be able to tick off the other boxes (if there were more criteria).
Regardless of the motivation of wanting to use more than one criterium, I think the list of 11 questions are very good ones to actually reflect on in UUCA. The website of UUSJ, http://uusj-bwnv.blogspot.com/
invites all of us to comment on the list of questions and add new ones.
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