Serving on a congregational board is an opportunity for both spiritual growth and the development of leadership skills that will serve you at work and other areas of your life!
We suggest that your whole board use this training together to develop your relationships and common language and practices for you as a team and discerning body of the congregation.
Designed and presented by your UUA Congregational Life Staff, this training covers:
- Spiritual Grounding for board members with a deep understanding of covenant, personal and group spiritual practice, and group discernment.
- Perceiving Meetings as Ministry, so that we balance the work to be done with the core values that we hold as a religious community
- Understanding Communication as Relationship, where our practices of interaction as leaders have a deep impact on the congregation as a whole.
- Leading Our Congregation as a System so that we can make our decisions out of a place of both self-awareness and an awareness of group dynamics.
- Practicing Governance as Stewardship with accountability to the mission and vision of the congregation through clear and thoughtful policies and procedures that guide decision-making.
Your UUA staff knows that a well-functioning board is the key to a vibrant and resilient congregation. Having all of your board members take this training will make a big difference, so we don’t want the nominal cost to be a barrier.
Your gifts to the UUA Annual Program Fund helped to make this training possible!
If you or your UU congregation cannot afford to pay for this training, use the coupon code APF15 when you check out, and enjoy the training!
This training is organized into Modules and topics, but you can access the materials in any order (i.e. “free form”), and mark them as complete to help you keep track of your progress.
Peer & Cohort Learning
Each module has an activity at the end that your board can use to develop your own shared understanding of your role as a board in your particular congregations serving your own unique mission.
You can space these out during the course of the year. Some options include:
- Discuss a topic or two at the beginning of board meetings
- Schedule a second monthly meeting to learn together
- Plan a few half-day learning retreats with neighboring congregations and learn as a larger cohort as you swap stories and ideas
Plan Your Own Board Retreat
The 6th module is full of resources for you to plan your own annual board retreat. You may wish to hire an outside facilitator or ask a leader from a neighboring congregation to facilitate and help you set goals.
