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New Resolutions Format Developed

by Tiffany Vail, Associate for Communication and Communication Technologies

February/March 2006

Annual Meeting planners have developed a new, two-year format for the handling of resolutions that they hope will make the resolution process more meaningful.

According to Moderator Katrina Clinton, pastor of the First Congregational Church in North Attleboro, the new process will provide local churches with more information about the topics of resolutions, and more time and opportunity to study and reflect on them before votes are taken. It will also provide a method for developing action plans to address the needs raised by the resolutions.

“The new two-year resolution plan allows for time to put an action plan before the delegates and visitors. We will be able to put our efforts and ministries to work as well as raise our red cards,” Clinton said.

The new process, to be introduced at the 207th Annual Meeting June 9 and 10th at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, will work like this:

• Resolution proposers will be asked to provide resources for the subject of the resolution.
• A block of time will be set aside at Annual Meeting for people interested in the resolution to meet, review those resources and discuss the issue.
• The year between the 2006 and 2007 Annual Meetings will be used as a time for discernment and development of an action plan through local churches and perhaps associations.
• The action plan will be brought to the 2007 Annual Meeting for adoption by the delegates. 

Throughout the process, the resolution proposers will be responsible for the development and distribution of resources, data gathering, publication of findings, and development of action items.

This new process was developed by the Annual Meeting Revisioning Task Team, which was appointed by the Board of Directors in June to look at the function, form and location of the Conference annual meetings in light of the Conference’s mission to nurture the vitality of local churches and the covenant among them. The Task Team made its recommendations based on evaluations of the meetings submitted by delegates and visitors and answers to a survey posted on the Conference Website.

“The two things people felt most strongly about were that the business portion of the Meeting be shorter, and that we change the resolution process,” said Mary Alice Stahleker, chair of  the Task Team and a member of the First Church of Christ, UCC, in Sandwich.

“With resolutions, we felt that speaking out on issues is really the heart of the soul of the UCC, and yet we need to do it more effectively. We hope this process will encourage the churches to be more engaged with the issues and will give them a plan of action for addressing them,” she said.

Those proposing resolutions have the option of not following the new process but instead submitting resolutions under the old rules.