Common Ground II

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THE CONTEXT OF "COMMON GROUND: COMING OF AGE"

In April, 1980, the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Association accepted a proposal from the UUA Administration and the Executive Committee of Liberal Religious Youth to support a continental Youth Assembly in August, 1981. The Board of Trustees of Liberal Religious Youth endorsed the plan for the Youth Assembly in August, 1980, and voted that it would abide by the democratic decisions of the assembly.

These decisions culminated a five year process of self-examination on the part of Liberal Religious Youth, and the leadership of the UUA, in the area of youth programming. A Youth Assembly Planning Committee, convened by the Rev. Anne Heller of Berkeley, CA, was appointed and charged by the Board with the task of planning and executing a Youth Assembly.

A full report on the 1981 UUA Youth Assembly, "Common Ground" is available from the UUA Youth Consultant's office. The Youth Assembly Planning Committee felt that its charge had been fulfilled. All the UUA Districts plus a wide variety of UUA institutions and constituencies were represented at the 1981 Youth Assembly. Youth and adults participated in a ratio acceptable (3-1) to both groups.

Using a process which involved small consensus-building "circle groups" either mandating or clarifying decisions and directions for the whole assembly, a sweeping body of recommendations were proposed. They included:

  • the dissolution of Liberal Religious Youth over a two-year period.
  • a Youth Programs section in the UUA, to include both youth and adult staff.
  • the establishment of a new youth organization within the UUA with District-based regional groupings and a primary function of assisting District and local groups.
  • an age range of 12-22 for the new youth organization.
  • youth representation on the UUA Board.
  • a second Youth Assembly, to ratify a formal structure for the new organization.

The 1982-84 Continental Youth Adult Committee was charged with presenting these recommendations to the UUA Board and proceeding towards their implementation.

The 1982 UUA Youth Assembly, "Common Ground: Coming of Age," has been the result.


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Translated from the original text document to HTML by Lorne Tyndale, YRUU Programmes Specialist September 1993 - August 1994. The document was on lryer.org. I have placed the document on this site as I've been notified that lryer.org appears to be down.

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