District Governance Restructured...

The Florida District is transitioning to a smaller Board and Program Council form of governance. The Annual Assembly held in Miami on April 17, 1999 voted to reduce the size of the district board from eighteen members to nine. The Program Council will be formed of District committee chairs, representatives of the Clusters, Young Religious Unitarian Universalists, the Florida UU Ministers’ Association and the Congregational Presidents’ Council. This newly formed group is charged with fulfilling the promise of Unitarian Universalism through the development of quality programs and training opportunities. The Program Council will meet on July 31st at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando, from 10:00 a.m. -4: 00 p.m. A second meeting is tentatively planned for January.

Our District Executive, Rev. Mary Higgins, envisions the Program Council meetings as fulfilling four main purposes:
• to foster lateral relationships between different groups to strengthen our programs and find ways to share expertise and resources, to create networking opportunities, and to promote meaningful dia-logue between the people charged with program development;
• to set a common calendar for the year whose events reflect the priorities of the congregations of the Florida district;
• to create an opportunity for those charged with programming to look at the financial resources available to us and determine how we can share those in order to have the maximum positive effect on the health and vitality of our congregations.
• to evaluate the impact of our pro-grams to fulfill the goals and ends of the district as we support and nurture Unitarian Universalism in the Florida District.

Look for great energy and enthusiasm from your Program Council!