UPDATE! Please note that due to the selection of our candidate on October 18th, we are now hosting a series of Forums rather than a single presentation on November 8th. Check out the schedule for these Forums here and be sure to attend one!
An MSC P&P that’s a Q&A plus A/V of our DA on the TBL plus BCT by KK, D-UUATO — including our SD, CP, CR, MP and the other CP based on the S, DS, I, R, ICs, etc.
12:30PM on Nov. 8. So, Please Save That Date!
Alphabet soup, indeed! For those of you who haven’t been as immersed in the search process (and the need for our own shorthand to describe that work) as we six members of your Ministerial Search Committee, let us translate that bit of “alphabet soup” for you. First and foremost:
PLEASE: Mark your calendars for one of our upcoming MSC Forums. our next Process & Progress Forum scheduled for 12:30 in the afternoon on November 8.
Along with our usual Question & Answer (Q&A) session will be a VERY IMPORTANT “Audio Visual” (AV) presentation by your Ministerial Search Committee (MSC) on the results of our data analysis (DA) of all of the input gathered during the first major phase of the search process called “The Big Listen” (aka TBL) — as informed by the very enjoyable and enlightening sermon and workshop last weekend on Beyond Categorical Thinking (BCT) presented by the Rev. Keith Kron, Director of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Transitions Office (UUA TO).
Our sincere thanks to the 45 people who attended the three-hour BCT Workshop — including a single mom who was visiting Foothills for only the second time and was so intrigued by the sermon that she decided to stay for the workshop to learn more about our church and the ministerial search process! We hope those who attended will accept Rev. Kron’s challenge to share what you learned with other people in the congregation. If you weren’t able to attend this most helpful and informative workshop, please keep an eye out HERE and in the Extra for a follow-up article on the BCT Workshop.
In order for there to be a successful settlement (that’s Transitions Office jargon that covers the congregational vote to “call” a minister and then successfully integrate him or her into our community), the work of calling our next Senior Minister must be a collaborative effort and based on screening criteria representing the collective views of a broad cross-section of the congregation. In addition to the 45 people who participated in the BCT Workshop that marked the end of “The Big Listen,” hundreds and hundreds of you contributed to that critical information gathering effort through a variety of avenues including:
- 455 participants in our congregational survey (S),
- 150 people who attended one of the 17 two-hour focus groups we called “Discovery Sessions” (DS),
- 50 individuals from our staff and lay leadership (past & present & future) who shared their unique perspectives with members of the MSC in one-on-one interviews (I),
- 79 people who attended one of our three previous Process & Progress (P&P) Forums’ Q&A sessions, and
- Countless numbers of individuals who took time to speak to the MSC during informal conversations (ICs) with individuals and groups across our congregation.
Combining the above input from so many people across our congregation — from youth & young adults to families & our most senior seniors — with additional research (the “etc.”) conducted by the MSC with gracious assistance of church staff (who have helped us in numerous ways throughout TBL!), resulted in a massive amount of information, literally hundreds of pages of documents to be read, compiled, and analyzed — including close to 3000 thoughtful and informative comments from you on a wide range of topics.
Your MSC began preparing for this data analysis (DA) mid summer while still in the midst of “The Big Listen” and have been especially focused on it during the month of September. We are just completing the core documents which summarize the central criteria on which we will base the process of identifying an outstanding Senior Minister who is a great fit for our congregation. These summary documents (“our SD, CR, CP, & MP”) will be released, as promised, later this week. You’ll be able to check them out on “The Big Listen” tab that will soon be appearing at the top of our Search Light website & blog which can always be found on the web at our bit.ly/foothillssearch URL (tech-speak for the address of a website on the Internet) or by clicking HERE.
On the new “The Big Listen” page debuting in the next few days, we will briefly describe each of the summary documents being and provide links to “click” on so that you can view PDFs of each document (and/or download them for later review or to print a paper copy for yourself). Please note that even these “summary” documents total over 50 pages and are best understood if viewed/printed in color.
We will also have a set of hard copies you can peruse on the MSC table (in or near the binder where we keep the large print versions of our blog/Extra articles), which is located by our bulletin board in the Social Hall (near the kitchen). The office staff will also be able to provide paper copies upon request, but because of time and the number of pages of costly color copying involved, we hope that you’ll make every effort to view the documents online or print them at home.
We know that some of you are anxiously awaiting the release of these documents. In addition to our Search Light link listed above, you can keep an eye out for the release of the summary documents on The Big Listen page at bit.ly/thebiglisten – or clicking HERE.
Please send any questions about these core documents or the search process to SearchCommittee@foothillsuu.org – or, drop a note in the blue box on our table in the Social Hall. We look forward to addressing your concerns and answering your questions at our P&P on Nov 8. an upcoming MSC Forum.
As you might guess, all of this effort — carrying out “The Big Listen,” completing our core analysis, and developing the documents being released later this week — has been quite a task. Thanks to the generous participation of so many of you, we’ve been able to learn so much about our congregation: who we are, what’s important to us, what our dreams are for the future and, most of all, what are the key characteristics and skills we’ll need to look for in identifying the right candidate to recommend to the congregation as our next Senior Minister.
Foothills SearchLight 