I was pondering the structure of the UUA in yesterdays post. I was prompted to think about this by something Philocrites wrote about in the comments section of his post of November 29. He writes of "young people who discover Unitarian Universalism through Beliefnet's "Belief-o-Matic," but then don't find materials -- by which I mean Web sites -- directed to them as curious young adults. He refers to Joseph Santos-Lyons who compares the seeker resources of the UUA web site and the web site of the Episcopal Church.
The UUA web site is an example of centralization and vertical integration, there is main site and there are departments and links to congregations and affiliate organizations. With the Episcopal site, the seeker information is a separate site easily found from the main page. It is not clear from the UUA site whether the site is intended to give information to the general public about what the UUA executive leadership is doing, or is supposed to give information to Unitarian Universalists about services provided by the association (rules for credentialing as a Religious Educator for example) or help seekers find a spiritual home. Perhaps these functions could be done by separate web sites. Given the present staff organization of the UUA the web site reflects how the staff thinks about their public.
If different working groups built different web sites for the different functions merged in the present web site, we might have a very good seeker web sites, user friendly UU community resource web site, and a super conduit for public witness press release web site. None of these functions are done well on the present web site.
In the world of the web, multiple outlets of information each with with a focused mission would produce highly quality results than the present hierarchal approach.
UCC follows the Episcopal model, with a seeker site tied into their "Still Speaking" campaign. According to WHOIS, the UUA currently owns the uncommondenomination.org URL. Perhaps there's some motion in this same direction on our part? You'd think they would've had this duck in the row before rolling out the campaign.
Maybe the abundance of congregational leadership resources and the paucity of seeker resources on the main uua.org page simply reflects our congregational polity?
I've heard some congregational purists suggest that the only appropriate outlet for Unitarian Universalism is the local congregation.
In the eyes of these congregational purists, any expression of Unitarian Universalism directed towards individuals that doesn't come from a UU congregation is inappropriate within our tradition.
For example, I've heard some ministers in my region complain about "camp and conference Unitarian Universalists" who have some spiritual needs met outside congregations and district YRUU youth who also have some spiritual needs met outside congregations as forms of Unitarian Universalism as two examples that are incompatible with our traditions.
Perhaps this relative lack of "seeker" resources directed towards individuals (and not congregational leaders) on the uua.org main page reflects that view of our polity?
it would seem like a small task to really pay attention to this area of welcoming seekers more intentionally. i'm thinking up strategies, and asking for opinions on what we can do in the UUA Office of Young Adult & Campus Ministry.