Late-Dec. Newsletters: Updates on the Search Process

 

In case you missed these two updates during the Christmas shuffle, here they are again.

The Search Process: What We’ve Been Working On (Newsletter, Dec. 17)

On December 1, the UUA unveiled the Congregational Record (CR) of every congregation that is searching for a new settled minister. (The CR, you’ll recall, is a 17-page profile of our congregation and the minister we seek.) As of December 1, all ministers who seek a position could access the CRs of all churches with openings.

On January 3, we learn which ministers have decided to apply. Ministers may apply to multiple congregations. We face substantial competition. 51 congregations nationwide are “in search” for full-time ministers who’d start this August. Eight of those openings are in Massachusetts. Three other attractive full-time openings are nearby. Six additional nearby churches have part-time openings. And 39 additional churches, including 7 in the area, have already announced full-time openings for the following year.

While the ministers are doing their due diligence this month (reading CRs), your MSC has undertaken its next big project: creating the Congregational Packet (CP). You won’t be surprised to learn that what once would have been an actual mailed “info packet” is nowadays a website. Our CP website is laid out as a walking tour of our church, its activities, its people, and its surroundings. Access will be limited to those ministers whom we choose from the January applicants.

And what happens after that? We’ll tell you next time!

Process Update (Part Two): As the Calendar Turns (Newsletter, Dec. 23)

Last week, we took stock of where we are in our process of seeking a new settled minister. It has been a busy autumn. We moved from the Listening Sessions to the Survey, using them to develop our Congregational Record (a lengthy profile of our congregation and the minister we seek). This week, we passed another milestone: We finished developing our Congregational Packet. In these Tech-savvy times, mailed “info-packets” have given way to limited-access websites. Ours takes our prospective minister on a walking tour of our church, its activities, its people, and its place in the community.

Now, winter is upon us, and as we speak, prospective ministers are accessing our Congregational Record, along with that of all other congregations that have openings. Ministers have one month to evaluate their options and to decide which congregations (plural) they’re interested in.

Next month, the rubber meets the road. On January 3, each minister who is interested in us will send us, and any other churches, his/her Ministerial Record (MR). Your Search Committee will then review all the MRs sent to us, and select the ministers to whom we’ll offer initial telephone (Skype) interviews. These intense interviews will begin in mid-January. Afterwards, we will assess all the interviews and come up with our semifinalists (known in this process as “Pre-Candidates”).

We’ll keep you updated as the process unfolds!