By Robbie Brydon (CUC)

A volunteer team reviewing the decision-making processes used in Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) meetings has been quietly working away and would like to share a few updates.

First, we have summarized the results of a survey conducted last year in a simple document here. Resources on different governance systems or approaches that respondents provided are included.

Second, we would like to thank the 80 Canadian (and 12 American!) Unitarian Universalists (UUs) who participated in the recent workshop on Uncolonizing Governance. Peter Scales shared wisdom from Capital Unitarian’s 20 years of using the Gradients of Agreement consensus model. Aukje Byker shared lessons from the Peterborough Fellowship’s work using Sociocracy, a process leaders there have previously used in other organizations.

Finally, we’d like to invite you with us on a learning journey this spring, trying out different decision-making systems. We’ll also consider what other shifts in process might help us to better engage with each other. Please mark your calendars for Saturday, April 15 and Saturday, June 10: each day will feature a two-hour session starting at 1:00 pm ET.  We will share details in future CUC newsletters and event summaries.

If you can attend this year’s AGM in May (in person or online), we recommend showing up with extra attentiveness to the process. Ask to serve as a delegate from your congregation or show up as an observer. We’ll be circulating some learning materials around Robert’s Rules of Order and a similar but simpler system, Democratic Rules of Order, in May.

If you are on the CUC Leaders mailing list, you will get updates automatically. If you are not and would like to sign up for occasional updates from our team, please send a note to decision-making@cuc.ca.