ConCentric preview, Part 1

The annual ConCentric conference and its associated meetings are coming up for the Continental UU Young Adult Network. With that in mind, here's the first of some posts on the subjects at hand.

When the young adults and their allies come together at ConCentric, there is covenant formed that binds us together as we do the spiritual work in our business meetings. Through the rest of the year, like any organisation the bylaws advise us as to how we should operate, and according to the bylaws, their amendment is the exclusive purview of the ConCentric business meeting.(Section 5.A.3.i)

Before General Assembly this year, I heard a disturbing rumour from one of the General Assembly Young Adult Caucus leaders. They told me that there were no plans to elect a YA Caucus Facilitator, as the SC was changing the makeup of the Conferences Planning Committee, and elevating the Deans of the three C*UUYAN conferences to full seats on the CPC, and getting rid of the intermediary Facilitator positions. This change to the committee structure isn't a bad idea in my opinion, but I do take issue with how the Steering Committee (who supposedly operates the elections at the C*UUYAN conferences) was going about this.

General Assembly is in June.
ConCentric is in August.
The SC is proposing an amendment to the bylaws that will change the makeup of the CPC (Section 7.A). There is at least one other proposal to change the same committee in different ways that is also being presented to the ConCentric body, which would retain the Facilitator positions. It's also not uncommon for the ConCentric body to make major revisions to resolutions and amendments before passing them.

So, knowing that it's possible the bylaws won't be amended to do away with the YA Caucus Facilitator position, or will pass a different one, why would the Steering Committee not hold an election that the bylaws require them to? Is this the SC members working in Right Relationship with the body of C*UUYAN?

I'd say not.

This all would have been very simple to do in a respectful and honest way. There was a ruling made at ConCentric 2005 in Boone, Iowa, that clarified that all newly elected C*UUYAN leaders take their offices at the end of ConCentric that CALENDAR year. Thus, a Facilitator elected by the GA Young Adult Caucus 2007 would take office after ConCentric 2007.
Similarly, C*UUYAN Bylaw amendments take effect that same ConCentric, unless specifically stated otherwise in their adoption.

The person running the elections during the GA Young Adult Caucus Business Meetings could have stated that pending the outcome of bylaw amendments, the Facilitator said Caucus elected may never take office, as there was a proposal to remove the conferences Facilitators from the CPC entirely. This didn't happen.

So, for members of C*UUYAN and members of Congregations who pay into the UUA which then gives grants for C*UUYAN to operate, how are we to trust what it is the C*UUYAN Steering Committee and Conferences Planning Committee do with the power we give them? These committees were elected in covenant to serve C*UUYAN, according to the bylaws and procedures we have put in place, and these committees have violated that trust, by not following those rules.

How can they gain it back?