You didn't think I would ignore policy governance once I got to the presidency, did you? There has been an interesting conversation lately on the UU Policy Governance listserv. Here are a few excerpts that I want to keep track of and figured I would be able to find them here. And you can find them, too!
From Rev. Richard Speck, District Executive, Joseph Priestley District:
In creating the Ends for a church the whole congregation is involved in lifting up the major values that the Ends represent. A PG board always takes its work back to the membership to ascertain that it is representing the whole correctly in discerning the Ends.
Volunteerism and lay participation in the carrying out of the Ends through the programs and services is linked to the members understanding their role in making the values stated as Ends the reality of the congregation. So the whole membership helps to create the Ends and the whole congregation is responsible for making them real. How is that a diminishment through Policy
Governance?
As to the whole congregation deciding how a board should manage and govern, up until Policy Governance came along, no congregation in my 21 years of ministry and 11 years of UUA service had ever held a vote on how the board should govern itself and the congregation. Only because the model is so different from previous governance models do people feel they need to have input on what the board does. Boards do a disservice when they do not educate a congregation about the model, the advantages and changes, and the reasoning for choosing it. But they do not need congregational approval to use it.
I hope that these paragraphs help you to see Policy Governance in a new way and clarify for you how it should work.
And then, from Margaret Keip (quasi-retired UU minister, and church PG consultant):
The paradigm shift of governance change to PG is significant, especially in relation to power. We're used to power as a zero-sum factor in everyday life -- i.e. when someone gains more power, someone else has lost some. PG embodies incremental power -- the more people power there is, the more there is in the system, available to use wisely and well, if we will. PG imbues more power in both the board, the executive (solo or team), and the congregation -- each focused within boundaries that are ethical and prudent and support the organization's reason for being (mission, in a congregation). It reflects our UU values as clearly as a mirror, when its truly understood and experienced.
