The CAUUC Spring Conference will be held on Saturday, May 23rd 9:30am-12pm and be conducted via Zoom video conference.  There is NO FEE required to participate.

Recognizing that the number of UUs in our congregations is in decline, we wondered why. What is this indicative of and what can we do about it? Our simple answer to the question is that we are not meeting everyone’s needs. People go through all kinds of changes in their lives that become inflection points where the importance and relevance of church life and connections to our church communities undergo change. The one common set of transitions that we all face is related to growing and aging from childhood to young adulthood to midlife adulthood, to senior adults. These aging related transitions are often accompanied by other transitional events that shape our priorities and needs. Some examples include: relocating where we live, shifts from K-12 school life to college life or military service, starting a new job, getting married, starting a family, going through divorce, facing a life threatening disease, losing a job, retiring from a job, and so on.

What if we could both individually, and as part of the UU faith communities we are part of, be intentional  about addressing the life transitions and changing needs that people experience?   How would we go about it?

Conference Speakers

Our conference presenters will speak about their experience in fostering the development of spiritual communities that serve people that are in transitional situations along with how and why the communities came to be, how they sustain, and what aspects could be readily adapted to be used by you and supported by your congregation to better meet people’s needs.

SPEAKER:  Rev. Stevie Carmody

TOPIC:  Fostering Young Adult Communities

Bio: Rev. Stevie Carmody is the Emerging Adult Ministry Associate from the UUA’s Lifespan Faith Engagement Office and he works to support young adult leaders.

SPEAKER:  Tom MacTavish

TOPIC: Transitions: Discovering Talents/Building Community

Bio: Tom MacTavish along with Gloria Kinney are co-creators of a group called “Transitions” that provides a forum for mature adults to explore life transitions.  Tom has been engaged with Unitarian Universalism since 1975 at congregations in Iowa City (IA), Clemson (SC), Dayton (OH), Leiden (NL), Atlanta (GA), and Palatine (IL).  He is a research professor at IIT Institute of Design and teaches courses related to interaction design history, theory, and practice. And, he is the Chief Design Officer at entigenlogic llc, a natural language understanding technology company.

Panelist Q&A

A panel comprised of young adults to senior adults will follow the presentations to help shed light on the changing needs for both social and spiritual community with other UUs as life transitions take place. We’re hoping to learn what congregations are already doing and what they could be doing to support communities of young adults and mature adults to foster lifelong participation in Unitarian Universalism.

Affinity Groups Meet-Up

We are planning to conduct a multiple virtual networking sessions of our affinity groups to build relationships and encourage collaboration across the region because we can get more done as a collective of Chicago area UUs. The following AFFINITY GROUPS will meet up at the conference to share best practices, discuss opportunities to collaborate, and provide mutual support as we work to support lifelong participation in UUism:

• Social Justice / Environmental Justice / Social Action
• Board and Leadership Development
• Religious Education (Children’s RE & Adult Faith Development)
• Buildings and Grounds
• Membership/Welcoming
• Stewardship/Fundraising
• Social Media/Web/Communications
• Tech Team

The Chicago Area UU Council Annual Meeting will immediately follow the conference. We welcome input on our work for the coming year on conference programs, communications, collaboration, advertising, etc.

Questions? Contact your local CAUUC representative or Mike Gilley (chicagoareauu@gmail.com) with any questions.

Want a printable PDF flyer to remind you about the event or share with a friend?  CLICK HERE

Please complete registration now or by May 22nd so we can plan for your participation!

Please click on the registration button to register for the conference!