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To all Canadian Unitarians:

The Canadian Unitarian Council (“the CUC”) is nearing its 50th Anniversary. In organizational terms, we are coming to the end of our adolescence and faced with the daunting question, “What do we want to be when we grow up?”

In 2002, the CUC assumed responsibility for most aspects of service deliver formerly provided by the Unitarian Universalist Association (“UUA”). The transition plan (the “Regions and RNGs” plan) envisaged a 60% growth in membership (from 5,000 to 8,000 members of our congregations, within five years), with much of the service delivery being offered by volunteers, to be able to provide the requisite services at a sustainable cost.

By 2008 it was clear that our membership numbers were essentially static: not shrinking, like many religious institutions, but certainly not growing to the levels needed to sustain the budgeted spending. While the CUC does have some funds available to withstand occasional deficit budgets, those funds are limited. There is an inevitable need to live within our means (i.e. within a balanced budget).

After the first wave of eager volunteers, there was a reduced number of volunteers coming forward to fill service delivery positions. In addition, key staff positions have remained unfilled for some time.

Despite these seemingly negative conditions, we have heard from all corners of the country the call for a strong and vocal national organization serving Canadian UUs and their congregations. The national organization is seen as a vital part of being able to put our UU principles into action in our local communities as well as nationally and internationally.

Through face-to-face meetings, teleconferences and surveys, our members have told us what they want the CUC to be when it grows up. Based on that input, our Executive Director and her staff have developed an inspiring workplan. Priority activities in the workplan include:

• implementing the programs and services our members have told us they need while measuring success and dropping those things that do not support our goals;
• providing UU communities greater opportunities to network and work interdependently;
• creating a stronger, more co-ordinated UU voice on the national and international stage;
• finding additional sources of funding, including inspiring individual UUs to support the level of funding required to continue this mode of operation within a balanced budget; and
• implementing governance and decision-making structures and processes to enhance transparency and collaboration.

The financial reality is that our current annual revenues are insufficient to create the organization you have told us you want. Therefore, a short-term cash injection is required. These funds will come from the CUC’s Unrestricted Fund, utilizing monies that were received from the UUA when the CUC took over responsibility for service delivery in 2002. Such an investment in the development of the CUC can, naturally, only be for a limited time. (Two to three years is envisaged.) After this period of development, we will be compelled to operate within a balanced budget – where our spending is confined to the operating revenue. However, the Board and staff’s belief is that, at such time (2012-13), our members will have had an opportunity to experience enhanced levels of programs and services and possible external sources of funding will have been explored, and that, combined, these conditions will yield greater revenue than we currently have today.

The alternative scenario the Board and staff considered was to hold the status quo – to immediately limit programs and services within the current revenue constraints – without additional investment in development. Our conclusion – based on members’ satisfaction (or lack thereof) of current level of services – is that the status quo solution is both undesirable and unviable: Further reducing national services would diminish the perceived value of the organization and would therefore jeopardize members’ willingness to continue contributing to the Annual Program Fund.

There was intense discussion around the Board table regarding the decision to approve a draw on the Unrestricted Fund to support the development budget. In the final analysis, it provides a pragmatic opportunity to chart the course of the future development of the CUC, carefully planned and grounded in reasonable assumptions (i.e. not betting the farm that there will be exponential growth in membership within the next five years).

While the Board has great faith in this approach, it is not blind faith. An essential part of the governance process is having the appropriate monitoring in place to track the E.D. and staff’s progress in meeting the stated goals (“Ends”) of the organization. The Board has already begun development of these tracking mechanisms; the results will be available to the membership through the CUC website.

In closing, we invite you to “get inside” the workplan and budget documents. These are available online from the CUC website (cuc.ca). Please let us know how this work resonates with what you have been asking for, and if it paints the picture of a strong, viable CUC to lead the next generation of UUs into our second 50 years.

Feedback and discussion will be on-going: before, at and after the ACM in Victoria. Teleconference sessions are being scheduled to provide a venue for discussion with Board and staff.

Respectfully,

Board of Trustees

March 26 2010