Wednesday, January 8th
Liaison Conference Call Minutes
Attendance:
Sally Gellert (Paramus)
Cecilia Cosca (Montclair)
Toby Tyler (Morristown)
Rev. Craig
Jim deBoer
Congregational Updates
Montclair (Cecilia) Recently hosted Rev. Craig, who preached at a UULMNJ / justice, equality, and compassion – oriented worship service on Sunday, January 5th. In conjunction with this service, the congregation is launching a UULMNJ interest survey through survey monkey. Additionally, back in December members of the social action team tabled at coffee hour in support of Instate Tuition for undocumented high school graduates.
Princeton In the process of generating enthusiasm for more work on immigration-related issues.
Issue / Task Force Updates
Reproductive Justice
A Task Force is forming on this topic under the leadership of Rev. Kathleen Green. Rev. Green will be a 2014 fellow of the Faith and Reproductive Justice Leadership Institute at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. where she will be developing a plan for UULMNJ’s Reproductive Justice advocacy program. The initial phone call is scheduled for Thursday, January 9th with nine prospective participants. Liaisons – please think about ways to engage new people with this task force!
Environmental Justice
The efforts towards developing a long-term sustainable energy plan for the state are gathering steam. Several meetings are taking place with one of the public utilities to gauge the possibility of their participation. The draft legislation is expected to become public before long and at that time, congregations will be encouraged to begin contacting their legislators about this.
Mass Incarceration / Racial Justice
A meeting took place on Monday, January 6th with Rev. Craig, Jim deBoer, Lorraine Wearley (as Chair of the Economic Justice Task Force), Al Stawky, and Emilia Colon. We decided to move forward with plans to explore establishing a separate task force to address this topic. We are inviting people to participate in an initial phone call to take place later this month. During that call, we will begin to prepare an issue statement to present to the board for approval in February or March.
Organizational Development
SALSA Legislative Advocacy Letter for Instate Tuition – a request for emails to state legislators was sent out to our list via SALSA in December generated 150 emails within 24 hours. In Paramus, 6 letters were generated by Sally printing, faxing, and emailing the text to the members of the congregation. One of the best ways to take advantage of this resource is to make a computer available during coffee hour. That way, people could generate their own emails in a quick and reliable manner.
How to make our congregational relations more effective?
– “Even if there’s only a few of us on conference calls, it’s good information.”
– “I participate in order to support Legislative Ministry; I’m not coming with the expectation that I’ll gain a great deal of new information from the call. People are interested, but they don’t always have the time. So, how do we stimulate the interest?”
Other Notes
Annual Plenary
Please mark your calendar: Saturday, April 5th will be the Plenary / Annual Meeting!
The Next Call – Wednesday, February 5th, 8:00pm
Thank you for your participation!