Membership:

Marlene Egger (Chair)
South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society
Salt Lake City, UT
801-944-0213

Kathy Partridge
Boulder Fellowship
Boulder, CO
303-443-7867

Lynn Slater
El Paso, TX
915-472-2782

Stan Kidder
Foothills Unitarian
Fort Collins, CO
970-407-1514

Reporting: Effective immediately, this committee reports to Robert P. Blauvelt, Communication for Community Building Service Area, District Council, MDD

Accomplishments to Date: At its October, 2003 Board meeting, Marlene Egger was appointed chair of the MDD Awards Committee and asked to revitalize this process.

To date, a committee of five members has been created (see above), and coordination with Rev. Jann Schwab (UUMA) has been established regarding sermon awards. We have also accomplished contact with Bob Blauvelt on the District Council, who is over our service area.

In accordance with the MDD bylaws, which state that the call for awards announcement is made in January of each year, a call for 2004 nominations and a cover letter have been designed and posted on the UUA/MDD website (http://www.uua.org/mdd/announce/awardscall/index.html). We coordinated with Melanie Buck at the MDD Office to send the calls and cover letter explaining them to each congregation through regular mail this coming week.

Kok-Heong McNaughton assisted us to post a message announcing the process on mdd-announce, and we coordinated with mdd-presidents-owner to post a similar announcement. We were not able to meet the Dispatch deadline this year, but anticipate having an article in the next Dispatch to educate congregational leaders regarding the awards process.

In order to assist congregations which find these timelines short, and especially with the March 1 deadline requested by the Board for the committee to receive nominations, we have also posted and sent by regular mail an early-bird call for 2005 nominations, clearly marked. Thus, this will be a transition year in terms of shortness of time frames, and we anticipate that the groundwork will have been laid this year for the real gains in congregational understanding of the process, comfort with time frames and numbers of nominations which will occur in the 2005 awards cycle.

Plans: The committee is dividing up the congregations and contacting them pro-actively, to assist in increasing congregational understanding of the awards and awards process and the numbers of nominations this year.

We plan to receive all 2004 nominations by March 1; to prune them to 3 nominees per award, except sermons, all of which will go forward to the final review panel; and if the Board so desires, to set up a final review panel in conjunction with the District UUMA chapter to make the final decisions, as the Dale Arnink sermon category requires the UUMA chapter to make the decision. The final review panel is anticipated to include 2 ministers and one lay person, none of whose congregations have made a nomination.

This work is anticipated to be completed by the May Board meeting, so that we can present the selections to the Board at that time. Winners will then be notified so that they can be sure to make plans to attend the October MDD meeting to receive the award in person.

We also plan to contact the MDD Annual Meeting Committee to coordinate on the timing and location of the awards. We understand we have a $250 budget this year, which will basically buy nice awards, and that the annual meeting must be self-supporting, so any decorative needs must be covered by its budget.

This year and long term, the committee plans to discuss issues around selection criteria, such as fairness of the nominations process to small vs. large congregations and congregations which have gone a long time without awards, etc. Any ideas or comments that Board members might have are requested to be shared with the Committee Chair at the address above.

We also plan to send a budget request for 2005 to Katherine Jabs in April.

1. How should MDD Awards nominations from members of the church of the larger fellowship be treated in the MDD Awards nominations process? For example, should all nominations from the church of the larger fellowship be treated as if they were from a single congregation?

[Dave Leonard suggested for Board discussion/approval that the CLF be treated as one congregation, as it is elsewhere in UUA..]

2. The MDD Awards Committee understands that we are to receive all nominations by March 1 and then cull them to no more than 3 per category. Who will make the final decisions and notify the MDD Awards Committee, so that we may ensure that the winners know in time to attend the October meeting?

Dear MDD Congregation President or Representative:

1. Unsung UU Award (MDD/UUA) - to a Unitarian Universalist lay person, not generally recognized, whose actions inspire, support and express Unitarian Universalism.
2. Unsung UU Youth Award (MDD/UUA) - to the Unitarian Universalist youth, not generally recognized, whose actions inspire, support and express Unitarian Universalism.
3. Angus H. McLean Award (MDD/UUA) - for excellence in the field of religious education.
4. Holmes-Weatherly Award (MDD/UUA) - for recognition of a person or group whose pursuit of social justice best exemplifies the founding spirit of the Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice.
5. Clarence R. Skinner Award (MDD/UUA) - for the best sermon about the social implications of religion by either a minister or lay person.
6. O. Eugene Pickett Award (MDD/UUA) - to the congregation or fellowship which has made an outstanding contribution to the growth of Unitarian Universalism.
7. Robert D. Goff "Walk the Talk" Award (MDD) - to a Unitarian Universalist lay person for living a life which best exemplifies Unitarian Universalist principles.
8. Dale R. Arnink Award (MDD) - for the sermon which best explores the place or use of critical reason in examining religious experience within the Unitarian Universalist tradition.