I’m about to go to bed, because I have to get up at three in the morning (heaven help me) to catch my train back east. Before I do, though, here are a few impressions of General Assembly 2009:
— The weather was just about perfect: dry, warm but not too hot, and a couple of thunderstorms to keep it from getting boring. I have a theory that when the weather is perfect, there are fewer major conflicts at General Assembly — and indeed, this year I have heard of no erupting conflicts.
— The schedule was grueling. I had noticed that I was feeling particularly tired, but I hadn’t thought about why until someone pointed out that the GA schedule had no consistency. Plenary happened at odd times, workshop slots got thrown in when you didn’t expect them, UU University required an exhausting commitment of six hours Thursday afternoon and four hours Friday morning. I found the lack of regularity draining.
— The election for the next UUA president seemed to dominate everything else. I didn’t hear many people talking about their workshops, but everyone seemed to have something to say about the election.
— UU University (UUU) got mixed reviews this year. Some people liked their UU University track, some people thought it a waste of time (Doug Muder says much the same thing). Two years ago, I heard nothing but glowing reviews of UUU; maybe it didn’t scale up very well? It will be interesting to read summaries of the evaluations of UUU.
So ends another GA. Now off to bed.
The hour break for meals didn’t help either. Nobody likes to rushing all the time.
to be rushing… sigh, still recovering, I guess
This GA too hurry verbs.
Damned straight.
Everywhere I turned I heard criticism of UUU. Many who went for the first… five hours, six?… didn’t go back for the rest of their track, or only trickled back later. Having gone to the “multi-generational” (“MG”) track (for the first 5 hours, only), I’m annoyed and puzzled. It was well-enugh run, but only maybe a half hour of it seemed on-topic. There was a nice service, and a lovely sermon, and I thought they’d tell us that it was an example of what a MG service ought to look like. Then they said it wasn’t. At all, apparently. And never explained what it was there for at all.
The personal testimonials to the need FOR MG services–by people of a wide range of ages–was powerful and moving and persuasive. And yet, after all those hours… that was the only thing that was really on-topic.
I’d hoped for more than just persuasion that we need to do more/better/different. That’s almost a given–though the testimonials were powerful and useful, I think. But to go for the whole first half and not come out with any idea of what to do, how to do, what to try? I was sorely disappointed–and I know more than a few others were, too.
(I did order the DVD and will see if there were loads of wonderful, useful, brilliant things in the second half–but if so, the hiding the light under a bushel award is NOT to be coveted.)
Irregular structure–bad. Constantly trying to figure out what was going on today, at this hour. Inverted, logically, too. The first UUU session was in the afternoon, and the second started early the next day, helping ensure that tired people opted to be late or blow it off.
Too much packed in. That’s a perennial problem, but this one felt even more crowded.
I went to the first UUU and found it very useful, and most of us urged it be done regularly and annually. This took it from its aim at educating leaders and made it effectively mandatory (nothing else going on, requirement to sign up for some track or another). So I suspect that the aim drifted from honing the skills of leaders or leaders-to-be to that of educating the general GA-goer. The only positive feedback I heard from those going to other tracks was about Theology.
Meal time was too rushed–leading to people feeling rushed and to more just opting to blow things off.
As one who attended GA without showing any visible support for either candidate – I got very tired of having literature shoved at me every time I walked into or out of the Plenary Hall or Exhibit Hall. Some of us wore buttons for both candidates – figuring that either way, we had to support the winner.
Time slots & meals – I agree with UU Jester. There is a need to give people TIME to go eat outside the convention center.
As for good workshops – Mark Morrison-Reed on The Perversity of Diversity; the Fahs lecture with Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso were excellent… and that’s about all I went to, aside from Kate Clinton’s performance.
But – maybe people weren’t talking that much about workshops also because there weren’t as many of them this year? As you noted – UUU ate up a lot of time, and plenaries accounted for another chunk of time. I was late to one workshop (other than those previously mentioned) because plenary went over time – and then I took time to stand in line to vote. As for the grueling schedule – I made myself skip at least one scheduled event time slot each day. I wanted to return home healthy!
(And no conflicts? Did you attend the plenary where the proposed revisions to Article II of the Bylaws were debated?)
dan, call home.