off
AEU Weekly Update: October 12, 2023
AEU Weekly Update: Thursday, Oct 12, 2023
Dear Members,
The first Board meeting of the 2023-24 Fiscal Year is this Saturday, October 14th, from 10 am to 12 pm ET. This will be the first time the newly expanded Board will meet, and we are excited to welcome everyone! Members of any Ethical Society are welcome to attend the Board meeting. To access the Zoom link and the agenda, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.
With the creation of the new regional teams we announced in this blog on September 11th, one question we have been getting is: why?
This is a valid question, and we’re glad you’ve asked.
Our theory of change is that regional team collaboration will reinvigorate the AEU ecosystem, igniting creativity and resilience and enabling expanded access to resources to reinvest in Societies into the future.
The new Regional Team structure within the American Ethical Union is the lived example of one of our religious commitments and core values: right relationship. In theory, we aim to use the right relationship to treat each person with respect and inherent worth. This year, the Officers sought to exercise that theory with practice. Right relationships are not merely about respect or common decency, but rather equitable relationships. When we consider this within organizational development such as regional teams, it is important to observe our society within the ethos or cultural condition. This means that each Society is curated by a cultural climate not positioned by common or shared space. For example, “The Valley” aka Susquehanna Valley Ethical Society in Pennsylvania is paired with Northern Westchester. These two Societies are not in regional proximity to each other, however, it is the cultural condition of location such as, rurality, congregational capacity and bandwidth, and the neighboring communities which are factors that determine equitably of relationships.
The Societies share similar socio-cultural conditions that can influence the fortitude of their impact regarding their socio-cultural flourishing. This regional teams method aids Societies in collaboration. It offers healthy references and resources that examine congregational conditions and inform congregational flourishing within the surrounding community. The goal of the equitable right relationship enables the American Ethical Union to meet each Society where they are and based on their own measures of success and impact. This removes the weight of the expectation as influenced by our larger community that does not share the same environmental situations. By removing expectations and exploring accommodation that support Societal polity, we can empower Societies to achieve their own goals based on their own bandwidth and standards. This is the power of equitable right relationship: meeting the needs of each Society’s unique needs while moving together as a whole.
Featured Board Member of the Week
We feature new board members each week so everyone can get to know them and connect with the leadership. Please meet Stan Horwitz (he/him), the new Board Director representing the Philadelphia Ethical Society (PES).