First UU Congregation of Second Life

Minutes of the FUUCSL Leadership Group meeting of Thursday, June 30, 2011

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 pm SLT by Zyzzy Zarf.

Present: Zyzzy Zarf, Etaoin Barcelona, Pomona Writer, Joan Ixito, Zena Silverstar, and Darcy Cedarbridge.

Absent: Sofia Freenote

Visitors: Argent Verino, Snow Wolfhunter, Tee Auster, Aelita Longfall, and NikolaSub Resident

Minutes (Pomona Writer)

The Minutes of the May LG meeting were approved as read.

Treasurer’s Report (Sofia Freenote)

(as of 6-7-2011)

60 members; New Members: DR42, Rychi Watkins, Suzie Emm.

KIVA Report (Joan Ixito)

• 13 “members” with a total of 60 loans, increased by 3 over last report

• 9 loans fully repaid, increased by 3 over last report.

• 50 loans in re-payment process.

• 1 loan was refunded.

• Total $1,550 invested

Advertisement in UU World (Pomona)

• Print ads and internet ads with “art” – they want to do the art for us or approved our graphics, no firm price was given.

• The little classified ads were about 45 cents per word.

• Pomona did not sense enough interest in the LG group when last discussed that it was worth investigating further.

• Etaoin suggests it is too early for ads. If the intent is to raise awareness of our group, the banner at GA and the UU Growth Lab are effective.

General Assembly (Etaoin Barcelona)

• About two weeks before GA, there was some discussion about the possibility of us creating a FUUCSL banner for the Banner Parade. A lot of this discussion was done on the Facebook FUUCSL group. Another item related to GA was that we couldn’t find my RL church’s banner, so I (an experienced banner carrier) would be available to carry the banner. OriKosh sewn together a quick and very nice banner, and I purchased about US$3 in PVC piping to make the banner carrier.

• On Wednesday, the first day of GA, Lilith Yue and I drove down from Washington DC together; I met Zyzzy in the registration line. Then I went to the choir practice room and started talking to Darcy like we had been continuing a conversation from before; it took her a few seconds to look at my badge and discover who I was–ha. I met OriKosh and got the banner, and Darcy and I registered the banner for the parade (registration is needed to get your banner returned to you after it has been displayed). I filled out the form “First UU – Second Life” and for the required city put in “San Francisco”. Registration was a zoo and no-one noticed anything, though I don’t think there’d be any problems in any case.

• Darcy and I then marched the banner in the parade; through the plenary hall we’d hear a SL comment every few seconds, SL seems to have some name recognition. I heard one official visitor from Japan ask someone something like “you really have a congregation in Second Life?” which was a little thrill.

• In the crowd we saw Fox Qunhua and Kinsi Vought and I sat next to Fox after the parade (her first GA). The other Second Life event was the SL Breakfast on Friday morning. About a dozen of us met near the convention center and talked about several things, a lot of fun. There’s a picture on the facebook group.

• During GA there was a few mentions of SL; nothing official, just some hall chatter. More than one person noted that there was a banner hanging with a laptop computer on it and that was a bit unusual.

• On Sunday, I picked up the banner. Otenth and I took some pictures. I was unable to find Luckie to get the banner back to OriKosh so I mailed it up to her Tuesday, and it arrived Thursday June 30.

• As a GA delegate, I did attend some workshops about the future of UUism. One workshop was the mini-assembly on a bylaw change to expand the definition of a congregation; this will remove one impediment if we wish to pursue formal congregational recognition by the UUA. There may also be a way for individuals to be a member of multiple congregations, and not have to pay full “fair share” multiple times; passing this bylaw could free up the UUA Board to consider this.

• A more immediate UUA problem is that there are no longer “affiliated organizations,” so even our college-age programs don’t have a way for the UUA to adequately support them.

• Another workshop was “What makes up a congregation?” That one turned into a discussion about what younger people are looking at for a church, and many could relate to what we are doing here. Talking with some of the young adults, they are looking for a virtual meeting place, and they may look at having meetings here in our SL space.

• The C*UUYAN already meet quarterly in RL, but not everyone can make the meetings and they are looking for an inexpensive conferencing option, and SL can fill that need. Like us, the C*UUYAN is not supported by the UUA, but the grassroots participants are trying to hold themselves together. Many of them are MMORPG players, and many have tried SL, though SL continues to have a reputation that it appeals to older folks and seedy characters.

• Knowing there is a UU space in SL is a plus, and I think I may have already seen one new person here online.

• I think this may have a short-term effect here. I also (again) talked with a Church of the Younger Fellowship representative, and they again expressed some interest in using our space, but I don’t think anything will come of this. There is a CLF Android-phone app, but it has a way to go.

• I don’t think much will come from CLF/CYF and SL in the short term.

• A few times I talked with Peter Bowden of the UU Growth Lab; an active group of people who are trying to grow Unitarian Universalism, many times without help from the UUA. He’s been in SL, and is interested in what we are doing; he also thinks that virtual worlds will be a big area in the near future, and is a little excited to see that we’re still here. He may be spending more time with us, and he is also interested in using this space for UUs to connect and grow our movement. He invited me to do a short video on UU-SL at GA, but we couldn’t mesh our schedules together; he may do one in a few weeks with me.

• I think that if we could do a video in SL it would be a more effective presentation, to show what is possible in this place.

• One thing I got out of GA is that many in the UU movement think that UUism will fade if we continue to do things how we have been doing them. All mainstream christian denominations have suffered membership loss; the UUA has lost members over the past 2 years (but more than 5 years ago). There are many concerns about how to attract younger people to our churches; all over this is a significant trend, even with the nondenominational megachurches. Virtual worship was discussed, but a bigger concern was how does a community function in a virtual environment. I think that we have solved a few of those problems, but there is a lot of skepticism, and when I reflect back that even in my RL church over half of the members are non-participating some of the concerns I have about SL aren’t any different than in RL.

• Darcy Adds: I went to a couple of workshops that I felt supported the idea that the UUA, while turning slowly IS turning realizing that it MUST think of congretions in ways other than brick & mortar buildings. It MUST go to where the peple are. I was struck that there were so many folks in these workshops who still identified as UU and WANTED to be UU and in community. I felt that the UUA simply did not want to understand “church” in a different way and did not even recognize that they had to GO to the people rather than expect the people to come to them. My impression was that as an organization they are turning their necks a bit and looking. It is hard to ignore a generation of folks falling away yet who still consider themselves UU. I was struck by the many ways that UUs are trying to connect/be heard over the internet. I specifically heard Board members saying “I don’t think we’re desparate, but don’t want the UUA to become irrelevant. A few things done soon will help ‘please don’t stop trying to make us hear you’. There is a lot of energy out there.”

Multi-Language Notecard (Darcy Cedarbridge)

• Maude is the one working on the project, but recently said it wasn’t necessary as most people speak English.

Visitors Report (Etaoin Barcelona)

• About the same as last month: 5-7 people stopping by every day. We’re #3 on the Destination List now. It’s last-added-is-first-on-the-list.

Signage (Pomona Writer)

• This is no longer an agenda issue.

Election Of LG Members For June 2011 To June 2012 (Zyzzy Zarf)

• Pomona Writer is stepping down; Tee Auster would like to join the LG.

• Beacon Questi wishes to be “ex officio” and receive reminders of the LG meetings; all others will continue on the LG.

• Elections will be announced this week and an election held next week.

New Business

• None

Meeting adjourned at 6:30 pm SLT.

The next meeting will be Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:30 pm SLT.

Respectfully submitted,
Pomona Writer, Secretary