I.  Background and Introduction

A.  Scope   The Policy and Procedure Guidelines apply only to organized activities within the Fellowship that apply UUA principles to changing public perception or practices regarding social problems or that draw on Fellowship resources.  It primarily is a guide for the SJC, but it also impacts the social justice activities of the Board of Trustees and of Fellowship members. These guidelines apply whenever any member seeks SJC or Fellowship involvement ranging from use of Fellowship space or internal communication media to monetary or public support of a position. This document does not address the many individual activities of UUFF members that are undertaken independently and without public reference to the UUFF or the SJC, and without use of UUFF resources.  

B. Purpose and Vision

Material in each section assumes the application of relevant material in other sections as well.  Leaders of social justice activities need to be familiar with the entire document.  The Table of Contents provides a quick reference to related issues.            

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 II.               Impromptu Activities

 A. Scope and purpose

This section addresses only those social justice activities by Fellowship members that are limited in scope to educational presentations or to advocacy of a very general nature that provides witness to a Unitarian Universalist principle.  These activities usually occur across only a few months.  This is in contrast to the activities described in the following sections that involve more extensive education and the possible adoption of a position statement by the Fellowship.  The purpose of this section is to

     1.     Promote internal collaborations and valuable informational activities.

     2.     Encourage those who make information available to also offer information for follow-up activities

     3.     Facilitate involvement of the public without inappropriate conflict or appearance of UUFF endorsements (either implied or explicit).

B.  Finding members with similar social issue interests

Ask someone on the SJC about this.  They may be able to provide names of people  and to share their own experience.  They can more easily identify any existing position statements already adopted by the Committee or the Fellowship that may relate to a specific interest.  They can advise the individual of any timing considerations and additional contacts that are needed, for example, to reserve space in the Fellowship or to publicize an interest or event.

C.  Responsibility of the SJC when an individual or informal group wants to produce an educational event independently

In such cases, the only responsibilities of the SJC are 

1. To correct the record if it discovers that its sponsorship, formal participation, or endorsement have been incorrectly publicized; and

2. To remind the congregation diplomatically, when necessary, that such independent activities do not necessarily involve the accurate and balanced research and open opportunities for participation that are the standard of SJC activities.

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III. Priority Projects

A. Purpose of this process

     1.     To guide the identification of the most appropriate focused activities for the SJC and Fellowship.
     2.     To identify priorities.

B.  What are “Priority” and “Interim” Projects and reasons to have them

The smaller the size of the UUFF membership, the fewer separate issues or projects it will be capable of handling well.  There needs to be a deliberate process to decide what proposals to undertake in order to lessen the risk of energies being spread so broadly that burn-out, unreliable research and education, and misdirected action result.  There are two categories of projects.

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C. Project Selection

1. Ways to initiate a project proposal. Any member in good standing may submit a proposal to the SJC chairperson or designated alternate.  A Proposal Form (see Appendix) contains the information that the SJC would need to consider and that the proponent is asked to provide. If the proposal calls for relatively little investment of resources and on an issue previously studied or adopted, the new proposal may be extremely brief.  The proposal form and process that follow are intended to provide several benefits including assurance that:

Copies of the Proposal Form should be available from the Fellowship or SJC web site, the SJC chairperson, or the Fellowship office.  

       2. Steps for handling written proposals to the SJC

This section is intended to ensure that information used by the Committee for its deliberations and for sharing with others in the UUFF and beyond is as accurate, balanced, constructive, and pragmatic as reasonably possible. Standards also ensure that the congregational members will not be asked to take a position on an issue unless the Social Justice Committee has already provided appropriate information, as described below, and with sufficient lead time to permit meaningful discussion and reflection.

It is appropriate that a sufficient amount of research and education is needed for the following situations, in approximately the order listed below:

     *     An update on an issue studied and acted on fairly recently.

     *     An update on an issue that has not been addressed for a year or two.

     *     A new topic that is not very controversial nor pivotal to many people.

     *     A new topic that is controversial and/or affects relatively great numbers of people in major ways.

Generally, at the lightest end of the issue spectrum, a written handout of relevant information is expected.  

At the most controversial and intellectually demanding end, a suggested minimum is that the UUFF members receive background information across at least three consecutive months using a variety of formats and methodologies.

3  What Are the SJC's General Research Standards?

The standards below apply to information provided to the committee for its consideration or provided by committee members.

4.  What education methodologies will be used?

Remember, the ultimate purpose of this committee is to use education to produce or prompt change. The following are examples of materials and activities that have been used to educate UUFF members and the greater community: