 |
Report On The South American Conference Dear all—you may have heard a bit of news from various sources, but I write a short note just to let you know that the South America Leadership Conference was a great success! Building on the efforts of many people over the past 4-5 years, including Latino/Latina UU's in the US and South America, and the South America Task Force of the ICUU, representatives from 8 emerging groups were able to be together in San Nicolas Argentina. (Our biggest disappointment was the failure of the representatives from Cuba to obtain a visa from the Argentine government but we are in close contact with them and the conference planners are agreed that we will send some of the conference to them in Cuba, along with at least one member of the planning committee... more on that later.) The program content was good, and well received, but the major outcome of the conference was the creation of the Alliance of Latin American UU's—AUULA. (You may have seen a note calling it an association, but the word they agreed on for now was Alliance.) A steering committee has been chosen, and these folks have agreed to work together by e-mail to create a structure and some plans for AUULA, by July 1. The conference was possible because of the support of more than 20 individuals and congregations in the US and Canada. With great help from Ellen Campbell, I contacted nearly 100 congregations, and eventually raised nearly $15,000. This kind of grass roots fundraising has been needed in the ICUU , and I hope we will continue to build on this success. It is probable that several of the groups present at this conference will apply to the ICUU for membership status in the coming year. This is great news. |