Summit Results Released

So, what happened in Milwaukee? Here’s a summary of the significant actions taken.

We adopted a new mission statement:

The United Methodist Association promotes, inspires, empowers and recognizes excellence in healing and caring ministries.

We adopted a new vision statement:

United Methodist Association members are thriving, Spirit-Centered ministries passionately committed to excellence.

We approved new bylaws.

This key legal document specifies how the Association is organized and governed. Our current board will guide implementation of the new governance model until a new board and officers are seated at our 2012 Annual Business Meeting. The date and location of the next National Convention will be set by November 1. Our member agencies and institutions are organized into Sections, and people who serve in those ministries are organized into Fellowships around common types of ministry (chaplains, PR, fundraising, etc.).  Members of fellowships may also participate in the Sections and can even hold office in them.

We created a simplified structure.

Our old committee structure was complex and confusing. We now have four committees and one commission:

  • Executive, which also functions as Nominating and Personnel
  • Finance, a subgroup of which has Audit responsibilities
  • Program and Training, which addresses topics of leadership, fellowship and education
  • Membership, which oversees member recruitment, benefits and enhancement.
  • The EAGLE Commission has been added to the official structure of UMA and an EAGLE representative added to the board.

We explored global and strategic purposes for UMA.

In advance of the Summit, President & CEO Steve Vinson surveyed numerous UMA members and prospects. The results of that survey and the responses from our Summit attendees can be found by following links in our latest edition of Member News, or on our website. The UMA Board will take this information and develop a new Strategic Plan for the Association in the coming weeks. That plan will support our new mission statement’s focus on a faith-based approach to service excellence.

We explored options for our 2012 National Convention.

Attendees were asked to provide input about the location, date and content of our 2012 UMA gathering. Tampa and Charlotte emerged as clear winners, and either early or late spring was the preferred meeting time by a margin of six to one, with early spring being a slight favorite. Surprisingly, earning CEU credits didn’t seem as important for a majority of respondents. Plenary sessions were deemed important, but a majority of respondents had no strong preference for smaller versus larger group meetings. The Board will continue to analyze all of the responses, so stay tuned for more information.