Charter for MSC-UUCFW

We, the members of the Ministerial Search Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Wayne affirm:

• That we seek 100% input from members, friends, and staff through a congregational survey and focus groups because each person has valuable and relevant information,
• That we are strongly committed to representing the congregation as a whole rather than to subgroups or our own preferences,
• That we will conduct a search that is fair and nondiscriminatory with respect to race, color, disability, sex, sexual orientation, age and national origin,
• That we will work as a team, value transparency and joint accountability, maintain confidentiality, and seek consensus,
• That we will communicate regularly with the congregation about our work including the summary of the survey,
• That we will work collaboratively with the Negotiating Team to prepare a package that is fair and appropriate to our circumstances,
• That we will be good stewards of the funds entrusted to us,
• That we will be mindful of the congregation's needs and the wider community which we serve,
• That we will develop documents that accurately represent the input that is elicited,
• That we will conduct ourselves in ethical and respectful ways and be honorable representatives of our congregation,
• That we will be thorough in reviewing applicants and in our interviewing and reference checking so that we can present a candidate to the congregation that we believe has the greatest likelihood of meeting the congregations' needs and wants; and should we not find such a candidate, we agree to not recommend a candidate,
• That we will provide clear and accurate information to the congregation about the candidate before he/she arrives for candidating week,
• That we will provide many opportunities during candidating week for all persons in the congregation to have meaningful and informative interactions with the candidate so as to form their own unencumbered impression of the candidate before the vote takes place, and
• That once the process is completed, the members of the search committee will resume our roles as “private citizens” and return to our membership status in healthy relationships with other members, friends, and our new minister.

In order to accomplish our work we will need the following:

• Active and full participation of members, friends and staff in all opportunities for input including the survey, focus groups and candidating week,
• Financial support to attract the minister that will best serve us,
• Emotional support for the committee's commitment to this important responsibility,
• Understanding of the need for confidentiality about applicants and our deliberations,
• Willingness to help as needed with congregational work that the members of the Search Committee were doing before being selected,
• Honest and fair comments, questions and interactions with the committee and the final candidate.