I. Overview of SWUUW and Its Recent History.

II. SWUUW Mission and Vision.

III. Recent Accomplishments, Changes and Trends.

IV. 2005-2010 Planning Process.

V. SWOT: Internal Strengths and Weaknesses, External Opportunities and Threats.

A. Strengths.

B. Weaknesses.

C. Threats.

D. Opportunities.

VI. Mission and Vision of SWUUW.

A. Community.

B. Leadership.

C. Social Justice.

D. Learning.

E. Worship.

VII. Goals and Objectives.

A. Actively support social justice projects locally, nationally and internationally

B. Support the formation and care of women’s groups in UU congregations across the Southwest District

C. Develop and support women leaders in the Southwest District

D. Full-time SWUUW Program.

E. SWUUW Annual Conference.

I. Overview of SWUUW and Its Recent History

Southwest Unitarian Universalist Women (SWUUW), begun in the late 1940s, has undergone significant changes in recent years. In 2002, we were approved as a nonprofit organization. In 2004, we applied for and received approval as an independent affiliate of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). In 2006 we will sponsor our 20th annual conference using new procedures which allow for local initiative and yet provide organizational control and assurances.

Our current membership is approximately 250 women drawn primarily from the Southwest District of the UUA. Recently we learned that SWUUW is a singular organization. Rebecca Scott of the Financial Development Office of the UUA attended our 2004 conference in Oklahoma City. She was impressed by the large number of attendees and when she returned to Boston, she polled the UUA’s 20 districts and learned that no others outside the Southwest District had district-wide women’s organizations, nor held annual conferences of similar size or for such long duration.

is available on our website (http://www.swuuw.com).

II. SWUUW Mission and Vision

SWUUW had completed a great deal of work prior to submitting its application to become a nonprofit. The bylaws were rewritten, and the board engaged in several planning and visioning exercises through which we redeveloped the mission and vision of the organization as follows:

Southwest Unitarian Universalist Women is a member organization that exists to serve the following purposes:

To deepen the religious life of the women of the Southwest District;

To bring the women of the District into closer acquaintance, cooperation, and fellowship;

To promote the formation of new women's groups in churches and fellowships;

To develop women leaders to be a strong and effective voice;

To sponsor an annual Women's Conference;

To educate our members and the wider community on the status of women; and

To work across the globe to promote greater social justice through long term, systemic change at the local, national and international levels.

III. Recent Accomplishments, Changes and Trends

Many of the changes in SWUUW’s organizational structure were part of an overall effort to provide greater direction and focus to the organization. For the past 20 years, our primary activity has been an annual conference, typically held in February. Responsibility for conference planning has alternated between various women’s groups throughout the district. While this has given our conferences lots of creative energy, it may have contributed to an overall lack of organizational strength and centrality. Many of the changes undertaken in SWUUW’s structure over the past several years were done with the express intent of addressing these two issues. We strive to give the board more control over the organization and input into our primary program, the conference.

As examples of this change in direction, in 2003, SWUUW became involved in microcredit lending by opening a village bank in Haiti through FINCA, the Foundation for International Community Assistance. In that same year we also donated to the Heifer Foundation. Every year SWUUW raises money for its social justice work through its lunch time program at SWUUSI, the Southwest UU Summer Institute, held in Lake Texoma, OK.

IV. 2005-2010 Planning Process

Because SWUUW has been successful in achieving many of the milestones it set for itself over the past several years, the board felt it was time to produce a strategic plan. On April 8, 2005, the board met with a consultant, Liza Ely, and spent a day with her reviewing our mission and purposes. We covenanted as a board and developed ideas for moving forward.

V. SWOT: Internal Strengths and Weaknesses, External Opportunities and Threats

An important part of strategic planning is a SWOT analysis which identifies strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization, and also examines the larger environment in terms of the threats and opportunities presented.

A. Strengths

1. SWUUW membership: size and longevity.

2. The SWUUW Conference, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.

3. Membership commitment and loyalty to the organization:

Members come year after year to the annual conference. We also have leadership that has been steadfast and dedicated over the years.

4. Non-profit status:

This allows us to do tax deductible fundraising and bulk mailing.

5. Women’s groups across the district and their leaders:

This is the organizational base of SWUUW, as yet un-calibrated and un-marshaled.

6. Status as a UUA independent affiliate:

This allows us to present two workshops at future General Assemblies and thus showcase our member’s talents and skills to a wider national audience of UU women.

B. Weaknesses

1. Leadership and involvement of membership:

Many of the 250 members only attend the conference and otherwise have no involvement in the organization.

2. Financial resources:

We have no reserves and do not yet have clearly defined areas where we can grow financially.

3. Lack of diversity in membership:

We do not have many members of color or younger members.

4. Need for a network of support for women leaders in congregations throughout the district.

5. Better understanding of the needs and skills of our own members.

C. Threats

1. Marginal Status of Women

An important backdrop for SWUUW is the status of women both in the United Stated and internationally. Only a cursory examination reveals that women continue to be underpaid and overworked. They are disproportionately represented among victims of violent crimes, particularly within their own families. Despite these facts, they continue to shoulder primary responsibility for raising and providing for their children, often without assistance from the fathers of those children.

2. Low Priority for Women’s Right

The largest age cohort of women in America today came out of a time in our history unparalleled in achievement for women’s rights. These rights, hard fought and won, have been taken for granted and sidelined, while this generation of women has been busy ever since raising children and pursuing careers.

3. Women Little Time Left for Activism Even on Their Own Behalf

Women are over-worked and therefore have little time to support organizations, even those such as SWUUW that support their rights and freedoms.

D. Opportunities

1. Growing Awareness of Women’s Low Status Around the Globe

There seems to be a growing awareness of the plight of women around the globe. The U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women is one indication of this. Across the political spectrum there is a movement to advance the political rights of women.

2. Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation, UUWF, leadership and support.

3. UUA organizational support.

4. Sponsoring and supporting women’s groups outside the UUA who are interested in pursuing spiritual paths similar to our own.

5. SWUUW Status as Independent Affiliate of the UUA

As a UUA Independent Affiliate we have an opportunity to present our cause to the larger venue of UU women nationally.

6. SWUUW Non-Profit Status allows fundraising

Following is an outline of the plan. Part I concerns the five basic components of SWUUW’s mission and vision, which are described below in terms of their strategic importance to SWUUW. Part II is a list of specific program goals and objectives for the coming five years.

 

VI. Mission and Vision of SWUUW

A. Community

The SWUUW community is an important source of support and networking. We recognize that it is through cooperation and solidarity that we can be most effective agents for change. Small groups have played an important role in raising women’s consciousness, and have helped us to fight for women’s rights and equality under the law.

B. Leadership

The strength of the organization is in its leadership, and in its ability to help its members develop their leadership abilities. This component of our mission has grown in importance as it has become clear that SWUUW’s social justice mission in part lies in serving its own members.

C. Social Justice

The Bylaws state that SWUUW will work across the globe to promote greater social justice through long term systemic change at the local, national and international levels. SWUUW recognizes that it is a small organization and therefore must focus its social justice work in order to have an impact by limiting itself to one project in each of these areas. The long-range strategic plan is one means to focus the organization in this area.

D. Learning

SWUUW emphasizes learning, recognizing the role of women as educators and the importance of education as a means for personal growth. It also reflects a commitment to educate our membership on social justice issues.

E. Worship

Exploring women’s spirituality remains a key purpose of SWUUW. Programming at our annual conferences reflects a wide diversity of spiritual practices . Women from the Southwest District have a history of strong leadership in this area. For example, they were instrumental in raising funds which formed the basis of the U. U. Women’s Federation Margaret Fuller grant program to stimulate projects in the area of women’s theology. This grant has been awarded since 1985, and is an important source of support for women studying feminist theology.

 

VII. Goals and Objectives

A. Actively support social justice projects locally, nationally and internationally as follows:

1. Locally:

Survey SWUUW Women to determine their needs, their skills and talents.

Identify women’s organizations, businesses, nonprofits, and professionals who can meet the needs of our members.

Develop a means to link women’s needs with women’s resources.

Such a survey would be a primary focus of SWUUW’s activities over the next few years. Seek outside funding to help with the costs of creating and implementing the survey. One possible source of funding could be grant from the UUWF, which has announced a new grant to be available in the Fall of 2005. SWUUW should consider applying for grant monies to implement the survey and development of a data bank of women’s resources.

Funding should also be solicited to create a database that would match women’s needs with women resources.

2. National:

Reach out at General Assembly to UU women from across the country and invite them to the annual SWUUW conference. Have as our goal to have one woman from each of the 50 states.

Document SWUUW’s development for other UU districts who may want to create similar women’s organizations.

Establish closer working connection with UUWF and other UUA national organizations.

3. International:

Explore how SWUUW can support and participate in helping to plan a Fifth International Women’s Conference (FIWC).

• Educate SWUUW members on process for garnering U.N. approval for a FIWC.
• At SWUUW business meeting at SWUUSI in July of 2005 seek support of SWUUW members for becoming a sponsor of the FIWC

Continue to monitor and work with FINCA on the Haiti Microcredit bank.

Tsunami Relief project of $600 (recipient to be determined).

B. Support the formation and care of women’s groups in UU congregations across the Southwest District

1. Develop a list of leaders of women’s groups at each UU congregation in the district. Maintain contact with them through a SWUUW list serve and ask them to perform the following functions for SWUUW:

Facilitate communications between SWUUW and their members concerning SWUUW activities and programs and member likes and needs.

Contribute articles about women and women’s issues to the SWUUW newsletter.

Distribute copies of the newsletter at their churches.

2. Create and identify and maintain on website materials on how to form a woman’s group and resources that can help new group leaders.

C. Develop and support women leaders in the Southwest District

1. Survey SWUUW membership to learn their needs and how we can help (see Section A-1 above).

2. Award a $1,000 scholarship to a SWUUW member to help her work or scholarship that is in keeping with the SWUUW mission.

This scholarship will be announced through the SWUUWWorld issued prior to General Assembly in 2005.

The scholarship will be awarded competitively.

Produce a special flyer on the scholarship for distribution at General Assembly.

Receipt of the scholarship to be announced at the 2006 SWUW Conference.

3. Continue to fund leadership training for two SWUUW members per year at the Dwight Brown Leadership Experience.

4. Maintain a position on the SWUUW board for a woman UU minister.

5. Strengthen our working relationship with women ministers in the district. This group is already well represented among SWUUW membership. Recognize and strengthen this connection.

6. Strengthen our working relationship with Directors of Religious Education. This group is already well represented among SWUUW membership. Recognize and strengthen this connection.

7. Use the two workshop openings at General Assembly to spotlight the work of SWUUW members.

D. Full-time SWUUW Program

Though it may look as though SWUUW has backed into an expansion program, we have not pursued expansion for its own sake, nor has there been any attempt to finesse this issue. Rather, we have done what is necessary to pursue sound fiduciary practices in maintaining the conference. This led to the creation of a nonprofit structure. We needed more financial structure to be able to sponsor conferences. In fact an assessment by the board and conference conveners indicated that we could not continue to sponsor conferences without a more elaborate organizational structure.

The more elaborate structure in turn requires staff, and to pay for staff we need to plan to grow the SWUUW program into the future. This will mean planning strategically to take advantage of SWUUW’s unique experience and abilities, and fitting that with the needs of the wider UU environment.

There are few financial resources and reserves for the organization at present. Thus, the long term financial stability of the organization is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed. Currently one staff member is paid an hourly wage of $12.50 for six hours of work per week. This needs to be increased in order to retain a high quality person in this position. The current administrator maintains the web, handles online registration for the conference and a number of other duties which require a high level of computer expertise. Computer skills are important to SWUUW because of the large geographic area that we cover.

1. Grow and expand SWUUW programming beyond the annual conference so that SWUUW is eventually actively pursuing its mission in a full-time program. Though this may not happen by the conclusion of this plan, it is nonetheless a goal of the organization.

2. Expand the Administrator’s Position to half-time over the course of the plan.

3. Grow the financial reserves. Grow the proceeds from the conference, reduce conference expenses, pursue new avenues for generating proceeds.

4. Produce a takeaway for distribution at General Assembly.

5. Seek the support of the Southwest District in pursuing our mission and goals. Authorize the SWUUW President and Administrator to explore with the district board possible areas of mutual cooperation and support. In particular, this would include a greater presence for SWUUW at district events including SWUUSI, and Fall and Spring Conferences.

6. Maintain our status as an Independent Affiliate of the UUA and continue to sponsor workshops at General Assembly and to be an exhibitor.

E. SWUUW Annual Conference

1. Work with conference planners to closely synchronize the annual SWUUW Conference with larger SWUUW organizational goals and plans.

2. Include conference planners on the SWUUW board in the year directly preceding the conference they are planning.

3. Strive for greater efficiency in conference planning

Regularize the location of the conference around the district. This will reduce the amount of time to select a conference site and also create a sure schedule to give recognized SWUUW leaders at congregations in these areas plenty of lead time to pull a conference together. The rotation would work as follows:

• North Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth)
• Gulf Coast Texas (Houston)
• Oklahoma & Arkansas
• Central Texas (Waco/ Austin/ Corpus Christi/San Antonio)

While the above schedule leaves out Louisiana, and the parts of Tennessee and Missouri that are in SWUUC, we will endeavor to work closely with those areas to increase their attendance at SWUUW conferences.

Continue to develop the conference planning guide on the web to share the secrets learned from each conference

Use the administrator position to create organizational memory and learning on conference matters particularly contracts for hotel, speaker and entertainment.

Continue to increase the proceeds from conferences and implement sharing of proceeds with local women’s groups.

4. Reach out to women outside of our denomination and outside our district

5. Develop conference workshops that meet the needs of SWUUW member as they have been identified in the survey. For example, if respondents indicate they need help in developing resumes, this could be a conference workshop.

6. Reflect the mission of the organization by selecting workshops that address the areas of: spirituality, leadership development, learning, community building and social justice.

7. Explore the alternative concept of women’s’ retreats, in an effort to reduce the busyness of the conference weekend and to increase opportunities for reflection and spirituality.

8. Explore with the UUWF the possibility of jointly sponsoring with SWUUW a national women’s conference. 2007 will be the 30th anniversary of the first national women’s conference which was held in Houston in 1977.