I'm committed to supporting congregational polity. I would rather try for improvement of the current nominating system first, before moving to a nominating committee process that removes congregational participation. Offering more education about our elections and promoting more participation at the congregational and district level should also decrease the sense of centralized decision-making about which many have voiced concern. I think it's our responsibility as members to encourage this level of involvement. In this year's election process the candidates have had to educate many districts and congregations about the nominating petition process.
Nominating petitions are how candidates are nominated.
Currently we have about 1,050 congregations and I can only guess how many congregations have actually participated in this process. A vote of approval of a candidate's nomination is required either by a congregational vote or board vote and must be received by a candidate before January 25th so that petitions can be mailed to the UUA General Assembly Office by the last day of January. By offering a set of general instructions for presenting Candidate Forums and completing Candidate Forum arrangements in the first 3 months of the campaign, so that there's more opportunity for candidates' schedules as well as District schedules to be accommodated. Its also been very helpful to all of us who are currently candidates to have Forum presenters absorb some of our costs, including housing, food and registration fees. By expanding even more our association use of electronic communications in the future.