Standing on the Side of Love @ the Salt Palace

I’m about to go to bed, because I have to get up at three in the morning (heaven help me) to catch my train back east. Before I do, though, here are a few impressions of General Assembly 2009:

– The weather was just about perfect: dry, warm but not too hot, and a couple of thunderstorms to keep it from getting boring. I have a theory that when the weather is perfect, there are fewer major conflicts at General Assembly — and indeed, this year I have heard of no erupting conflicts.

– The schedule was grueling. I had noticed that I was feeling particularly tired, but I hadn’t thought about why until someone pointed out that the GA schedule had no consistency. Plenary happened at odd times, workshop slots got thrown in when you didn’t expect them, UU University required an exhausting commitment of six hours Thursday afternoon and four hours Friday morning. I found the lack of regularity draining.

– The election for the next UUA president seemed to dominate everything else. I didn’t hear many people talking about their workshops, but everyone seemed to have something to say about the election.

– UU University (UUU) got mixed reviews this year. Some people liked their UU University track, some people thought it a waste of time (Doug Muder says much the same thing). Two years ago, I heard nothing but glowing reviews of UUU; maybe it didn’t scale up very well? It will be interesting to read summaries of the evaluations of UUU.

So ends another GA. Now off to bed.

I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground to hear reactions to UU University, which was a new part of the GA program this year. Early on I thought I was hearing a pattern in the scuttlebutt, but I’m glad I didn’t blog about it, because the pattern didn’t hold. I don’t know how future GA planners are going to evaluate this, and I don’t think I can help them. Some people liked it. Some people didn’t. Some of the people who liked it thought it took up too much time. Others didn’t. (This kind of analysis is why they don’t pay me the big bucks.) If UUU had been awful, attendance would have significantly fallen off on the second day, but I don’t think it did.

Salt Lake City has been a big topic of discussion. The local economy is a paradox, because there’s lots of construction, but hardly anybody on the sidewalks — even at noon on a weekday. And the city doesn’t fit its stereotypes at all. For example, there are at least two excellent brewpubs within walking distance of the Salt Palace: Squatters and Red Rock. And it rains. We had quite a thunderstorm Friday, with a beautful double rainbow.

Peter Morales has just released a statement on his Web site. Go here to read it.

8:30 p.m. MDT

That’s it. Final result: all uncontested candidates were elected. Peter Morales was elected the next UUA president with 59% of the vote.

8:28 p.m. MDT

The Rev. Tracy Robinson-Harris is leading us in the congregation in a responsive reading. I can feel myself calming down as more than two thousand people read together. Now John Hubert is leading us in the closing song, “For All That Is Our Life.”

Guess this means that neither Peter Morales nor Laurel Hallman will be speaking to us.

8:25 p.m. MDT

Heard around me: “I love this sermon, even though I’m not really listening.”

It’s a great sermon by Carley, but I know I’m too excited thinking of the election results to pay proper attention. But oh, he really is a good preacher.

8:23 p.m. MDT

3,543 votes cast. Chris Walton of UU World magazine, who’s sitting next to me here, calculates the following:

UUA President-elect Peter Morales won the UUA presidency decisively with 59 percent of all votes. He won 55 percent of the absentee vote (1,020 to 827) and 61 percent of the on-site vote (1,041 to 654). His margin of victory is 580 votes. Seven ballots were disqualified for discrepancies; one vote was cast for “No.”

Outgoing UUA President William G. Sinkford won by the largest margin of any UUA president in a contested race when he was first elected in 2001. Sinkford won that election with 67.7 percent (2,218 to 1,043).

Full article here.

8:18 p.m. MDT

The Plenary Hall looks very full now. Still a few people trickling in to the hall. (I hope word gets to the latecomers that Peter Morales won the presidential election.)

8:16 p.m. MDT

“Some of us in this moment are disappointed that our candidate was not elected, and some of us are delighted that our candidate won,” says Carley. “But all of us are thankful” for the people who are willing to serve as leaders.

Carley is being very funny — I can’t capture it here.

8:14 p.m. MDT

Gini Courter is walking around off stage. A small group talking over there.

Rev. Burton Carley is speaking, quoting Howard Thurman, speaking about how life can throw challenges at us.

Bill Sinkford is walking in in front of the stage. He just took a seat in the front row, off to my left.

8:10 p.m. MDT

Morales has just come on stage. Music playing.

8:10 p.m. MDT

Rickter is beginning to speak. “I can announce that we have elected as the 8th president of the UUA the Rev. Peter Morales.”

Cheers, clapping. A few people standing.

8:09 p.m. MDT

“[This is] a service of gratitude for those willing to serve,” says Anne Bancroft as she gives the opening words. She quotes from Marge Piercy’s poem, “To Be of Use.”

No sign of the candidates yet. Paul Rickter, who’s going to make the announcement, is on stage here though.

8:06 p.m. MDT

Just before the song started, I was hearing the word “upset.” 2062 to 1481 is a big win for Peter Morales.

8:05 p.m. MDT

John Hubert is leading those assembled in singing a hymn: “Gather the Spirit.” The worship celebration is beginning.

8:02 p.m. MDT

Vote totals: Morales 2062, Hallman 1481.

8:00 p.m. MDT

Morales won. (The UUA Twitter feed posted the result before me. Drat.)

7:58 p.m. MDT

I just walked back to the entrance to the Plenary Hall. There’s something of a bottleneck getting into the hall. Everyone’s coming at once.

Not quite the sense of eager anticipation I expected, though. I’m hearing people talking about everything except the election results.

7:56 p.m. MDT

Now people are really streaming into the Plenary Hall. The hall is only about a fifth full yet….

7:54 p.m. MDT

Still waiting for key people to show up in the Plenary Hall — these are people who are supposed to be leading the Celebration of the two candidates. I just overheard a member of teh GA Planning Committee say, “We’re going ahead anyway, we’ll just have to trust they show up in time.”

7:52 p.m. MDT

OK, I just got word that there is a decision on who’s the next UUA president, but there’s no word yet on who it is.

7:49 p.m. MDT

Sounds like there is a possibility there might be a delay in the announcement of who’s the next UUA President. I’ll let you know more when I know more.

7:45 p.m. MDT

People are starting to arrive in the Plenary hall to hear the announcement about who won the election to be next UUA president. Stay tuned….

I just got up and walked around the hall. It’s less than half full, but there’s a steady stream of people coming into the hall. I stopped to talk with some people I know. “We didn’t hurry our lunch,” they admitted, knowing that all the candidates speaking today were running in uncontested elections. But they came.

And as I walked around, I saw that nearly everyone was really paying attention. I didn’t even see anyone knitting. Democracy at work: people paying attention even during the less-than-exciting bits.

1:11 p.m. MDT

The candidates are making funny and brief statements. But as I look around, half of the delegates I see are reading their program books.

1:02 p.m. MDT

The hall is still more than half empty. There wasn’t much time for delegates to have lunch today… or maybe people just aren’t interested in the non-contested elections for UUA committees and Board slots.

This is the first year I’ve been a delegate and I’ve never paid much attention to the plenaries before, so I expect to be fascinated in a process-geek sort of way. (The policy of this blog — which I support — prohibits any electioneering. So even as I cover the process, I intend to leave you guessing about how I’ll vote.)

Our delegation is split, but we had the kind of conversation you’d hope UUs would have. Everyone seemed to appreciate the arguments of both sides, and no one pinned unrealistic hopes on one candidate or suggested that the other’s supporters need therapy. Several of us had changed our minds in the last few months, some more than once. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of us change again before the vote.

For the non-delegate, the big difference in this year’s GA is that UU University is now part of the regular program. In previous years you had to arrive early and spring for another couple nights at a hotel.

I never did, but I’ve talked to people who are very enthusiastic about UUU. Its six tracks are each nine hours long — five on Thursday afternoon and four on Friday morning. Done right, a UUU track has a chance to go deeper and be more transformative than the typical 75-minute GA workshop. I’m told that people came out of previous UUUs wishing that the experience could be made available to everybody who comes to GA. This year it is.

But there’s a price: Nothing is programmed to compete with UUU, so the amount of workshop-hopping you can do is considerably diminished. The 2007 schedule (I misplaced my 2008 program) had 12 event periods. This year’s non-UUU programming is down to seven periods.

If you don’t know much about UUU — none of my fellow Bedfordites seemed to — you feel the loss as soon as you pick up your program. But the gain won’t be apparent until UUU starts on Thursday. In the meantime, we’re all just trying to keep a leash on our characteristic UU skepticism.

So as GA goes on, I’ll have my ears open for hints of the overall mood: Are people missing the 12-period smorgasbord of past GAs? Or are they enjoying the more focused opportunities that UUU offers? Or both?