YES TEAM CELEBRATES JOY.

The only thing more inspiring than a YES Team meeting is a YES Team meeting coupled with the PNW District assembly. It's been a few months since our last in-person meeting, and it can be hard to look on the bright side instead of looking at the negative. What we haven't done: convinced every UU church to send their youth to Cons; accomplished a flawless Spirit Corps; saved the world. It's easy to get bogged down with shoulddas, woulddas, and coulddas when you have a group of bright, good-hearted, and highly motivated individuals. But what HAVE we done? Elissa inspired and motivated us all in coordinating a successful and contagious showing of the Laramie Project. And I for one am enamored with the new format of Spirit Corps!
The theme of District Assembly was 'Joy'. I was made painfully aware of the negativity surrounding me, and was reminded how negative I tend to be. Reverend Bill Sinkford, of First Portland UU, gave the most moving sermon about joy. Do we celebrate joy enough? Sinkford remarked on how Unitarian Universalists are great at being socially and politically active, and we're wonderful at seeing the wrongs that exist today. But if UUs spent half as much energy searching for, recognizing, and creating joy as we did trying to save the world, I think we'd all be much happier! I call myself a realist, but of course that's just a cover for 'detail-oriented cynic'. I need to remind myself to look for the joy in life. And I don’t necessarily mean that I need to be more joyful. People often tell me “put a smile on”, and “cheer up, life’s not that bad!” And all I can think is “Up yours, don’t tell me what to feel!” Because I’m not the type of person who sugar-coats; I’m not one to soften the blow, or beat around the bush. But there’s a difference between painting over bad feelings with a smile, and looking for things to feel good about. Reverend Sinkford, along with keynote speaker Dr. Ysaye Barnwell (who made me even more proud to be a UU than I already was), made me WANT to find joy, which is quite a contrast to the familiar comfort of melancholy in which I normally stew.
So as the YES Team once again parts ways with the goal of saving the world, I’m overjoyed to have Reverend Sinkford’s sermon echoing through our minds, and Dr. Barnwell’s songs resounding in our bodies.

Written by: Sophia M. Brandon, YES team, UUC

Monthly Event Updates

Events are happening in our district, (and Beyond!) primarily the Laramie Project Showings:
2/6: Edmonds/Shoreline, WA
2/11: Marietta, GA
2/11 Woodinville, WA
2/12: Eastshore, Bellevue, WA - doing a radio play version! (live!)
2/18: Corvallis, OR
2/19: Vancouver, WA
2/21: Salem, OR
2/22: Palouse, Moscow, ID
2/25: Tacoma, WA
2/25: Kitsap/Cedars, Bremerton, WA
2/26: Spokane, WA
2/27: Saltwater, Des Moines, WA
2/27: Wy'East, Portland, OR

There is also a 'webinar' on non-violent communications starting through the district this month. For more information and to register: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M7W9965

IndividUUality, Part 1

“In this familiar place, listen: Find the silence among these people and listen to it all - breathing, sighs, movement, holding back - hear the tears that have not yet reached their eyes perhaps they are your own hear also the laughter building deep where joy abides despite everything. listen: rejoice.” -Barbara Pescan

My first Con experience was summer Con ‘08: the Con that everyone groans at collectively knowing what the aftermath was. For those who don’t know, these things were not good (to say the least) and almost tore our community apart. However, I don’t think I would have come back to the Con community if I hadn’t gone to the alleged "summer Con." But that isn’t my point. My point is from that Con came the growth that has happened over the past few years. Last year at Fall Con 09’- TheologiCON, much of the community was renewed through the efforts of the YES team (Youth Empowerment Services), the Con staff, and everyone who participated. I am extremely happy to say that these efforts have been up held at our most recent Fall Con ‘10, IndividUUality. I could tell you that we had no CAC's (Conference Affairs Committee), but that truly doesn't give you a clear picture of what happened during the weekend. It wasn’t just the efforts of YES and the staff, it was YOU; the con community as a whole took part in making a stronger, safer, and loving community.

Planning a Con... is...well, hectic.

After debating about T-shirt colors for about two hours during our 2nd official Con meeting, we finally got down to business. We then we realized how much work we had cut out for ourselves. I remember in the meeting looking over at Ian Grendon (my co-worship planner), and seeing the look of “...Oh my chalice... What have I gotten myself into?” Through many emails, text messages, phone calls, google docs, and a trip to Olympia (and procrastinating and watching old episodes of the TV show The Dinosaurs), we managed to get worship planned out... for the most part... though both of us did forget to get the final script printed out before leaving for Con.

As Worship planner and YES team member I was running around (with Ian) all weekend while very sick with a terrible cold. Though I didn’t feel that I was a part of the community as much as I wanted to be, I still felt very connected. Being a part of a worship vs. leading a worship is a very different experience. I wanted to give everyone powerful and meaningful worship experiences, which was very stressful. Much of Saturday and Friday was spent making sure things were going to run smoothly later in the night, but as Ian and I realized, we can’t plan everything. This Con was truly a learning experience.

Friday night’s worship was... interesting. Not exactly what we planned to be. We knew going in that it was not going to be the strongest worship. However we learned, and grew, and knew we could take this knowledge on to the next worships.

Saturday night worship was the most challenging: we had no idea how it would go, and our prayers to the weather gods hadn’t worked as a steady rain fell. During setup we were running around, hoping that the rain wouldn’t put out the fire and candles, while simultaneously freaking out about whether anything would catch fire. Not to mention wondering how long people could bear the rain and in general how the heck we would make this work.

However, I think Saturday night’s worship was made even more powerful by the rain. My thoughts as we walked down to the fire pit, half screaming, half hoarsely singing were...well, probably not blog appropriate. But as we read aloud in the rain, with my cracking voice and Ian’s calm and collective manner, I realized what we had done and accomplished together. We had created a space for people, everyone if they wished, to search. To search deep within themselves and stretch to the limits of their existence, of their hearts, minds and souls.

I was reaffirmed by this constantly looking upon the faces of the community as they threw their pieces of wood - representing their barriers - into the fire while singing. It was an experience I will never forget. It was as if I had a bird's eye view of everybody’s light, their pulsing souls. Looking in on something so private, but utterly welcoming, I knew we had done well and I have the community to thank for truly respecting worship and helping create a scared space.

Sunday worship was gratifying, after the tremendous strain we put on ourselves for Saturday night's worship. It was a way to ease our pains as we knew this weekend was coming to a close. As worship planners, our hopes were that people would carry these worships/Con experiences with them: a beacon of light and to act on what they had experienced, the experience of remembering their pains and joys, breaking down barriers, and then transforming them into something positive. Something that will better you, the community, the world.

I love our Con community. I am proud to say that the next generation of Con attendees will carry out the culture we put forth, which is not to say we don't have room for improvement. This community will always will be growing, expanding, changing, for the better.

As my co-worship planner put so poetically, reflecting on the Con experience:
"I felt so old. In less than 48 hours, I had experienced the loss of friends forever, the failures and victories of love, the inevitable progression of people throughout the Con world, and more love, recognition, and appreciation than I’ve ever had in my life." - Ian Grendon

Thank you, everyone. To everyone that went to Fall Con. To everyone that cried, laughed, sang, danced, played Lap Tag, smiled, and hugged. To everyone a part of the Con community.

And remember: “We are raising up like the phoenix of the fire, so brothers and sisters spread your wings and fly higher....”

Thank you.

In faith,
Elissa
Co-Worship planner of Fall Con ‘10- IndividUUality
YES Team


“Let us open ourselves, here, now,
to the process of becoming more whole-
of living more fully,
of giving and forgiving more freely,
of understanding more completely the
meaning of our lives here on earth.”
-Timothy Haley

Con Evaluation: IndividUUality

For the first time at this Con, we had some evaluation of the event by the overall attendees.  How did Con go overall? 

 Overall Evaluation:

5 ratings (super happy face) :  67%

4 (slightly happy face) :          28%

3 (neutral face) :                     5%

2 (slightly unhappy face) :        1%

1 (very unhappy face) :            0%

Favorite parts of Con:
No-talent show:                    79%
Touch groups:                       67%
Workshops:                          51%
Worship:                              50%
Main workshop:                     44%
Spirit Corps:                         21%

What would you change?
The top answer was "the rain," which unfortunately we can't help you with.

Top answers:
Vary music at the dance
Make con longer
Longer worships
More supplies for henna/hair dye
More free time
After-worship campfire time
Newbie orientation
Inclusive first-night games
Better privacy
More theme-related workshops

How would you make Con more inclusive?
Most of these answers focused on Friday night and helping new attendees feel part of the community more quickly; second was the ability to have solo time or more personal space.

• Friday night games / mixers
• Have older / more experience con-goers reach out to newcomers better (newcomers can feel it's hard to approach others who clearly know each other well)
• Mix-up people at meals
• Con buddies
• Get "lei'd" at registration so you know right away who new people are
• Have 1st touch group before orientation, so you've got some people to sit with / talk to right away
• Pre-Con information: have a video, explain more about what happens
• Area for quiet people or smaller "coffee house" type talent show
• More active games (e.g. capture the flag, ultimate frisbee - the rain made this hard)