Rev. Joan’s Blog – April 2021
March & April have been busy months. If you are reading this post, you’ve discovered our website facelift. We will continue to add content, but our base pages are here. I hope you will agree it shows a more energetic, engaged and committed Board and Organization.
Our Annual Meeting is next weekend. Registration links and a final agenda were sent out on Friday, April 16, 2021. Any questions, feel free to contact me. Looking forward to an exciting and informative weekend together.
Not as exciting, but integral to our work, we have migrated our data management system from Salsa Classic to Salsa Engage. We are already seeing how more user-friendly this platform is. My late husband Russell used to say, “You need the right tools for tough jobs.” I agree. I am not driving this upgrade to our infrastructure alone. The UUJusticePA Board is also becoming more engaged. Two important decisions by the Board over the last month:
- In response to WITF’s article, “WITF is connecting these lawmakers to their actions on the election-fraud lie. Here’s why” the Board sent a letter to each of the 70+ PA legislators who refused to certify the Nov 2020 PA election and wrote what we called “the insurrection letter” asking the US Congress not to certify the PA election. We sent this letter via email and then I followed up with a hard copy delivered to each of their offices.The letter asked each of these legislators to rescind “the insurrection letter” sent to Congress and to publicly acknowledge that Nov 2020 PA elections were fair and just. When I told one reporter from the PA Capital Star what we were doing, said, “A good accountability project.” I received no response from any of the legislators nor the newspapers I wrote to asking for a response to our project. I posted the Board’s letter under the new “From the UUJusticePA Board” section on our website.
- At the April 15 Board meeting, the Board also agreed to take the Jubilee training later this month. We are coming to understand the need to use the race lens in all of our justice work and training for the Board and staff will be valuable in this effort.
The Capital is open. Democratic legislators have told me that they are being pushed to re-open their Harrisburg Capital offices even if they personally wonder if it is too early. Locally, at least one school district in the area is shut down due to high cases of Covid. I will take the risk, and spend at least one day at the Capital when the General Assembly is in session.
We are living in a time of great upheaval. As Unitarian Universalists we can’t be observers, we must become more active in all the issues of justice.
Hope to see you at our Annual Meeting next weekend.
joan