Keynote Address:"21st Century Leadership" by Rev. Meg Riley

The world is changing. Sometimes it feels as if things are changing so fast we are chasing after our own understanding, wisdom and power, rather than leading from those places. There is a constant cacophany of noise, much of which seems to be nonsensical or irrelevant. News is constant and interactive, often featuring celebrity gossip, rather than providing us with informed authorities who tell us what we need to know. Internationally and in the US, uprisings are organized on Facebook, or Tweeted about. We can bemoan it, we can resist it, but we can’t control this change!

So, how do we lead? Where do we gather our strength, how do we summon our own spiritual and moral authority, how do we know what steps to take? What kind of leadership is successful and meaningful in times of rapid change?

Rev. Meg Riley will explore leadership that emerges from deep spiritual grounding, builds more loving spiritual community, and takes risks. She will prod us to be bigger and bolder: Unitarian Universalists have unique perspectives and gifts to offer the world in this time of change, if we dare to do so!

SPEAK UUP!! Effective Public Speaking

PROGRAM:

Leaders need to coherently communicate their vision and goals. In this session you will learn the fundamentals for organizing your material into a coherent outline, ways to prepare for the presentation and explore fun ways to control nervousness.

PRESENTERS:

Nancy Bateman & D. Scott Cooper


Nancy Bateman is a life-long UU and has been a member of First Unitarian for 23 years where she has served on numerous committees, boards and as interim Executive Director. She is an award-winning Toastmaster. In real life she is retired from hi-tech, enjoying volunteer work and special UU projects.

D. Scott Cooper has been a member of First Unitarian for almost 10 years and has taught COMING OF AGE, YRUU, and is currently a Worship Associate. He is also an award-winning Toastmaster. In real life he works in the Creative Department in the convention and trade show industry.

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Discovering Your Leadership Style

PROGRAM:

There are many styles of effective leadership --- some soft, some pushy, some seeking consensus, some seeking action, and some which lead by creating a vision. Come hear about leadership from someone who has trained many leaders in both the business and nonprofit worlds.

PRESENTER:

Gayle Watson

Gayle Watson specializes in designing corporate enterprise-wide learning systems, corporate universities, strategic planning, organizational development, and leadership development programs. Her work focuses on aligning values, leadership, human capital assets, and competency-based performance management to create high performing corporate cultures. She has over thirty years experience working in and consulting to numerous U.S. and international companies including those in health care, financial services, technology, customer call/contact centers, sales and service companies, and nonprofit organizations. Some of her clients include: Southwest Airlines, J.C. Penney, Frito-Lay, Dallas Morning News, Bank One Texas, Teacher Retirement System of Texas, New Mexico Community Capital, New Mexico Mutual, Adventist Healthcare System, Dallas Catholic Charities, and Girl Scouts USA.

Prior to her corporate career, Watson worked as Director of Volunteer Development on staff for the Lone Star Council of Camp Fire in Dallas. She has continued her work facilitating organizational change and strategic planning for the non-profit organizations she has been involved with over the years. A UU for over 30 years, she has served two terms on the Board of Trustees for the First Unitarian Church of Dallas during policy governance implementation and as chair of the Strategic Planning committee. Watson was featured in the January 2004 issue of the Association Management Magazine for her leadership in implementing policy governance and organizational change as board chair of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) in McLean, Virginia. She has also served on the board of directors for the Center for Women’s Business Research, a national 501c (3) foundation located in the Washington DC area.

Watson is the recipient of several honors including the National NAWBO Member of the Year Award and the City of Dallas Women’s Business Initiative Award. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Psychology from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.

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How to Plan and Run a Successful Meeting

PROGRAM:

From planning who should be at a meeting, to setting a workable agenda, to knowing how to "call the question," this session endeavors to provide you with the comfort and organization to run your meetings more successfully. Taught by a professional trainer who is a Past President of the District – and who has run many meetings.

PRESENTER:

Joe Sullivan

Joe Sullivan is a leadership consultant and coach with Unity Consulting (subsidiary of Unity Unitarian, St. Paul, MN), where his work focuses on congregational vitality through spiritual practices and products of board governance and organizational development. Joe is the current Dean of our UUA Southwestern Conference's Leadership Experience and past District President.

Joe Sullivan is a charter member of the Thoreau UU - Houston. He served for five years on the Board of our Southwest District of the UUA (president from 2004-08). Since 2001, he has been on staff for the Dwight Brown Leadership Experience and currently serves as its Dean. He also serves on the Fifth Principle (future of General Assembly) Task Force of UUA.

Following early retirement in late 2005 from a 23-year career in the energy industry, Joe worked for two years as project manager for the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund. He was a congregational consultant for the SW District from 2001-08, focusing on areas of congregational governance and board develop-ment. In 2009 he joined Unity Consulting to help develop and lead the Governance Track of UUUniversity at the UUA General Assembly, and now performs governance-related consulting as part of Unity Consulting.

You can visit Joe's website for more details.

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Succession Planning:
How Your Congregation Can Ensure Its Continuity

PROGRAM:

Every organization needs to provide for the training and replacement of its leaders. This session will not only provide the basics of how to do so within your congregation, but will also provide insight from the leader of a small church who was told that his church was "too small" to do such planning!

PRESENTERS:

Mike Ellsberry & Steve Lewis

Mike Ellsberry is a former President of Denton UU and of NTAUUS. He is currently a member of Tyler UU. Since growing up in a small business in Dallas, he has spent his college eduation (UT Austin MBA) studying Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Mike currently directs the Small Business Development Center at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens,TX. Small businesses must leverage inadequate resources and skills to the limit to survive and succeed which is exactly where our small congregations find themselves.


Steve Lewis joined First Unitarian Church of Dallas in 1986 with wife Karen (who was raised in the church), and raised their two children (still UUs!) there. Volunteer involvement has included teaching Sunday school, working on Building & Grounds committee, serving on and/or chairing task forces on anti-racism, bylaws, governance, facilities usage and capabilities, building renovation, and centennial celebration.

Steve has served as trustee and officer prior to becoming the church’s first executive director (1997-2001). Steve has served as Board member of U_U Retreat and Conference Center and North Texas Association of Unitarian Universalist Societies (NTAUUS) Endowment. He is currently executive director of Temple Shalom, a reform Jewish congregation.

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Writing A Successful NTAUUS Grant

PROGRAM:

NTAUUS provided more than $700,000 in the past eight years for projects within our thirteen churches. Come hear from a CPA who has worked with non-profits, someone who has managed a non-profit, and a member of the Endowment Committee itself on what to do to make sure your application puts its best foot forward.

PRESENTERS:

Kathy Warner, Mary Morris, Patsy Roe

Kathy Warner has been a theological UU since childhood, contributing UU since 1979 and card-carrying UU since the birth of a second child.

Kathy has worked most of her accounting career with not-for-profit entities. She's dealt with grants from the auditing, compliance and consulting perspective. She also believes sincerely that (1) grants exist by law to make our corporate, industrially capitalistic world a better place, and (2) money is one of our best UU tangible tools to Stand on the Side of Love.

Mary Morris has been a Member of Horizon Unitarian Universalist Church for 11 years, former Executive Director of the Bridge Breast Network, a non-profit primarily funded by grants.

Patsy Roe has an MBA from Indiana University and has been a Member of Horizon Unitarian Universalist Church for twenty years and our NTAUUS Treasurer for the past two. She is representing the Endowment Committee on this panel and has been through two grant application and distribution cycles.

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"Five Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion"

PROGRAM:

The lunchtime speaker, the Reverend Susan Smith, will discuss the principles underlying our religion. One of the most important of these is that “Revelation is not closed”. Come learn the other four! This is one of the favorite sessions each year at the Dwight Brown Leadership Experience (DBLE).

PRESENTER:

Rev. Susan Smith

Rev. Susan Smith is the District Executive of the Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference of the UUA (SWUUC). The SWUUC covers all of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, most of Texas, and small parts of Tennessee, Missouri, and Mexico.

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21st Century Communication: Twitter, Facebook, and Who Knows What Else

PROGRAM:

“With the Internet, UUs can be more persistent than Jehovah’s Witnesses. Come and learn how technology can be your friend!” Hear about the latest in state of the art communications techniques now being used in our congregations. In keeping with the technology aspects of the topic, this session will be streamed live. You can attend – or just follow the Tweet! ;-)

PRESENTERS:

Rev. Meg Riley, Fritz Kuehn, Scott Grey

Our keynote speaker, Rev. Meg Riley's bio is here.

Fritz Kuehn is a 30-year UU and Communications Director of First Unitarian Church of Dallas since 2009.

With 30+ years of experience in programming, advertising, and media production, Fritz has served as CEO, executive producer, account manager, project director, and creative technologist.

As principle of dreamlab partners, Fritz partnered with creative teams and clients to develop integrated marketing programs and new media strategies. Before that he was Director of Growth, Interactive Services, with Tribal DDB, Dallas where he promoted new media opportunities for the interactive agency and its premier clients.

Prior to Tribal, Fritz served as CEO/Executive Creative Director of DreamTime Imagineering, Inc. (dba dreamlab), a creative think-tank and interactive development studio he founded in 1991. Dreamlab won numerous industry awards and Fritz was cited as a Top 100 Producer from 1999 - 2002.

In the 1980’s, as Executive VP of Clearwater Teleproductions, Inc. Fritz managed the building, marketing and operations of mobile television trucks and facilitated location program production for television and cable networks.


Scott Grey is a Member, Property Manager, and AV Specialist for the UU Church of Oak Cliff. He also serves as Webmaster for NTAUUS and for the OakCliffUU and related websites. His non-church activities provide clients with Medical Media services including website design and studio design and installations for patient photography.

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21st Century Communication – Continuing the Discussion

PROGRAM:

This forum is a continuation of the session on 21st Century Communication. A chance to exchange ideas and discuss in a less formal setting how your congregations are using, or are planning on using social media.

FACILITATOR:

Scott Grey

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Closing Worship - Remarks and Rituals

"Action Strategies & Plans for Reconnecting."
Daniel Polk & Conference Planning Team

Minister: T.B.D.

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