What's the criterion for "an active" member of the congregation?

[applewuud]

Our church had a little debate last Sunday at the congregational meeting. Like most UU churches, people come and go over time, and that's OK with us...except there are some legal and financial issues to deal with.

[For those non-UUs looking in on this DIR: Unitarian-Universalist churches have "congregational polity", which means that each individual church/fellowship is run by its members who vote in congregational meetings to elect people to the Board of Directors, what minister they will hire, and even if they will be Unitarian or not--there are no bishops or archbishops or national hierarchy in control of each church...they are democratic from the base up.]

Active members are allowed to vote at congregational meetings; but there must be a quorum present of 40% of the active membership to do certain things (like change bylaws). Also, we pay dues to the UUA (national office) based on how many members we have (essentially, this is the cost of a subscription to the UU magazine, UUWorld each year). So, if a bunch of active members drift away from the church and don't resign membership, it's easy to have a legal membership of 100 when there are actually only 39 contributing and coming to church...which means that legally, it is impossible to govern ourselves.

There is a clause in our bylaws that defines "an active member" as one who "contributes financially and/or in service to the church during the year", and that after 3 years of not doing so, the clerk will contact them and ask if they want to remain on the active list.

[Again, a note for non-UUs looking in: there is no shame or blame in not being active or having time or money to give, you can give $1 a year and stay active. This is about whether you want to be involved in the voting organization, instead of being a "friend" who comes a Sunday or two a year. Everyone's welcome. ]

If people make an annual pledge to the church, of any amount, that keeps them active. But what about service? Our clerk was updating our membership roll, and sent "are you still with us?" letters to a few people who hadn't pledged in years and hadn't been to church. A few were offended, because they had done some activity on a social justice committee recently. But how could the clerk have known that?

Some people like to consider themselves church members for life, after having signed the membership book, even if they never come to church or pledge. We do have a category "inactive member" for them, it's just a legal term.

The question to UUs: what are your organization's criteria for being an active member?

 

[bicker]

I spent a year on the Membership Team and we took great pains to research each member that dropped out of sight, from our team's standpoint. There is a good cross-section of folks on the Membership Team, and if the member was someone involved in something, one of us generally knew about it, but all such contact get passed by the minister and church administrator first, just to be sure. Our Membership and Volunteer Coordinator also has, in the past, toyed with the idea of having participant records submitted by each designated team leader, just so we have a comprehensive and up-to-date list of "everybody".

Next, the first contact for someone who apparently vanished is to see if we could help get them more involved (note the word "more" - that might preclude some offense). We call this "remembership" (not sure if that's double or triple entendre ). Only a year after that does "the letter" go out.

And to be clear, the letter specifically states that all the member needs to do is return the letter indicating a desire to remain a member. There is no talk about money. That was a matter of some contention a few years back, because of what you mentioned regarding UUA dues. However, we have now decided to separate UUA dues from donations to our church. Each member decides for themselves whether to donate any money to the UUA and if that UUA has a problem with how much money that sends their way, vis a vis how many "active members" we have, they can take that up with our members themselves - our church won't get involved or otherwise intercede on the UUA's behalf in that regard, except in terms of making it possible for members to channel their donations to the UUA through the church and verbally encouraging members to consider providing at least the amount the UUA wants per member.

 

[Little Darwin]

It is my understanding that for the congregation I belong to a financial pledge is necessary for membership.

In my opinion this makes sense, since anyone interested in being involved with the operations of the church would be willing to provide financial support to the extent they are comfortable and able to provide it. There may be a better word, but when I refer to operations in this context I mean voting, leading committees, or serving in other official capacities. These are the significant ways a member is treated differently than a friend.

 

[Question_love_act]

There is a clause in our bylaws that defines "an active member" as one who "contributes financially and/or in service to the church during the year", and that after 3 years of not doing so, the clerk will contact them and ask if they want to remain on the active list.

Interesting! I don't know if it works that way in Canada, but I think it's a good and easy thing to do to assure the viability of the Church.

 

[Question_love_act]

Next, the first contact for someone who apparently vanished is to see if we could help get them more involved (note the word "more" - that might preclude some offense). We call this "remembership" (not sure if that's double or triple entendre ). Only a year after that does "the letter" go out.

A great idea too! I suppose that indirectly though it encourages people to support more the Church financially as well.

When I was a liberal Christians, I heard that liberals don't support their churches financially enough. Is this also true for UUs, who tend to be more liberal?