Prairie UU Society, 2010 Whenona Drive, Madison WI 53711–4843 (608) 271-8218 admin@uuprairie.com Located off the south frontage road (West Beltline Hwy Rd.) near the Seminole Hwy exit. PRAIRIE FIRE "As the prairie stretches out until it becomes one with the sky, let us reach out to touch and be one with the natural world and with one another." April 6, 2007 Prairie Fire is the semi-monthly newsletter of Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society. View past issues at www.uuprairie.org. President: Mike Briggs, (608) 835–0914 Editor: Dan Proud, admin@uuprairie.org; 661–0776 PRAIRIE CALENDAR Sunday, April 8 *10:00 a.m. “A Line of Poetry Strays into Memory,” presented by Anne Lundin and Mary Mullen *11:30 a.m. Book club discusses Confessions of an Economic Hit Man Wednesday, April 11 6:30 p.m. Midweek Meal @ Prairie Friday-Sunday, April 13-15 Central Midwest District Assembly, with the theme, "Congregations Alive!", Oakbrook, Illinois Saturday-Sunday, April 14-15 Spring Fling for Prairie youth Sunday, April 15 9:00 a.m. Choir rehearsal *10:00 a.m. “Evolution and How It Impacts Your Daily Life,” presented by Kathy Converse Monday, April 16 7:00 p.m. Prairie Film group shows “Saraband” Wednesday, April 18 6:30 p.m. Midweek Meal @ Prairie *6:30 p.m. Spanish Speakers meet and eat at home of Mary Somers, 4467 Crescent Rd. *7:30 p.m. Program Committee meeting Saturday, April 21 *7:00 p.m. Earth and Spirit Songfest with Jim Scott, at Prairie Sunday, April 22 9:00 a.m. Choir rehearsal *10:00 a.m. “Earth Day 2007: John Muir, Pioneer Conservationist,” presented by Galen Smith 11:45 a.m. Parish meeting and potluck Tuesday, April 24 *2:00 p.m. Prairie Elders meet at Oakwood West Wednesday-Sunday, June 20-24 UUA General Assembly, Portland, Oregon (* = Details follow in this issue.) NEXT INPUT DEADLINE SUNDAY, APRIL 15 DETAILS OF COMING PROGRAMS Sunday, April 8 “A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King.” So wrote Emily Dickinson around 1875. This Easter Sunday, April 8, Anne Lundin and Mary Mullen will lead a program of “poetic madness” to celebrate National Poetry Month. We hope you have some spring poems to share. They need not be the “sweetness and light” type of spring poem. In fact, expect a dialogue between the image of spring as a time of lovely awakening and spring as the cold, rainy, and even depressing time of year. Of course spring is also a metaphor. Or spring may be just incidental to a poem that references the season. If you have a favorite poem related to spring, please contact Mary at mmullen(at)chorus.net or 298-0843, so your poem can be put into the mix. A spring poem committed to memory that you could recite would be especially welcome. Meanwhile, ponder on these words from Robert Frost’s poem which begins, “Nature’s first green is gold,” and ends, “Nothing gold can stay.” Sunday, April 15 Understanding evolution is important as every day we encounter news, products, medicines, or conservation decisions that are strongly linked to evolutionary theory and research. We will have tables with show and tell displays of many examples and discuss how they impact us and how we feel about it. Some examples are antibiotic resistance, land and species conservation decisions, and control of insects and disease in crops. Sunday, April 22 On the 37th Earth Day we will celebrate the life of John Muir (1838–1914), inventor, farmer, explorer, mountaineer, geologist, botanist, writer, and especially lover of and conservationist of nature. We will focus on his impact on American nature conservation and the inspiration he can provide as we confront the siege on nature that we are now experiencing. One of John Muir’s most famous writings is: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it hitched to everything else in the universe.” OUR SOCIETY PARISH MEETING APRIL 22 Prairie’s spring parish meeting is scheduled for Sunday, April 22. We’ll begin the meeting at 11:45 a.m. Bring a dish to pass for a potluck lunch. The agenda includes the election of officers for 2007-2008, consideration of several changes to our bylaws, a discussion of Prairie’s plans for building a new meeting house, and reports from committees and officers. If there is anything else you would like to have on the agenda, let me know. In this issue of Prairie Fire you’ll find background pieces on the proposed bylaw changes and planning for a new meeting house. Please do your best to read these before the meeting so that our deliberations can be kept as short as possible. Call or email me with questions or concerns. Peace, Mike Briggs President PARISH MEETING AGENDA, APRIL 22, 2007 11:45 Agenda at the meeting house: 1. Minutes of previous meeting 2. Election of officers 3. Building plans 4. By-law changes (text at the end of this issue) 5. Reports of officers and committees Slate of officers: President: Rachel Long Vice President: Anne Lundin Secretary: Jerry Simmons Treasurer: Kate Liu Finance: Norma Briggs Hospitality and Membership: Paula Pachciarz Housing and Property: Al Nettleton Long Range Planning: Marilyn Ruecking Program: Mary Mullen R.E.: Karen Deaton Social Action: Kathy Converse Denominational Affairs: Nancy Schraufnagel BUILDING A NEW MEETING HOUSE One of the important decisions we’ll make at our parish meeting on Sunday, April 22 will be whether to proceed with taking the next steps toward building a new meeting house on our land at Fitchburg Center. When Prairie bought a 1 3/4-acre parcel there about 18 months ago, we agreed with the sellers that if we don’t plan to begin construction within two years of the purchase date they have the right to buy back the land, paying us what we paid for the land plus three per cent a year. Bill Dalrymple, who is our contact at Fitchburg Center, has said recently that they will exercise that right next fall, if by this spring we haven’t actively started to raise money and take other steps toward building. Our architect, Bob Shipley, has given us new building plans that should enable us to construct a building more than 150 per cent of the size of our present building for $750,000. Based on a spreadsheet prepared by Ken Skog (thanks, Ken!), we should be able to afford that without bankrupting ourselves and without taking on a huge debt. If we can relocate as planned, our regular operations will be fully funded and we’ll be able to afford a half-time professional minister. Copies of the architect’s sketches and his proposed budget, plus a copy of Ken’s numbers, will be on the welcome table for your review over the next few weeks. Some of our newer members (and some of our older members) might appreciate some background. This short history of Prairie’s growth planning over the last few years is based on material prepared by Mary Mullen last year (thanks, Mary!). Since August 2001, Prairie UU Society has been working toward two goals: obtaining a part-time minister and growing our membership. The first goal has been partially met. Last year we were served by Jody Whelden as our quarter-time consulting minister. On October 22, 2006, we voted to have Ralph Tyksinski as our quarter-time consulting minister. (Ralph is actually working half-time, donating a quarter of his time to us to meet his credentialing requirements.) Prairie’s long-range plans foresee up to 200-250 adult members and a youth religious education program of at least 70 children ranging from infants through high school. In April 2003, the Parish passed a resolution stating a goal to move to a larger space by April 2008. The resolution indicated that a larger space was needed to “…provide more and better space to meet our growth needs, because it is not feasible to meet those needs in Prairie’s present building.” Progress toward relocation During 2003 the Long Range Planning Committee identified and evaluated 11 properties/buildings to determine if they could be suitable for us. This included property in the Fitchburg Center. In a March 2004 resolution, the Parish voted to form a committee to work with Fitchburg Center and an architect to prepare concept drawings (requested by Fitchburg Center), and negotiate an agreement to purchase land for the Parish to consider. In July 2004 that committee interviewed four architectural firms and chose BWZ Architects of Middleton, Wisconsin, to prepare the conceptual drawings. When some limitations were discovered with the original location at the Fitchburg Center, the committee determined that a different site, adjacent to Eagle School, would serve us better. Based on ideas solicited from Prairie committees, BWZ developed a program statement and presented three conceptual designs to the committee in late autumn 2004. Prairie members provided feedback throughout. On April 10, 2005, the parish approved a resolution to offer to purchase the land adjacent to Eagle School as a site for a new meeting house. The land was bought for $300,000, with approximately $90,000 in funds from Prairie’s CDs and long term loans from Prairie members and friends, on the condition that the congregation break ground on the new church building within two years, because Fitchburg Center does not want its land sitting idle. Since then, there have been a number of listening sessions held with the congregation and with the RE leadership, including a very well-attended session at the retreat in September 2006. Where We Stand Now Early in 2006, the congregation reviewed a revised conceptual design and BWZ produced drawings and a model to help with fundraising. Recently, the building’s size has been scaled down to reduce our construction budget. The planned new meeting house at Fitchburg is now 6,980 square feet, with a construction budget of $750,000 for site preparation, parking and the building (including fees and contingencies). The new building will include several features that Prairie badly needs right now: an office for the minister, a multi-purpose room for small meetings, a larger room for the RE monthly meetings of the whole and for other gatherings, and an upgrade of all RE classrooms, which will be dry, above ground with adequate windows. The meeting room will be big enough to accommodate memorial services and other groups larger than attend our normal Sunday services. Our funding goal is ambitious, but so is our desire to grow into a larger, even more vibrant congregation. Here is how we could meet our needs for financing the new building: Selling our current building should generate $375,000, assuming that the property would sell for $450,000 and that we’d have to pay off a mortgage of $75,000. We have preliminary pledges totaling $164,000. Adding that to the expected proceeds from selling 2010 Whenona Drive, we’ll have $539,000. If we can raise another $205,000 in pledges from members and friends, we’ll need a mortgage of $103,643. Based on the numbers in Ken’s spreadsheet, that is feasible. We could handle it with just a few more pledging members than we now have. The annual payment on the mortgage would be $9,126 for a 30-year loan at 8 per cent interest. Of course, if we can raise more money from pledges, we could reduce the mortgage or make the building a little bigger again. A decision to continue with building plans at the parish meeting will be the springboard for the official launching of Prairie’s capital fund-raising campaign and, at the appropriate time, putting Prairie’s present building on the market. Later will come a parish decision as to whether to accept any offer made on Prairie’s present building, and a decision by a bank to offer an acceptable mortgage on the new building. Unity in Diversity The board represents a diversity of opinion as to whether Prairie should proceed with plans for building at this time. There probably won’t be a unanimous recommendation from the board at the parish meeting on April 22. However, on that day we do need as a congregation to make a decision on relocation. Different points of view will probably be expressed by board members and others, and whatever decision we reach-–planning to relocate, or staying where we are-–will certainly not be by a 100% to 0% majority. Whatever decision we reach, I do hope as your president that we will reach it in a spirit of respect and concern for each other, and that in a spirit of community we will unite to make the decision a reality for Prairie’s future. Feel free to contact me or any other board member with questions or comments. Peace, Mike Briggs uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu simple ways to help your congregation grow Developed by Art Brewer, First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto make a point of sitting beside a visitor put a uu decal on your car or home window wear uu jewelry use a uu coffee mug at work or home practice your response to the question “what is uuism?” uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu REV. RALPH'S RUMINATIONS In the last issue of Prairie Fire I shared with you some of the marks of “Healthy Congregations” that were introduced by Peter Steinke at last year’s General Assembly in St. Louis, as part of the UU University program. As part of that same program Barbara Bates (a member of the First Unitarian Society in Newton, Massachusetts, where she has served in many capacities including chair of the board of trustees) teamed up with the Rev. Dr. Terasa Cooley (District Executive of the Massachusetts Bay District) and presented a workshop on decision-making in congregational life. They defined effective decision-making as a process that is systematic, balances risks and benefits appropriately, is efficient, and is wise in that it uses the head and the heart, using emotional systems and spirit. No decision, they stressed, is purely rational. The main problem with decision-making is when a group jumps right in and doesn't first agree on a shared process. There must be agreement on the process, though the process can be adjusted as the process unfolds. There must also be agreement on who to involve and how, although this too should be "held lightly," allowed to change as the process unfolds. Before outlining the recommended process, the presenters gave some tips on decision-making: - Agree on the process ahead of time - Avoid the rush to judgment, the rush to closure - Use clear and jargon-free language to reduce anxiety about the process - Listen in order to understand—-hear what's behind the words being said - Use a flipchart or other means to transcribe the words said. People will feel heard, this minimizes repetition (and time), and it builds trust. Decisions are usually about resources, processes, identity, or courses of action. An important step is to clarify what the group is deciding about. The method intentionally chosen for making the decisions—authority, minority decision, majority decision, supermajority decision, consensus, or unanimity -—depends on three factors: time, importance, and whether the group desires that the decision is implemented through compliance or commitment. Consensus was defined as "when all members find a proposal acceptable as the best course of action under the current circumstances and all things considered, even though it may fall short of the ideal." As Prairie moves forward this month and the next to make major decisions about its future these observations may offer some guidance. They suggest that the discernment process in congregational decision making is not always logical and rational. It should involve the whole self and the whole self of others in the congregation. Grateful to be journeying with you, Ralph UPCOMING BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS The Prairie Book Club meets monthly after the Sunday service at Prairie. Bring food to share. Anyone who has read the book or simply wants to listen to the discussion is welcome to attend. Remember that there’s a link to the poster of our book club selections on Prairie’s Web site. See http://uuprairie.org/NovDecBooks.htm or find the page through the Prairie calendar entries for book club meeting. Prices are those current at http://amazon.com as of November 18, 2006. Sunday, April 8. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. Non-fiction, “a former respected member of the international banking community describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.” (Democracy Now) 320 pages, $6.44 & up. See http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/ 0452287081/sr=1-1/qid=1163862031/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-2391547-8734245?ie= UTF8&s=books Sunday, May 13. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Fiction, “an alternate history where Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh … and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various levels. The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip, and the care with which his confusion and terror are rendered makes the novel as much about the mysteries of growing up as about American politics.” (Wikipedia) 400 pages, $1.15 & up. LOST AND FOUND, GOING, GOING... It's the time of year again when hats, scarves, gloves, and even coats get left behind at Prairie. By the time we get ready to leave from church, it sure does seem like a nice day, doesn't it? April 15—-Tax Day-—is the day when owners get their last chance to reunite with those castoff clothes. We've got a really nice black leather coat. Come and get it. CALL FOR DELEGATES You can represent Prairie UU Society and join the larger UU community at the District and National Assemblies. Delegates will vote at business meetings, as well as attend educational sessions and network with other UU's. The Central Midwest Assembly, with the theme "Congregations Alive!" will be April 13-15 in Oak Brook, Illinois. General Assembly will take place June 20-24 in Portland, Oregon. If you are interested in attending either of these events, please contact Nancy Schraufnagel, Denominational Affairs Committee, at 273-3195 or schraufnancy (at) hotmail.com. Delegates must be appointed by the Board, but any UU is welcome to attend these conferences. SPANISH SPEAKERS WILL MEET Spanish Speakers will meet on Wednesday, April 18, at 6:30 p.m. for potluck and conversation. The meeting will be at the home of Mary Somers, 4467 Crescent Rd, phone 276-8397. For questions or rides, call Rosemary Dorney at 238-4382. EARTH AND SPIRIT SONGFEST WITH JIM SCOTT SATURDAY, APRIL 21 7:00 p.m. at Prairie Come lend your voice to an extemporaneous vocal celebration of earth and peace. Renew your spirit and celebrate our ideals in song. Drawing on his own music and other songs of ecology, diversity, community and peace from classical to jazz to world folk music, Jim turns the audience into a choir, taught by ear and with an invitation to all to join in. The joyful music of all sorts will inspire and educate. It's a great demonstration of music that can be used in spiritual gatherings and in the greater movement for social change. Come listen or participate. No experience necessary! Composer, guitarist and singer Jim Scott was formerly a member of the Paul Winter Consort and was co-composer of the Missa Gaia/Earth Mass. He's toured the world, recorded a number of CDs of original music and many of his songs are published as choral arrangements. Several of his songs are in the UU Hymnbook (Gather the Spirit). He helped create the "Green Sanctuary" program for churches to become more sustainable, and has gathered and written the "Earth and Spirit Songbook," a collection of 110 songs of Earth and peace by many contemporary composers. He leads courses in improvisation at such prestigious music schools as Oberlin College and has a knack for putting participants in touch with their innate creativity and demonstrating the power of musical expression. Tickets will be $12 at the door. PRAIRIE ELDERS MEETING Prairie Elder will meet Tuesday, April 24, 2:00-3:50 p.m., in the Nakoma Room, Heritage Oaks Building, Oakwood Village West. The Nakoma Room will be open at 1:30 for those who wish to come early for casual conversation. After 2:00 we introduce newcomers and share personal information. The topic portion of our meeting lasts from around 2:20 to 3:40. We must vacate the room by 4:00. Participants are welcome to come and go as necessary for appointments, rides, chair attendants, etc. TOPIC: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Being Elder." Come tell your funniest personal story or get a good chuckle from others' humorous adventures. For the benefit of participants with hearing loss, we use a round-robin format. From month to month, by mutual agreement, we alternate general topics with personal vignettes on a selected theme. REFRESHMENTS: Please bring a small handful of snacks to pass, if convenient. Beverages are furnished. Special thanks to Gordon and Vera Cunningham for bringing hot drinks. REMINDER: To reduce landfill trash, bring your own beverage cup if you can. DIRECTIONS: Oakwood Village West is in the 6100 block of Mineral Point Road several blocks west of Whitney Way. Follow the main entrance road veering left and up the hill. Heritage Oaks is the new building on the right. Its visitor parking entrance is directly across from Oakwood’s one-storey Resale Shop. The parking lot’s automatic door is to the right of two yellow posts and marked by a yellow arrow on the driveway. Drive in and find a spot near the clearly marked elevator shaft. The Nakoma Room is on the first floor. From the elevator go to the right and past the mail boxes. Turn left by the reception desk. There are also a few handicapped stalls farther up the hill in front of Heritage Oak’s main entrance. Enter there and turn right immediately past the receptionist’s desk. ABOUT US: Prairie Elders aims to provide good times and mutual support for Prairie UU Members and Friends over 65. We also welcome other UUs who live in the facility where we meet. For directions, rides, parking and further information please contact Donna Murdoch 238-3802, Rosemary Dorney 238-4382 or Rose Smith 233-3363. PRAIRIE SEEKS GENIUS DESIGNERS We are looking for designs representing Prairie UU to be used on T-shirts, bookmarks, tote bags, signs and anywhere else you can think of. We welcome submissions from children and adults. ANOTHER MOLLY IVINS PRESENTATION Those of you who missed the March 25 program on the life of Molly Ivins may wish to catch it at the Socialist Potluck on April 14. Paula Pachciarz and the Raging Grannies have been asked to provide the program at 6:30 at the Wilmar Center; following a 5:30 potluck. The original program is available on tape from the communications cabinet in the Prairie foyer. Feel free to check the tape out by writing your name and date, and please return it to the cabinet when you are finished with it. Here is a short description of the presentation: Many of us have long relied on Molly Ivins' political insight and humor for an understanding of how poorly conceived government policies come to be. Paula Pachciarz and the Raging Grannies use words and music to celebrate Ivins' life and causes—-our causes. They plan to follow Ivins' advice to raise hell and have fun doing it. CHANGES TO PRAIRIE’S BYLAWS At our parish meeting on April 22, your board will recommend the following changes to the bylaws: 1.Provide for a system of electing Prairie’s president that would involve a member serving as president-elect for one year, as president for one year, and as past president for one year. This could be modified if someone wishes to serve as president for two years. The position of vice-president would be abolished. This change is to provide better continuity of leadership for Prairie. 2.Change the definitions of a member and of the membership committee to bring them up to date and reflect current practice. 3.Change the descriptions of professional and lay ministry to bring them up to date and reflect current practice. 4.Provide for a youth member of the board for more engagement by our younger members. The texts of the proposed bylaw changes are included at the back of this issue. Mike Briggs, President 2007 UUSC HOLIDAY CARD CONTEST Creative UUs of all ages are invited to submit original designs for 2007 UUSC holiday cards. Create an original design that reflects the joy of the holidays, and justice, equity, and compassion. Please visit www.uusc.org/ia/holiday_cards/ 2006/contest2007.html for submission guidelines and to the 2006 award-winning card. Submissions must be received by April 27, 2007. Mail submissions to UUSC Holiday Card Contest, 130 Prospect Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 or use e-mail: volunteerservices@uusc.org MEMBERSHIP Please welcome our new member: Heidi Hughes 5525 Manitowish Way, Madison, WI 53704 hughesha (at) yahoo.com 244-9844 SPRING IS HERE! On Sunday, March 25th we had another service Sunday project. RE students worked very hard picking up garbage around the garbage around the neighborhood. Preschool-2nd grade picked up garbage outside of Prairie and the nearby park. Students in grades 3-12 went through the neighborhood and gathered many, many bags of garbage. Both groups received thank you's from passersby. One gas station owner was so grateful he rewarded the students with a bag of chips! I would like to say, "thank you, thank you!" to all the RE students who helped make our beautiful Earth a little brighter that day. I would also like to thank our volunteers: Jori Conca, Randy Converse, John Eligandi and Doug McFarland. They did more then just supervise they also had their own bags of garbage. Coming up is our annual Spring Fling overnight event. The fun starts at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 14 right here at Prairie. There will be games at the park, dinner and then indoor games. This is for children of all ages with their friends welcome to attend. We are in need of volunteers for Saturday evening and for people to stay overnight to supervise our children. I am also looking for someone willing to come in the morning to prepare breakfast. If interested please let me know ASAP. There have been two changes to the RE program calendar. To make up for the snow day we had in February, there will be no Easter intergenerational service on Sunday, April 8. We will have regular classes held that day. The Students for Free Tibet service that was cancelled upstairs has been rescheduled for April 29. High school students will be attending that service instead of their usual Humanism lesson. As many of you have noticed, we have not been having a children's story upstairs. This is temporary and the RE Committee and I will update you on if it will be reinstated. Since the SFT service had originally planned on a story, we will have all children meeting upstairs on April 29, then going downstairs for regular classes. As always, I am open to any suggestions or concerns. Please feel free to stop me on Sunday mornings to talk or to just say "hello". Rebecca Malke (YREC) youthcoordinator@uuprairie.org CHANGES TO PRAIRIE’S BYLAWS At our parish meeting on April 22, we’ll consider a number of changes to the bylaws. Your board will recommend that the bylaws be changed to:   1.    Provide for a system of electing Prairie’s president that would involve a member serving as president-elect for one year, as president for one year, and as past president for one year.  This could be modified if someone wishes to serve as president for two years.  The position of vice-president would be abolished.  This change is to provide better continuity of leadership for Prairie. 2.    Change the definitions of a member and of the membership committee to bring them up to date and reflect current practice. 3.    Change the descriptions of professional and lay ministry to bring them up to date and reflect current practice. 4.    Provide for a youth member of the board for more engagement by our younger members. The texts of the proposed bylaw changes will be made available on the welcome table on Sunday mornings for members to review, and will be included in the Prairie Fire. On Sunday, March 25, there will be an informal review session for members to suggest wording changes ahead of the parish meeting, in the hope that on April 22 we can proceed to vote on the bylaw changes without taking up a lot of time tweaking their wording. Peace, Mike Briggs, President PRAIRIE WEB SITES Society Home Page: http://uuprairie.org/ News Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prairienews/ Views: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prairieviews/ Social Action: http://socialaction.madisonwi.us Humanist Union: http://humanist.madisonwi.us UNITARIAN-UNIVERSALIST NEWS ******************************************************* JOURNEY TOWARD WHOLENESS NEWS ******************************************************* Join Just Journeys to Explore Workers' Rights April 20-May 6 You can join UUSC to explore one of the most hotly debated topics of our time: the effects of globalization. As a participant on the Globalization and Workers' Rights JustJourneys trip to Mexico (http://www.uusc.org/justjourneys/mexico.html), you will visit a maquila, discuss free trade agreements with government official and business people, meet women labor organizers and workers; travel to the countryside to experience daily life in an indigenous community; connect with faith-based grassroots organizations; and visit migrant workers and their families. Holly Zeeb, a participant in the recent JustJourneys trip to Guatemala (http://www.uusc.org/blog/2007/02/i-could-not-help-but-cry.html), said her JustJourneys experience was "Provocative, moving, inspiring. Overall deeply satisfying." The Globalization and Workers' Rights JustJourney takes place April 29-May 6. See: http://www.uusc.org/justjourneys/index.html ****************************************************** RAISE THE DRUMBEAT FOR DARFUR AT GA As genocide devastates Darfur, we must be relentless in our efforts to end it. You can help. At the 2007 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, UUSC will hold a full-day activists' training to increase awareness and organize action to bring peace & justice to Darfur. What: Activists' training When: Wednesday, June 20, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Where: Ambridge Events Center, Portland, Ore. Co-sponsors: UU-UNO, UUA, Africa Action, Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, and Fidelity Out of Sudan. This landmark event will feature three inspiring speakers: Darfurian activist Omer Ismail, author and activist Frances Moore Lappé, and UUSC President Charlie Clements. Small group workshops facilitated by experienced activists will help you build the skills necessary to help organize a Drumbeat for Darfur within your own community. Each participant is encouraged to organize one to two others from their congregation to attend as well, and to be allies for raising the Drumbeat for Darfur within their own communities. There is no charge for attending, and registration for GA is not required. Lunch will be provided. For registration info, contact Rachel Jordan at volunteerservices@uusc.org or 617-301-4307. Also see: www.uusc.org/drumbeatfordarfur/ generalassembly.html. UU CHURCHES HOST VACATION TRIPS April 13–15 D.C. Annual Cherry Blossom Festival: www.cedarlane.org/cbfestival.pdf June 24–July 3 Northcentral Alaska: www.wuurld.org July 3–12 Southeast Alaska: www.wuurld.org July 15–17 Niagara Falls: http://www.uunex.net/ or (716) 791-4453 July 16–30 Alaska: www.wuurld.org July 29–Aug. 4 UU Camp LaForet, Carbondale, CO OTHER NEWS INTERFAITH HOSPITALITY NETWORK BULLETIN Did you know that 75% of those who enter the Second Chance Apartment Project have housing when they leave? The Apartment Project is a collaboration between IHN, the YWCA of Madison, and sponsoring organizations that creates supportive transitional housing for homeless families with multiple barriers to housing. Last month, one family in the project graduated with a remarkable degree of success: After a serious injury and a divorce this mother and her son found themselves homeless. They moved into a Second Chance Apartment two years ago following a brief stay in shelter. After a few months of rehabilitation from the accident, the mom enrolled at MATC in pursuit of a nursing degree. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa and in May she will graduate from MATC with honors. She plans to complete her nursing degree at Edgewood College in two years. The son has also done very well in elementary school and gotten involved in a variety of extra-curricular activities. Meanwhile, this family has had such a successful relationship with their landlord that they have now taken over the lease on their own and will stay stable in this same apartment for as long as they like. MADISON INSTITUTE PRESENTS “BEYOND ECONOMIC GROWTH” The Madison Institute invites the public to attend the first of our free 2007 forums, featuring Joshua Farley, Ph.D., co-author of Environmental Economics. 9 a.m.-Noon, Saturday, April 14, 2007 The Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street Joshua Farley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont is a Fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, and co-author with Herman Daly of Ecological Economics. "Traditional economists see natural resources as a subsystem of the world economy. This book presents the economy as a subsystem of the global ecosystem....a must read." (Amazon) The speaker, Dr. Farley, is the son of well-known Madison physicians, Linda and Gene Farley.  His analysis is important to understanding contemporary realities and to the formation of wise public policies for the future. Also see www.themadisoninstitute.org