Rev. Renee Ruchotzke, Regional Leadership Development Consultant for Central East Regional Group (CERG), recently wrote to us about a successful stewardship conference in Akron, OH.

“Planning the conference was a wonderful example of trusting the creative process.  The Ohio Meadville District’s (OMD) resource development team and various district and regional staff members were inspired after reading the book Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate (the OMD District Executive, the Rev. Joan VanBecelaere, was the one who got everyone reading the book in the first place). We asked around and found several UU’s from area congregations who did fundraising in the non-profit sector, had them read the book, and invited them to sit on a panel for the conference.   We then offered a free copy of the book to everyone who registered for the conference.  We had over 82 register and 4 walk in, in spite of Ohio winter weather!

We had the panel discussion in the morning, lunch, then folks broke out into 1-1/2 hour small group discussion sessions in the afternoon.

Since we are in prime stewardship season, we quickly processed a rough cut of the video of the panel discussion and Mark Bernstein turned our afternoon discussion notes into a study guide.  Thanks to this group effort, these resources are up on our CERG website and available for congregational use. ”

Web-based Resources: On Demand Webinars

• Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is: New Ideas in Stewardship, a video recording of a panel of UU’s who are also fundraisers for other non-profit agencies. We recommend you read Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate, view the panel discussion, then use this Study Guide with your stewardship team.