No substantial changes to AIW bylaw amendments yet

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The two proposed bylaw amendments that would affect Actions of Immediate Witness (AIWs) came out of the mini-assembly on Thursday afternoon without substantial changes, according to Greg Boyd, who moderated the mini-assembly session at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C.

The proposed bylaw amendments concerning AIWs will both come before General Assembly on Sunday afternoon, June 26.

The first proposed bylaw amendment would eliminate AIWs from the General Assembly.

The second would restore AIWs in a modified form at GA 2013.

The fate of AIWs has been under discussion for more than a year. Moderator Gini Courter and others have expressed concerns that AIWs—social witness resolutions brought to the General Assembly by petition—were not appropriate for the 2012 “Justice GA” being planned for Phoenix because they require at least two plenary sessions and multiple mini-assemblies. Eliminating AIWs and other plenary business from the General Assembly agenda would free up time for social witness activities, in keeping with a resolution passed by the 2010 General Assembly dedicating the Phoenix GA to “witnessing on immigration, racial, and economic justice.”

None of the amendments proposed at the Mini-Assembly was incorporated, said Boyd, who is a member of the UU Church of Harrisburg, Pa., and acting director of Children’s Ministry at the River Road UU Church in Bethesda, Md. Any of the amendments that were made in the mini-assembly could be incorporated on the plenary floor, he said.