CUUSAN is an association of Unitarian Universalist state witness, advocacy, and action organizations working to give life the shape of justice.
In the early days of our coalition, CUUSAN was coordinated by a paid part-time organizer, Rev. Lisa McDaniels Hutchins. Following that early structure, CUUSAN functioned with a board and a president (Laura Wagner from UU Mass Action) who managed everything from communication, meeting planning, retreat planning. In 2020 Laura announced that she was retiring - and we knew we needed to evolve into a more leadership movement!
In the summer of 2020, we formed am Operations & Structure team (Lauran Wagner - MA, Janine Gelsinger - AZ, Karen Wills -MN, Dawn Cooley -KY, and Lisa Garcia-Sampson - NC) charged with evaluating the current structure and recommending a new structure.
In January 2021 - CUUSAN members unanimously approved a new Covenant. (See the complete covenant text at the bottom of the page).
In the spring of 2021, the Operations & Structure team conducted 1:1’s with SANS leaders to hear their perspective about the current structure and suggestions for improvements. And we on-boarded people on to teams.
November 2021, at our Annual Business Meeting, our coalition voted to dissolve the existing CUUSAN Board structure and establish a new "leaderful movement" structure that was proposed by the O&S Team. November 2021, at our Annual Business Meeting, our coalition voted to dissolve the existing CUUSAN Board structure and establish a new "leaderful movement" structure that was proposed by the O&S Team.
Currently, these are the teams that work together to lead CUUSAN!
The Spokes Counsel is a representative from each team that meets six times a year to ensure communication and collaboration.
In 2023, CUUSAN collaborated with the UUA’s Side With Love Organizing Strategy team on a mapping project. Janine Gelsinger and Casey Clowes (AZ) led this work alongside other CUUSAN members Nathan and Mark to help chart the diversity, skills, and opportunities within our network. This included detailed surveys and interviews with every SAN. One product of this year-long mapping project was the identification of 4 main buckets of work that UU State Action Networks engage in:
Dues paid by SANs support CUUSAN's activities and events as well as the cost of the Salsa Engage communications and advocacy software platform used by SANs.
Dues are for the period January 1 through December 31 of each year, are due on January 1st, and are delinquent after March 31st. SANs that have not paid their dues by March 31st are not eligible to vote at CUUSAN's annual meeting.
Checks should be made payable to UU Justice PA Education Fund and mailed to the
CUUSAN fiscal sponsor:
UU Justice PA
c/o Unitarian Church of Harrisburg
1280 Clover Lane
Harrisburg, PA 17113
1. The Strength of our Coalition is our Connection
At the heart of CUUSAN is the belief that the deeper our connection, the more we will thrive. We gather in community to remember we are not alone in our work for justice, to learn from each other, and to offer our gifts.
We recognize and celebrate that we all come from different states, with different strategies, partners, and focuses. There's no one "right" way to be a SAN. Moreover, we come to this coalition with different skills, professional training, and length of experience in this role, but we all have invaluable experience that can spark each other’s imaginations and breathe life into our coalition. May we strive to honor each other’s gifts in our relationships with one another.
2. Seek a balance between Relationships, Process, Outcomes
Some organizations get overly focused on outcomes, and people get lost, or run over, or left behind. Other groups focus more on process than on getting things done. Still others build a great, kind culture, and forget to do anything with it! We strive to be mindful and work to balance cultivating healthy relationships, being good to one another during the work, and working hard to achieve desired outcomes.
3. Honor Conflict as an Opportunity for Growth and Deepening of Relationship
Our shared work is challenging and conflict is inevitable. We see conflict as a necessary and inevitable part of any group or collective process: conflict creates the possibility for growth or for injury, depending on how we choose to move through it.
We promise each other to raise concerns either in the moment, or as near to the moment as possible. We agree that it’s best to have a conversation with the person/people involved but that it’s ok to invite someone to help you with the process. We agree that if the first attempt does not resolve the issue, we will invite support to help until it is resolved.
We agree to uphold relationships over being right. We acknowledge the vulnerability and humility required to receive critique, and will remember each other's humanity as we deliver it.
We agree to put aside defensiveness and be open to feedback. We acknowledge the courage that's involved in offering feedback, and that it's a sign of a trusting and accountable relationship.
Often, harm is caused unintentionally. In these moments, the impact matters most and presents an opportunity for growth. We promise to listen to one another, reflect and make necessary changes whenever possible.
4. Honesty Builds Radical, Loving Community
We agree to create an organizational culture where honesty is honored, even if it results in the need for CUUSAN to deal with difficult truths--and then realign itself accordingly.
5. Build a Culture of Cooperation and Celebration - Not Competition
SANS leaders and members commit to sharing resources and best practices in order to support each other’s work. We operate from a place of community and abundance.
When we gather together to share about our SANS, we may reflect on why we share what we share. Many SAN leaders have developed creative and impactful programming that can inspire and inform other SANS. We also work to model vulnerability, in sharing challenges and mistakes as often as we do successes.
We strive to give credit to our colleagues when we share their work, and we give freely to our movement. SAN members are also encouraged to reach out to SAN leaders when they would like to learn more about another SAN practice or program. Celebrate initiatives, imagination, effort, and successes!
6. Take Space, Make Space
We will be mindful of our influence when we interact with one another and consider how identities, roles and experiences impact that influence. We will reflect on how and what we share.
CUUSAN members are encouraged to take space and share when we might not ordinarily do so, and to make space by choosing not to share when we ordinarily share often. Co-creating space can be hard work, especially as we build a new way. What happens (or doesn’t happen) in the space is impacted by what we bring into the space. It is essential to be mindful of what we share, how we share it, our motivations for showing up in the ways we do, and how accountable we’re willing to be if issues arise as a result of our sharing.
7. Widen the Circle & Honor Identity
As leaders, we do our work with a strong power analysis of oppression: looking to challenge, interrupt, and transform racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism, sexism, xenophobia, and all forms of oppression. We commit to constantly be working to figure out how to do this work. We understand oppression to be intersectional, and not a competition of marginalized identities.
We commit to building a culture where identities are honored. This includes the practice of learning and using each other’s correct pronouns, refraining from ableist and gender binary language, and working to dismantle white supremacy culture.
We recognize that white supremacy culture shows up as perfectionism, urgency, defensiveness, valuing quantity over quality, feeling entitled to one’s comfort, paternalism, either/or thinking, power hoarding, fear of open conflict, assuming that progress means “bigger and more,” exceptionality, individualism, and similar traits as identified by Tema Okun and others. We commit to avoid and resist these pitfalls by holding ourselves and one another accountable for practicing alternative ways of working together; for example, by living into flexibility, resilience, embracing discomfort, prioritizing collective power, process, and relationship over hierarchy, expansion, or speed.
8. We are Accountable to one another
We strive to do what we said we were going to do. If and when we cannot do what we said we were going to do, we take responsibility to tell other leaders while there is still time to pick up the pieces and move the project forward. We acknowledge that when we have to drop a piece, someone else on our team picks it up.
We commit to watching how these dynamics play out on our teams, and provide caring feedback that supports mutual accountability and responsibility. We expect one another to be clear about what we can and cannot offer. We strive to not judge or critique folks’ level of commitment or capacity, acknowledging that it takes all of us to make it. In seeking accountability, we will not sacrifice relationships.
9. We Share Information Transparently, Equitably & Accessibly
CUUSAN leadership and members will communicate in ways that are accessible, transparent, and accountable. Leadership commits to share resources and information and members commit to support one another in navigating the resources.
CUUSAN members commit to participating actively in the shared leadership of the coalition, being responsive to communications, and staying informed. We are welcoming to new SANS, and include them in our communications, resource sharing, and welcome their contributions.