Joy McConnell: Great Expectations: Building Authentic Community in Ethical Societies

As growth and Development Professional for the American Ethical Union during the 1990’s, Joy worked with the AEU Membership Committee to collect materials and best practices from societies throughout the Ethical Movement, undertook studies and research in the field of congregational development, and acted as co-editor with and producer of the AEU’s membership handbook with the title of today’s presentation. Joy will present some of the most important ideas from the handbook, ideas that, if implemented, could make a real difference in the sense of community and the well-being of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex. What is authentic community and how do we help to make it real? What do we want as fellow members? What unfulfilled potentials do we have? How can we build our Ethical Culture Society community to be more nearly what we want? This will be a somewhat interactive platform, so be prepared to respond to these questions from your authentic self. After serving as Associate Leader in St. Louis and Leader in Chicago, Joy served as AEU Growth and Development Professional. Joy consulted with Ethical Societies across the US, was involved in AEU growth initiatives and led many workshops. Joy was one of the founders of the AEU Lay Leadership Summer School and served on staff from 1996 to 2008, 2012, and 2016. She is currently consulting leader for the Ethical Society of Asheville, NC, and volunteers for the American Ethical Union. She has an MA from The University of Chicago, graduated with the third class of the Humanist Institute, and has much training in congregational development from the Alban Institute and the UUA as well as dozens of hours of training in Non-Violent Communication and Interpersonal Neurobiology. She is looking forward to being once more with members new and long-term of the society.