From June of 2000 until November of 2002, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder considered changing its name.
The Name Change Task Force Report contains a full description of the history, options, process, and arguments for and against a change.
A Special Congregational Meeting was held Nov 3. The turnout was significantly higher than recent annual congregational meetings. We had a thorough "open forum" discussion with time for everyone who wanted to speak. The first vote was to determine how strong the interest in a change was and which name should be proposed as a bylaw change. The big surprise was that the result was an exact tie between Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder and Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Boulder: 45-45.
But of course, in order to change the bylaws, a 60% majority is necessary. We did not have a bylaws vote, but did take another vote to "not change the name of the church at this time", with one opposed and two abstensions, indicating a clear consensus.
If we look at just the first-choice votes as counted in the first round of voting, less than 60% of the members wanted to change the name. Here are the round-by-round results. After each round, votes for the last-place candidate were re-cast for their next-highest choice.
Round number: 1 2 3 4 5 Church 42 42 42 43 45 Congregation 30 31 32 35 45 Community 11 11 11 13 UUs of Boulder 5 5 6 Society 2 2 Circle 1 ---------- Total 91 91 91 91 90
In the 5th round, one ballot could no longer be counted because all choices on it had been eliminated. That is why there were a total of 90 ballots in the 5th round, rather than 91.
Thanks to everyone for a thoughtful and respectful process!
This document is available at http://uucboulder.org/namechange/
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