To: All Members of the United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns

From: The Rev. Barbara Mason Rathbun, Moderator, Board of Directors

Date: March 2, 2011

The Board of Directors of the UCC Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns is very pleased to announce its nomination of a highly qualified candidate for the position of Executive Director. We are calling a conference call of the membership to vote on this nomination on April 2, 2011 (details below).

The Coalition's Search Committee for Executive Director has presented, and the Board has nominated, Andrew Lang as our candidate. Andy has served in the national setting of the United Church of Christ for 17 years as a reporter, editor and communications manager. He built the UCC's first nationwide website—ucc.org—in 1995 and managed the UCC's web team until 2004. As an award-winning journalist for United Church News and other publications, he designed the marketing and public-relations strategy for “Affirming Persons, Saving Lives”—the UCC's HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention curriculum—along with other publicity campaigns for the church. Beginning in the 1980s, Andy developed systems for organizing progressive activists through early computer networks, and in the national setting continued to build online communities through social media. He has extensive ecumenical experience and is widely known and respected in Conference and other settings of the church.

As the Coalition moves ahead with plans to improve membership relations, organize campaigns, grow the ONA movement and build community among existing ONA congregations, Andy's organizing skills and his leadership in social media and electronic communications will serve us well.

An openly gay man, Andy is a native of Connecticut and studied ecumenical theology at Georgetown University. He worked for 20 years in Washington, D.C., as a press secretary and public-relations specialist for members of Congress and progressive non-profit organizations. He joined the UCC in 1993.

The Board's confidence in Andy is not only the result of his impressive professional background but of our working relationship during the nearly six months he has served as interim Executive Director in our Cleveland office. His enthusiastic participation in the life of the Coalition, his implementation of plans long postponed, and his vision for our future of education, support and advocacy have assured the Search Committee and the Board of Directors of his suitability for this important position of leadership with us.

Andy's curriculum vitae is available online as a PDF file (http://www.ucccoalition.org/fileadmin/news/CV%20Andy%20Lang.pdf).

This is the official call for a special meeting of the Coalition's membership to hire Andrew Lang as Executive Director on Saturday, April 2, 2011. The meeting will be by telephone conference at 12 noon (Eastern), 11 a.m. (Central), 10 a.m. (Mountain), 9 a.m. (Pacific), and 6 a.m. (Hawai'i).

All Coalition members are eligible to vote. Membership in the Coalition is defined in our bylaws as “those persons who affirm the purposes of the organization and contribute to its well being with time, talent and/or treasure.”

The phone number for this conference call is 1-866-503-4605. The passcode is 4159558308#. More information about the agenda will be published in the Coalition's opt-in email newsletter, “RIPPLES.” If you do not already subscribe, look for the “Join Our Email Mailing List” link on our home page.

Please use the reply form below to RSVP this invitation, or, if you prefer, email the same information to office (at) ucccoalition (dot) org.

We look forward to our time together on April 2!