Learning from Flaming Chalice International

When Mirth and Dignity became an actual organization (so as to provide admin support for the Hysterical Society), we had to have a board. I was exhausted from years of church board work, and I knew I wanted our board to be different. I didn’t want the endless motions and process and discussion. Having sat on the Flaming Chalice International Board, I knew it could be different. The FCI Board is three Burundians and myself, and through it I’ve seen that there are other ways to do governance.

So, the first person I recruited for the Mirth and Dignity Board was Rev Fulgence Ndagijimana. I wanted him to help me create for UUHS the same streamlined, low burnout, joyful governance process that FCI uses.

I recruited him and seven other brilliant UUs, and then… Proceeded to run meetings in exactly the way I hated. It was everything I’d hoped to avoid. Frustrated, I booked a zoom call with Fulgence.

Me: It’s not working.

Fulgence: You are not happy?

Me: It’s exactly like every other board. I don’t want to be like that.

Fulgence: Oh. Then, uh, why are you doing it that way?

Me: That’s the whole point, Fulgence--I recruited you to help me. So that we could make it like Flaming Chalice International’s Board!

Fulgence: If that’s what you want, why don’t you do it?

Me: That’s what I’ve been telling you! I don’t know how to do it that way!

We went in circles like this for a bit, then Fulgence’s face lit up, like a man finally realizing the solution to a puzzle that had been bothering him for years.

Fulgence: Oh! I understand now. You see, I always thought white people did things that way because they LIKED them that way.

When we built UUHS, we were creating a weird, bootstrapped, streamlined, joyful thing. There was no manual for how, and we modelled a lot of our governance off of the streamlined process of UUs in various parts of Africa.

We have always prioritized the FCI fundraiser because they’re an amazing organization, doing good work. But also, less well known, is that we’ve always prioritized it because of the support their leadership provided UUHS at a crucial time in its growth.

Because if I’d had to go to one more business-as-usual board meeting…

By Liz James, Mirth and Dignity Board President. (Mirth and Dignity is the legal organization that, among other things, runs the UU Hysterical Society).

***

Interested in learning more about FCI’s role in Mirth and Dignity? Check out “How Mirth and Dignity got its name”, or start the story right at the beginning with “Wait, What’s the Connection between Mirth and Dignity and Flaming Chalice International?” or go straight to those rivetting governance tips with “Learning from FCI” and “Not my potatoes”.

Interested in learning more about FCI’s work? Check out “The Not-a-Church we helped build”, or “How Flaming Chalice International got its Name” Or check out FCI’s website. We particularly recommend this story about Fulgence’s mother. It’s really beautiful.