Year Round Delegate Orientation Packet

The Year Round Delegate Task Team

The Year Round Delegate (YRD) program, beginning at the Annual Meeting and Conference in 2011, was designed to bring an additional voice from our local churches to facilitate two-way communication between our local congregations and the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC).

While the program has been in place for nine years, its function and efficiency has been sporadic, working beautifully in some churches and almost non-existent in others. The Year Round Delegate Task Team is hoping that an Orientation Packet will give greater help to those serving as YRDs and to the churches that support them.

We recognize that each and every one of our congregations is different. What works in one church or in one part of the country doesn’t necessarily translate to another church. Our diversity, and our commitment to embracing the differences in our churches is part of what makes Congregationalism great. To that end, we have created guidelines, based on what we have learned about YRDs in the years since the program began. Part of these suggested guidelines are “job descriptions” for YRDs, churches, and the NACCC. These suggested guidelines for how each part of the communication triangle might work will help us all bring to reality what was envisioned when the program was started.

We all recognize that it will be a living document, changing over time as the needs of our YRDs and churches change. It will also change as more and more churches share their strategies for making the YRD program a strong part of each congregation.

We hope you find this packet helpful and will share your feedback and input to make this a better document and strengthen the YRD program.