So, the news of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association’s censure of Todd Eklof went out on the UUMA’s Facebook page. Soon, there were several comments opposing the censure. Later, all vanished.
I commented, “I see the negative comments posted here yesterday have been deleted. Pathetic.” Within a couple of minutes, the UUMA’s Facebook manager replied to me, “they actually haven’t. They have been temporarily removed while we work on a response to them. Please be patient.” Me: “I hope you restore those comments promptly. Either way, I’ll be reporting out on my site, RevScottWells.com.” So here we are.
The comments were restored this morning, with this response:
We want to acknowledge that over the weekend several responses to this post were hidden until such a time as they could be reviewed. This was not done to stifle discourse but to ensure that potentially divisive comments would not be left without response. All posts have been restored.
This page is not moderated for debate and we don’t have the means to create moderation at this time. All your responses will be collected and shared with the UUMA Board of Trustees. If you have additional comments to include, we encourage you to send via email to execteam (at) uuma (dot) org.
So instead of “we’re preparing a response; please stand by” we got another unforced error. Because the optics of taking down critical comments is awful. Their reply was not equal to the take-down action, but the UUMA’s a dead letter to me, so whatevs. (And no, I don’t think the study year will be allowed to seriously challenge the UUMA’s proposal presented in June, so why wait? I suppose you can make the case for seeing the process to the end, but I don’t have time for futility. More power to those who persist.)
If you feel you have something to say to the UUMA — whether you are lay or ordained — there’s that avenue they invited: emailing execteam@uuma.org. [Corrected]
And if you do write a comment and want a place to park it in public, you’re free to leave them in the comments here.
What is really sad about this is that, with one easy Google search, you can find about ten examples of how doing something like that is the exact opposite of what you should do during a public relations issue. It’s shockingly inept.
Scott, the email address you provided (execteam@uua.org) resulted in a bounced email.
Do you have another or corrected email address?
I am encouraging all who are concerned to write to the UUMA Board. I think is it important that they hear voices that are not in their limited echo chamber.
My mistake: it should be @uuma.org.