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Status and Role of Women, Commission on the (COSROW
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In the last year, COSROW has reached out to our community, lifted up women, and monitored Annual Conference for demographics of speakers.
We have reached out to our community by handwriting notes of greeting to those attending women’s retreats at Asbury and Sky Lake. The notes were accompanied by postcards intending to educate about COSROW and handmade chocolates from a small business to sweeten our greeting. The hope is to not only educate about our committee but let the women in attendance know they are loved and being prayed for during their “time apart”. If you are hosting or attending a women’s retreat this year, please reach out to Bryant Clark, bryantchristopherclark@gmail.com, and we would love to send some notes of encouragement to your group!
Our Facebook page has become a place of uplifting the inspiring women in our Annual Conference through a series we call Wonderful Woman Wednesday. Every other Wednesday, we introduce those who have “liked” our page to a woman who has been nominated. We have already highlighted many women and we want your nominations! Send an email to Krystal Cole, krystalcole96@gmail.com, with the name of a woman that has inspired you in our Conference (lay or clergy). Please follow along! Our page on Facebook is called Upper New York Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Many hours of work were put in by Margot Rankins-Burd to compile data of who was speaking during the 2021 session of Annual Conference. This work is essential. Every voice at the Annual Conference table should have the opportunity to be heard and paying attention to which voices hold the majority of the conversation educates us about the influence of our discussions and decisions. Continuing to identify ourselves every time we come to the microphone is a small burden, but an important piece of our process. Without identification at the microphone, the monitoring process is a difficult one. We thank you for your continued cooperation throughout the session. With no demographic numbers from registration from the 2021 session, we don’t quite have the full picture, but from the numbers we do have, you can see the results of Margot’s hard work at the end of this report.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
We are excited to announce that you can save the date for our upcoming virtual retreat Catch Your Breath, Oct. 21-22, 6:30-8:30p.m. each day. The theme is self-care. Registration is open to clergy and lay women of all ages. We expect registration costs not to exceed $25 per person. A small portion of money raised will be going to End The Backlog, the purpose of which is, “identifying the extent of the nation’s backlog and best practices for eliminating it; expanding the national dialogue on rape kit testing through increased public awareness, sharing groundbreaking research, engaging communities and government agencies and officials, and advocating for comprehensive rape kit reform legislation and policies.
In the next year we will continue to focus on planning and executing our virtual retreat, posting our Wonderful Woman Wednesday series, reaching out to women’s retreats, monitoring Annual Conference 2022, and finding new ways to support women, and “advocate for full participation of women in the total life of The United Methodist Church.”
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 If you are feeling a call to join COSROW, please reach out to krystalcole96@gmail.com. We would especially love to hear from any female clergy people that have an interest in this committee!
Our team members include Vice Chair Margot Rankins-Burd, Secretary Bryant Clark, the Rev. Vonda Fossitt, Ellen Klock, Barbara Nelson, the Rev. Sue Russell, and Caleb Smith. I am incredibly proud of the work our team has accomplished this year, all while meeting entirely virtually. COSROW is a true collaboration, and I can’t wait to see what this group is able to do in the year ahead!
Shalom, Krystal Cole, Chair Margot Rankins-Burd, Vice Chair Commission on the Status and Role of Women
2021 UNYAC Monitoring Statistics Report
The Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) advocates for the full and equal participation of women in the total life and mission of the Church. The four key goals of the Commission are to provide sexual ethics resources, monitor conferences, create trainings, and support women in leadership positions. Below are this Conference’s COSROW findings from monitoring this year’s Upper New York Annual Conference held virtually June 17-19, 2021.
This year, no demographics were collected at registration, so the Commission does not have a baseline against which to compare.
During Annual Conference in 2021, a total of 138 persons spoke. Of those 138 speakers, only two-thirds gave all of the requested demographics at the beginning of their allotted time (Appendix A). In regard to gender of the speakers, more speakers identified as male than any other gender (41%). Sixty-one percent of speakers identified as white, with the next largest segment being those who did not identify their race. The smallest segment of representation were our black brothers and sisters who were represented by less than 1% of our speakers (Appendix B). Finally, 46% of speakers identified as clergy while 29% were laity (Appendix C).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 There is some discrepancy over how demographics have been recorded year-over-year and no universal place where they have been stored, so the Commission is not presenting historical data for comparison this year.
The Upper New York Commission on the Status and Role of Women recognizes opportunities for growth in Conference monitoring efforts. First, the Commission will create mechanisms for both in-person and virtual speakers to remember the demographics to present. In the past, they have been listed on the microphones and other places, but no virtual reminder was created. Second, the current Commission commits to creating standards on how, what, and where data is collected and where it is published, not only for use in the current year but for historical comparison. Thirdly, this group promises to make published data as clear as possible so there can be no further confusion for this team or any other individual in our Conference about the metrics or meaning of presented data.
Finally, the Commission seeks to partner more closely with members of the Conference office staff to gather demographics at registration and encourage that all persons, including those on stage, speakers, and pre-recorded videos at Annual Conference present their demographics so that this team may collect accurate data.
Appendices
Appendix A
1
2 Appendix B
Appendix C
