Letter to Service Gratuity Recipients and Current Members:
Bylaw Revision Project of the USPS
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September 4, 2025
Dear Service Gratuity Recipient,
You are receiving this letter because you are a recipient of the Service Gratuity payments. As a result, you are a legal voting member of the Unitarian Service Pension Society at this time. The Board of Directors of the Unitarian Service Pension Society needs your assistance for a long overdue project: to revise and update our original Articles of Organization and Bylaws from 1910. The first step in the revision process is to file Restated Articles of Organization to the Secretary of the Commonwealth for their approval. Massachusetts state law requires a 2/3 vote of the entire eligible membership for this purpose. As a member, your vote is important.
The Board is undertaking these updates for several reasons. First, we need to update the name of the Society and this is long overdue. Second, we need to make some changes to our by-laws to reflect how we operate and work as an organization here in the 21st century. Much has changed since the Society was founded 115 years ago. The nature of UU ministry has changed, lifespans have greatly increased, and the Society now operates within a more complex legal environment and is subject to complicated IRS tax-exempt regulations.
The Board believes that revising and modernizing the Society’s governance documents at this time is important for the protection and advancement of the Society’s purpose to provide service gratuities. Be assured, these revisions will in no way affect the service gratuity payments you are now receiving, but will better protect them.
In order to accomplish these changes, the Board needs to ask you, the members of the Society, to approve specific changes to our Articles of Organization by submitting your vote using the ballot included with this letter.
The four substantive articles to be revised are summarized below as to the changes or clarifications being proposed to the Society’s present articles of organization.
Article I. Name
Changed to include Universalist, i.e. the Unitarian Universalist Service Pension Society
Article II. Purpose
Remains basically the same as originally stated when the Society was founded in 1910; namely to provide service gratuities to eligible (UU) minsters in good standing, but is updated and restated: 1), to clarify eligibility as ordained ministers in UUA Fellowship, of a minimum age, and of a minimum years of service in UUA recognized ministries, and 2), to clearly state the Society’s religious purpose and particular IRS tax-exempt status as a supporting organization to the UUA, a religious organization.
Article III. Membership
The revised articles of organization redefine membership in the Society as an elected membership, instead of automatically being the entire group of ministers eligible to receive service gratuity payments as at present. An elected membership will be a smaller, active body and will also serve as a ready and able pool from which to recruit officers and directors. Persons eligible for election as members will be ministers (of any age) in UUA Fellowship and UU lay persons.
Article IV. Other Lawful Provisions
On the advice of legal counsel, certain other provisions are listed which are considered permanent and unlikely to need amendment. See Continuation Sheet A, enclosed.
The Board of Directors is asking for your vote as a member of the Society to approve the Restated Articles of Organization, as set forth in the enclosed. The Board of Directors recommends a “Yes” vote.
Your vote is very important. Please mark and sign the enclosed ballot and return in the addressed postage paid envelope by Friday, October 17, 2025. (Note: the hard copy of this letter mailed out listed October 10 as the deadline. That was an error. You have until October 17.)
You may visit our special website: www.uuservicepensionsociety.org for more information. You may also contact me at First Parish Church in Weston, Massachusetts, if you have questions, or our past President and current Vice-President, the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Bennett, who is co-leading this long overdue project.
We thank you for your assistance as we seek to update and strengthen the Service Pension Society and ensure it continues to provide some support to our retired ministers.
Sincerely,
Rev. Jeff Barz-Snell Rev. Sheldon Bennett
President Vice-President
jeffbarzsnell@gmail.com swbennett@earthlink.net
Enclosures:
1. Restated Articles of Organization (Continuation Sheet A) – Language being added to New Articles
2. FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) regarding the Vote to Restate the Articles of Organization
3. Ballot, for your vote, to be returned (postmarked) by October 17, 2025
These, and the following additional documents for reference, can be viewed in Reference Documents on our special website: www.uuservicepensionsociety.org
Original Certificate of Organization, dated February 10, 1910, for reference
Proposed Articles of Organization 2025/6
Current Bylaws, most recently amended November 8, 1965, for reference