Let your light shine on YA@GA staff in Portland

Is General Assembly starting to feel like Hogwarts, that magical place you miss so much you can’t even remember for sure if it’s real? Well don’t worry, it’s happening again next year! Trust us, we are your YA@GA co-facilitators, and we’re (Religious Education) professionals. We are Jonathan Rogers and Ayla Halberstadt, and we wanted to take this opportunity to let you know a little bit about ourselves, and about the fully-funded volunteer staff positions that we will be hiring for; we’d love to have you on our team!

In case you missed last year’s General Assembly in Providence, we’ll catch you up: formerly known as Young Adult Caucus, Young Adults at General Assembly (YA@GA) aims to create meaningful community for the diverse group of UU young adults who attend GA.  YA@GA also works to make young adult leadership and innovation more visible to the wider GA community and makes space for multigenerational engagement.  If you’re interested, feel free to read up on last year’s shift from caucusing to programming!

We both, Ayla and Jonathan, currently serve the religious education progams of UU congregations; Ayla is the DRE of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon in Bend (town motto: “Our life is better than your vacation!” [have we mentioned Oregon is going to be a great place for a GA?!]) and Jonathan is the Youth Programs Coordinator for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta (town motto: “Welcome to rush hour!”). We are also both aquatic safety professionals, though only Ayla’s lifeguard (and swim instructor) certification is still current, so if you fall in the hotel pool Jonathan will be the one pointing and blowing his whistle. We like our leisure time, too: Jonathan enjoys barefoot running, cooking vegetarian food for his fiancee Annie, and walking their terrier puppy, Tony; Ayla loves knitting, spending time with friends over coffee, and running up to Portland whenever she has the chance for a concert or two.

We are looking to fill two fully-funded volunteer positions for YA@GA 2015. (Yes, that means you get your travel, lodging and food paid for during General Assembly!  No you don’t need to be an aquatic safety professional; there are plenty of life jackets in Portland.) We are looking for a GA Talks Coordinator who likes social media, public outreach, short multimedia presentations, and long walks on the beach. We are also looking for a Worship Coordinator who loves engaging in meaningful worship, working in collaboration with others, and romantic dinners by candlelight.

Now you might be asking yourself “What mysterious and marvelous things happen when you become YA@GA volunteer staff?” Well in addition to spontaneous dance parties and learning how to run on minimal sleep, maximum caffeine, and copious amounts of time in the Oregon convention center we will be helping create programming, worship, and community for young adults at GA. Perhaps most importantly of all, you get to come to General Assembly for free! If you are thinking “Gee! Being apart of YA@GA sounds too good to be true! How do I apply to become part of this great team?” Well look no further; here’s the application information! We look forward to getting to know you and your visions for YA@GA very soon.

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