History

In 2018 a number of individual Unitarian Universalists who were interested in mental health started meeting and jointly decided that the time was right to form a UU Mental Health Network to work collectively on mental health issues that affect our congregations and society at large. As a starting point, a covenant and a mission were written, and a decision was made to apply to the UUA to become an official “related organization”. Later we decided to incorporate and seek non-profit status with the IRS.

• In May of 2019 we created a set of bylaws and submitted paperwork to become incorporated in the state of Michigan. Karl Pannanen, one of our members who is an attorney lives in Michigan and handled these matters on a pro-bono basis.

• In June of 2019 we presented a “poster session” at the UUA’s General Assembly in Spokane in which we discussed our newly forming organization with attendees at the General Assembly. As a result, we doubled the number of people who wanted to be part of this effort!

• In July of 2019 our incorporation was successfully obtained, and paperwork for our application to become a UUA “related organization” was submitted to the UUA.

• In September of 2019 the first Board of the UU Mental Health Network was appointed.  The members of the first Board were:

President: Barbara Meyers
Vice President: Karl Paananen
Secretary: Janet Holden
Treasurer: Carol McGough
At Large Members: Sandy Goodwick, Henry Katzman, Erin White

• In March of 2020, we received 501 (c)(3) Non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service, meaning that donations to the UU Mental Health network are tax exempt.

• Elections were held each year starting in 2020.  A history of the elections can be found at: UU Mental Health Network Elections