Annual Report of ICUUW’s Activities
July 2024 to June 2025
2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report (PDF, 1.5MB)
Dear Members and Supporters,
What a year it’s been! Here are just a few highlights:
- We had the great joy of meeting face-to-face for our Fourth Convocation in beautiful Cluj, Romania in September 2024, an event that was organized together with our partner UNOSZ, the women’s organization of the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Romania.
- We organized our first Spring Seminar in April 2025 that brought together 25 women from eight countries to learn more about advocacy for women and girls at the United Nations.
- We continued our virtual gatherings on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month that provide us with an hour of togetherness across borders.
- With a refreshed Strategic Plan that keeps us focused on our mission we continue our work for women and girls’ equity through U*U connections all around the world.
- Our organization is growing with women active in many parts of the world, working for a better future for all. We’re learning from each other in Australia, the Philippines, Kenya, Hungary, Romania, Bolivia, the United States and many other places.
Read about all of this and more in this annual report.
With best greetings,
Tina Huesing, President ICUUW
Executive Director's Report
Dear ICUUW Family,
ICUUW is going through a time of transition. Our long time Executive Director, Zsófia Sztranyiczki, stepped down at the end of 2024 and left big shoes to fill. We were aware of her plans and met the challenge head on. I currently serve as the interim ED as we reflect and develop a job description for a new Executive Director. As Immediate Past President of ICUUW, I am familiar with the inner workings of our organization and am glad to be able to do what I can to help us through this transition.
The backlash against women’s rights globally continues, but we are heartened by the work that so many women are doing to fight this assault. ICUUW remains active in our United Nations advocacy. Our UN Advocacy Committee held a Spring Seminar in New York City in conjunction with the Conference on the Status of Women in March. It was an ambitious project with much success but some setbacks. We were saddened that some of our members from India and Kenya were not able to join us due to denial of visas.
Our convocation this past September was another very ambitious project that provided an opportunity for many of us to get together in person and develop a deeper sisterhood. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the women on the Convocation Planning Committee, especially the women on the ground in Transylvania.
Lastly, I would like to thank each and every one of you for the love and support you have shown to this organization and to each other as we grow and evolve.
In Deep Appreciation,
Karen Kortsch, Executive Director ICUUW
Interim Treasurer's Report
I served as your Interim Treasurer for the past year tending to the management of ICUUW’s Finances. A thank you to our Bookkeeper Nikki Steele, owner of Your Bookkeeping Department, who does the actual accounting.
It was a very busy year with both a Convocation in Kolozsvár, Romania and the Spring Seminar in New York City. These events involved dealing with both US dollars and funds from outside the US. We received a grant from the UU Funding Panel for the Strategic Planning work following the Convocation. Those funds were contingent on raising matching funds from “new” money – in other words, folks who had not donated in the past. Fortunately, we were able to get new members and donors, so the event was successful.
The Spring Seminar expenses were covered by the $50 registration fee; generous donors contributed to a scholarship fund set up to assist with travel and other expenses for those who requested it.
We also had several generous donations to the Barbara Beach Legacy Fund which now has about $31,000. These funds are generally intended for scholarships. Legacy funds provide the opportunity to share the gift of giving with future generations. Except for scholarship awards to individuals, grants from the fund shall be only to 501c3 entities or equivalent in countries outside the U.S. The fund is not intended for regular operating expenses.
During this time, I have attended almost all of the board meetings, executive committee meetings and transition task force meetings. I also served on the Scholarship Committee for the Convo. I had a good time interviewing Sylvie for a video that was available at General Assembly last year and is now on our website. I just returned from General Assembly in Baltimore where I helped with our booth. It was quite popular and we actually ran out of our new brochures and got 3 pages of sign-ups for the mailing list.
In between meetings I tend to the usual duties of a Treasurer: monitoring the financial statements, assuring bills are paid and coordinating payments to folks, and assuring that our corporate tax forms are completed on time. (Yes, even non-profits still have to report to the government.)
My goals for this upcoming term as Board Treasurer are to form a solid Finance Committee and to find a candidate to become the next Treasurer. Interested in learning about budgeting and more? Contact me at
Thanks to the generous donations of our members and supporters, we are on target to meet our budget goals for 2025. (The finances are on a calendar year, so we aren’t quite halfway through yet.)
We thank you all for your generous donations, without which we would not exist.
Sincerely,
Geri Kennedy, Treasurer
GATHERINGS
Tuesday Gatherings Team
Our Tuesday Gatherings started in March 2020 and continue to be a beloved time together for many of our members. In the last five years we’ve had over 100 gatherings that reached over 200 unique participants. On average 25-35 women attend the calls. They are sometimes joined by men. We are happy to have male members as well.
We have been experimenting with alternate time schedules this year in order to be more accessible to a wider group of worldwide participants. We have had some gatherings in the evenings US time Eastern time, and on days other than Tuesday in order to be more inclusive. Some of our gatherings include breakout rooms where participants can have more intimate discussion on a particular topic. Some gatherings are more educational and involve presentations on topics of interest to our members. Some of these programs are recorded and can be found on our YouTube Channel.
We have a team that organizes these meetings; let the team know that you are interested in joining them at
Fourth Convocation
In September 2024 we held our Fourth International Convocation of Unitarian*Universalist Women in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in September 2024. The event was organized by a team of volunteers from ICUUW and UNOSZ, the Unitarian Women’s Organization in Romania.
Over 150 participants gathered with attendees traveling from many countries and from many areas of Transylvania. Our group included participants from 14 countries. We would have had even more participants if visa difficulties hadn’t prevented some from attending.
The convocation theme “Weaving a Tapestry of Peace and New Perspectives” informed a full program. Highlights included the Hungarian and American keynote speakers, workshops, singing and dancing. Chalice circles and global sisters conversations provided the opportunity for smaller group meetings.
During the closing ceremony, participants endorsed a Peace Declaration and committed themselves to personal and institutional actions towards peace.
Read more about the convocation in our 2024 Fall Global Sisters Newsletter. We also have videos from the convocation in our YouTube Channel.
Virtual Annual Gathering
In December 2024, ICUUW held its Virtual Annual Gathering in conjunction with International Human Rights Day. Dr. Maureen Porter provided a recap of her keynote speech from the convocation for those who had not been able to attend. We also heard reflections on the convocation from some of our members. Rev. Carol Huston talked about the work of our UN advocacy team and the upcoming UN Conference on the Status of Women. A beautiful, animated film short was created by Annamaria Oltean and shared during the gathering. The entire program is available in our YouTube channel.
International Women’s Day Gathering
In March we celebrated International Women’s Day by collaborating with the UU Women’s Federation on a virtual program in 2 parts. We were able to combine resources with UUWF to highlight our organization’s work to a larger audience. Our members had the opportunity to learn more about UUWF and UUWF members had the opportunity to learn more about ICUUW. Both parts are available on the UU Women’s Fed Youtube Channel: PART 1 - PART 2.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee is pleased to report significant growth in our membership base. At the end of 2024, ICUUW had 108 total members, representing a substantial increase from approximately 80 members in 2022-2023. There have been 19 renewals to date for 2025. Many more are expected later this year.
READ MORE IN THE PDF: 2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report
Programs and Partnerships Committee
Crucial to carrying out our mission of “working for all women’s and girls’ equity worldwide”, the Programs and Partnerships Committee develops programs and offers assistance to other members and committees in the development of programs and projects. We added the word "partnerships" to our committee name, as we believe forming strong partnerships with individuals and other organizations is a necessity in order to achieve our goals.
READ MORE IN THE PDF: 2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report
UN Advocacy Committee
The central responsibilities of this Committee are to maintain a substantial presence at the UN, especially during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March, to network and educate others about the UN, and to maintain our organization’s N ECOSOC status through activity at the UN.
READ MORE IN THE PDF: 2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report
Outreach Committee
Last year the Outreach Committee concentrated on:
a) developing the Share the Plate program: The process and participating churches involved are now documented on the ICUUW website (under “Get Involved”) – 28 congregations in 2023-24; and eight to date in 2025.
b) Attending and staffing exhibit tables at as many U*U district, area, national and international meetings as possible.
READ MORE IN THE PDF: 2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report
Communications Committee
This is a newly formed committee. Our goals are to develop an annual comprehensive strategic plan for internal and external communication, develop communication policies where needed, and oversee that our messaging is “on target”, i.e. represents us in who we are, our guiding values and our goals. We are managing all aspects of communication for our organization, including the newsletter, the website, emails that get sent out to members and supporters, and our presence on Facebook. We have a sub-team that is managing the Tuesday gatherings.
Our committee members are Karen Kortsch, Beth O’Connell, Lee Boeke Burke and Vicki Roberts Gassler.
Coordinating Council
The Coordinating Council is a new committee for ICUUW. It was formed to improve communication in the organization and share information about all the activities and plans of the various committees.
The Council members are the chairs of all the committees including Programs, Outreach, Membership, UN Advocacy, Nominating, Communications as well as a representative of the Board of Directors and any special task forces. The Council is also building support and solidarity among the volunteer leaders of the committees.
READ MORE IN THE PDF: 2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report
A Brand-New Website
Our new website at ICUUW.ORG was unveiled recently. Gretchen Ohmann, our Marketing Director, designed this website for us and it is both beautiful and full of so much useful information and functionality.
It is now possible to read our website in the language of your choice. Use the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner of the page and select your preferred language. Let us know if you can’t find the language of your choice and we will add it.
Under the Resources tab you can find videos, reports, newsletters and more. Did you know that we have well over 70 videos to choose from?
If you are looking for upcoming events, click on Calendar and you will find a comprehensive schedule of meetings and activities. The Who We Are tab and drop-down menu will steer you to our bylaws, history, board and staff bios, and many other documents that will provide you with a well-rounded summary of what we are all about. There is much more to explore.
One of the most important sections is the Get Involved tab. This should be your guide to how you can pitch in to further the mission of our organization.
President’s Report
Our annual report is a collaborative effort. Each committee provided information on some of the many efforts we were involved with during the last year. The focus is on what we’ve accomplished.
I’d like to add a few words focused on the renewal of our strategic plan, certainly one of the major efforts of this last year.
We know who we are - we are a global partnership of Unitarian Universalists - and why we exist - we work for all women’s and girls’ equity. Our bylaws state our purpose, but primarily our bylaws define how the organization operates legally and structurally.
Our strategic plan sets the direction and priorities for the future. It takes our mission and specifies goals that will help us achieve our mission or at least get closer to achieving it.
A strategic plan is a practical tool that answers:
- What is our mission and vision in the next 3–5 years?
- What are our major goals and objectives?
- What strategies and actions will help us achieve those goals?
The strategic plan keeps the organization focused, guides decision-making, and ensures that the day-to-day activities align with long-term priorities.
In short: The Bylaws keep us organized. The Strategic Plan keeps us moving forward. Both are essential to a healthy, well-run NGO.
In the last year we refreshed our strategic plan, something that should be done every few years. And it had been six years since we had developed our last strategic plan!
To do this we gathered input from many sources. We asked our members during the 2023 annual gathering. We conducted a survey in preparation for the 4th Convo, had conversations with our partner organizations, spent 2 days in a strategy meeting with many Board members and guests, and rounded all of this input gathering off with online focus groups with Board members and other leaders.
We used this input to evaluate what had been going well, where our minds were and where we wanted to focus our energy. We are a small organization and can only do so much.
The result of this big effort is the new strategic plan that the Board adopted in its March 2025 meeting and that you can access on our website. Take a look! It’s not only about the things we do, but also about our guiding principles and how we work together.
What gets done will depend entirely on what our members and volunteers decide to do. There is so much that needs to be done, so much that can be done. We all know we’ll keep on working towards more opportunities for women and girls worldwide.
We have many people to thank for all that we accomplished this year.
A big thank you to Beth O’Connell and Peg Swain, who both served on the Board for the last 6 years and have been active in many other aspects of our organization. We thank Deb Pritchard and Rica Lamar for the time they served on the Board and the inspiration and insights we gained from them. We thank Gevene Hertz for serving on the Nominating Committee.
Thank you to all who are members and supporters. It is your support both financially and with your time volunteering on one of our efforts that we make the world a better place one step at a time.
In gratitude,
Tina Huesing, ICUUW President
READ MORE IN THE PDF: 2024-25 ICUUW Annual Report