The UUA General Assembly is All-Virtual in 2024. Here's How to Participate.

Love Unites, Stories Ignite. The theme for the Unitarian Universalist Association’s 2024 General Assembly resonates deeply with the substance of human connection and our interdependent community. And yet, perhaps befitting of a meeting that will be held entirely online this year, the theme was generated with the help of artificial intelligence, or AI.

GA itself, set for June 20–23, will heavily leverage technology, including expanding opportunities for people to connect virtually and by offering an online library of on-demand workshops, lectures, and more. Planners are building off lessons learned from previous virtual and multiplatform General Assemblies, refining how to use technology—and creativity—to present the best possible experience.

The annual General Assembly is where Unitarian Universalists conduct the business of the Association, explore the theological underpinnings of the faith, and create and build relationships. It includes inspirational worship services, informative workshops and lectures, and social events. Most notably, this year’s GA will include a final vote on proposed changes to Article II, the section of the UUA bylaws that includes its Principles, Purposes, and Sources. (Read the proposed language.)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, GA was entirely virtual in both 2020 and 2021, while in 2022 and 2023 it was multiplatform, held both in person and online. This year’s event is online only once again for a number of reasons, including that it’s more accessible physically and financially—which means more people can attend—and is more earth-friendly in terms of resources related to travel, says LaTonya Richardson, the UUA’s GA and Conference Services director.

It’s an attractive option for UUs new to attending General Assembly and a more economical option as many are still rebounding from the pandemic. The event will also be a day shorter, beginning on Thursday instead of Wednesday, as is traditional, and concluding on Sunday. It will feature online affinity groups—called GA cohorts—that will meet each day.

As for devising this year’s theme, that was a combination of human ingenuity and technology.

When the GA planning team began working on a potential GA theme, they decided to see if they could get some help from ChatGPT, a free tool driven by AI technology. They plugged into ChatGPT notes from a number of meetings and conversations they’d had; the program sifted through them and produced a list of potential topics and ideas, which the human team further honed before landing on “Love Unites, Stories Ignite.”

"It was pretty amazing to watch," says Larry Stritof, the UUA’s Information Technology Services director. "AI is an assistive layer to help us with our work; it’s not here to replace our work."

The theme "was generated by AI but perfected by us," agrees Richardson. "The beautiful thing about AI is it’s a real timesaver for summarizing our discussions, creating marketing content, and calls to action."

GA 2024: Love and Connection at the Center of Each Day

The word "love" is at the center of the flower graphic that illustrates the new Shared UU Values portion of Article II proposed by the Article II Study Commission, the team charged with examining the relevant section of the UUA bylaws and making recommendations for changes.

"To me, the fact the word 'love' is in the theme lifts up the Article II vote that will happen at GA 2024," says Betty Clark, who served as the UUA’s events administrator before her promotion to executive assistant to the executive vice president and vice president of Programs and Ministries in March.

At GA 2023, delegates voted overwhelmingly to continue discussion of the Article II proposal over the following year, and "love was discussed heavily among GA attendees," Clark says. "It feels really important to me that love is in the theme."

Since people won’t be able to meet each other in person this year, there is a major emphasis on fostering community, which led to the development of GA cohorts, by which people with common goals and roles—religious professional groups, for example, or congregational lay leaders—can meet virtually each day.

To accommodate various time zones, participants can choose between attending a cohort gathering in the morning or evening. Cohorts, which will be announced in the spring, will be facilitated by stakeholders, UUA staff, or members of professional organizations, says Donny Plante, UUA meeting planner.

"We are mindful that attendees don’t get the same depth of organic conversation and community-building online as in person," says Richardson, "but we continue each year to create more space for those things to happen."

Cohorts, she adds, are "an evolution of the chat rooms we started in 2020" during the first all-virtual GA.

GA 2024: A Shorter Schedule, On-Demand Viewing, and Other Offerings to Boost Inclusivity

But with participants spending hours each day in front of a computer screen, Zoom fatigue will be a challenge. Making GA a day shorter this year will help mitigate that.

For the second year in a row, GA’s extensive programming of workshops and lectures will also be available on-demand starting a few weeks before GA begins and for a while after it ends. Live programming during the actual four days of GA, including worship services, will be recorded for further on-demand viewing.

Workshop leaders who prefer interactivity with the audience will be able to host a live workshop in April and invite attendees; these will be recorded and included in the on-demand library. "Participants will have access to all these great workshops" without being tied to a schedule, Plante says.

Last year, the on-demand workshops were edited and captioned by June 1, which is the goal this year, he adds.

The cost of full registration is $315 until May 15 and is $400 after that. Full virtual registration includes access to the GA app, as well as all on-demand programming, live webinars, and live-streamed events. For voting delegates who don’t want to participate in programming, there is a business-only registration option; these delegates are encouraged to make a donation of up to $200.

With the UUA commitment to making GA available to as many attendees as possible, there are scholarships to support delegates, particularly those from marginalized groups, as well as volunteer opportunities where delegates can work in exchange for the cost of registration.

All these changes share the UUA’s goal of making GA more inclusive.

"The key things are that it’s more accessible and less financial commitment is required, and it’s definitely more sustainable," says Richardson. Because delegates don’t incur travel and hotel expenses, online GA is less expensive; also, online registration is less expensive. As a result, the past few years of multiplatform or virtual-only GAs provided a more diverse delegate pool, she says.

There is a common misconception that virtual meetings are low-cost for those putting them on, but in fact there are substantial production and other costs to presenting an online GA, Richardson emphasizes, and registration fees are essential to offsetting that expense.

Early registration is encouraged so the GA team can get an idea of how many people will attend in order to plan for technological demands, estimate how many volunteers are needed, and have time to train them. Sponsors, advertisers, and online exhibitors often base their financial commitment on how well attended the event will be.

At the November 13 meeting of the UUA Board of Trustees "we heard a lot of momentum for participating particularly because of the condensed time frame," Richardson says. "We’re mindful of Zoom fatigue, so we’re hoping this schedule will play to our advantage in that way."

GA 2024: Ways to Engage and Stay Connected

For the fourth consecutive year, GA will offer the Whova event application, where participants can access information about GA and connect with others via mobile and desktop devices.

Delegates will have an online platform to engage with Association business ahead of actual GA, and business mini-assemblies will also be held in advance, as they were last year. Voting during GA will take place over a matter of hours instead of minutes, so delegates can confer with their congregations before voting.

Some people have expressed that extending the business of GA over a period of months is too taxing, including that they feel they get too many emails.

"We have work to do to help delegates navigate the business agenda," says Stritof, "and part of that is being clearer about the timeline and process for each business item."

General Assembly 2025 will be held June 18–22, 2025, and will be multiplatform so delegates can attend online or in person in Baltimore, Maryland.