Great Decisions Group Profile: Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church

Every two weeks we'll profiling a different Great Decisions group from around the country. Here's our first selection, a group hosted by a long-term Great Decisions group leader in Texas.

Group: Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church

Location: Houston, TX

Group Leader: Robert Handy

Number of participants in 2014: ~93

What the group is up to: "We (the church) created a Speaker and Events Team this year and it decided to bring in five speakers on four of the 2014 GD topics: China (2), Israel, Islam and Turkey. The first was a series kickoff with the Director to the Center for International Studies and Houston's University of St. Thomas. He spoke on China. Last week we hosted Ambassador Meir Shlomo, Israeli Consul General to the Southwest U.S. Last night, we hosted Dr. Ibrahim Ozturk a Development Economist, who spoke on Turkey. Next Monday, Dr. Laura Robson, Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History will speak in Islam at the neighboring Islamic Community Center and at College of the Mainland in Texas City, where I introduced Great Decision into the non-credit curriculum some 41 years ago. Finally, in April we will host Dr. John Charles, Chief of NASA's International Science Office, who will speak on China in space.

"As a result, we have 93 participants this year. We have had to split the morning and afternoon groups into two and the evening group into three. I have recruited four people to help in moderating the groups. I also moderate three of them. One of the moderators is my wife who I met in a Great Decisions group about 40 years ago."


Group page: http://goo.gl/ENEiKl