Introducing

Heart, Mind, & Spirit

— an electronic magazine for UUs on campus —

15 Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who may subscribe?

      Anyone in the world who has an e-mail address
may subscribe to HMS.
Simply send your name and e-mail address to the webmaster:
James Park <PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU>
You can have your name removed
from the mailing list in the same way.

    Most subscribers are expected to be UU students
on campuses in the United States.
(Most US colleges and universities
now provide e-mail for all students and faculty.)
"UUs on campus" includes undergraduates,
graduate and professional students (law, medicine, seminary, etc.),
college faculty and staff.

    However, the content of Heart, Mind, & Spirit
will not become narrow or specialized.
Everything published will be intelligible the general reader
who has at least begun a college education.
College graduates who have e-mail may subscribe
for as long as they find it meaningful to do so.
There are thousands of UU college students in the world,
hundreds of graduate students,
and hundreds of UU faculty and staff.

2. Does it cost anything?

No, subscriptions are completely free of charge.

3. How often does Heart, Mind, & Spirit appear?

    Three times a year: Fall, Winter, & Spring.
If there is demand for more frequent publication,
this can be arranged.

4. How is HMS funded?

    There is no funding.
The authors of the feature articles,
the editors, and the webmaster
offer their services without pay.
For everyone, HMS is a labor of love.

5. Is HMS edited?

    Yes, since there is already many un-edited
means of communication among all UU young adults,
the content of Heart, Mind, & Spirit is edited
to insure that the writing is as clear as possible
and that the articles fall within the length and format guidelines.

6. Who are the editors?

    James Park, who has been active in UU campus ministry
in Minnesota since 1986 is the first editor and webmaster.

     Karen Rayne was co-editor from December 1999 until April 2000.
She was a UU college student living in Austin, Texas during that time.

    James Sheldon, another co-editor, joined the staff in January 2000.
He served until November 2000.  During his months of service,
he was a UU college student at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

    More details about all the editors will be found in Meet the Editors:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/HMS-EDS.html

    Others who wish to help make this electronic magazine work
will be welcome to contribute whatever talents they have.
Especially helpful might be someone who knows how
to improve the format and appearance of Heart, Mind, & Spirit
and how to include some interesting graphics.

7. Who may propose articles?

    Anyone in the world who regards himself or herself in sympathy
with the Unitarian Universalist movement may propose articles.
The major contributors are likely to be:
Leaders involved in UU campus ministry (both students and staff).
UU clergy anywhere in the world.
UU seminary students anywhere in the world.
UU thinkers anywhere who have something to offer.
UU college students, young adults, & HMS readers.

    Please pass the word:
Invite any UU writers you know
who might like to write for Heart, Mind, & Spirit.
Refer all potential writers to this home page for complete information.

8. How are articles selected?

<>    Electronic publication allows for unprecedented input from readers.
The feature articles of Heart, Mind, & Spirit
are selected by the subscribers.
The HMS home page has a list of proposed feature articles,
each with a one-paragraph description.
(The first subjects areas are suggested in a separate file,
which also contains all current proposals for articles:
Subject Areas & Proposed Feature Articles for Heart, Mind, & Spirit.)
In order to give all writers an equal chance to be published,
the proposers are not identified by name or status.
Subscribers vote knowing only the content of each proposed article.
This means that a first-year student on a small campus
has the same opportunity as the president of the UUA.
(This method of proposing articles will also eliminate all biases
relating to race, sex, age, location, occupation, professional status, etc.)
The article that gets the most votes
will be the feature article in the next issue.
Subscribers may also indicate their first and second choices,
which create an instant run-off process:
If the voter's first choice does not win,
that vote is shifted to his or her second choice.
Authors are fully identified when their articles are published
(unless they wish to remain anonymous for some reason).
In the first 8 years of publication, all authors have been identified.

    Thus, subscribers select the content of Heart, Mind, & Spirit.
Before each issue is published, a special mailing
asks all the subscribers which proposed feature article
they would like to read next.
The proposal with the most votes is published.

    Besides proposing future articles written by themselves,
readers may also request future articles to address certain subjects.
Other subscribers to Heart, Mind, & Spirit
may know people who could create such articles.
A separate file on the HMS home page lists these requested articles.
(Reminder of definitions:
Proposed articles have authors ready and willing to write them.
Requested articles are simply ideas for articles requested by readers.)

9. What are the format guidelines for articles?

    Feature articles are no longer than three pages.
In electronic terms this is a 10KB article,
no longer than 10,000 bits of electronic information—10,000 ones and zeros.
HMS publishes short gems of UU thinking.
A three-page article is about 100 sentences, about 1,500 words.
If you need more space, propose a series of related articles.
(Most computers automatically tell you the length of a file once you save it.)

    A three-page article takes about 10-15 minutes to read aloud.
This is about half the length of a typical UU sermon.
So UU preachers who want to create electronic versions of their sermons
must eliminate about half of the words.
The editors will help writers to shorten their articles if needed.

    One way to get around this 3-page limitation,
is to provide a link to another location on the Internet
where your comments are extended, such as your own home page.
You may also provide a synopsis and outline
at the beginning of your feature article (no more than one page total),
which might help to draw readers into your article.
This synopsis and outline does not count within the 3-page limit.
(When you create your proposal for the article,
you may already have written a good synopsis and outline.)

    Each writer is encouraged to provide hyperlinks
for additional information either contained within the text (like footnotes)
or at the end of the article for further information.

    When appropriate, authors provide bibliographies
of books and articles for further reading.
Since the writers and readers of HMS are UUs on campus,
we all have access to good libraries.
Thus, writers are encouraged to point interested readers
in the best directions for further reading.

    Such bibliographies of further reading
are not be counted within the three-page limitation.
Thus, your article could be three pages long,
but your bibliography could be an additional page.
Please annotate all recommended further reading,
describing (and perhaps evaluating) the content of each item.

    All articles are presented with the line-divisions
illustrated by what you are now reading:
Each sentence begins at the left.
When a sentence is too long for one line on a typical screen,
then divide it at the place where one would normally pause in reading aloud.
These natural line-divisions often fall where commas appear.
Writers who are trying this format for writing for the first time
will probably find that it makes the writing easier.
And it certainly makes the text easier to read on a screen.
Since the length of your article is measured by the number of key-strokes,
line-divisions will not affect the total length.
In electronic publishing, we do not need to worry about saving paper.
But it should be possible for readers to down-load
and print-out articles on three pages of 8.5 X 11 paper.
(If your article is a poem, it may have shorter lines,
resulting in more than three pages if printed out.
But the content of the body of your contribution will still be 10KB or less.
Readers who want to print-out feature articles from HMS
can format them in 11 point type or smaller
to make them fit on 3 sheets of paper.)

    An example of one 10KB article following this format
(with bibliography) will appear if you click the following title:
Loneliness of Spirit: Deeper than the Reach of Love.
This shows what can be expressed in just 10,000 zeros and ones.
This feature article was chosen by HMS subscribers for Spring 1999.

10. Are articles copyrighted?

    Yes, all such creations are automatically copyrighted when created.
If you wish to limit the re-use of your contribution,
simply say so with your article.
Contributing to Heart, Mind, & Spirit does not limit the right of authors
to adapt writings that are already copyrighted (with proper identification)
or to copyright other versions of the same works.
If some version of your article is already copyrighted, simply note that.
(If a selection of the best articles from HMS is later created,
the authors will get prorated shares of any royalties for the writers.)

11. Does Heart, Mind, & Spirit

emphasize one philosophical point of view?

    No.  Diversity of one of the greatest strengths of the UU movement.
And HMS seeks to represent as much of this diversity as possible.
For those who know little about UUism, the following is a partial listing
of some of the themes within UU spirituality.
Such themes are not exclusive, of course,
since the same person could embrace women's spirituality,
earth-centered spirituality, and neo-pagan spirituality all at the same time.
The following list of themes is organized by similarity.
The largest group of Unitarian Universalists call themselves "humanists".
But we do not know if this holds true for UUs on campus.

I. Theistic Spiritual Paths

 A. Jewish UUism
 B. Paganism
 C. Christian UUism
 D. Deism
 E. Earth-Centered Spirituality
 F. Panentheism
 G. Green Spirituality
 H. Pantheism
 I. Transcendentalism
 J. Process Theology
II. Non-Theistic Spiritual Paths
 A. Humanism
  1. Existential Spirituality
  2. Women's Spirituality, Feminist Spirituality
 B. Buddhist UUism
III. Individual Spiritual Paths

    Unitarian Universalists are free to define their own spiritual paths.
{Please add to this list of identified spiritual paths;
we want this listing to be as comprehensive as possible.}

    Because the subscribers determine which articles will be published,
certain emphases might emerge.
For example, if there are no votes for articles in medical ethics,
no matter how many are proposed, they will not be published in HMS.
Likewise, if subscribers consistently pick proposed articles in ecology,
then there will be a lot of Green Spirituality.
Or if Buddhist or Christian UUs predominate on the list of subscribers,
then there will naturally be more articles from those points of view.
But a more likely outcome of letting subscribers determine the content
is that HMS will have a wide diversity of articles,
perhaps as widely diverse as the UU movement itself.

    As said in Questions 7 & 8,
anyone may request articles or propose articles.
And suggestions for new places to look for potential writers
will always be welcome.

    The HMS library is organized into 6 subject-areas:
S—Spirituality 
R—Religion
LS—Love, Sex, & Relationships
PG—Personal Growth & Life-Choices
MD—Medical Ethics & Death
P—Peace

12. Are readers encouraged to respond

to feature articles?

    Yes, after each issue of Heart, Mind, & Spirit is published,
readers are encouraged to respond by sending e-mails
either to the author or to one of the editors of HMS.
Selected comments and questions from readers
(possibly with responses from the original author)
are archived on the HMS home page
—linked from the original article.
And if readers want to respond to these responses,
these also will be saved in the same place.
These selected responses are also edited
for length and relevance to the original article.
(And the authors of the original articles
will have the opportunity to revise their works
in response to the feedback from readers
before both articles and selected responses are placed in the library.
Authors receive all responses by e-mail,
even responses that are not saved in the library.)

    To see the dialog resulting from the First Issue of HMS, click here:
Questions & Answers about:
Loneliness of Spirit: Deeper than the Reach of Love.

13. How is Heart, Mind, & Spirit

related to the larger UU movement?

    A Permanent Links Page is included in each issue
(and on the HMS home page):
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/HMS-LINK.html
These links will help readers find other UUs on their own campuses,
other UU campus groups, and other electronic and print resources.
Any reader may suggest further links and resources
to be included on the Permanent Links Page.
Announcement of interest to UUs on campus
will be published on the Announcements Page,
generally in the form of links to full information elsewhere in the internet.

14. Is Heart, Mind, & Spirit

an official publication of the UUA?

     No, not yet.
The Unitarian Universalist Association has many official publications,
most notably The UU World, and Ferment,
(formerly) published by the Unitarian Universalist
Young Adult/ Campus Ministries Office.

     Heart, Mind, & Spirit was not originally conceived
as a denominational magazine.
It is an electronic magazine FOR Unitarian Universalists on campus everywhere.
Each issue provides many links to other UU organizations and resources.
But at this point, it remains independent of all UUA administrators, boards, etc.
It is not an organ of any international, regional, or local UU organization either.

     However, all persons associated with any UU organization
are welcome to submit proposals for articles,
which will be considered in exactly the same way
as proposals from non-UU individuals.

     If the first few years of Heart, Mind, & Spirit
prove there is a valid place for such a magazine,
then it could be adopted by some other UU entity,
such as the Young Adult/Campus Ministries Office,
especially if this would provide some operating money
without compromising the operating principles of HMS.
Or other UU entitles could create similar magazines.

15. Can these principles of operation

be changed?

    Yes, certainly, suggestions for improvement will always be welcome.
And if any suggestions seem too far afield of the original purpose of HMS,
then those who make such suggestions
will be encouraged to start other, similar electronic magazines.
For example, if UU law students or medical students
want separate publications, such could be created.
Or there might be a separate publication for UU faculty members.

    All proposals for articles, requests for articles,
comments, questions, and suggestions
should be sent by e-mail to the webmaster:

James Park <PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU>
 

updated April 2008

Return to the index page for Heart, Mind, & Spirit.

Go to the Resources for UU Campus Ministry page.

Return to the UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM page.

Return to the opening page for this website:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum.




The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.