By Heather Melton (she/her), UTO Staff Officer

Thank you to everyone who filled out our formation survey—it was incredibly helpful to learn what is working, what isn’t working, and what would be great to add. Karin Elsen presented the findings at the Virtual Training Day (you can watch that full presentation here), but I wanted to give everyone an update on the changes that you’ll experience when placing your orders this year. 

1. We’ll be using an ecommerce platform going forward that will allow you to “shop” for the items that you need. The choices will continue to be limited to help with the packing and shipping process since it is undertaken by my family, but there will be some ways to customize your order. Here are some of the options you’ll find: 
   • Kit for new UTO leaders – this will be mailed monthly and will include some basic information about UTO, including how to introduce it to your congregation. These kits have been designed with input from new UTO leaders and include digital and physical materials. 
   • Kit of UTO Materials – this kit contains the basics of UTO, in quantities of 25, to get everyone the same basic materials. It includes boxes, envelopes, and brochures for your congregation. 
   • Kit Add-On – Formation – If you would like formation materials for adults and/or families, you’ll be able to order those in quantities of 10 for your congregation. We hope that this smaller amount will allow you to get the materials you need. 
   • Kit Add On – Giveaways – For those who set up information tables and would like something tangible to offer, you can add on a giveaway kit. It will include some kind of gratitude resource to help promote UTO and gratitude in your parish. (For example, gratitude magnets, journals, pins, etc.) 
   • Kit for Diocesan Conventions – these kits will include ways for your booth to be a place of engagement with UTO, including a gratitude activity, a fun way to interact with past grants to your diocese, and current grant awards. Be sure to order early to get the personalized materials! It will also include giveaways, stickers, and QR code cards for signing up to do UTO in parishes or ordering materials. 
   • Kits for individuals – do you do UTO on your own? Don’t worry, we’ll send a kit of materials for just you and/or your family that includes the formation materials and other UTO information. 

If you like to order individual items, we’ll still offer that option; however, we do hope you’ll give the kits a try. Please note that we do plan to do one more printing of the UTO Prayer booklet, so if you want more of those, please get your order in during August so we know how many to print.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback, ideas, and gratitude for our formation process. We can’t wait to roll out our new ordering process later this summer to help streamline things and make materials more accessible.