UUYAN was organized in the early 1980's by people who did not want LRY to end. The same is still true today: the driving motivation of many key organizers is the memory of YRUU cons and the need to keep that magic alive.
There are many good things about this, and also some things that are worth questioning.
One of the key questions is: do the exact same techniques that create UU community and magic for youth also create magic for young adults? Are the community-building activities we crave at fifteen the same as what we crave at twenty-five?
I think the answer is both yes and no, and it is important to look at both parts of that answer. What do we keep, what do we maybe translate at little, what do we grow out of and grow into? If we don't look at both parts of the question, we risk ending up with Young Adult programs that aliennate the Bridgers, either because they are full of people who are adults pretending to be youth and radiating a scary stagnant energy, or because they are full of adults who know nothing of the conference culture with which most Bridgers identify.
Most youth leaders never realize that people get their Masters degrees studying how to create safe, empowering programs for youth. That the games, structures, and traditions of YRUU were formed in dialogue with religious educators, advisors, and parents who read a lot of books about adolescent psychology, adolescent spiritual growth, adolescent developmental needs.
YRUU feels good because it was designed carefully with you in mind.
When I started leading Young Adult groups in San Francisco, I tried to look for similar books about the needs and issues of young adults. There is really a surprising lack of material. There are entire libraries of material on adolescent development, on what teenagers feel and need and are going through. But once you turn 18 or 21, it's like whomp, that's it. You're done, or something. It's wacky.
So, I'm going to try and cover some of it here, based in my studies and my life experience and three years of weekly conversations with circles of UU young adults about their spiritual lives and development.