FRLC Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

 

            Check In & Prayer Brian, Roger, Melanie, Joel, Bohdan, Arthur, Ed, Tom.

Tom led us in prayer.

 

Approval of Minutes from last meeting January’s minutes were approved.

Annual meeting minutes yet to come.

 

Treasurer’s report was sent by email. Balance at the beginning of the meeting was $ 2275.51.

There was a deposit from the retreat of $4225 that was included in the updated report, giving a balance of $6500.51. There is one outstanding check to Mount Olivet Retreat Center for $4979.96. One more check for the retreat has not been deposited. We broke even on the retreat.

 

            Coordinator’s report: The retreat was well attended and inspirational. One participant’s first day sober was at the retreat and he remained sober throughout. There was a lot of visioning for the future, including developing a retreat and fellowship for laity in recovery. We met with several guests including staff from the Minneapolis and St. Paul Synods and Hazelden, and a professional fund raiser. The message from our guests was there is so much potential left in our current fellowship that they encouraged us to focus on this work and not on expanding the new fellowship for laity in recovery. There was a lot to think about. Retreatants regrouped and decided to go ahead and plan a retreat for Lutheran Laity in Recover next year. A team was formed with several local people plus at least one person who will participate in meetings electronically. Joy, Jim, Beth, Arthur, Roger are on the team and will meet March 16 at 9 am. Dates were proposed and the group a decided on the Minneapolis area for a location, with a preference for holding it at the Mount Olivet Retreat Center. There are no available dates at Mt. Olivet that will work for us. Melanie sent an email to a potential speaker’s booking agent but has not heard back from her.

Otherwise, the Coordinator had routine contacts, finding the work for the retreat to be satisfying. He has some checks to send to Brian.

                       

Old Business:

            Thank you to people going off of the board (Melanie): John W., Mary S. and Gary G. were thanked for their service. John responded with an email which was shared at the meeting.

 

New Business:

            PayPay button on website Our Coordinator asked if this would be possible at the conclusion of the retreat. Our web guru said she could do it but would need us to have a PayPal account and document our 501(c)3 status. Discussion included potential costs, that it may generate new donations, that we could encourage current donors to continue to give the way they do now, and that it would give potential donors another option—we might get impulse givers or use it in an email appeal—where they could give with one or two clicks. It would be good to get it in place if we grow. There were questions about how it works for the administrator. One member suggested there are other brands that deal with donations, which we could look into. Arthur can email a site with option for PayPal account or credit card. Brian will research this before the next meeting. Melanie will send Bea’s contact information.

 

            Thursday meetings—schedule leaders: Retreat participants were invited to be added to the chairperson’s schedule and current chairpersons were asked if they would like to continue. All of the current group is continuing and we have one new person for the list. The schedule will be emailed to the chairpersons when it is complete.

 

            Revising the Board: The secretary will send an inquiry to all new board members regarding contact information for a list to be used amongst the board and also what information they would like listed on the website.

 

Newsletter articles: We have frequently done a post retreat with reflections about that experience. New board members who attended the retreat are asked to write up a story (250-500 words) about the experience and what it meant for them. Anyone else is welcome to do so also. (Secretary’s addition: in the past we have also invited new board members to write a brief article introducing themselves, along with why you chose to serve on the board and what you hope to accomplish by doing so. While we didn’t discuss this and the meeting, it would be helpful should you choose to do so. The biggest challenge for the newsletter and e-blasts has been getting articles to include in them.)

 

Spreading the word: Joel offered to work on ideas on how to get the word out about our existence—to seminaries, Synods, etc. He will develop an email and send it out to the board members for feedback before the next meeting.

 

• Next meeting date: April 5, 2017  2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT