FRLC Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT

            Check In & Prayer Melanie, Arthur, Kirk, Ed

            Approval of Minutes from July Meeting approved

Treasurer’s report: received by email. Current balance is $1166.33.

            Coordinator’s report: He is putting together a packet to send to Dave to take to the Rostered Leaders Gathering with ten books and “here’s what we have so far” information about the retreat. Everything isn’t confirmed yet but at least people can know that it is coming.

Mostly he has been working on the plans for the conference. He is negotiating the contract with the hotel to reduce our exposure, trying to get it as low as possible. The hotel said it is easier to add numbers and services than subtract them. There will be less meals included in the registration, although we would need to have Friday dinner and Saturday lunch included since the keynote speakers are scheduled to present at those meals.

The Minneapolis and St. Paul Synods have agreed to be sponsors. Both bishops will speak at the event. Fairview Health Services of Minnesota has agreed to be a cosponsor. They are an interfaith organization and asked if it was strictly a Lutheran event. Our keynote speakers include a Lutheran, a Christian of unknown denominational affiliation and a Muslim and the disease is not limited to Lutherans by any means so he said it is not strictly Lutheran. This expands our potential reach. The Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is putting out a white paper on addiction, so we are inviting her to speak also.

The board was invited to look at the website and give feedback. It is www.addictionandfaith2018.org While it is a work in progress it looks really good! Ed has had to make some decisions and set the early bird registration price for $288. Hotel costs will be in addition to registration. They will be about $95/night and you can have as many people in a room as you want for that price. There were several questions: would there be a price without meals? We don’t know yet but since the keynote speakers are at the meals it seems unlikely. An option for clergy that don’t want to miss Sunday morning? They could just take in the keynote speakers. The registration is not operational yet. Ed will let us know when it is ready.

There will be a barrage of publicity when it is all ready, including the ELCA pages on FaceBook, e-blasts and a newsletter.

There will be a retreat for the FRLC before and after the main event. There will be separate publicity for this part. It will begin Thursday night with welcome, dinner out and a 12 step meeting. On Friday, there will be breakfast together then we will go over retreat assignments, have some free time, then begin work at the Conference. We will be looking for people to do tasks like registration, ushering, and so forth. The FRLC event will continue Sunday following some free time. We will debrief the conference, have the annual business meeting and begin planning our next steps. Recovering clergy who are willing to do this will have a significant registration discount for the conference, possibly $200. And pastors who don’t want to do this are certainly welcome to pay the full price and attend the conference.

Old Business:

Lay Fellowship retreat and newsletter were covered in the above discussion.

PayPal button on website: Kirk will follow up and see if the treasurer would like his assistance.

New Business:

ELCA Rostered Leaders Gathering Affinity Group: there was discussion and no decision on how to pay the $245 registration fee for Dave.

Next meeting: September 6, 2017 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm