Present: Bohdan, Ed, Tom, Karen, Michelle, Otto, Melanie

Check In & Prayer: All checked in, Michelle opened in prayer.

Minutes: MSP (otto, tom) to approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

            Treasurer’s report Tom conveyed the report from Louise. The FRLC membership account balance is $1442.88. The Conference account balance is $52,925.60. The CAF balance is $15,189.72, thanks to a $10k grant from the Minneapolis Synod.

            Coordinator’s report:

Referral:  Ed was asked to be a resource for a pastor, sent information to the  synod and is waiting to hear back.

            Addiction & Faith Conference: The CAF Board moved Conference dates to Oct. 7-9, 2021. The hotel was cooperative and offered a reasonable price. There was a discussion of whether to have a retreat for the FRLC before or after it or as a separate event. An advantage of doing them together is reducing the cost of travel for participants. Before the Conference it tends to get lost in Conference planning and afterwards people are tired and want to go home.

            The A & F Conference website is about ready to be rolled out. They are still working on the page to handle funds. The Center plans to tie it into an aggressive year end campaign which will be much like a capital campaign.

            A & F WEBINARS: Three webinars have been offered and were successful. The first two had over 100 registrants each and the most recent had about 250 registrants. The speaker who was invited to address addiction and race from a Native American perspective is not getting back to him. Melanie will check it out her resources. Need to speak to whole systemic issue in a way that is informative. The webinars are educational, topical and thematic, addressing racial justice and addiction ministry and how to do ministry in this time.

            PODCAST: Ed has recorded two interviews for the Podcast. The podcasts are interviews on the theme “Stories of Addiction & Grace”. He is recording one each week, a couple weeks out from the dates they are aired. Ed will be sending out invitations for interviews or you can contact him to volunteer. He hopes to set up an online poll to schedule interviews.

            RECOVERY MEETINGS: Ed would like to find a way to publicize the Thursday recovery meeting through the CAF activities other than publicly giving out the number and password. He is looking for a volunteer contact person to receive email inquiries about the meeting, verify that the inquirer is clergy and give them the number and password. Ed reported that the Episcopal Zoom open recovery meeting has 15-20 people participating from across the country eight weeks after launching.  Participants are church goers who are people in recovery.  Ed shared our format and helped them start it. He suggested the FRLC might start something like that, in the evening, on Zoom, open to more than clergy, possibly on a Sunday night. We would need volunteers who would be willing to chair the meeting until we can recruit leaders from the group who are participating and can identify someone from the group to do the schedule. Some affirmed that it is a good idea; however the question was raised whether it is our mission. If the FRLC doesn’t do it, the CAF would. Bohdan, Michelle, Melanie and possibly others are willing to lead this meeting to get it started regardless of which group puts it on. We will wait on this decision until next month.

MISSION OF THE FRLC: This led into conversation about updating our mission statement and past attempts to do so. Otto, Karen, and Melanie volunteered to draft an updated mission statement and send it out to everyone to discuss at the board next meeting. All are welcome to submit their ideas.

Other Business:

            CONVOCATION AT WARTBURG SEMINARY: Michelle is advocating for a Convocation at Wartburg Seminary to discuss FRLC and the CAF in the spring of 2021, and is counting on Ed to participate. The incoming class at Wartburg is around 100, her class has 50 students. While last year’s graduating class was small, there are over 200 students now. Options and availability of scholarships have helped.  

            FRLC Annual meeting: These were originally held at retreats and the last two were on Sunday following the Conference. Holding the retreat at the Mount Olivet retreat center may create better boundaries between events. Discussion returned to when and where to have the retreat. It could be pre or post Conference fun & renewal with a little bit of business. We initially put them together to get people to attend the conference. We will discuss the proposed new mission statement whenever and wherever we hold the Annual Meeting.

Tom closed the meeting with prayer.