July 2017 Board Minutes
Present: Roger, Bohdan, Brian, Kirk, Ed
Everyone checked in. Roger opened the meeting with prayer.
Minutes from May & June Meetings were approved.
Treasurer’s report: Not a lot to report. The email with the detailed report will be sent soon. There were no out of the ordinary income or expenses. The current balance is $1163.62.
PayPal button on Website – Brian looked at a few sites but hadn’t made progress. He will set up a PayPal account as a non-profit and get the information to Bea. Kirk can help after his vacation is over at the end of July.
Coordinator’s report: He has mostly been focusing on the 2018 retreat. The planning group has been meeting weekly. Roger is on it from the board. Ed sent the contract with hotel. Some of us did not get it, so he will resend it to Bohdan & Melanie. Please review it asap—it will be discussed at the meeting tomorrow. Three key note speakers have contracts, some have been paid a deposit. The retreat website is ready to launch. It will allow for registration online. He is getting event insurance from Church Mutual to cover any liability. The bishops of the Minneapolis & St Paul Synods are in support of the retreat. The planning group is working on the workshop plans. Publicity will begin soon. We will have a newsletter next month that will have the information on the retreat. Ed will let us know when we can look at the website and give feedback before it goes out to the public. It would be helpful if a couple of us could register also to test it before it goes out to the public. There will be a reduced rate for “early bird” registration. All of the board members are asked to get ten people to register. Request that we all think and pray about who to invite to the retreat and get ten people. The focus of the retreat is broader than an AA event, including how we might respond to the opiate crisis and tools for recovery ministry for churches. We would like to get CEU’s for health care professionals if we can find someone who can help us do it.
Old Business:
Newsletter: It brings in income but covers the cost not much else. The Coordinator suggested doing an appeal for more significant gifts of a couple hundred dollars. We concluded that the appeal could go in the next issue with the publicity about the retreat and ask for support that we might continue to do the kind of work that is leading to the retreat. We could announce the PayPal option in the newsletter. There will be a link on our website to retreat site and an invitation to support the FRLC. Ed is thinking that the person who is doing the retreat website might be willing to take on the one for the FRLC later.
New Business:
Expenses for ELCA Rostered Leaders Gathering: Dave C. is attending. Ed asked him to make a specific request for financial support which has not been received. Melanie will email him with information about our finances and let him know we would consider a specific request if received by the August board meeting.
New schedule for the Thursday Meetings: Melanie is working on it. It will be complete by
the end of July.
Next meeting: August 2, 2017 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm
June Board Minutes
FRLC Board Minutes
June 8, 2017
Present: Kirk, Arthur, Joel, Ed, Tom, Bohdan, Melanie
Everyone checked in. The meeting opened with prayer.
The treasurers report was approved. The balance is $1301.36
The minutes from the wrong year were sent by email. The correct minutes will be sent.
Publicity Director’s Report: 2018 retreat: Hazelden decided not to be a cosponsor, although several people on their staff are very enthusiastic about it. Eyglo continues to work with Ed on the planning. Anne Wilson Schaef is interested in being a keynote speaker.
Old Business:
Board roster: Melanie still needs mailing addresses for Joel and Roger to complete it. Joel sent an email with his information.
ELCA Rostered Leaders Gathering in Atlanta: Dave Connors took the initiative to request that the FRLC be one of the “affinity groups” at this meeting. Last month, Ed and Melanie authorized him to proceed with this and today’s group concurred. We discussed resources he might need: FRLC brochures, copies of our book, information about the 2018 retreat. We have copies of the book on hand and can provide retreat information. Melanie will follow up with Dave, encouraging him to contact Ed for those supplies. Tom offered to make a donation to cover the cost of the books.
PayPal button on website: Brian was going to research it. We will come back to this when Brian is on a call.
2018 Retreat: What is needed from the board is to get the publicity out to your synods, networks, and on social media once it is ready to go. Tom suggested getting the publicity to Minnesota Recovery Connection. We need to find another sponsor/partner in place of Hazelden. Ed has a feeler out to Caron, which is like Hazelden on the East Coast. It would be good to have a treatment center as a sponsor. We don’t have a confirmation on William Moyers’ participation yet. Thrivent was suggested as a possible partner. We haven’t gotten a commitment from Minneapolis/St Paul Synods yet. We don’t think that will be a problem but Ed would like to have another major sponsor lined up before asking them. The local planning team is meeting tomorrow. There is a good team of local folks working with Ed, who is doing a great job at keeping it moving. The dates are April 13-15, 2018 and it is at the DoubleTree Inn in Bloomington, MN.
New Business: It was suggested that we resend the 7th tradition format to the people who chair the Thursday meetings. Melanie will send it with a reminder when she does the next meeting schedule.
The next meeting will be July 12 at the usual time, due to conflicts on the regular date.
May 2017 Board Minutes
FRLC Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT
Ed and Melanie were the only ones on the call, so we talked and I took notes but it wasn’t really an official meeting.
We agreed that Dave C. could represent us at the ELCA Rostered Leaders Gathering in Atlanta. He has gotten the ok to have an FRLC “Affinity Group” at the event. He was not sure if he would be able to go. I let him know he had our “seal of approval” and asked that he let me know whether he is going or not. If anyone else is interested in representing us there (we have no funds to support you in this), please let me know.
We discussed the 2018 lay retreat. We received confirmation of the Memorandum of Agreement from Nadia Bolz-Weber’s agent:
Melanie:
We have received your contract. You are officially on Nadia’s schedule for April 13-14, 2018! Please find her Bio and photo attached for any of your marketing efforts.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely, Lisa
These dates are confirmed for the Double Tree Inn in Bloomington, MN. There is a free airport shuttle.
Nadia will be speaking Friday evening and Saturday morning. Other speakers include Don Shelby, a local newscaster in recovery, and William C. Moyers of Hazelden.
Ed and Arthur are meeting with two people at Hazelden tomorrow–the pastor who attended our retreat and their publicity person. They will be discussing vendors, networking and potential workshop leaders at the first meeting and publicity efforts through Hazelden as well as the church at the second. Ed prepared a first draft brochure to help our partners understand what we are doing, which is attached below. Please note that the schedule for the speakers in the brochure is incorrect–Nadia’s time slots are as described above.
Joy has the information to access the website to work on publicity also.
The local retreat committee will be meeting next week, on May 18.
We adjourned our meeting around 2:30 pm Mountain time.
Next meeting: June 7, 2017 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm
March 2017 Board Meeting Minutes
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
December Board Minutes
FRLC Board Meeting Agenda
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT
Check In & Prayer Ed, Gary, Bohdan, Melanie. Gary dropped off the call before checking in. Melanie opened with a prayer.
The Minutes from November 16th Meeting were approved.
Treasurer’s report: The treasurer’s report was received by email. The balance in our checking account is $2761.79. Other than recent newsletter expenses, no other note-worthy income/expenses this past month.
Coordinator’s report: Worked on initiating February 2017 retreat, setting dates, reserving facility and developing a tentative agenda. The treasurer wrote a year-end appeal letter and the Coordinator got it sent out. Other than that, the usual routine.
Old Business:
New Business:
FRLC retreat February 2017: Date: February 13-16, Mt. Olivet Retreat Center, Farmington, MN. Ed will contact the board when we need to register. The date may have to be changed to the week earlier to accommodate the schedules of some of the Minneapolis area participants. He met with a local pastor, Gretchen E., regarding the retreat. She is excited and is checking with the congregation she serves regarding their support. The retreat center may be willing to handle registrations for us, although that is not the usual procedure. We will charge only the amount required to pay for the rooms and meals; no additional fees. He offered to cover the expenses for Gretchen if needed as she will be assisting with leadership. Spoke with Tammy Devine from Portico to explore partnership possibilities with them and hopes to have someone from Thrivent, from the Minneapolis Area Synod, and from Hazelden to be at the table. We are excited about these potential connections! It appears that people are more supportive of recovery and that is making these partnerships possible.
Board members are asked to reach out to people they know and encourage them to attend once the materials are ready to go. The secretary is committed to doing so!
A question was asked about transportation from the airport or train station since the retreat center is out of town. This will be discussed later. Uber would be an option.
Melanie will touch base the potential speaker she contacted earlier and let her know this is happening, invite her to the meeting and see if still open to speaking.
Future FRLC retreat fall 2017 in Minneapolis in conjunction with the new lay fellowship. No dates or information yet. This will be developed in conjunction with the February meeting.
Discussion of meeting time and date: the January meeting will be at the regularly scheduled time.
Next meeting: January 4, 2017 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm
November Board Meeting
FRLC Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT
Check In & Prayer Bohdan, Gary, Melanie, Ed and Brian were present. All checked in.
Gary opened in prayer.
Minutes from the October 5th Meeting were approved.
Treasurer’s report an updated report was sent by email. The current balance is $ 2605.98.
Coordinator’s report Nothing unusual. The Thursday meeting continues, attendance varies. Conscious Contact meeting continues with a couple new people. He plans to contact someone at Hazelden re cosponsoring a kick off retreat for the lay fellowship. He suggested that we work with Brian and send out a Christmas appeal.
Old Business:
Updating FRLC database/contact information: We will send out a self-addressed envelope or postcard for updating information with the Christmas appeal. Brian, Ed and Bodahn will work on getting it out.
New Business:
Further discussion of whether it would be helpful to have the next FRLC retreat in Minneapolis in conjunction local leaders in support of development of the new lay fellowship. Ed will explore the possibility and get back to us at our next meeting.
Next meeting: December 7, 2016 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm
October Board Meeting
FRLC Board Meeting Agenda
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT
Check In & Prayer Bohdan, Ed, Melanie
Approval of Minutes from September Meeting approved
Treasurer’s report received by email. Accepted.
Coordinator’s report a little activity, discussion of getting a newsletter out. Revisited including self-addressed stamped envelope and decided to go with it. Bohdan sent some material and will follow up. Chair requested that the Coordinator resend the database as his computer crashed.
New Business: The remainder of the meeting was a discussion of where we are as a Fellowship and where we are going, including retreat possibilities and support of development of the lay fellowship. At the end of our meeting, the idea surfaced of having our next retreat in the Minneapolis area in conjunction with people there who have connected with Ed regarding the development of the lay group. It could serve as our retreat and be a way to undergird that project. Ed will work on that and have information at our next meeting. Bohdan will work on scheduling the next meeting as Ed is unavailable on that date and the conversation needs to include him.
The meeting was closed in prayer.
September Board Meeting
FRLC Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT
Present: Tom, Bohdan, Melanie, Ed, Brian
Check In & Prayer All checked in. One member celebrated a 16th anniversary of sobriety, another attended the laymen’s retreat and brought a sponsee to it. Tom opened in prayer.
Minutes from May Meeting Approved
Treasurer’s report: He will get the account details out by the end of the day today. He brought Ed’s compensation up to date, no other expenses. A small contribution came in. Following the meeting he sent the following report through end of August. Current balance in wells Fargo checking: $2536.17.
Coordinator’s report: He has some checks to forward to the treasurer. Came back from sabbatical to two weddings and a funeral. He wants to get an email blast out soon. He and his associate are continuing to experiment with the recovery meeting Monday. They went on retreat to brainstorm the development of the lay fellowship. They are hoping to get it going in the next year. They have some start up funding and are meeting tomorrow for an update.
The Board Chair was contacted by two people over the summer while the Coordinator was gone, one was a member updating contact information, one wanted to join but did not respond to follow up emails
Old Business:
Strategies for updating our database: Some addresses are correct for the church but the pastor has moved. Do we want to pay someone to do it? Since there was no response to that question, it was decided to try assigning board members a section and using denominational websites and phone calls to update the information. The Chair will divide up the list and email a section to each board member to make connection or get an accurate email address.
New Business:
Newsletter: Bohdan will write something to go out on our efforts to update the contact information. Since there were several recent anniversary celebrations it was suggested that might be worth including. Tom will celebrate forty years in the spring. He offered to write about how recovery has changed over the last thirty nine years. A suggested deadline was early next week. Another idea was since we are working on updating contact information we could include a self addressed stamped envelope for people to return with their current information. It was moved, seconded and passed to do so.
Thursday meeting report. Participation was a bit lower over the summer but very meaningful to those on the call.
Website: Everyone is encouraged to look at it and review it for the next meeting. The chair also reminded us of the FRLC FaceBook page. It is a closed group. There was a recent post asking for advice. Board members are encouraged to look for it and respond.
Next meeting: October 5, 2016 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm
May Board meeting
FRLC Board Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, May 17, 2016
2:00 pm MDT/3 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/4:00 pm EDT
Present: Ed, Bohdan, Melanie
Check In & Prayer Bohdan led us in prayer.
Minutes from April Meeting Approved
Treasurer’s report Tabled.
Coordinator’s report: He’s had the standard communications. We haven’t done an e-news or newsletter recently and contributions are dropping off. It would be helpful to do one but he leaves on sabbatical tomorrow. They hired a man to develop a website for lay group, which they are now calling Conscious Contact. The weekly meeting has had a strong beginning, with eight regular participants. It has been a mix of recovery, spirituality, and Christian dialogue. The drum circle, which is relatively brief (20 minutes maximum) is catching people’s imagination. He is feeling good that it will continue in his absence. Half the people who are attending are in recovery and half are people looking for spirituality. As a result they are reconsidering the amount of recovery language in their readings. Some introduce themselves “My name is _____ and I just want to be here.” They purchased a domain name for the website: consciouscontact.support. It is not online yet. They are thinking carefully about the language to use so it is on hold until Ed gets back.
The Thursday meetings are going well.
Old Business: none
New Business:
Denver Retreat Report: Three people attended although eight or nine expressed interested and were unable to come. The motel was on the lower end of the quality scale though convenient and affordable. We omitted the business meeting as we were all present or former board members. Appreciation was expressed for the discussion starters. We worked our way through most of the steps and attended one local meeting. The meeting space at St. Peters Lutheran Church was very helpful. Participants agreed that the strategy of meeting someplace warm in the winter is a good formula for planning future retreat.
Strategies for updating our database: It was suggested that we could work on it while Ed is gone, especially if there is no newsletter or e-blast going out. There was a discussion of how the mailing service and post office update addresses but when members list their church address those corrections don’t help. The coordinator sent the database to the board president and secretary. Both the ELCA and LCMS websites have a “find a person” capacity. It was suggested that we call the listed phone number and look the members up on the website if they are no longer at that church. Personal calls are meaningful although it can be frustrating when people don’t call back. One time when we tried this we had a “spiel” that we were all to use on the calls.
There are 217 people listed as being in recovery on the database. We tried having board members do this a few years ago and most didn’t make their assigned calls. We could ask. Ed suggested considering paying one of us to do this. We decided to try this summer and if it doesn’t work regroup. Bohdan will send an email asking other board members if they’d be willing to do this. They can always say no.
Plans for while Coordinator is gone: The board chair agreed to be the phone and email contact person while the coordinator is gone. The secretary will change the contact information on the website to him. Much of what he receives is written correspondence and checks. His colleague will review them and forward checks to the treasurer and the rest to the chair. The coordinator’s “out of the office” email response will include the correct contact information while he is gone. The coordinator will return August 21.
Board meetings over the summer: We decided to skip June since we are so late this month. Our next meeting will be on the first Wednesday in July.
Next meeting: July 6, 2016 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm
Revised Retreat Plans
As we were unable to meet the minimum number of participants to meet the retreat center’s requirements we have cancelled our plans to meet at Highlands Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center. Instead, we are staying at a motel in Denver and meeting at a nearby church on the same dates, April 25-28. We plan to discuss the 12 steps and attend a local meeting. There is still time to join the group: contact Bohdan at pastorvadis@sbcglobal.net or Melanie at mmartindent@yahoo.com.
