Tag Archives: recovery

September 2018 FRLC Board Minutes

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Seven members were present. Check-in and opening prayer were held.

 Minutes: The minutes from July and August were received.

 

Treasurer’s Report: We had the ordinary expenses and income. The current balance is $235.83, which is less than the $300 monthly stipend. There are a number of changes happening.  The account at Wells Fargo has been closed and the funds moved to the Star Credit Union. Brian would like to transition out of his role as treasurer. He has served in that capacity for ten years. He is willing to remain on the board. He is willing to be flexible so there can be a smooth transition. Bohdan expressed appreciation for his service and the board expressed thanks for his faithful work, including writing the annual appeal letters. The Board needs to discuss maintaining our general account and ways to manage it. There has been discussion of taking an offering for the FRLC general fund at the closing of the Conference. Brian will participate in the FRLC Annual Meeting in person or by phone. The meeting is scheduled for 1:00 pm Sunday, September 30, following the Conference. There will be opportunity to elect new treasurer at that point and have a smooth handoff.

 

Coordinator’s Report: The FRLC is doing what it normally does. We have more members attending the conference than we’ve had at a retreat in a long time. About twenty FRLC members are registered. Ed noted that we have been low on funds before and that people have responded when we share the need. We haven’t asked for funds for the Fellowship in a while as the focus has been on undergirding the Conference. The Conference is raising our profile in the church relative to where we’ve been before.

 

The Conference is snow-balling. It’s a lot of work and we have a lot of great people stepping up to it. Others are taking care of the details Ed would never have thought of. God is watching over us! Our registrations are nearly full–we have capacity for 200. There are only 5 or 6 spots left. The rooms reserved for the Conference are all taken. We have over 135 room nights booked and have more than fulfilled our hotel contract, which obligated us to pay for unsold rooms if we did not meet the minimum. The speakers have all been contacted and are all confirmed. It looks like we will break even and maybe even come out a little bit ahead financially. The FRLC retreat will begin Thursday, tentative plans for dinner at 5:30 pm. Roger and Melanie have developed a draft schedule for the retreat which will be sent out be email once it is finalized. They had some questions, which Ed will respond to soon.

 

There will be a work party at Transfiguration all day Thursday before the Conference preparing materials for the participants.  All are welcome—Ed offered to provide rides (or arrange for them) from the airport as needed. There is an online app called “Sched” for conference information, which can be downloaded now. An email went out to people who are registered for the Conference but it is easy to miss in the inbox. Ed is still working on it and will send it out a few more times before the Conference. It would be helpful for us to try it out and give Ed feedback.

 

He is developing a list of people who will be there to volunteer at the Conference. He will assign tasks to people who are attending, and then answer questions when we arrive. People can trade tasks at that time if necessary.

 

Prayers are requested for Ed in these final weeks of preparing for the Conference.

 

If anyone wants to go off the board, it would be helpful to know between now and the Conference so we could be prepared for elections at the Annual Meeting.

 

Tom closed the meeting with prayer.

 

We will discuss our next meeting date at the Annual Meeting. It will likely be in November.

 

 

FRLC Board Meeting Thursday, December 7, 2016

            Check In & Prayer: Seven board members were present. We shared, celebrated and prayed.

Minutes from the November Meeting: approved as written.

 

Treasurer’s report: We had a good response to the appeal. Donations of $1499.11 came in, giving us a balance of $2012.29. $500 of that is for the Conference. The treasurer will break out the Conference funding in his report in the future. The coordinator has another $700 in donations to the Fellowship to forward to the treasurer.

Paypal button: The information needed to open the account was sent to our original webmaster, but last month we decided to forward the information to the person we are working with on the Conference website. The coordinator and original webmaster both got locked out of the FRLC website. They suspect the website got moved somehow although that is not supposed to be possible. The coordinator entered the site and updated a few things using the secretary’s username and password. He has a list of things to work on with the Conference website developer and will follow up on the PayPal button with her.

 

            Coordinator’s report: He receives the donations and forwards them to the treasurer, who deposits and records the gifts and sends out the thank you notes. We had a good turnout at the recovery meeting today. Everyone was asked to preview the Conference website: www.addictionandfaithconference.com/ There are still a couple typos to fix before it “goes live”, but the consensus is that it looks good. We have not confirmed Lori Swanson at this time, so she may not be on the program. He is waiting for that to be sorted out before going forward with the website. Neither synodical bishops will be able to attend as our conference conflicts with the Conference of Bishops meeting. They have offered to send staff to bring greetings, but the coordinator wondered about having interfaith greetings instead. Transfiguration Lutheran Church has a couple thousand dollars in their budget to support recovery ministries which will be designated to the Conference this year. A board member did a funeral for an overdose victim and the family designated the memorial gifts of $3600 to go to it also. We need a major sponsor of about $10,000 to help promote the event and allow us to conclude without major debt. We could use help from any board member who would like to work on obtaining sponsors. We are still talking with Hazelden; Fairview said they’d help some, Bishop Lull said she will approach some potential donors, and the secretary is writing a proposal for funding from the ELCA Deaconesses. The coordinator has a description of the Conference with a list of items a donor could sponsor which he will send to anyone who would like to help. They could also sponsor a vendor table. Another board member will contact a few people and find out where they get their funding and see if there are any avenues there we could pursue.

                       

Old Business: Covered in reports.

 

New Business:

It was moved, seconded and passed to move the board meeting to after the recovery meeting on the first Thursday of the month. It was more convenient for most people and we had a better attendance at both the recovery meeting and the board meeting. The motion passed.

We closed the meeting in prayer.

 

Next meeting: Thursday January 4, 2018 following the recovery meeting 11:00 am PDT/12:00 pm MDT/1 pm CDT/2:00 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

September Board Minutes

FRLC Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

 

            Check In & Prayer Bohdan, Brian, Gary, Mary, Ed & Melanie were present. All checked in. Tom led us in prayer.

 

Minutes from July Meeting were approved.

 

Treasurer’s report The current balance is $1175.65. The full report will be emailed to Board members following the meeting. The Schwan’s campaign brought in about $32. While the major part of the campaign is over, smaller amounts will continue to come in. There was a question about Amazon Smile. We received a small amount: most recently $13. $5 was received earlier.

 

            Coordinator’s report: The last lecture of the recovery series at Transfiguration is happening this month. The one break out session that was consistently attended was the Conscious Contact meeting with drumming. They are thinking of continuing it on a weekly basis.

He is waiting to resolve the staffing situation at TLC. It looks like they might be able to call their former intern to develop the lay fellowship.

He is working on a grant from the Synodical funds returned from the Portico Health Initiative. The funds are designated for Health and Wellness grants, so Ed is applying for $5000 for FRLC to be used for initial retreat for the lay fellowship.

Contributions have been coming in as a response to the newsletter.

He was contacted by the Michigan Synod regarding resources for a pastor who relapsed. Ed sent them a copy of the Impaired Professionals Policy. They found it helpful and have indicated they will be in touch for further assistance.

He received a report from mailing service after sending the newsletter. There are 25 people who have moved and have new addresses. He updated the database accordingly.

He met with the Synod Deployed Evangelism and Mission staff person (DEM) and pitched idea of the new Fellowship. She responded positively and was just heading to a meeting with other DEMS and Reuben Duran from ELCA Churchwide. She said she would share the idea at the meeting and explore funding ideas.

                       

Old Business:

-2016 FRLC retreat ideas – (Bohdan and Melanie) Melanie reviewed the information she emailed to the Board. Discussion included a suggestion to ask participants to chip in and make up the difference if we fall short of the minimum ten participants, weather in Colorado and how rugged the facility is. Bohdan was thanked for his offer to assist with the financing of the event given the state of the treasury. The Board agreed the last week of April would be the preferred date. It was moved, seconded and passed to enter into a contract with Highlands Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center in Allenspark, Colorado for the last week of April, Monday-Thursday and to proceed with developing publicity, offering various options for privacy and cost. It would be helpful to have good attendance by the Board and to have the Board encourage others to attend. Please let Bohdan or Melanie know if you will be coming.

 

New Business: Please let Bohdan know if you have items for the agenda in the future.

 

Mary closed us with the Lord’s Prayer.

 

Next meeting: October 7, 2015 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm

June Board meeting minutes

FRLC Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

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

 

            Present: Bohdan, Melanie, Ed, Tom

 

Check In & Prayer

 

The Minutes from the May meeting were approved.

 

Treasurer’s report: The checking account balance is $ 1355.51 and there were no out of the ordinary expenses. Thank you to Brian for writing our new 7th tradition announcement. It has been posted on the website and incorporated into the meeting format and is being read at our Thursday recovery meetings.

 

            Coordinator’s report He sent out emails with an article and information about the Schwans’ campaign, then found the phone number listed on the email was incorrect. He sent out a corrected version after learning that. He has the material for the next newsletter ready to go.

There has not  been a lot of response to the Schwan’s campaign so far.  He continues to receive phone and email inquiries regarding the FRLC.  The Thursday phone meeting is going well. We received a check from our book publisher for 86 cents!  We have also received about $500 more in donations, which have been forwarded to the treasurer but do not appear on this month’s report.

Lay fellowship: our coordinator has a lot of passion for this project. He plans to develop a business plan and seek funding to support his giving the necessary time to develop it. He has spoken with a pastor who started a recovery ministry in Minneapolis area, although he is not in recovery himself. It was probably the most successful Lutheran recovery ministry in the area; however, the pastor has moved on to another call. Ed and his intern attended this gathering recently. Ed had an opportunity to discuss this project with the Wheatridge representative at a conference for pastors of large churches. Ed pitched the new Fellowship, and initially got the same response as in the grant rejection letter. Ed challenged him and explained it more fully, and felt like they may be more open to considering a new request. He has had conversations with two pastors at “leading” churches in the Minneapolis area who he would like to invite to be on the board for the new group. This could be helpful for grant applications.

Ed’s congregation has begun the call process with his intern. He has also begun the process to bring on another pastor half time, allowing him to cut back to half time also in order to develop the lay fellowship. He shared experiences with the recovery series and Conscious Contact meeting at his church. This summer they may try a drive in movie night showing a recovery movie with Conscious Contact meeting beforehand. They are trying to find ways to keep participants connected with the group and the church.

The board discussed possible nationally known speakers for an initial retreat who would draw people to the event. Suggestions include  Anne Lamott, Nadia Bolz-Weber and Melanie Beatty. John MacDougall was mentioned along with the concern that he might not be a draw to the people who have attended the series at their church. Melanie reported on her conversation with Nadia at a recent event. Her schedule is booked until 2016, although she sometimes does pro-bono events for recover. Melanie will complete the webform to explore whether Nadia would be available at a 2016 date. Ed would appreciate suggestions of anyone who would be a draw for you.

                       

Old Business:

Melanie received a response from Cheryl P. to an inquiry about her progress in disseminating copies of our books to the Lutheran seminaries. She has been taking the time to identify individuals at each seminary to give the books to who will actually get them placed in the library. Her email was forwarded to Board members. Melanie thanked her for her efforts.

 

 

Next meeting: July 8, 2015 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm

May Board minutes

FRLC Board Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

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

 

            Present: Bohdan, Ed, Brian, Mary, Melanie

 

Check In & Prayer Mary led us in prayer.

 

Approval of Minutes from April Meeting The minutes were received with note of a spelling correction.

 

Treasurer’s report received. The current balance is $  1677.51. Brian was initially unsuccessful in contacting Schwans about the fundraising program. Mary gave him the correct website. He will pursue it.

Brian read the third draft of 7th tradition reading for Thursday meetings and the website. Ed suggested he add a statement about our tax-exempt status, rework the Thrivent Choice item and add a sentence about sustaining gifts. He will make these changes tonight and send them out for approval. We will begin using it when the new schedule for chairpersons goes out if the board concurs.

 

            Coordinator’s report Ed has been able to continue this work as he recovers from surgery. The number of phone calls and emails remained steady. There is increasing interest in recovery ministries and building energy for development of the lay fellowship. He was able to speak with ELCA church-wide bishop Elizabeth Eaton, who responded positively to his sharing about the FRLC and the proposed lay fellowship. It may be possible to staff this fellowship through realignment of pastoral calls at the congregation he serves. He anticipates developing a business plan and garnering support from organizations such as Thrivent and Portico to undergird this ministry. His ideas include development of a dynamic, professional website which could include content such as daily or weekly devotionals written by members, blogs on theology and 12 step faith, birthday celebrations, resources such links to recovery ministries, recovery-friendly churches, pastors willing to hear 5th steps and possibly people who are willing to serve as sponsors. He anticipates development of a database, e-newsletters, literature, and decisions about whether or not to have a mailed newsletter, a hotline or an online meeting. He is thinking the first gathering might work best at a hotel near the airport with a well-known speaker such as Nadia Bolz-Weber to draw participants.

                       

Old Business:

–Web page (not discussed at the meeting but reported to the board via email: the links to the LRN material, preamble and Thursday phone meeting material are now functional)

 

New Business:

-PayPal button for Website: The WordPress free website will not accept the code for a PayPal button. We would have to switch hosts if we want to have a button on our webpage. Ed suggested we hold off on this until the development of the new website and integrate the two sites, including this feature. We can remove the phrase about donating through PayPal until that is available.

 

Next meeting: June 3, 2015 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm

 

April 2015 Board Minutes

FRLC Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

2:00 pm MST

 

Present: Brian, Gary, Melanie, Mary, Ed, Bohdan

 

Check In & Prayer Ed is scheduled for surgery tomorrow-please keep him in prayer. Also his wife as she awaits her first call.

 

Approval of Minutes: received.

 

Treasurer’s report: No out of the ordinary income or expenses. Closing balance $1612.51 Continued need to get the message out about our need for donations. Thrivent Choice is helpful: $395 new dollars came in overnight. Every dollar helps! Mary mentioned the possibility of a fundraising campaign through Schwan’s. For the first 45 days, Schwans donates 20% of any order through the program. Brian will look into it before the next meeting. A question was asked about financial response to the last newsletter. There was a recent deposit was $175, some of which may have been in response to the newsletter. Ed has additional money to send to Brian.

 

            Coordinator’s report (Ed): The monthly lecture series continues at Transfiguration as a part of the development of the Lutheran Recovery Network. They are getting about 100 people in attendance. The name of the group is not finalized.

Three people who found us on the website and contacted Ed, and there have been several phone calls recently. A pastor from Arizona is interested in developing a recovery ministry. Another was referred by the Synod office.  A LCMS pastor called who been in the FRLC 11 years. He thanked us for our ministry and wants to get more involved in the Fellowship. Two new members joined. Ed connected an inquirer to a member with sexual addiction.

There are typically 4-5 people per week at noon phone meeting. The last newsletter had 31 copies returned for an invalid address. Ed will work on updating the database while recovering from surgery. He also filed the IRS report for the year.

 

Old Business:

           

Next year’s retreat: Last month we discussed doing the next retreat in conjunction with lay fellowship in the Minneapolis area. Ed will explore some options and will bring them to the next meeting.  We discussed the timing of the retreat—not winter; maybe in spring after Easter. Easter is early next year. A concern was expressed about tying the lay fellowship too much to one congregation. The intention is not to affiliate the organization with the congregation. The lecture series was a cluster event and the retreat will have invitations go out nationally. They are trying to find a big name speaker who will attract people.  FRLC members would lead workshops. Members of the lay fellowship and the FRLC will share the leadership of the retreat. Several questions were asked, including “Are the folks in this group going to be willing and open to having recovering Lutheran clergy there?”, and “How many lay people might be involved?” Since the group is Lutheran, we anticipate no issues with Lutheran clergy being present.  We have no idea what the attendance will be–perhaps a hundred. There will be some joint meetings and separate meetings for clergy. We would hold the FRLC annual meeting there, and other sessions for whatever we choose to do together. Lay and clergy groups would be together for a banquet with the speaker and some of the breakout workshops. Ed will bring more ideas to our next meeting. A suggestion was made to consider Dr. John MacDougall, former Director of Spiritual Guidance at the Hazelden Foundation—he’s a pastor, he’s well known although not Lutheran and is from Minnesota. It was suggested that FRLC members invite recovering people from the churches we serve or have served. A board member asked “how many are on our mailing list?” There are 580 newsletters mailed out. 225 of those are pastors in recovery.

 

 

Web page: Melanie has posted the materials Ed prepared for LRN and Conscious Contact but the links aren’t working yet. They will be fixed soon. A suggested was made that we post the preamble for the Thursday meeting to the website.

Melanie suggested we add a 7th tradition statement for the Thursday meeting. We will ask Brian to craft the words. Melanie will send email to him with some ideas. She also suggested adding a PayPal button to the website. It was moved, seconded and passed to take the above actions.

 

            Newsletter & E-newsletter: Bodahn sent material to Ed for the next issue.

 

New Business:

            Other denominations: Melanie searched websites from other denominations and found a couple of good ideas. There is an Episcopal site that has a calendar of recovery events across the country. We could consider doing this through LRN when it is more developed. Another group had an item asking their members to make gifts to their organization through their wills.  Melanie will mention this idea in her in email to Brian. The idea of networking with these groups was raised at the retreat. Does anyone want to pursue contacting them?

Anything else? There was a “newcomer” to sobriety at last Thursday’s phone meeting.

 

Gary closed the meeting in prayer.

March 2015 Board minutes

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

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

Present: Gary, Tom, Melanie, Bohdan, Ed

Check In & Prayer  All who were on the call checked in and Melanie opened with a prayer.

 Approval of Minutes from Annual Meeting and the January meeting were received.

Treasurer’s report was received. Ed just sent Brian $800 from the December appeal. At the current rate, we will exhaust our funds before the end of the year.

Coordinator’s report Ed sent an e-news and newsletter with a tear off donation form at the bottom last week. We usually receive some donations when we sent one out. Bohdan will combine an article he has written with one Marda wrote about the retreat and send it to Ed for the next issue. We have two new members. Thursday meetings are going well. The schedule for the chairpersons and reminders which Melanie sends out have made a difference.

The new Lutherans Alive Again/Lutheran Recovery Network is going well. Ed met with his mentor/benefactor a week ago. This man brought the associate pastor from his church who is also a pastor in recovery. He is also excited and interested in this ministry. Ed’s frustration is that he is not able to give as much time to it as he’d like. He is grateful for his intern, who has been working on the speaker series though Ed’s church. There were a hundred people at their last event. The next one is scheduled for next week. People have been positive about the 11th step worship/meeting, but it needs to become weekly to really get established.

Ed touched on his concern about the finances again. He requests all of the board members to set up automatic monthly gifts to the Fellowship, using resources like Simply Giving or through your bank.  Ed and Melanie do this. Even a small amount makes a difference.

Ed filed the 2014 taxes. There was a discussion of Gary’s role with the state of Illinois regarding non-profit paperwork. The state will send him the paperwork when it is needed.

Gary shared an email which he received from a LCMS lay woman in recovery who found our website. She was excited about what she saw and wants information about the Fellowship for Lutheran Laity in recovery. Gary will forward the email to Ed.

                       

Old Business:

Ideas for web page: Melanie brought up the idea of making our site more dynamic and interesting so that people would have reasons to return rather than just looking at it once. She thought about linking to a daily recovery devotional, but has not been able to implement that. Another idea was to post a video with some of the material from the preamble to our recovery meetings. Our web developer agreed to work on it but hasn’t gotten to it yet. She and her husband have been dealing with health issues recently.

One of Ed’s thoughts is to find money to put together a dynamic website for the new group with someone who can stay on top of it and keep it up to date. Our site is static and is updated when we get around to it. Melanie will add a new page with material that Ed sent about the 11Th step meeting he has started. She was waiting for him to have experience with the group and format, and since it is going well she will do it sometime soon.

 

New Business

 E-newsletter and quarterly newsletter article from the cruise were discussed above.

Independent Lutheran Organization: Melanie sent an email to Ed and Bohdan with an article from her Synod’s newsletter. This article from the newly renamed Lutheran Association of Christian Educators explained who they are, who they serve, thanked the Synod for a small donation to their organization and asked readers to consider donating to them also. Perhaps we could send such a letter describing the FRLC to the Synods also. If each of the 65 Synods donated $100 it would be significant. Board members thought this was a good idea.  Melanie will think about it and write a draft letter for the board when she is able to do so, which may not be by the next board meeting.

Following up on a comment at the Annual Meeting, Melanie attempted to look up websites for organizations for clergy in recovery from other denominations. It has been a long time since we have been in touch with them. A Presbyterian clergy group came up on Google but the link didn’t work. The Episcopal clergy fellowship, the  Recovered Alcoholic Clergy Association (RACA) also had a non-working link. She did discover an Episcopal Recovery Ministry site for laity, which she sent to Ed and Bohdan as an idea to work for with our lay fellowship. You may view that website at: http://www.episcopalrecovery.org/

Next retreat: it has been proposed that we hold it in conjunction with the new lay fellowship, possibly in Minnesota. Please think about it. We will discuss it next month.

 

Next meeting: April 8, 2015 2:00 pm MDT/2 pm CDT/1:00 pm PDT/3:00 pm EDT 12:00 pm