Members Present: Jim Searls, Ryan Russell, Laura Witkowski, Curtis Brown, Sam Rodriguez, Paul White, Bishop Trimble, Lonnie Chaffin, Cindy Gregorson, Alex Plum, Chris Winkler, Gail Burgess, Nitza Dovenspike, Beata Ferris
Regrets: Tyler Sit; Matt Sipe; Young-Men Park; Dominic Media; Gifty Smith
Members Absent: Brad Bartelmay; Allison Curtis; Kristen Krogman; John Lawson; Lisa Nowling.
Chairman Ryan Russell called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m. and invited everyone to introduce themselves. Bishop Trimble led us in prayer.
Grant Applications for 2022: A budget of $20,000 had been submitted for the NCJ Youth 2023 Mission Journey. The plan would be to pay the cost of the event for each participant with individuals paying the expense of getting to the event. After some discussion, Gail Burgess moved that we approve the proposal for the 2023 Mission Journey, with $10,000 to be paid in 2022 and a commitment to pay the remaining $10,000 in 2023. Sam Rodriguez seconded the motion and it carried, 13/0. A Job Description for the Team Leader will go out soon.
Progress Reports: Grace Pictures has used its funds for 2021. Midwest Mission Distribution Center and UMVIM had not spent all their funds from this year due to COVID restrictions. NACOS has been meeting virtually and billing directly with receipts. We will hold funding for 2022 the first amount has been fully spent. (This is NOT a punishment.) A motion to allow Midwest Student Movement Planning Team to keep the unspent remainder of their $10,000 grant as seed money for the next event was made by Cindy Gregorson and seconded by Nitze Dovenspike. Motion carried, 13/0.
Jurisdictional Budget: Lonnie Chaffin presented a proposed budget for the remainder of the quadrennium. Apportionments would remain the same; most conferences have been paying 100%. We need to allocate for three conferences, the virtual conference this year, the 2022 conference in Fort Wayne and the next conference in the Dakotas. We also will pay additional funds toward the General Conference in Minnesota whenever that happens. Lonnie suggested that we can reduce the amount for grants to make up some of that difference. Bishop Trimble moved that we adopt the budget as presented and Chris Winkler seconded. Motion carried, 13/0
Jurisdictional Conference – November 10-11, 2021
The conference will be a full day on the 10th and a half day on the 11th. During Wednesday there will be presentations and small group conversations on Anti-Racism, The Future of Episcopacy and the Future of the UMC. The goal is the creation of a covenant Statement from the Jurisdiction. A writing team, made up of a representative from each conference, will work on this together.
A survey is being sent out to all delegates to help inform the discussion when they meet. They will be asked to list five top priorities and five accomplishments they hope to see. From this, 15-20 priorities and achievements which are listed will be identified, then participants will rank the top five. The writing team would then write this up for Thursday morning discussion.
Eight to ten people will be assigned to each group; this includes delegates and alternates. There will be 20-24 groups and the hope is to have them as diverse as possible with representation from most conferences kin each group. The discussion on racism will be led by someone outside of the group; someone within the group will lead the other discussions. Once they have been selected they will need some training.
Paul has already received 180 registrations; the maximum participating would be 234. Registrations close October 31. Small groups will be finalized on November 1. Only active Bishops, the studio team and Paul will be “live”; other speakers will be taped. Some taped speeches may be available prior to the session.
Delegation heads will meet with Ryan next week to select the six folks who will be on the writing team. They need to be seated delegates, not alternates.
Nitza, Lonnie, Jim, Ryan and Curtis will be on the team to process data from the survey. It needs to be in by November 8.
We will need flexibility AND the Holy Spirit for this session to meet its goal. Jim will send a press release to Conference Communicators asking for everyone to pause for prayer at 11:10 (the first day of the session, 11/10)between now and the meeting. Nitza will prepare a prayer for everyone to use.
Ryan closed this meeting with prayer.
Gail Burgess, Secretary
