Christmas Party Minutes

Happy New Year to all of you, first of all!

Thanks so much for all you have done for EE in 2006, we really appreciate it more than you can know. It has been a tough year for all of us.

Now for the minutes:

Veola checked various hotels and came to the conclusion that LaQuinta was the best value and the nicest place to use for our retreats in 2007. Our Lady of the Mountains Retreat House is closed for now. The Penns liked the atmosphere there as well. We voted to hold all our 2007 retreats at LaQuinta by the airport.

We also voted to have Crystal check on caterers and recommend the ones we should use and to let Dennis know and he will schedule them for each retreat.

The supplies, which are now at the Smith's home, will be transferred to the Bells. They will keep them at their house and deliver them to the retreat on Friday night and also host and give the intro for this weekend. We decided that the Sprite never gets opened so we are discontinuing it when the bottles we have are gone. I believe we have 1-2 bottles. We are also discontinuing the popcorn so it is important that the couples bring their snacks!

To keep everyone on the same schedule as much as possible, we will use Our Lady of Guadalupe Church for Mass. It is on 400 South and approximately 700 West and access via I-80 eastbound to the 400 South exit westbound is quite quick and eliminates a lot of travel time.

The priest issue continues. If we don't have a priest scheduled on the "Presenting Team Schedule" on our Web site, then use Guadalupe for Mass. If we do have a priest scheduled, and Frank take note of this, he will be listed on the schedule and it is the job of the presenting couples to call him a week or so before to be sure he is ready to do the retreat and say the Mass. Frank, it is important that the priest's phone number is on this page to make it easy for everyone. The Hales will contact Fr. McHugh and see what weekends he can say Mass for us. MaryAnne Smith will contact Fr. Peter Rogers, Fr. Daniel Rowland, Fr. Erik, Fr. Sam Dinsdale and Fr. Martin Diaz to see if they can do a partial weekend and/or say Mass for us also. Veola will follow up with Fr. Bonnell, who returned our card saying he could help us. When someone gets a priest they are to contact MaryAnne and she will make sure we have the phone number and what their commitment to the weekend is and then forward the information to Frank to enter on the Web site. We don't want conflicts and we want to be sure that priests get a call from the couples before the retreat to remind them.

The following is the schedule updates we need to add to the Web site:
January: Hale and Pedroza with Fr. McHugh, hosts: Bell
February: Cherry and Penn, hosts: Bell
March: Burchett and Pedroza, hosts: Mueller
April: Smith and Painter, hosts: Lazinski
May: Hale and Larkin, hosts: Mueller
June: Smith and Penn, hosts: Lazinski
CANCELLED JULY RETREAT
August: Hale and Larkin, hosts: Mueller
September: Cherry and Pedroza, hosts: Lazinski
Novermber: Burchett and Painter, hosts: Mueller

Thank you to the Allison and Jim Mueller and Amanda and Mike Lazinski for helping us out.

Dennis, Allison and Jim need an outline to begin writing their talks.

Frank, please add their information to our Community Web site and to our "local community" email.

Veola, Ken and I all agreed that Engaged Encounter should pay the $35 per couple to attend "How to be Married and Stay Engaged" at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Sandy. Please let Veola know you are coming and she will give the list to Ken to cut a check to Blessed Sacrament for all of us. It is February 3 from 1:00-5:00 pm. You can call Mari at 582-9375 to register or fill out an application at your church. When you register let them know that EE is paying for you... only if you call/email or otherwise contact Veola so she gets the count to give to Ken.

Our next meeting will be around the end of January, so that Dennis can get back and schedule it. At that time we will set the rest of the meetings for the year and report on our trip to Tucson to discern in the new Unit Coordinators, which, by the way you are all welcome to apply for by calling Taffy and Jack.

That is the end of minutes.

However, I was thinking that going out to dinner afterward would be nice if you want to do that as Dennis and I will be planning on it ourselves.

Respectfully submitted,
MaryAnne Smith