Ken gave the financial report and our funds are in good shape mainly because no one went to the national convention last summer. The retreats cost about $10 more per weekend, but for 2007 it will work financially. This will need to be revisited in the future before we set next year's prices. Food was also discussed and it was felt that we would have Crystal talk to the caterers as food was really tight on the last retreat. Perhaps it is better to order two extra meals or just order more of the salad and rolls. She will explore that with the caterers. Franciscos did the last retreat and she is looking at a new Catholic caterer called Whipples (?).
We discussed the need for couples to assist with the Unit Meeting which is in March and the Discernment in April. So as not to confuse you all, those dates have been switched and is as follows:
March 24, Saturday all day, is the Discernment Meeting
Location: Hales Home
Presiding: Gilbert and Nicole Pinon, our Unit Coordinators (Unit 1 of District 5)
April 20-22, Friday night thru Sunday morning, is the Unit 1 Meeting here in SLC
Location: MaryAnne will work on getting Newman Center or Cathedral
(update: Cathedral requires a staff member to be there; Newman requires a form to be filled out, which MaryAnne will do on Fri, Feb 16, then the council must approve it)
Our involvement is to provide, after some discussion on this:
Rooms for the couples to stay in: Hales (Pinons and El Paso), Smiths (Albuquerque), Burchetts (Tucson), possibly Cherrys (Gallup)?
Food in the form of a pot luck on Friday night at someone's home.
Transportation from the airport to the homes: Hales, Smiths and Muellers volunteered so far.
There are couples coming from El Paso, Tucson, Albuquerque, Gallup plus the Pinons.
MaryAnne asked everyone to think about leading the group as you cannot do this twice in a row. So someone else has to lead us on from here. However, you can do it more than once. Our goal/vision is to not have to do a second discernment because it is really expensive.
MaryAnne is making a book for the next Local Coordinators, a transition book. It was recommended at the last Unit Meeting in Tucson. MaryAnne also reported on that meeting.
We have one junior couple, the Muellers, starting to write and the Penns will be their guide (if Karen agrees) and the Painters and Pedrozas will back them up if that doesn't work out.
We still have two priests who have expressed an interest in helping us: Fr. Martin Diaz and Fr. Langes Silva. We are just waiting to hear back from them. Fr. Sam Dinsdale will be helping with the February retreat and there are 21 couples scheduled for it so far. It is now closed because we do not have any more rooms. Ken asked that we find out if the priests are staying overnight when we call them and if they are eating the meals. Ken and Veola are working on the rooms for us and Crystal Painter is the catering manager. So these people need to know this about a week before the retreat or sooner if you can. Lunch is at noon, dinner at 6:30 and are they staying the night, are the questions to ask.
MaryAnne gave the reports from the Unit Meeting in Tucson and since it took the better part of an hour, will not put it all down here. There has to be a perk for attendance!!! The main item is that we are going to have a link or phone number on our registration site for dates in other cities in our unit in case people are time sensitive. MaryAnne will furnish this information to Frank to put on our registration site. Tucson is going to Saturday/Sunday retreats for 2007 and will report to the Unit how it goes, so we will have some feedback if we decide to make that our option.
The Hales had a great visions talk with the Pedrozas on the last retreat and shared their ideas with us. The split the packet up and handed out the prayer cards and had the couples fill those out while in the room. Then they gave them the time and talent sheet to do the same. Then the envelope for the donation. The said not to give the couples an option out of it. Then let them go talk just about this for 10 minutes. Everyone donated something and their total was over $400 with 80 percent on credit card. Put the rest of the materials on the table during the retreat and they can pick up what they want, same with items in the plastic bins that you would like to put out. We all agreed that it sounded like a good idea and we should try it.
We talked about switching the August and July retreat so that we do July and skip August. (This was put into effect today). The District Convention is the first week of August in Ontario, California and the Hales and possibly others might want to go and it conflicted with the August weekend. For 2008 we will make an attempt to schedule our weekends in June and everyone is to bring in the dates that are a problem. Having the February retreat on President's Day weekend has doubled out numbers. Perhaps we should consider that couples will come if we plan for longer weekend dates? We are no longer bound by sister's retreat house schedule so we need to discuss this early and set dates early.
MaryAnne thanked everyone for coming to Dr. Healey's marriage enrichment talk the weekend before. Nearly every couple in our group was in attendance and it was well worth the time.
The meeting closed with a prayer for couples that the Unit Meeting gave to the Smiths.
Respectfully and Hopefully accurately submitted,
MaryAnne Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment