July Meeting Minutes

Date- July 11th, 2007
Local Coordinators- Painters
Location- Smith’s- Ice-Cream Sundae Social
Attendees- Painter, Smith, Burchett, Hale, Lazinski, Pedroza, Penn


1) Outline changes
a) Encounter w/Me
i) No more “masks”, instead use family origins/background/how we were raised, etc.

• AT YOUR DISCRETION

b) Forgiveness
i) Should we add “Please forgive us if we said anything to offend you, intentionally or unintentionally”?

• AT YOUR DISCRETION ALTHOUGH MAJORITY SAID NO

c) Combine Decisions/Marriage Morality or Decisions/Plan of Life?

• HOLD UNTIL AUGUST MEETING. PLEASE BRING YOUR APPLICABLE TALKS TO AUGUST MEETING TO DISCUSS & MAKE A DECISION AS A COMMUNITY.

e) Visions
i) Add more language regarding recruiting.
ii) Set a goal for the couples (i.e. the cost of a weekend.)
iii) Look at Visions donations of the past, what is working, what isn’t, ideas, suggestions, etc.

• IDEAS THAT WORK- DO VISIONS EARLIER ON SUNDAY (BEFORE NOON), HANDOUT DONATIONS SLIP SEPARATELY AND GIVE COUPLES 10 MINUTES. DON’T GIVE THE COUPLE’S AN OUT I.E. “IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO MAKE A DONATION”, “WHETHER YOU MAKE A DONATION OR NOT”, ETC. TREAT IT AS IF EVERYONE WILL BE MAKING A DONATION.

2) Two day weekend
a) Show proposed schedule
b) Is this something we want to do?

• NOT APPLICABLE TO US RIGHT NOW. CAN REVISIT IN 2009.

3) T-shirts
a) Sun City Embroidery in El Paso
i) Women’s & Men’s Polo M-XL- $17.95
ii) XXL-XXXL-$19.95/$20.95

• LET PAINTER’S KNOW IF YOU WANT A SHIRT(S)

4) Letter from International team
a) Singapore team needs a donation- send check to Doug & Page Nicholson (Int’l couple)

• COMMUNITY AGREED TO MAKE DONATION OF $100. KEN WILL SEND THEM A CHECK FROM OUR COMMUNITY.

5) Ideas
a) More personal sharing, less “preaching”
b) Meet w/priests about CEE to get more engaged couples on weekends.

• WILL REVISIT IN SEPT. TO DESIGN MEETING SCHEDULE FOR COUPLES TO VISIT PRIESTS/DEACONS RESPONSIBLE FOR MARRIAGE PREP. FOR THOSE THAT ARE NOT SENDING US COUPLES AND WILL IMPLEMENT IN OCT. AFTER CLERGY MEETING WITH BISHOP

c) Inventory equipment/supplies

• NOT NECESSARY FOR OUR COMMUNITY

d) Rootbeer float instead of wine on weekend. They discuss while we serve!
e) Observe each other’s talks on weekends or take turns presenting 1-2 talks at meetings (so juniors can see other juniors and seniors can see other seniors talks).

• PLEASE LET TEAM COUPLES KNOW IF YOU WILL BE SITTING IN ON ANY TALKS DURING A WEEKEND.

f) “Wean” new presenting couples in 1-2 talks at a time. Do Friday night only, then do Friday plus 1-2 talks on Saturday, etc. Split weekend with other couple(s).

• WE WILL USE THIS AS AN OPTION WHEN WE HAVE NEW COUPLES WHO NEED TO WRITE THEIR TALKS.

g) Make “responsibility” list for each support team for back up teams or to pass on one job to another person/couple.

• ALL SUPPORT TEAMS PLEASE WRITE UP A DESCRIPTION OF YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AND EMAIL TO PAINTERS AT LOCALCOORDINATORS@ENGAGEDENCOUNTERUTAH.ORG SO IF YOU BECOME ILL OR ARE OUT OF TOWN OR FOR ANY OTHER REASON SOMEBODY ELSE NEEDS TO HELP WITH YOUR SUPPORT FUNCTION(S).

h) Recruiting – See “Recruiting Ideas” document

• NOTHING NEW, HOWEVER WE DECIDED WE SHOULD SCHEDULE TWO RECRUITING “GET TOGETHERS”/”ACTIVITIES” A YEAR. FIRST ONE WILL BE IN OCTOBER, WE WILL SCHEDULE THE NEXT ONE AT THE AUGUST OR SEPTEMBER MEETING.

6) Plastic sign

• THERE IS A CLEAR PLASTIC SIGN WITH A DOUBLE SIDED PAPER, ONE SIDE FOR THE REGISTRATION TABLE, THE OTHER FOR THE FOOD TABLES.

7) “A Friday Prayer for CEE”- PAINTERS WILL EMAIL TO GROUP.

8) Food- Wriggle’s is only charging $20 per person/weekend. Suggestions have been made to add a salad w/dinner on Saturday night. Should we pay more for a salad?

• YES. PAINTERS WILL FIND OUT HOW MUCH MORE PER COUPLE FOR A SALAD AND ADD THAT TO THE MENU EFFECTIVE AUGUST. SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS.

9) Vendors- Caterers, hotel, etc. Please bring suggestions to community instead of directly to vendor. Explanation of costs, why vendors are willing to help us, etc.

• IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS, CONCERNS, SUGGESTIONS, ETC. REGARDING VENDORS, PLEASE ASK PAINTER’S TO ADD TO NEXT MEETING AGENDA TO BE DISCUSSED BY COMMUNITY. WHEN THE COMMUNITY DETERMINES AN ACTION, PAINTERS WILL TAKE THAT TO THE VENDORS. THIS WILL HELP MAINTAIN A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE VENDORS IF DEALING WITH ONLY ONE COUPLE, AND AVOIDS CONFUSION, FRUSTRATION, ETC. ON BEHALF OF THE VENDORS.

10) Weekend Fee- Should we raise it? Expenses are going up (hotel vs. retreat house, food, unit dues, etc.)

• YES. AFTER A LENGTHY DISCUSSION IT WAS DETERMINED THAT COSTS HAVE GONE UP OVERALL BY $38.40 PER COUPLE (FOOD & BOARD COST @ RETREAT HOUSE WAS $130/HOTEL&CATERING NOW-$162, RAISED UNIT DUES $2 PER COUPLE AT LAST MEETING, ADDED 20% FOR COST OF TEAM COUPLES ROOM & BOARD) NEW REGISTRATION FEE WILL BE $240.00 PER COUPLE EFFECTIVE JAN 1ST, 2008.

11) Weekend schedule- there is a standard CEE weekend schedule in the file box. If you make your own adjustments, feel free to keep it with your things and use it as long as it keeps with the goal of the weekend and keeps the timeslots allowed for presenting/writing/sharing. Feel free to share the schedule with other team couples, however it’s up to the team couples on the weekend to determine which schedule they would like to use since each weekend can differ (Priest on weekend vs. driving to mass, etc.). Please don’t fill filebox with other schedules as this causes confusion.

12) Registration confirmation letter- there has been concern that the registration confirmation letter needs to be updated. Lazinski’s agreed to write up new version and present to community at our next meeting. Concerns are that couples are arriving too early and aren’t having time to eat therefore we should put a clearer registration time and start time. Also need to clarify that there are no restaurants in hotel and where couples can find food nearby as well as make letter bulleted with important items, etc.

13) Penn’s asked if we could ask for two king rooms for the team couples when we firm up numbers with the hotel prior to the weekend. In the past we have asked at check-in for the free upgrade. Crystal will talk to Fassler’s to see if they feel comfortable with this or will check with the hotel herself.

14) Suggestion to avoid dietary restriction issues on the weekend, have Fassler’s put diet restriction on the weekend list next to the individuals/couples name so the team couples will know who has the food restriction and can ask to speak with the individual(s) vs. asking the whole group who has a diet restriction which tends to open up a can of worms.

15) Painter’s meeting with Bishop went very well. He was very supportive of our ministry. He promised to discuss CEE with clergy at their next meeting to help recruit Priests for weekends as well as to strongly suggest sending couples on weekends. He also said if it fits his schedule he will try to attend part of a weekend himself!!

16) Meetings- Email Painter’s for month to host for 2007. We need someone to host August to go over Decisions/Marriage Morality/Plan of Life talks. Pedroza’s have September (Date TBA) where we will discuss plan of action for meeting with Priests/Deacons about sending couples on weekends. Lazinski’s will host October (Date TBA) and will dedicate this to a recruiting activity. We also need someone to host November, December!!

• PLEASE EMAIL PAINTERS ASAP AND LET THEM KNOW IF YOU CAN HOST AUGUST, NOVEMBER AND/OR DECEMBER.

Also, when you host be sure to email the group with ALL pertinent info (i.e., Date, time, location, RSVP number, what to bring, how to reach you, what is involved- meeting, dinner, potluck, enrichment, etc. adult-only or bring your kids, and so on and so forth)