May Meeting Minutes

May Meeting Minutes
Date: 5/8/10
Time: 1p
Location: Pedroza’s House
Coordinated by: Pedrozas

Attendees: Ken and Veola Burchett, Jack and Taffy Hale, Allison Mueller, Crystal Painter, Frank and JoAnna Pedroza

Unit Meeting Notes (Crystal Painter)

- Please pray for Chris and Martha Castillo as they are having some personal struggles right now

- Phoenix Community: They are doing great. Their Bishop is requiring 9 months of marriage prep and Engaged Encounter is one of only 2 or 3 options. They are doing so well that they are giving 10% back to the National Expansion Fund.

- Phoenix and Gallup and doing a “Sweep” Workshopping Weekend in June or July to get some new couples ready to present. If there are any experienced couples that are interested in helping workshop, please let us know as soon as possible.

- Phoenix is looking for a junior couple for the 8/7 weekend, please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested and available.

- Workshopping: Just a reminder that if you are making any (significant) changes to any of your talks, they need to be workshopped. This could be just over the phone or via email, but another set of eyes needs to look at it to be sure the elements of the outline are still included.

- Outline Revision Update: Unfortunately, but probably as expected, it is looking like it will be 2-3 years before the new talks are rolled out. If we have any couples interested in writing talks we should start the process and not wait for the new talks. Additionally, any junior couple thinking about writing their senior talks shouldn’t wait either. Based on information that has been passed down, the new talks will not require us to rewrite from scratch, so the time taken to write the talks now will not be wasted. The ORC is looking for a Junior Couple to join their team. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested. The ORC is also working on updating the National Handbook.

- The next unit meeting is tentatively scheduled for 8/27 in Albuquerque. Pedrozas will most likely not be able to attend since they will have a new baby. If anyone else is interested in representing our community at the meeting, please let us know.

- Next Unit Report is due June 25th for 2nd quarter. Pedrozas will inquire about report due dates for the rest of the year as well as if there is a standard format for the finance portion of the report.

- Wakefields from Phoenix have been chosen as new Unit Finance Couple and will serve a 2 year term. They are replacing the Pinons.

- National Convention: We are estimating total costs to be approx $1000 per couple and Ken thinks is it possible for the community to cover $700 per couple. The Convention will be held in Seattle the weekend of 10/1/10. Please let us know if there is any possibility that you will attend so that we can estimate the financial impact.

- There is a possibility that we will no longer be using Central Supply (at least for the notebooks). Some of the communities in our District have found a way to print notebooks like we used to use for a reasonable price. Pedrozas to follow up to see if it may work for us financially.

- National is still asking for a Bishop’s letter from every community. There is confusion as to what this is for. Pedrozas will follow up.

- Albuquerque needs a Junior Couple for their 11/20-11/21 weekend. Please let us know if you are interested.

- Ideas…

o To illustrate “A Wedding is a Day, A Marriage is a Lifetime”, ask couples to list the things they have done to get ready for their wedding and how much time they have spent on each task. Write these down on a white board. Then ask them the same question about planning for their life/marriage. We thought it sounded like a good exercise and could be done Friday evening or Saturday morning at the discretion of the presenting teams.

o Priests: thank you letters, thank you dinners, include Deacons and Nuns, updated brochure from Phoenix, send EE Christmas cards to priests.

o Include other groups like the Carmelites to pray for couples on weekends.

o Use map of weekends going on around the world in your Visions Talk. Frank has a link on our website.

o Phoenix is using paypal/credit cards for online registration and it seems to be working well. Is this something that we want to do? There are concerns regarding the ability of the couples to dispute charges.

o Google Voice – Frank to check into setting this up to consolidate phone numbers to avoid old LC’s getting phone calls, etc.

- Presenting Teams calling couples prior to the weekend: Painters and Burchetts did this prior to the April weekend and indicated that this went well. It was a way to introduce themselves to the couples and make them more comfortable and answer any questions that they may have. We would like to continue this process for every weekend.

- Is everyone ok with using La Quinta? If we are interested in checking out any other facilities, now is the time to do it before we start choosing dates for next year. This should be a community responsibility to investigate alternatives otherwise.

- Retreat Center: Still planning to do September and November weekends at the Episcopal Retreat Center. Ken has looked at the numbers and our break even point at the retreat center, assuming a 2 day weekend, is 6 couples. We are still clarifying some details with the center but plan to sign the contract and put down a deposit by June 1st.

- September Meeting: We are trying to plan our September meeting as a recruitment meeting/reunion. Mueller’s have volunteered to coordinate this meeting but since this is likely to be a more involved event, any help will be appreciated.


As always, please let us know if you have any questions/thoughts/ideas/suggestions.