Present:        Willie Lucht               Craig Nordaker         David Mendyk

                        Scott Herring             Ron DeBord

 

Opening Prayer: Dave Mendyk- “I am” devotional

 

Old business:

            Previous meeting notes- approved as published

            Carry-over action items (see below)

 

New business:

            Treasurers Report:

o   Deferred this month

 

Roundtable comments:

§ It was mentioned that there is a United Methodist Men position open at the Jurisdiction (multi-state) level.

§ A new Nebraska Conference UMMen banner was displayed and will be used at the upcoming annual conference.

§ Cookies and candies have been requested for the UMMen display table at the annual conference. Ron volunteered to obtain and get them to the conference table.

§ Dave Mendyk shared that he has been researching the history of UMMen in Nebraska and hopes to complete most of it in time to display at annual conference.

§ Craig Nordaker and Scott Avery have volunteered to create a UMMen promotional DVD for mail out and use during

§ Craig Nordaker shared plans regarding transportation from the Omaha area to the Summer UMMen Rally at Camp Norwesca August 17-19, 2007. A 12-person Avis van has been rented that is estimated to cost about $52.00 per person with 10 riders/driver and $3.50/gal gasoline cost. Please contact Craig at 402-453-6666 as soon as you think you might want to ride in the van. We have 3 of the 12 seats filled at this moment.

§ Ron DeBord indicated his continuing interest in visiting each men’s group or UMMen group in the District and would like to have one of the other officers join him whenever feasible.

§ Dave Mendyk shared that he has already arranged for the Upper Room Prayer Line to be set up at the Camp Norwesca Rally.

§ Craig Nordaker displayed a magnetic 8.5 x 11 inch magnetic UMMen sign he made. David Mendyk requested 10 of these, plus 10 using the Nebraska outline & web information design that was created for the annual conference. Craig Nordaker will follow-up and make these. The cost is approximately $4.00 each and can be made on an inkjet home printer.

§ Ron DeBord’s correct home telephone number is  402-332-3571.

§ Ron DeBord will have 500 business cards made up for our use as Missouri River District UMMen officers. A blank line will be available for us to insert our own name and telephone number.

§  Discussion about our Missouri River District Fall Rally. The name will be ‘rally’ as we couldn’t identify a more fitting name. A theme name of ‘Strength for Service’ was chosen to leverage the Strength for Service devotional guides that UMMen sponsor for our people in the armed forces. Suggested rally one-day dates (in order of preference) October 13, 6, 20. Ron DeBord volunteered to contact Camp Fontanelle for availability. Recommendation is to invite and encourage spouse attendance to this rally.

§ Craig shared a notice he received about the ‘In the Zone’ ministry of UMMen in the Memphis, TN area and targets methods to encourage men less than 40 years of age to become active UMMen. Our General Secretary, David Adams, tells us that further information is available at www.inthezone.org.

§ An announcement about the July 13-15, 2007 North Central/South Central UMMen Regional Gathering in St. Louis, MO was shared. Details are available at www.nacpumm.org.

§ NEXT Meeting:

Craig Nordaker’s

3510 Hancock  #151

Bellevue, NE  68005

402-453-6666

Directions: from the intersection of Highway 370 and South Kennedy Freeway, east on Hwy 370 through ‘Olde town’ Bellevue (follow Hwy 370 direction signs) to Hancock (at the east edge of ‘Olde Town’ business district), turn right (south) onto Hancock, south on Hancock 1.1 miles to Paradise Terrace, turn right (west) on Paradise Terrace to ‘T’ intersection with Franklin Place, turn left (south) on Franklin Place to #151 (4^th house on the right). Nordaker’s name and #151 is on the front of the house.

 

Closing Prayer:    Ron Debord

 

 

Carry-over action items:

1. Suggestion was made to solicit some level of funding from local congregations in the District. Further discussion resulted in the suggestion to develop a funding source strategy and also to develop and publish a District ‘use of funds’ policy or guidelines. Reviewed the draft Financial Policy distributed earlier. Discussion, motion by Craig N., second by Bill S., and approval by those present (with one typographical error corrected). Attached is the new, approved, policy. COMPLETE
2. Randy suggested that the District consider coming up with a structure of ‘giving levels’ or categories to help motivate contributors to UMMen. An example might be $100+ would be the ‘Kingdom’ level of donation, etc. Discussion, tabled for further future discussion.$$
3. It was agreed that the District would provide a ‘speaker bureau’ service to the congregations in the District regarding UMMen topics, organization, testimonials, etc. Initially, Randy, Dave, Ron and Charlie will be available. General discussion and further support expressed by all present. To continue development at future meetings, with input from Ron D. Scott will assist with assembling the ‘package’.
4. Craig suggested this Board investigate how it can engage with, promote or support the conferences recently announced UMC conference Discipleship Plan. Tabled for future consideration and discussion.
5. Ron reiterated his goal to begin contacting those congregations without a chartered UMMen group regarding the feasibility of either chartering, or at least forming some type of men’s group.
6. Gary volunteered to look into developing a short ‘Who are we’ type PowerPoint presentation for use by Board members and others to describe our District, examples of past projects, typical activities, our goals, etc. He’ll draw on some of the many pictures he has compiled over the years. As our new ‘vision’ is completed, that would be incorporated also. No action as yet.
7. A request to get an update from Paul Bryan regarding the current status of Wesley House came forward. Terry Abram volunteered to follow-up with Paul Bryan and report back at a future board meeting.
8. Ron shared some thoughts about how valuable some trend and demographic information would be for this Board. For example, it is estimated that about 1/3 of the congregations have a UMMen group of some type. This isn’t confirmed, but could be. Whatever the number is, a goal of improving that to, say, ½ within 5 years (or whatever) could be an action for the District Board to consider taking on. Ron volunteered to research what information might be available either from the conference (state level), District (maybe from the District Superintendent, Randy Sailors) or national UMM (maybe Dave Adams). No action as yet.
9. Discussion about the value of a ‘new UMMen group start-up package’. Charlie expanded with the need the launch new groups at congregations without a UMMen group. This sounds like something this Board, or a sub-committee, will want to develop and make available.
10. Bill S. also recommended that this group consider some form of fund-raiser to help support the work of the Nebraska Conference UMMen. Tabled until a draft District budget is compiled.
11. Dennis Edwards shared his vision that the UMMen emphasis on fatherhood be a focus for consideration. No action as yet.
12. Charlie suggested that this group consider identifying and publishing near-term and longer-term goals at an upcoming Board meeting. Initial suggestions from Charlie included figuring out how we can best focus effort toward forming new UMMen groups in congregations where they don’t already exist and also increasing the number of younger participants. Ron D. has indicated he would like to lead this effort and has collected some ideas already from Board members. No action as of yet.
13. Bill suggested that our Board consider whether and how to solicit local congregations for donations. Tabled until District budget is compiled.
14. Bill suggested that this group discuss and put together a plan to encourage local groups of UMMen to charter their local groups. General discussion. Include as part of ‘traveling show’ package.
15. Bill S. suggested that business cards be made available to the Board members to hand out to interested parties in local congregations. Items to consider including on the cards would be District and Conference telephone and web contact information, UMMen logo, abbreviated purpose or similar, blank line for personalized telephone number or name contact, etc. No action as yet.