November 2, 2006
United Methodist Men- Board Meeting
Missouri River District, Nebraska
Present:
Ron DeBord- President
Gary Spivey- Treasurer
Charlie Walcott- Vice President
Dennis Edwards- Prayer Advocate
Craig Nordaker- Secretary
Bill Stambaugh- Conference President
David Mendyk- Conference Prayer Advocate & Vice President
1. Gary Spivey shared an opening devotion from Max Lucado's book
Grace for the Moment.
2. Dennis Edwards blessed the meeting with an opening prayer.
3. Ron DeBord was welcomed as our new district president and he then shared some opening remarks about his Godly call to work with this group.
4. Initial remarks by Bill Stambaugh, the outgoing district
president, about his hope that the Missouri River District will continue as the host for the Nebraska Conference UMMen Winter Rally at Camp Fontanelle. He
also recommended that this group consider some form of fund-raiser to help support the work of the Nebraska Conference UMMen.
5. Dennis Edwards shared his vision that the UMMen emphasis on fatherhood be a focus for consideration.
6. General discussion about the upcoming district name change and
how best to implement it for our UMMen organization. The consensus seemed to come out that this group would begin utilizing the new name, Missouri
River District, now and make every effort to emphasize that the former Omaha District is not absorbing the new southern territory, but instead is
combining with the southeast portion of Nebraska into the new Missouri
River District. Bill S. shared his conversation with our District
Superintendent, Rev. Randy Sailors, about the possibility of organizing 2 'sub-districts' within the new Missouri River District, due to north-to-south distance.
It seemed to be this groups consensus that sub-district organizations might give the impression of 'exclusive' rather than 'inclusive' and also
present difficulties to staff 2 or 3 organizations vs. 1. More to follow on how
best to transition.
7. Planning discussion regarding this years Winter Rally:
a. Craig Nordaker (representing the Missouri River District hosts) and Bill Stambaugh (representing the Nebraska Conference UMMen) will work out the remaining program details and responsibilities for the 2007 UMMen
Winter Rally at Camp Fontanelle, including which responsibilities will be
handled by which organization.
b. Steak for Saturday evening meal
c. Dennis Edwards kindly agreed to provide the cake again this year
d. Craig will continue to work with publicity. UMconnect e-newsletter (complete), web posting (thanks to Scott Avery), registration form(interim issue is now available), notification of each congregation (to be done).
e. Keynote speaker confirmed by Bill
f. Additional program suggestions:
i. Dennis Edwards- Gospel Through Leadership Seminar (30 min.)
ii.
Dennis Edwards- volunteered to present the P.E.T. Projects program
iii. Safe Sanctuary- 3 hour training session. David will investigate feasibility
iv. Testimonials- Ron DeBord, El Siebert, others ?
v. Men's Health issues
g. Bill & Craig took theme suggestions and will publicize a 'theme' for the rally after Bill has a chance to visit with the keynote speaker. Some suggestions from the group included- Men of Potential, Un-churched or Inactive.
h. Dennis volunteered to see if Calvin would provide piano accompaniment for some, or all, of the rally.
i. Gary Spivey volunteered to provide song leadership for the rally 'if Calvin will be pianist'
j. Dave Mendyk agreed to see if Dr. Denny Vokaleck might provide a men's health program
k. Dave M. volunteered to see if the Path Finders singing group, or a portion of the group, would share some music during the rally
7. 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.
8. It was agreed that these monthly meeting minutes would be distributed to the Board members and posted to the web page about one
week after being e-mailed. This would allow for attendees to contact Craig
with any corrections prior to them being published to the web by Scott Avery
(Scott- does this sound OK to you?).
9. Bill suggested that we keep in mind how to encourage and involve youth representatives at the Winter Rally; to include publicizing that limited youth scholarships could be available if anyone has a candidate.
10. Ron agreed to contact the Nebraska City UMMen group and try and arrange our next meeting there in the afternoon of Sunday, December 10th.
11. Gary reported that we have $510.04 in the treasury, thanks primarily to the benevolence of a single donor.
12. Bill suggested that our Board consider whether and how to solicit local congregations for donations.
13. Bill suggested that this group discuss and put together a plan to encourage local groups of UMMen to charter their local groups.
14. Bill suggested that this Board charter itself again for 2007.
15. Bill reported that the quadrennial UMMen gathering has moved to a new home, from Purdue University, to Belmont University at Nashville, Tennessee. This will now allow other near-by side trips to the home of
the UMC national offices, Prayer Chain headquarters and others. Next
quadrennial gathering will be in 2009.
16. Bill reported that the next Jurisdictional UMMen gathering will be in St. Louis, Missouri in July 2007. It will be combined with another jurisdiction.
17. Dave gave a too-brief report of the recent potato gleaning project.
18. Dave suggested that Dennis consider having the sacraments blessed and that he could then deliver them at our next Board meeting.
19. Ron asked each of us to consider and e-mail to him, prior to the next Board meeting:
a. Top several suggestions to help improve the effectiveness of this group
b. Top several things this group is doing well
c. Suggestions for a vision for this group
20. Ron expressed his desire to meet with and talk to other men's groups throughout our new district territory.
21. Ron DeBord closed the meeting with a prayer.
Respectfully Submitted,
Craig Nordaker- Secretary