Special Focus: Upper Room Prayer Ministry, Scouting, Camp Fontanelle, Society of St. Andrew Ministries, Nebraska UMMen 100/1000 Foundation

Present: Charlie Walcutt Craig Nordaker Randy Fleming Ron DeBord Ken Walker Willy Lucht Scott Herring Gary Spivey

Opening Prayer: Ron DeBord

Old business: Previous meeting notes- approved as published Carry-over action items (see below)

Roundtable comments:

1.  Special thanks to Randy Fleming for hosting the meeting at his home in Springfield and providing refreshments.
2.  Randy Flemings challenge letter to help fund the new John Wesley UMMen Conference administrative/training fund was reviewed by those present. Concurrence to support the effort initially be drafting a follow-up solicitation to the churches of our district and a suggestion to the other Nebraska district UMMen leaders to do something similar. Craig will draft a letter with a ‘recommended giving’ guideline for consideration by all recipients- one for our district and one for other districts’ use. The fund has a current balance of $1,200. The goal is $1,000 additional from the Missouri River District and a grand total of $10,000- so that it can be self-sustaining by using only the interest.
3.  Craig reported that our UMMen Conference President, Bill Stambaugh, is attending a South Central Jurisdiction conference presidents meeting this weekend. Bill is also scheduled for back surgery on November 30, 2007, so we’ll want to keep both his trip and recovery from surgery in our prayers.
4.  Charlie shared some of the upcoming activities at St. Paul Papillion UMC, including a trip to the Boars Head Festival in Grand Island on December 1 to see the ‘Singing Christmas Tree’ program.
5.  Randy Fleming shared that Chad Engelmeyer (sp?) will not be available for the February 2008 Winter Retreat at Camp Fontanelle.
6.  Ron DeBord shared a summary of the recent Great Dads seminar that we sponsored. The program was outstanding and valuable. About 1-2 weeks prior to the event, Ron personally visited virtually every church in the district and delivered a promotional flyer and request to spread the word within the congregation. Support and participation was very disappointing.. Five attendees plus the program leader. Expenses to the District not covered by the attendee registration fees totaled $365.40.
7.  Brief discussion of the advantages of chartering a local congregations group. Resource is available to review; meanwhile, Charlie mentioned it demonstrates a commitment, while multi-congregation mens groups might be worth investigating for some areas of the district.
8.  It was mentioned that a map of the district with an indicator of each church and indicators of which have an active mens group and separately which have a chartered UMMen group. No action at this time.

1. We are all reminded to promote any and all local UMMen events and activities on the Missouri River District and / or Nebraska Conference UMMen web pages by contacting our web page coordinators, Ken Walker (NE Conference) or Scott Avery (Missouri River ).
2. Craig reviewed the UMMen documents and references now in our district library, for loan and/or distribution. Included are materials for a new men’s group startup.
3. Discussion about doing. A plan was outlined to spend some time at our next Board meeting documenting 2 or 3 approaches to use to contact each congregation in the district regarding a men’s group. At the same meeting, we’ll divide up the churches and determine how best to divide up in pairs and establish an initial contact in every congregation- 1 or 2 local potential points-of-contact. Next step will be to focus on those with near-term start-up potential.
4. Discussion about the request from Pearl church. The concensus of the Board is to support the need individually and in any way possible in contacts we may have. Craig will reply to the e-mail request.
5. Willy suggested a potential recipient for the Scouting Flame & Cross Award. The concensus is to support and present based upon the recommendation form that Willy will follow-up and submit.
6. Randy reviewed the Nebraska United Methodist Men 100 Foundation status and presented Craig Nordaker with his donation plaque.
7. Randy recommended a personal invitation be extended to encourage our district superintendent and lay leader to join our future board meetings. Ron DeBord will extend an invitation to them.
8. The meeting was closed with a prayer by Gary Spivey.

1. 1. General discussion about a Missouri River District fund raising program. Ron D. and Randy F. will put together a straw proposal for the Board to consider, including a draft letter from Ron DeBord to each congregation/charter group in the District.
2. 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. Initiated by Ron D. & Randy F.
3. 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. 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. 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. INITIATED

1. 6. 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.
2. 7. 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. INITIATED
3. 8. 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. PARTIALLY COMPLETE.
4. 9. 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. INITIATED
5. 10. Bill suggested that our Board consider whether and how to solicit local congregations for donations. Tabled until District budget is compiled. INITIATED
6. 11. 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. INITIATED DISCUSSION