NLS Board Meeting
Monday, July 26, 2021
Present: John Aclin, Jane Winge, Brian Schwarz, Jim Ryan, Pastor Sue Beall, Karen Weires, Kim Brownlow, Jeanne Gaston, Sue Bathe, Amanda Hunter, Dave Leverenz, Rick Hanzlik, Marcia and Randy Poisel
Call to Order – John
Opening Prayer led by Pastor Sue
Old Business
A motion was made by Karen to approve the July 21st minutes with amendments. Jane 2nd and the motion passed. A motion was made by Jane to approve the July 24th AG minutes with amendments. Jim 2nd and the motion passed.
Reports
Brian – Technology and Webmaster – Rick will be stepping down at the end of the month. Actively looking for someone to fill that role. We have three wonderful people serving in this area.
Jane – Annual Gathering Follow Up
Jane has a Debrief Meeting with some key people to get feedback from what went well and how to make it better next year. Suggested a Tech Cha to be on standby so the Producer could stay focused.
We discussed looking at a hybrid version for next year. We need to look at how the Delegates would vote. This year we increased our spending in technology and given the success of the Annual Gathering, we could use technology with our communities to provide information to help them.
Pastor Sue – Spiritual Director Support Committee consists of the following volunteers: Jeanne Gaston – Chair, Pastor Doug Givan, Pastor Jerry Olson, Pastor Ron Poisel, Jim Dulling, Raleigh Sandy, and Dawn Pipkin.
Pastor Sue went over the goals for the committee. To build at strategy and fulfill a plan to increase the number of SD’s that are working within the VdC and support those that are already involved. Things we would like to tackle: Review the SD video, monthly messages from SD’s by email blast, develop a plan for SD names and
emails in every Secretariat for the database, prepare a seasonal message for the church year, and quarterly Zoom meetings for all SD’s.
Pastor Sue will assign prayer partners quarterly for the Executive Committee, Appointed Leadership and Committee Chairs each quarter. Brian – Karen, John – Kim, Jane – Jim, Pastor Sue – Jeanne, Sue – Randy and Marcia, Amanda – Dave, Wendy – Krista Strum (Chair of Rollo Revision Committee). Phone or email them
and begin praying for each other.
Jim – We have a little over $36,000 in the operating account.
Recommend that we create a new committee to look at the Bylaws revision that was tabled a year ago. Discussed the Endowment Board that was set up years ago and will speak with some of the previous Board members to better understand the strategies to generate money.
Discussed moving the few small accounts that are yielding a low percentage to one account.
Fiscal year closed May 31st, filed the 990 June 3rd, and the Minnesota Report a week later.
Sue and Brian – Have been working to get help with the database.
We have Constant Contact which is difficult to maintain. How do we poise ourselves to grow? Currently, unless people reach out to us or attended an Annual Gathering – we have no information on them. We also want to keep our information safe. Hope to be able to share some demos with the Board.
Jeanne – Jeanne discussed needing the information from Secretariats and 4th Day to be accurate to avoid issues.
We need to get the Delegate information early. The Annual Activities Report is designed to tell each Secretariat how many Delegates they have. Jeanne spent months getting this information and received Delegates up to the date of the Annual Gathering. Secretariats need to inform us of member changes. Discussed the Delegate process
and we should revisit the proposal from the Delegate Calculation Committee – Sue Bathe is replacing Jane on this committee.
Karen – Karen discussed the need to streamline the information sent out to Secretariats. Perhaps the Regional Coordinators are the link between communication unless otherwise warranted. Karen spoke to the Oregon Cursillo hoping to grow that relationship and help each other. Karen will also be attending the 4th Day Council. We have
new Regional Coordinators that she will mentor, assist struggling Secretariats, and continue to hold monthly Regional Coordinator meetings. Brief discussion regarding RC’s and how they come to find a replacement.
Amanda – Please add Eric Needle to her committee. Amanda is taking care of emails and Eric does the Facebook
posts. Steve will take over Conexiones in September. Amanda is waiting for the reports to send out the special Conexiones from the Annual Gathering. Amanda asked the Executive Committee to take an active role in the Facebook page to let the community see more activity from us. Facebook receives tons of prayer requests.
Karen will have the RC’s invite their Secretariats to post information such as upcoming weekends or best practices.
Constant Contact is a mass marketing email system, not a database. Please let the Poisel’s know when there is a change. Eric will work on the NLS website – Meet Us page and present it to the Executive Committee for final review.
Dave – Dave has been the archivist for 6 months. He has the hard copy archives, cataloged, inventoried, and organized filling about 3 tubs. Dave is taking a critical look at the organization of the electronic archives. Dave has downloaded the binder from the Annual Gathering and hopes to create a folder with all the items in it. Amanda will put him in touch with Eric who may have some great ideas for organizing it.
Rick – Rick stated his resignation letter was to be effective as of the 31st of July but feels it would be best if he makes no changes to the website as of this meeting. Brian will make the necessary account updates. Rick was thanked for his longtime service.
Randy and Marcia – Randy discussed the registration for the Annual Meeting. People mistyped email addresses making it difficult to line up with Constant Contact. Last minute registrations made things difficult. From a planning perspective it would help to lock in theme, presenters, and activities sooner.
Constant Contact has a general category to send out newsletters and Pastor Sue’s devotions – Randy would like to split it into categories to get desired information to our communities.
New Business
John thanked those who served on the Board. He is honored to be given the chance to serve the NLS and our community. John will talk with each of the Executive Committee members to get to know them better and see what they are working on and what support they may need. He would also like to know any deadlines they may have.
The Executive Committee discussed the Mid-Year Meeting regarding scheduling. Brief discussion regarding the meeting. Sue and Jane will work out the details.
The Executive Committee discussed scheduling the monthly meetings. We will meet the 2nd Tuesday of each month except the month of September (the 3rd Tuesday).
Next Meeting – Tuesday, August 10, 2021 – 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. EST – Executive Committee September Meeting – Tuesday, September 21, 2021 – 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. EST – Executive Committee, Appointed Leadership, and Committee Chairs October Meeting – Tuesday, October 12, 2021- 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. EST – Executive Committee
Closing Prayer led by Pastor Sue
Respectfully submitted, Kim Brownlow
Eric is our current Webmaster and works on the NLS Communications Team. Raised in Judaism, he found Christ and the New Testament at age 16 in a Southern Baptist Church. He searched many denominations for the real church, only to find the Holy Spirit is present in all of them. He's worked for One for Israel, a group of native Israeli believers who are sharing the gospel in the holy land in Hebrew and is part of the only Hebrew speaking seminary in Israel.
