Western Plains District

Category: Minutes

  • CRT Minutes – 4/9/17

    Teleconference at 4 pm April 9

    Members attending: Wylene Lengel, Gloria Price
    Members absent: Anna Mae Achilles, Dale Minnich, Deb Tuttle, Terri Torres

    Gloria opened the meeting with devotions.

    Terri sent an update on the women’s retreat:
    Womens’ Retreat Summary – 2017
    The 2017 Western Plains District Womens’ Retreat was enjoyed by nearly 70 women at the Crosswinds Retreat Center in Hesston, Kansas. The theme – The Tie That Binds – was successfully carried out through a variety of speakers and worship services. Jean Hendricks spoke about how our individual stories can bind us together; Pearl Miller and Carolyn Schrock shared about the Global Womens’ Project and how women in Africa and America are being helped to better their lives and the lives of their families; Sonja Griffith related stories about her trip to Nigeria and how the Church of the Brethren there is continuing to forge ahead and rebuild in the face of continuing persecution; Joanna Smith introduced us to Centering Prayer and the concept that we are all one in Christ Jesus. Both worship services centered around how worship can bind us together. And there was plenty of time for relaxing, fellowshipping, working on projects, and just being together. Quinter, Hutchinson and McPherson churches all contributed to the planning of the weekend. There are tentative plans for the retreat in Colorado next year and the Wichita First Church of the Brethren has volunteered to host the 2019 Womens’ Retreat in Hesston.

    Gloria reported on her trip to Lybrook and how it really opened her eyes. She is still pursuing use of the deacon book. She will attend the area meeting of 5 to 6 churches and talk about what our team does.

    Wylene reported that she has sent documentation to Taulee Grothusen for the children’s program at District Conference.

    The yearly report is due in May so each team member needs to submit their respective reports by May 1.

    Wylene reported that she submitted the following for the 2018 budget:
    1). Increase children’s coordinator stipend from $250 to $325 for District Conference
    2). Increase both youth directors salaries by 2%
    3). Increase junior youth director’s salary by an additional $500 to make it more in line with the senior youth director’s salary.

    Next meeting May 7 at 2 pm.

  • CRT Meeting Minutes – 2/14/16

    The team met Feb 14 at 4 pm via teleconference.

    Members present: Wylene Lengel, Gloria Price
    Members absent: Terri Torres, Cathy Patrick, Dale Minnich, Barb Flory

    Wylene opened the meeting with a short devotion and prayer.

    Dale had sent his update on the men’s retreat. It is planned for April 8-9 at the Heartland Center for Spirituality in Great Bend, KS. It is a book study using Falling Upward; a spirituality for the two halves of life by Richard Rohr. Ken Holderread and Allan van Asselt will be leading it.

    We had received a request from Alan Stucky regarding use of the Mennonite resource library. The Mennonite resource library was discussed and it was agreed that a library like this may not be what people are seeking and using since internet shopping may be more readily available. The subscription price seems high and most churches are more than 30 miles from this resource. Gloria will call Beverly Minnich to obtain more information and put an article out to Western Plains District and see if there is any interest in this resource.

    An update regarding the women’s retreat was received a couple days after this meeting. Barb has plans underway and Tara Hornbaker, the retreat program leader will lead us through her Christian cooking show episodes. Tara will also provide a sermonette on Sunday. Barb has ask a few members of the McPherson Church of the Brethren to assist in various aspects of the weekend. April 8 – 10 at the Cross Wind Conference Center in Hesston, KS. As of then only 10 reservations had been made. 60 are needed for the retreat.

    Carolyn Schrock has agreed to speak at the women’s breakfast at the Annual District Conference in July. Judy will be the contact for her.

    Wylene will put out an article for applications for the District Children’s Coordinator. This is our biggest need at the moment. The District Planning Committee is requesting to know who this person is. Wylene will also bring this need up to the TVT.

    Next meeting March 13 at 4 pm.

  • CRT Meeting Minutes – 1/10/16

    The team met Jan 10 at 4 pm via teleconference.

    Members present: Wylene Lengel, Judy Wrightsman
    Members Absent: Barbara Flory, Dale Minnich, Cathy Patrick, Terri Torres, Gloria Price

    Wylene Lengel opened with a short devotion and prayer.

    Wylene Lengel reported that she was in contact with Frances Oltman regarding replacing Cathy Patrick, Judy Wrightsman, and Laura Snyder for the next term. Frances informed the team that it was the responsibility of the team to replace Laura Snyder as the Children’s Coordinator. Thus, Wylene had contacted Sarah Hendricks as a potential replacement and Sarah will not be able to fill the position. The team will continue to pursue a replacement.

    Wylene Lengel reported that she has secured Troy Wedel as the auctioneer for the Projects Unlimited Auction for July 30th.

    A report from Terri Torres was reviewed regarding her communication with Michael Himlie for Biking for Peace.

    Judy Wrightsman reported that she had reviewed the list of names for the Women’s Breakfast. It was decided that a local person might work well. Wylene Lengel will contact Elsie Holderread and see if she has any interest in speaking.

    Next meeting will be Feb 14 at 4 pm via teleconference.

  • CRT Meeting Minutes – 11/8/15

    The team met Sunday November 8, 2015 at 4 pm via teleconference.

    Members present: Barbara Flory, Terri Torres, Dale Minnich, Judy Wrightsman, Wylene Lengel
    Members absent: Cathy Patrick, Gloria Price

    Wylene led a devotion focused on thankfulness.

    Members needing replacement after this year: Cathy Patrick, Judy Wrightsman
    Children’s coordinator needing replacement: Laura Snyder
    Wylene will let the gifts discernment team know of these needs.

    Thanks to Barb for getting a brochure out for the Women’s Retreat for 2016 and for making arrangements for the 2017 retreat. Wylene said she would lead a bike ride Saturday afternoon of the 2016 retreat.

    The team said they would be glad to serve as ticket takers for the 2016 District Conference dinners. We will wait until closer to the date to ask for specific volunteers.

    Terri is planning to make arrangements with Michael Himlie regarding Biking for Peace.

    Judy needs the last set of Women’s retreat evaluations sent to her to look for a potential speaker for the Women’s Breakfast. She was given a couple suggestions.

    Dale informed us that the Bowman’s will lead the Men’s Retreat for 2016.

    Wylene will contact the auctioneer in December for the Projects Unlimited Auction.

    The team is OK with continuing to meet the second Sunday at 4 pm.

    Next meeting January 10 at 4 pm.

  • CRT Meeting Minutes – 10/11/15

    Congregational Resourcing Team Meeting – Oct. 11, 2015 at 4 pm (more…)

  • Congregational Resourcing Team Minutes 3/26/15

    Minutes for March 26, 2015, 6:30 pm

    In attendance: Beverly and Dale Minnich, Judy Wrightsman, Joanna Smith and Wylene Lengel; Absent: Cathy Patrick, Gloria Price

    A short devotion and prayer was led by Wylene.

    The team selected Ephesians 4:12 “Why is it that he gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God’s people will be equipped to do better work for him, building up the church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity;” as our team bible passage to support the district bible passage/theme “Know Well, The Condition of Your Flocks” taken from Proverbs 27:23.

    The team will have drafts of their job descriptions for the Gifts Discernment Team by the May meeting.

    Laura Snyder has signed her contract to be the children’s coordinator for District Conference and The Gathering; and, Sonja Griffith and Ann Stover have also signed the contract. A copy of the contract has been forwarded to Laura and Kendra. Shawn Replogle and the Sampson’s are set for District Conference. Wylene will contact Shawn Replogle and Sampson’s to see if they will fulfill their current roles for The Gathering.

    We need a list of slots that parents of children can supplement child care for District Conference. Beverly will work with Laura to get the list. We can have the list set up with registration at District Conference.

    Joanna Smith reported that the Peace Retreat will be rescheduled as there are scheduling conflicts for the summer of 2016. She will submit an article for district news.

    Regional Youth Conference was a success. Wylene received a report from Jen Jensen saying that 70 youth, advisors, and leaders from 3 districts were represented. Wylene also received a report form Kaitlyn van Asselt reflecting on the conference as a great experience.

    The Jr High Youth Rally was held March 20-22, Hutchinson. Wylene will check with the Sampson’s and get a brief report.

    Women’s Breakfast at District Conference is set to have Kim Therrian speak. Judy Wrightsman reported that Kim would like all age groups of women to attend. Judy has inquired if there are other things that need to be done and it seems the District committee doesn’t need anymore help on this but will reach out to Judy if needed.

    Worship resources/Christian education: No update.

    Dale Minnich reported that Western Plains District Men’s Retreat will be held April 17-18 at the Heartland Center for Spirituality in Great Bend, Kan. The theme will be “Calling Disciples,” based on Luke 11:9, which will be led by Steve Crain, associate professor of philosophy and religion at McPherson College. The retreat is being planned and hosted by the Hutchinson Community Church of the Brethren.

    Mission and Service dinner at District Conference: Dale Minnich reported that preparation s are being made and that it is getting publicized.

    Beverly Minnich reported on the Women’s retreat. Wylene received the check for speaker for $1200 from Jana Goering. Denver church in charge. 77 spaces are being held and paid for at the Highland Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center. 18 scholarships given, paying half costs for those. Beverly is coordinating rides. Beverly reported that another check for 75% of the bill would be needed also. She will request that from Jana.

    Western Plains District Women’s Retreat will be held April 10-12 at the Presbyterian Highlands Camp in Allenspark, Colo. The theme will be “Fully Awake and Truly Alive: How to Incorporate Spiritual Practices into our Busy Lives,” which will be led by the Rev. Jane Vennard, John Wesley Iliff Senior Adjunct Instructor in spirituality at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colo.

    Hesston April 8-10, 2016 Deposit paid. Jana sent check 3/16/15. Will ask for a church to head this up at this year’s women’s retreat.

    2017 retreat will likely be held in Hesston and we are leaning for a 4/21 to 4/23 date.

    Disaster Response: Taylor’s are heading up a project in Colorado for flooding.

    Projects Unlimited Auction: Will meet with the auctioneer a month prior to the auction. Jana Goering is assembling the quilt.

  • Congregational Resourcing Team Minutes 2/19/15

    Minutes from the February, 19, Thursday 7 pm conference call

    Gloria Price, Judy Wrightsman, Wylene Lengel, Beverly Minnich, Dale Minnich were in attendance. Cathy Patrick and Joanna Smith were absent.

    Beverly shared a devotion and opened the meeting with prayer.

    Wylene told the group to begin working on your job descriptions/gifts for the Discernment team.

    Wylene reported that she contacted Sarah Hendricks and told her that District Conference was depending on McPherson’s normal Sunday School classes to plug in to. Sarah was Ok with that.

    We had a discussion about the children’s coordinator position and what type of stipend would be required for Laura Snyder to fill the position at District Conference and if this set a precedence. We agreed to cover registration and housing for Laura’s family and Thelma. This would be $70 + $60 for Laura and $35 + $36 for Thelma. We felt this was a one time stipend and ongoing needs would be evaluated at a further time.

    Judy Wrightsman reported on the Women’s Breakfast at District Conference. Kim Therrian has agreed to speak. Judy is following up to ensure all other details that we need to take care of are covered.

    Gloria Price reported on Worship Resources/Christian Education. She is considering a booth/table at District Conference to gather information and have discussions about curriculums and looking at ways to share curriculums between churches.

    Beverly Minnich reported on the Women’s retreat – April 10-12, 2015 – Colorado. Gail Erisman-Valeta’s church is in charge. So far there are 39 registrations. We had a discussion about scholarships and the group decided to award all who sought a scholarship a 50% aid. Nine have been granted and Beverly has another 9 to grant. Beverly reported that in searching out a site for 2016, Hesston still seems like the best place financially and geographically to hold the women’s retreat for 2016. A date for 2016 is April 8-10, 2016. Wylene will contact Hesston and pay the down payment. Need to select a date for 2017.

    Dale Minnich reported on the Men’s retreat which is scheduled for April 17-18. The Hutchinson church is in charge. The retreat will be held in Great Bend. Steve Crain will be their discussion leader. Dale encourages attendance.

    Dale Minnich reported on the Mission and Service dinner that is being planned for District Conference. Also that there is a strong likelihood of a service project in Colorado in the near future.

  • Congregational Resourcing Team Minutes 9/6/14

     

    Minutes of Sept 6 meeting in person at the Newton COB

    In attendance: Cathy Patrick, Judy Wrightsman, Joanna Smith, Elsie Holderread (visiting as part of the review team), Barbra Davis, Wylene Lengel, Beverly Minnich, Gloria Price

    The team reviewed the Questions submitted by the review team. In summary, there is still confusion about the terminology of the new structure, i.e. Transformation Vision Team and Vision Fulfilment Teams. We were reminded that we used to be the witness/nurture team. The gifts discernment team could work for us better if they had a list of the gifts needed in our team. There still seems to be more communication needed.

    We reviewed the various responsibilities of our team and identified a lead for each area.

    Women’s Retreat – Beverly Minnich
    Scheduled for April 10-12. The Colorado church is in charge, Gail Erisman Valeta. Rev Jane Vennard is the speaker. Topic is Spirituality.

    Men’s Retreat – Dale Minnich
    The Hutchinson church is in charge.

    Christian education – Gloria Price
    This is a new area. We will work on what this covers, but we are looking at workshops for Sunday school teachers and options for curriculums.

    Mission and Service Advocates – Beverly and Dale Minnich

    Haiti Medical Project

    Disaster – Bud and Susan Taylor
    We need communication. We need to know what are their needs. Are they using their budget for replacement of tools etc.?

    BVS –
    Get list of former BVSers. Barbra Davis said she would do this.
    Get list of COs. Joanna Smith said she would do this.
    Send Christmas cards to BVSers.

    EYN –
    Continue praying

    Project Unlimited Auction – Wylene and Cathy
    Letter to churches in August

    Peace advocacy – Joanna Smith

    Children, Jr High & Youth -Wylene Lengel
    Shawn Flory-Replogle -Sr High, stipend, contract
    Nicole Sampson – Jr High, stipend, contract
    Laura Snyder, children, The Gathering

    Women’s Breakfast at Western Plains District Conference – Judy and Gloria
    Need ideas for speaker.

    Action items.
    We suggest that a script be put together and a TVT member visit each COB in the Western Plains District and bring awareness to the terminology.
    We will put a list of our teams gifts together and submit to the Gifts Discernment team
    Get list of former BVSers. Barbra Davis said she would do this.
    Get list of COs. Joanna Smith said she would do this.

    Closed with prayer.

  • MINUTES: Communications Transformation Fulfillment Team, 3 March 2014

    March 3, 2014

    Present by Google Hangout: Bruce Clary (Chair), Kendra Flory (Staff Rep), Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Peter Samland.

    Newsletter Transition

    • Bruce reported on the Transformation Vision Team Meeting earlier this weekend. There was a little hesitation expressed at the meeting regarding the decision to discontinue mailing hard copies of the newsletter, but TVT stood by its approval of the proposal. Perhaps this might mirror the response we get regarding the change. However, if churches put info in their bulletins, we should hopefully have a good response.
    • We reiterated that we are receiving emails through an opt-in system. We only add emails to the newsletter emailing list at an individual’s request to the district office. Mail Chimp has a subscription plug-in that we can look at for the website.
    • As far as the e-newsletter format—it will likely be one that lists the article titles and a few sentences and a link to the website, where readers can find the article in its entirety. Everything would be on the website.

    Congregation Survey Update

    • Bruce will send another email to try to get more responses to the survey.
    • Hutch Community is in the process of reviewing equipment (projector, screen, wireless, etc.). They would be interested in talking with someone about what they might want to shop for. Perhaps Eric or Ryan could connect with June Switzer about this. It was discussed that we are not offering setting up a system, but rather offering some consultation and helping to give direction.
    • For those congregations interested in website help: Again, we are not offering tech support. This is not our role. Rather, we can get a sense of what the congregation is wanting and help point them in the right direction. Perhaps we could offer congregations space on the District website for a static webpage for a congregation’s basic information.

    Website Training

    • Peter will work on online training videos for: login, creating and editing a post, categorization of a post, and editing a page.
    • He will also set up a YouTube channel for District videos.

    Other

    • Kendra and Bruce need to get together regarding District Conference online registration.
    • Kendra asked a question about putting pictures/videos online. Bruce said that pictures/videos taken on public property is fair game. You need to be more careful about private property.

    Next meeting is set for Sunday, March 30, 9pm Central, by Google Hangout.

    Respectfully submitted,
    Kendra Flory

  • MINUTES: Communications Fulfillment Vision Team, 20 October 2013

    Communications Vision Fulfillment Team (VFT) Meeting
    October 20, 2013

    Present by Google Hangout: Bruce Clary (Chair), Kendra Flory (Staff Rep), Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Peter Samland

    No discussion on minutes from September 21, 2013. They were approved. Moved on to our To-Do list from previous meeting…

    Website

    • Bruce put one new entry on the District website and will put the minutes up as well.
    • WordPress Site: Peter had not gotten to this yet, but will work on it soon.
    • Training Videos: In the next month Peter will work on simple videos for TVT for tasks such as logging on to the website, etc. His wife Amanda has software suggestions (Jing, Camtasia)

    Congregations need help with technology (i.e. training)

    Online Survey: Bruce put together and sent to the team a survey draft for congregations. He asked the team if the right questions are being asked.

    • Eric suggested that a question be added regarding what the congregation’s final goal is in using a technology (What is your final goal for using it? What’s the purpose?) Bruce responded that at this point we’re just trying to figure out what technologies congregations have and if they want help with it. If so, that would be a good question to ask as we move into next steps.
    • Ryan and Kendra both suggested it would be helpful to have a little more time to look over and process the survey draft…to “fill out” the survey for ourselves and see what’s missing.
    • Bruce asked about leadership contacts in the congregations. Kendra will send to him what she has in the office.

    District Newsletter

    Bruce proposed a timeline to move into an all-electronic version of the newsletter, including to stop print of the newsletter in January 2014. This proposal would be taken to the Transformation Vision Team (TVT) for approval. Kendra asked some questions and offered comments:

    • It was clarified that Bruce’s intention is that for now the newsletter would continue to be produced in the current print format that is created in Publisher. But it would not be printed, just sent by email. Congregations could then print copies for members who would do not have email or who prefer a paper copy. Through email, the newsletter distribution list could more widely and easily be expanded.
    • Kendra would like at some point to learn to use and transition into an email format (i.e. mail chimp?). However, she also shared a few conversations she has had with persons regarding a move to an electronic newsletter, both enthusiastic support for moving in that direction as well as expressions of reservation that some people have. These would be good questions to discuss with Sonja as well as the TVT.
    • Kendra noted that several years ago she was in touch with a number of persons on the mailing list encouraging them to move from the paper copy to email. The paper mailing list was reduced from 365 to 320. That is the current distribution number. Kendra will send Bruce the newsletter mailing list to see who is currently receiving it by mail. It might be helpful to go over this list with Sonja, who would know more people on this list.

    Our next meeting will be Sunday, November 17, 9pm Central, by Google Hangout.

    Respectfully submitted, Kendra Flory

    11/11/13