Mission Outreach Minutes

Present: Laurie Cary (chair), Linda Skinner, Carol Scheffler, Marilyn Andress, Greg Wyman, AnnElissa Leveque, John McCall

Minutes
Laurie read the daily UCC Devotional Reading from the internet and offered a prayer.
Secretary minutes were reviewed and accepted with commendations.
Thank yous were received from the following agencies: Maine Council of Churches, Bangor Theological Seminary, St. Luke’s Soup Kitchen, and Opportunity Farm.
Treasure’s report was reviewed and accepted.
$760.00 has been raised to date for the Easter Offering and $1,752 for One Great Hour of Sharing.
The Council Policy Statement was e-mailed to the Mission Team and should be added to our books as this is the final draft.
Fair Trade Coffee
Ø Carol reported that the first fair trade coffee serving went well last Sunday.
Ø Fare Trade coffee will be served on Sundays by the Educational Fellowship and Growth Team
Ø Sales of fair trade coffee and tea will occur on 4/14 and 4/27. The Fair Trade group will meet on 4/14 to discuss how to go forward with this project.
Safe Passages
Ø Joan Carrier will attend next month’s Mission Team meeting , with the Safe Passages representatives to set up a presentation.
Ø Jane Gallagher would like to show 2 films and have a discussion for a total of 2 hours.
Ø The suggestion was made to have it after worship and to cut back the presentation time to an hour rather than two.
Ø Carol will check this out with Joan.
Social Witness Ministries
Ø The Social Witness Ministry is currently comprised of 4 groups: Diversity, Fair Trade Coffee, the Green Team, and Non Violence Advocacy.
Ø Carol would like to have a meeting of all of the social witness groups in the spring to clarify the different subgroups’ missions as well as their goals. Carol is suggesting that we do this in the format of a potluck
Ø Possible dates were discussed. Carol will discuss this with the subgroup leaders to coordinate a date.
Ø The Mission Team would host the pot luck as it oversees all of the subgroups under Social Witness Ministry. Carol suggested that the Mission Team bring desserts. AEL offered to make chocolates.
Ø The mission statement for the Non Violence Advocacy group was submitted by Rick Angell who is leading the group. Rick was also looking for approval to put this in the upcoming Beacon. The Mission Team gave approval for both requests.
Ø Claude Vachon asked for $61.00 for a speaker from the Department of Peace for a presentation to be held on 5/7/08. This request was approved by the Mission Team.

Special offerings
Ø John McCall led a discussion on the special offerings, which was continued from last month.
Ø The Mission Team decided to not add the Strengthen the Church offering, for a variety of reasons including a careful look at what was being asked of the congregation as well as how we are currently focusing our mission giving. There was a concern noted that this new offering would fall on the same Sunday as Blanket Sunday.
Ø There was decision to continue our other special offerings as is currently set up.
Ø It was pointed out that we are giving a lot locally and a discussion ensued about what we are doing to support more global missions.
Ø A suggestion was made to focus the Easter and Christmas Offerings on social ministry and international missions.
Ø John pointed out that the congregation would support global crises that were recent.
Ø John suggested that at some point in the future we may want, on occasion, to use the Easter offering for Strengthen Our Church.
Next Year Mission Team
Ø Laurie, Marilyn, and AnnElissa will be leaving the Mission Team
Ø Laurie agreed to be an at large member for next year
Ø At the Team’s urging, Laurie agreed to lead the Mission Team again next year.
Ø Laurie stated that if she did so, then she would want to cut back on some of the things that she had led this year, including Mission Sunday, and Beacon articles. It was decided that whoever is in charge of an activity should be responsible for writing the Beacon article.
Ø Linda and Carol will continue next year as the 2009 class.
Ø Greg will continue as part of the 2010 class.
Ø Sandy Dyer and Sarah Randall will start a three year term.
Ø Laurie will ask Jim van Hoeven if he wants to continue as an at large member.
Ø Linda was asked if she wanted to continue as treasure. Linda will consider this option.
Ø AnnElissa was asked to stay on another year. AnnElissa expressed a concern that someone else might want a position on the team and she had been on for a while. AnnElissa stated that she would be interested if the opening could not be filled.
Ø A suggestion was made to return to subgroups for mission work and disbursements, as some team members prefer one task over the other. Laurie stated that Chris Keiter had made the suggestion for a subgroup for disbursements.
Ø Carol suggested that next year we have a subgroup focusing on researching the charity groups that we support, as it has been a number of years since this has been done.