Education, Growth and Fellowship

September 11, 2008

Recorder: Jayne Quinn Sawtelle

Next Meeting: 10/2/2008

Attendance: Ginny Gledhill, Amy Foster, Jayne Quinn Sawtelle, Elsa Peters, Margaret Thibodeau, Aaron French, Karen Pierce-Souza

Opening & Introductions
Following an opening reading by Margaret, new team members Karen Pierce-Souza and Aaron French introduced themselves, as did the rest of the team.

Minutes
The minutes from the August meeting were read and approved with changes (“to assist Diane” removed and “Sunday of each Monday” changed to “Sunday of each month”.

Old Business
We reviewed Homecoming Sunday successes and challenges. Most feedback from church members reflected that they enjoy Homecoming Sunday, but it may not be the most efficient way of finding volunteers. We noticed that H.S. was mostly the “usual suspects,” and that it tends to be members who are older than the families with school-age children. Since it is not a day when Sunday School is in session, we may be better served to recruit volunteers on the first Sunday School day, possibly during an 11:00-11:15 session. There were a few names for Coffee Hour, one (S. Stevens) for Hospitality, and none for the Nursery. Sunday School registration went fairly well.

Team & Sub-group Updates
-Faith Formation - Elsa
Lots of little ones registered, but not so many older students. There is a full roster of teachers. Adult FF will start in October
-Youth Ministry - Aaron
A Pizza Party is scheduled for 9/14. Aaron is meeting kids and volunteers (including Steve Farris). Meetings will be announced, but won’t be every week. We will support Aaron as he needs us, and he will be at EGF meetings.
-Coffee Hour - Ginny
Ginny will propose to other teams that they assume responsibility for Coffee Hour for a month each year. She will draft a letter of request.
-Nursery - Jayne
Jayne will try again with posters and sign-ups on 9/14 and 9/21.
-Scholarship - Amy
Deb Andrews is the chair of the Scholarship Committee, which starts in January.
-Library - Karen
Kathy Cotter is the chair of the Library Committee, and Karen will get in touch with her.
-Hospitality - Margaret
There are no events until the Inquirers’Meeting on 10/28.

New Business
We discussed the By-law changes and approved.
We are short a person on our team. Elsa may have some ideas for us.
We would like a “PR” person to write items for the Beacon. There was discussion about volunteerism and recruitment. The form is not working so well. How do you motivate people to volunteer? Some of our suggestions included, “Find something people like to do;” “Develop relationships;” and “Ask directly for what you need.”
Elsa asked about a former practice of 7/8th grade Sunday Schoolers attending church monthly. Jayne suggested that that might just be something to do so the SS teacher could keep them involved. It was suggested instead that this year’s 7/8th grade class do projects to help others, like cook, sew, create items for the bazaar, or develop a small local mission.

The meeting adjourned at 7:55p.m.
Respectfully submitted - Jayne Quinn Sawtelle