Growth Group

Meeting Minutes of 11/9/09

Members present: Rick Angell, Dave Allen, Elinor Redmond, Kendra Palmer, John McCall Absent: Jim Kupel, Stan Jordan, Sue Ross.

John opened the meeting at 5:30 p.m. with a prayer.

I. Parish Host Candidates/Match-Ups
John said that 3 people attended the Inquirer’s Meeting and that 4 people will join the church next Sunday. There is a longer list of people interested who are new to church-going. John identified 3 people who might want a Parish Host at this point:
- a man moving here from Wisconsin. His wife is not here yet.
- a woman who recently lost her job and decided to visit the church she has long driven by.
- a couple moving to the Betsy Ross home.
We identified people from the Parish Host meeting who might be good matches. Several matches have already occurred spontaneously.

Pilot plan for matching up ‘pairs’:
John will have conversations with the guests this week and offer a match. He will contact Rick who will then contact the PH to see if there are interested/available. When he has a ‘yes’, he will contact the guest and tell them to anticipate a call. Kendra will keep a master list of people going through the program. She will send an update whenever we have a new match.

II. Materials for Guests (People new to our church)
Elinor brought copies of the Welcome Packet and a list of documents provided by John. We agreed there is far more information in the packets than is needed when people arrive at church for the first time. Much of that information can be provided by Parish Hosts. We identified 3 essential fliers: welcome, children & families, open & affirming, plus a current copy of The Beacon. We want to have lucite racks in the church containing other fliers so that people can choose their area of interest and so that they are always available to any interested person.

We looked at the current fliers in the pew racks. We suggest eliminating outdated pledge cards and the ‘Meetinghouse Musing’ card. We recommend creating a combined offering envelope with a place to check to designate pledge or Community Crisis offerings. Elsa re-designed the fliers two years ago, adding the graphic ‘branding’ and working on the text. Elinor will meet with her to get her opinion and see if she wants to work on an update. This flier would also be placed in the pews.

Looking at the fliers themselves, we thought moving titles to the top so that they can be read when they are in racks and adding the web address made sense. The ‘Welcome’ folder would be more readable in a bullet format (not so dense with text). as well as removing the phrase ‘A Visitor Packet’. The word ‘guest’ should designate individuals who are new to attending our Church.

We discussed involving the youth in the responsibility of keeping materials current. Care should be taken involving the pew racks as Betty Deschenes enjoys her responsibility of keeping them tidy.

III. Top Action Choices
We went around the room with people offering their top choices for future actions. Kendra will send out a master list and we can add it to the minutes. We will assign responsibility for various tasks in future.

IV. Hospitality Tips
Dave’s foray into announcing a hospitality tip was successful. He had a couple of great conversations during coffee hour with people he had not previously met.
Rick will provide the next tip – he will begin by reviewing Dave’s tip (during coffee hour, talk with someone you have not met before) and then adding his own. Elinor will offer a tip in December.

The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.

NEXT MEETING: Monday, December 14 @ 5:30 p.m.


Respectfully submitted,
Elinor Redmond