Growth Group

Meeting Minutes of 4/12/10

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

Dave opened the meeting at 5:45 p.m. with a prayer.

Usher ‘best practices’ status (Rick):
Rick is convening the ushers for a meeting on Sunday, May 16th at 11:30. All from the Growth Group are welcome to attend. Rick will present the ‘best practices’ at that time. Stan noted that a member of his team tried passing out bulletins at the front door of the Sanctuary. It seemed to go well and she closed the door around 10 when the service started. Dave said that the ushers in the churches he has visited did not escort people to their seats.

Parish Hosts(Rick):
John reported in his e-mail that ‘Nothing to report on Parish Hosts though I continue to make occasional offers.’ Rick has called the 5 people on his lists. None want to be assigned a host at this time. Dave reflected we spent a lot of time and thought on this program that appears to be going nowhere. He suggested we contact those who signed up to BE hosts to let them know what is going on. He will draft a message.

Welcome Cards (Elinor/Kendra):
Kendra sent John a template to use for drafting a postcard size message about our church. Most likely this project is on hold during the Easter season.

Volunteer web sign up (Elinor):
The group has seen the e-mail describing the program drafted by Elinor. She is waiting to be sure Sandy Hansen is comfortable with the entire process before soliciting congregational sign up. Sandy is enthusiastic about the project; just very busy. Elinor will notify Rick a little ahead of sending a church e-mail so that he can give the usher captains a ‘heads up’. Elinor will add a phrase to her message urging people to register on the web-site if they would be willing to greet at some distant future date.

Friendship pads (Dave/all):
Dave pointed out that the present friendship pads are getting worn. Do they present our church in the most useful way for newcomers? Are there always nametags in the back? We suggested having the ushers make sure they are always stocked with nametags. We discussed how many people just write their names and check off ‘church member’, so that more than one page is required for a Sunday morning. Stan pointed out that we will be looking at the products used by the churches we are visiting. We know John has specific uses for the present form of the information requested and look forward to a discussion with him.

Friends’ Sunday (all):
Kendra read the section from the ’52 ideas’ book on Friends Sunday. Printed invitations are suggested. Members could pick an invitation up at church and mail it to their friend, and then follow up with a phone call invitation. Sue talked about having members stand up with their friend during the service (when prompted). Would there be a special service? Possibly have a friends theme for the children’s story and sermon. Have the Joyful Noise sing.  For timing, we discussed early October or possibly Thanksgiving Sunday.

Hospitality Moment:
Do we want to continue with hospitality moments? Only if there are new ideas, although we could have a summary of the ideas presented so far. Kendra suggested transitioning to having people share what the church means to them. We would have a prepared, designated person. Kendra would do the recruiting.

Visits to other churches:
During the May meeting, we will be discussing our visits to other churches. We are looking for what works that we are not doing now. Each person should bring their top 3 ideas to the meeting. The process will be for each person to talk about his/her top new idea. Then each person will present idea #2, etc.

Other:
Stan and Marie have prepared special tags for the greeters. They are stored in the credenza with the flowers. Sandy Hansen has been making sure they are used and put away again.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m.

Next meeting: Monday, May 10, 2010, at 5:30 p.m. in the Laity Room.

Respectfully submitted,
Elinor Redmond