Meeting Minutes 5/13/99

Sister Parish Committee meetings are held the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7 pm. in the Parish Center. Newcomers are always welcome. If you have questions, please contact any of the members of the committee.

What follows are the minutes of the Thursday, May 13, 1999 meeting.

Thursday, May 13, 1999

Present: Louise, Bob, Mindy, Rick, Jeff, Alex, Tim, Carol, Joel, Mark, Jim M.

Here are the names of the youth delegates. As we read their bios, we were impressed by how active these kids are in their communities. There seems to be a wealth of leadership skills among them and a couple speak Spanish. Check back on the web site soon for more specific information about them. The youth are:

Brendon Hayes
Jessica McMunn
Ben Grosscup
John Each
Brian Luttenegger
Toby Luttenegger

As an added bonus, Mark Quinn has decided to join the delegation as an adult male chaperone. Mark is a Spanish teacher who was on our second delegation and provides a connection to our committee that may be very valuable. In addition, Mindy and Vickie will connect for awhile with the delegation while they vacation in Guatemala. Our committee also approved transferring $2200 of our money to Marge Bonnert to be used at her discretion for scholarships. The first orientation for the delegates is June 19th. Louise, Mark, Rick, Mindy, and Marge will meet next Thursday to plan the orientation sessions. Jeff has invited Marge to ask the students to send back stories/journal via Walter/Jackie's laptop on a daily or when able to basis to post on the web site.

Katie Johnson supplied us with a list of bi-lingual books. She also sent us $177.56 from the sale of "The Littlest Christmas Tree" at the Dec. 98 Children's Christmas Program. This money will be combined with money from our treasury to send a shipment of books with the youth delegation. Most of these books will be purchased through the Resource Center.

We shared a great letter from Bernardo which updated the status of current projects:

The TNII construction committee approved $2000 from their budget for work on the church. $1000 of that was used to complete the roof which is now completely done. The other 1/2 is earmarked for installation of electrical. This is yet to be done
. The English classes($1500/year) continue with all 10 students still attending. 2 new students(Miriam and Ramon) have joined the group that meets 4 Saturday evenings a month. Bernardo reports that student progress has been slower than many would like but steady. The instructor is a private teacher who makes $75/month.
As you read in earlier minutes, the library was dedicated on Easter Sunday. They have formed an "Association of Readers" that anyone in the community is eligible to join. They even invited SJA members to join!! Anyone checking out a book must leave "collateral". Tim explained that the concept of a public library is very foreign to Guatemalans. For example, at the National Library, one goes through a metal detector and has staff "looking over your shoulder" as you read the book there. Bernardo wrote that they are looking for and have purchased some Spanish books that relate to a variety of themes(spirituality, science, history, etc.) We considered as a committee making a donation of books to this library to bring down with the youth delegation, but it is much cheaper to buy them in Guatemala. It was suggested, instead, that if anyone travels to Mexico, to buy books there to be sent to TNII.
Paul is in charge of the scholarship project. He has the application forms created and being distributed to those interested. These scholarship grants are for schooling for those needing training and skills.

Carlos(youth from delegation) has received his permit to live in Miami with his mother. He has been seeking this for some time. Carlos has been a youth group leader for some time.

We discussed Mission Sunday a bit. Father George wishes to talk with Louise about whether we should be doing both the Mission Sunday appeal and the candle sales. It was generally felt that the candle sale was more important to both communities because it is a joint project with sweat equity involved. While originally our committee did not ask for this years Mission Sunday and did not feel a great need to do it, it was generally felt that we should go ahead with it this year because we have already asked TNII if they felt a need for the money. Their committee did discuss this last month and responded that they could use the funds for ongoing projects. We also discussed using some of the money for other Guatemalan civil rights groups and/or funding a long term(3 to 6 mo.?) delegate from SJA to live with TNII. George and Louise will decide how to handle Mission Sunday this year.

Joel presented an proposal to sell cards with original Guatemalan art this year. He had a sample of what he is looking at and will price out a run of 5000.

We endorsed the idea of inviting a youth delegation from TNII soon after our youth delegation to continue that connection. Marge has expressed interest in that also.

Louise asked for money to be sent down with her donated computer for a printer. It is apparently just as cheap to buy a printer there. The motion was approved. This computer will be set up in the church to be used for youth for homework and projects.

Louise presented an update on our budget as of 3-31-99. At that point we had a balance of about $5000. After recent expenses including $2200 for the youth delegation we are near $2000 in balance.

Next Meeting: Thursday, May 27 7 pm Parish Center

Jeff