Meeting Minutes 5/17/00

Sister Parish Committee meetings are held the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 7 pm. in the school. Newcomers are always welcome. If you have questions, please contact any of the members of the committee.

What follows are the minutes of the Wednesday, May 17, 2000 meeting.

Wednesday, May 17, 2000

Present: Louise, Mindy, Jeff, Joe Frank(new), Mark, Carol

If you haven't heard Margaret is back from Guatemala. She became ill(everything's ok now!) and needed treatment from US docs. She will put up a final reflection on the webpage this weekend. She also plans on attending the next meeting on June 7th so do not miss.

No news from either TNII or Reginaldo. Tim did email them with their respective questions, but as of yet no news. Another reason to attend the meeting on the 7th. Should be newsy!

Louise did receive a couple of responses from those on this mailing list to act as host families for the delegation. More are needed. If you would like to host for part of the delegation from around Oct. 27th- Nov. 5th, contact Louise at 651.645.6821 or email at eidsmoel@aol.com.

Mindy brought with her 10 copies of the Dick Fenske book. They are available for reading. If you are interested, contact her at 651.783.9609 or mindylu@bitstream.net. We talked about making them available to parishioners in the weeks before the delegation.

We talked a bit about the increased violence, or reporting of violence, in Guatemala. The Japanese tourists, the bus issue, the village being attacked, etc. Is there really more lately or is the reporting being more open, etc???

We spent time brainstorming ideas for the fall delegation. Of course, we need input from TNII, but this was a time for us to reflect on the last delegation here and spawn new ideas. Here are random thoughts of the group:

We need a leader to be the point person for delegation details. Louise feels that she should not as chairperson. We felt that someone had to be the filter that everything ran through so things jelled. Ideally, it should be someone who is not working full time during the delegation visit(retiree, vacationed worker, etc.).
It was strongly felt that we need to give the delegates more down time than we did the first delegation. We will see how TNII feels about this.
It was felt that the "road trip" was good but perhaps should be cut to two days/one night.
The opening nite party was a good idea.
Include a possible celebration of the Day of the Dead either hosted by us for the parishioners or visiting the St. Paul celebration, if it occurs this year.
Ask TNII to lead a discussion of Nunca Mas similar to the "Person of Jesus" group last time.
Hold a "shared Bible Study group meeting". We think at least 3 of the delegates are in TNII's group.
Visit Mercado Central.
Schedule more translators for host families that do not speak Spanish.
More separation of youth and adult delegates.
Ask the SJA youth group to plan the hosting and experiences of the 4 youth delegates with some activities that all 8 delegates would attend.
Involve the delegates in our Nov. election process.
Halloween Party at Tim and Mary Beth's.
Ask Fr. George/Tom for involvement for the delegates in the Sunday Mass of Nov. 6th, including a possible homily address.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, June 7th, @7 pm School Classroom
Jeff