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 27, 1999 meeting.
Thursday, May 27, 1999
Present: Louise, Bob, Mindy, Rick, Jeff, Kellen(little participation, mostly ate Chicken McNuggets), Tim, Carol, Joel, Susan, Vickie, and a visit from Father George with Penny(little participation, mostly watched Kellen eat the aforementioned Chicken McNuggets)
Louise and Rick met recently with Father George and invited him to this meeting. It was decided that we should meet twice a year with Father George. The meeting served as a time to evaluate our work and the issues of Mission Sunday and candle sales. The following points, in no particular order, were agreed upon at the meeting:
Joel handed out a proposal with financial details for the new cards to be sold at this years candle sale. Last years cards are gone. He proposed printing 5000 at a cost of $1622, eventually(over years) selling all for a gross of $5000, realizing a profit of $3378. These cards could also be used by the committee/Father George as a signature card. The card would have a professional quality with "Guatemalan art" on the front cover, a blank inside, and SJA/SP/TNII info on the back. We debated how to make this have a TNII design connection. It was decided to commission Mindy and Vickie to seek ideas and art while in Guatemala this summer.
Louise received a more comprehensive list of children's Spanish books from the Resource Center of the Americas. She will bring them to the next meeting for us to make decisions on what to send to TNII. She is proposing about $300 of books to be sent with the summer delegation.
Mindy will be
coordinating the Youth delegation orientation sessions
on Sat. June 19th from 9-3 and Sunday June 27th from 12-5. The
delegates will also be commissioned at both masses on the 25th
and will play Tim's cultural role playing game that morning.
Mindy will also be getting a role playing activity on families
in Central America from the RC of A.
Bob brought the Veterans For Peace newsletter to the meeting and pointed out that Kosovo is the 19th country bombed by the US since 1945. Guatemala has been bombed 3 times(1954, 1960, 1967-69). He also noted that, at The Hague peace workshop, a speaker was widely applauded when he suggested that the US should be "wiped off the face of the Earth" for it's violent behaviors.
Carol reported that Bible Study is done for the summer. Five regulars finished out the "Person of Jesus" activities. There was only one return communication from TNII the entire year. Carol feels that it may be too much to ask them to dialogue with us on the bible study. Tim argued that TNII is capable of carrying out those communications and should be able to respond. Carol asked Mindy and Vickie to check with TNII while they are there. Are they interested in continuing the bible study program? If so, do they want to commit to exchanging email reflections? Either way, do they have new materials that they will be using in their bible studies that we could use so at least we would be looking at the same materials?
There is a retreat on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala from June 12-20 at a cost of $750, all included. Lisa Venable of our parish is sponsoring it. You can call the Parish Office for information. Tim describes it as "that hippie community".
Joel proposed that we send some extra money with Vickie and Mindy to use as they see fit for urgent needs in TNII or at the Sister Parish Center. This was voted down as it was counter to our methodology of discussion/consensus with TNII.
Louise reported that after all current expenses have been paid, we have a balance of $2650. We have, however, not been billed from SP Inc. for our dues. Louise brought up the question of whether we should send some of the $2650 to SP Inc. Mindy reported that SP Inc. is able to meet June's payroll but July is still iffy. We again got into the discussion of whether SP Inc. was ever going to be self-sustaining and should we keep sending money to them because we support the cause. It was suggested that we use the money to "hire" Mindy for the summer(she is unemployed) to try to cleanup the financial situation. Mindy said that she would use some hours this summer anyway to try to help organize the financial picture of SP Inc. and that she would just turn around and donate the money to SP Inc. anyway. We voted not to employ Mindy but instead to send $2000 with no strings attached to SP Inc. from our remaining balance.
Next Meeting: Thursday, May 27 7 pm Parish Center
Jeff