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 3, 2000 meeting.
Wednesday, May 3, 2000
Present: Louise, Mindy, Jeff, Mike Brown(Janet's husband), Jim M., and Rick
Rick wishes to offer thanks to everyone who helped on this year's alfombra. Another success. Louise reported that our group inspired a church that has struggled with Sister Parish in Burnsville to do an alfombra next year. They saw our story on our website.
Fr. George has informed Louise that Mission Sunday this year will not be for Sister Parish. The collection will be for a Native American Ministry that is a project of 2 parishioners.
Louise presented a proposal that we pursue hiring Reginaldo of Peace Coffee fame, www.peacecoffee.com. Reginaldo, a friend of Tim's, is currently living in Guatemala until February when he will return to the Twin Cities to tend to his coffee business. He is Guatemalan, has business experience as well as experience in the import/export trade. Louise's thought was that Reginaldo could travel to TNII to do an assessment of the business climate for TNII. The committee approved investigating the idea. We will ask Tim to contact Reginaldo and seek his opinion on such a venture. If he is available, we will ask TNII for their opinion on this idea.
We agreed with TNII's proposal to spend about $700 on a keyboard for the church. Currently any keyboard has been borrowed from individuals in the community. They will also use the keyboard to teach lessons to youth.
The summer retreat discussion was postponed until Joel gets back. He is the keeper of the information on dates and places.
Louise will be traveling to Guatemala in the middle of August for 2 weeks with a friend. She will probably base out of Antigua but will get opportunities to see Walter and Jackie as well as TNII.
Mindy reported on the SP Inc. board meeting last weekend. There are lots of new members on the board including the 1st two Guatemalans. One of them, Sister Maria Jose has a candle making business and was interested in TNII's work. She expressed interest in meeting with TNII to exchange ideas. Her candles appear to be fancier with flowers embedded in them, etc. Mindy was going to follow through on seeing if TNII was interested in meeting Sister Maria. Dick Fenske made a proposal that both the North and South Advisory Assemblies(this summer) dialogue on the Truth Commission findings from there own perspectives. This year's North Assembly is in Decorah, Iowa in August. Contact Louise at 651.645.6821 or email at eidsmoel@aol.com if you are interested in attending.
A large part of the meeting was spent discussing the fall delegation. The 8 delegates will arrive the weekend of Oct. 28th and get to enjoy Halloween with us. Tim and Mary Beth are already planning a Halloween party and we talked fun details of what other things we would like to do. We will do our annual candle sale while they are here so they can be a part of that. Several other ideas were batted around. If you are interested in contributing to the planning of the delegation, please attend upcoming meetings. At this time, we are looking for volunteers to host delegates and act as translators. If you are interested in either, contact Louise at 651.645.6821 or email at eidsmoel@aol.com. Also think about the possibility of taking some vacation days during the time of Oct. 28th through Nov. 5th. Teachers will be working this time and we may need some help during the weekdays.
Our meeting schedule has changed a little over the summer to accommodate planning for the delegation. See the website(www.stjoan.com/spfr.htm)to look ahead at the summer meeting dates.
Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 17th, @7 pm School
Classroom
Jeff