Mindy, Rick, Louise, Tim, Leslie, Mary and Ross.
The meeting on March 19th will be used, at least partly, as a working meeting to prepare the patterns for the alfombra. Tim will finalize the design. Final construction will be on Saturday, March 22nd. Rick will put an announcement in the bulletin asking for help.
We didn't have a retreat in January/February this year. We tabled discussion of this year's retreat until the next meeting.
Louise and Rose brought back letters from TN2 which we read and shared. Rose wrote a very nice article for the St. Joan's website about the visit.
Mindy received a request from NISGUA to host an informational presentation on the situation in Guatemala at St. Joan as we have done in the past. This would be in April on a date to be determined. We agreed that we should do this. Mindy will coordinate and confirm a date via email.
We have seven delegates: Mindy Ahler Olmstead, Sharon Fries, Leslie Knoblauch, Julie Madden, Mary Molzahn, Rick Nelson and Nancy Wiens. An initial meeting will be scheduled on Sunday, March 9th at 10 a.m. to set up an orientation schedule. Ross will send out an announcement for the meeting and schedule a room.
Maria Van Der Maaten of Sister Parish, Inc. will visit on March 19th and attend the meeting. She is visiting the northern churches in an effort to increase communication between and among the churches and the Sister Parish organization. Louise volunteered to provide housing and pick Maria up at the airport. Ross volunteered to help with general transportation needs.
Tim is available to lead a book discussion of "Through a Glass Darkly" for the delegates and others from the parish at large that may be interested. We agreed that we should do this. Dates are to be determined once the delegation orientation schedule has been determined.
Ross communicated that the Minnesota Sister Cities International Annual Conference for 2008 will be held on May 3rd, 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Bloomington Civic Plaza. For more info call 952-563-8713. Ross will forward a copy of the information to Clarence and Avis.
We calculated that we owe Sister Parish $450 for the calendars and books that we offered at the candle and card sale. Mindy will arrange to have the money sent.
Louise shared stories from her visit to Mexico and Guatemala.
Next meeting March 19th.