Zoom Conference Call
MINUTES
Attendance: Ryan Russell, Jim Searls, Curtis Brown, Lonnie Chafin, Laura Witkowski, and Paul White. Gail Burgess was excused.
Chairperson, Ryan Russell, called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Central / 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Follow-Up to November Delegation Event: persons reported that most comments were very favorable. Small groups went well with people having good and respectful dialogue. Persons especially liked becoming acquainted across Annual Conference delegation lines. The process for finalizing the statement seemed a bit rushed but could not be avoided with the time restriction.
NCJ Facebook Page: The Facebook page was constructed and being administered by the NCJ Communicators. It has been updated since November.
Future Task Group: It was encouraged at the November Delegation Gathering that the Mission Council design a task group to look at future plans for the jurisdiction in preparation for what might come from the 2020 General Conference. We decided it would be beneficial to invite persons for an initial conversation to establish the goal(s) and/or work of such a task group. Ryan has received some names of persons indicating an interest to serve on such a task group. It was decided Ryan would craft an email that Paul will send to the Annual Conference Delegation Chairpersons to invite persons to this initial conversation to be held by a Zoom conference call. Once the work of the group has been established we will work to name persons to serve on the task group.
Finances: The full Mission Council is scheduled to meet by Zoom conference call on January 10, 2020 at 12:00 noon Central / 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time to draft a budget for the 2020- 2024 quadrennium. We are suggesting the budget have a total amount for programming that is separate from administrative expenses. The Mission Council would be responsible for how to grant these program funds for the quadrennium.
There was discussion of how to handle what is presently known as “reserve funds” in the new budget proposal. Lonnie will be contact with Phil Moots to seek advice on what we might consider.
Lonnie reported that jurisdictional apportionments are not coming in as well as they have in past years. He will be contacting annual conference treasurers before the end of the year but feels it is likely we will not collect 100% of jurisdictional apportionments as we have in past years.
Meeting with College of Bishops: The Mission Council Executive Committee is to meet with the College of Bishops on January 22, 2020 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon in Chicago. This will be a time to generate ideas for a NCJ Leaders’ Summit to possibly be held in the fall of 2020. Such a summit would include the College of Bishops, NCJ Episcopacy Committee, NCJ Mission Council, Annual Conference Directors of Connectional Ministries, Annual Conference Lay Leaders, and possibly others.
The NCJ Mission Council Executive Committee will meet at 5:00 p.m. on January 21 for dinner with a meeting to follow. Laura and Curtis will be in Nashville but could be connected through Zoom. Lonnie will send each of us the information to make our own hotel reservations.
Next Meeting: The NCJ Mission Council Executive Committee will meet by Zoom conference call ½ hour before the full Mission Council meeting on January 10, 2020 (11:30 a.m. Central / 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time).
Jim will set-up the Zoom call and send reminders to all on the Mission Council.
Adjournment: Ryan closed the meeting with prayer at 1:50 p.m. Central / 2:50 p.m. Eastern Time.
Submitted by Paul White, Secretary Pro-Temp
