The Lancaster County Chapter Board of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans met on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 in the Berea Room , Messiah Lutheran Church, 1800 S. 84th. President Phil Wittig opened the meeting with prayer. The next action was to reconvene and adjourn the special meeting of the Lancaster County Chapter held on Saturday, January 13, 2007.

The regular monthly chapter meeting was called to order by President Phil Wittig at 6:37 p.m. Board members in attendance included Phil Wittig, Jan Beck, Kristy Plander, Billie Frost, Judy Janssen, Keith Plummer, Margaret Simmons, Sally Mertens and Tim Wiggins. Absent with notice include Jeff Peterson. Advisory Board members present included Bill Beck, Roger Simmons and Linda Stubbendick. Others present included Brent Stehlik, Lavern Thomas and financial associates Karl ?? and Nathan Schmidt.

Reports

Records Director Report: The minutes of the December 7th special chapter meeting were approved as printed and distributed. The December 7th minutes have been posted on the website. Jan also discussed the document that will be used each month to track attendance and volunteer hours. Jan will keep track of meetings and special events and requested the each board member individually record their hours outside of these occurrences.

Financial Directors Report: Brent Stehlik, past financial director, presented the 2006 year end financial director’s report. There is one outstanding bill for the pop-up banner for use by the Financial Associates. The financial was filed for audit. Kristy Plander, current financial director, gave the financial report for January. She is proposing the use of operating funds in the amount of $2,000 awareness funds in churches and $1,000 awareness funds in organization/institutions. The chapter is requesting guidelines from the financial associates by the February meeting in the use of the $3,000 total. Kristy presented a 2007 Budget for Lancaster County Chapter Operating Funds. The motion was made by Billie Frost and seconded by Kristy Plander to adopt the budget as presented. The motion passed.

Correspondence: Brent Stehlik shared the first page of the Habitat for Humanity newsletter that recognizes the Lancaster County Build at the 2006 State Fair.

Admittance of New and Transferring Members: Jan Beck, records director, read the number of new members by category since December 7, 2006 with a total number of 98 new members. The motion was made by Billie Frost and seconded by Kristy Plander the following members to Lancaster County Chapter – 57 benefit members; 26 associate members and 15 youth members. The motion passed.

Congregation Service Team Director’s Report: Tim Wiggins reviewed the proposed agenda for the Congregational Coordinators Training scheduled to be held at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 1015 Lancaster Lane, on Sunday, February 18th. A subcommittee met and planned to the event that begins at 3 p.m. and concludes at 6 p.m. Discussion followed on the number of coordinators per congregation that is three. Congregations will receive an incentive based on the number of coordinators attending the training which will be $10 for one coordinator; $25 for two coordinators and $50 for three coordinators. The Women of St Andrews will be paid $5.00 per plate for cookies and coffee during the afternoon break and providing the evening meal and Bill Beck will be reimbursed $2 for each DVD of the 2006 Lancaster County Chapter activities and the State Fair Thrivent Build. Linda Stubbendick will coordinate door prizes for the event and Tim Wiggins will coordinate the packets provided to the coordinators at the training. The motion was made by Kristy Plander and seconded to approve these expenses for the Congregational Coordinators Training. The motion passed.

The consensus of the group was to invite a representative from the Lincoln Lutheran, Lutheran Student Center, University Lutheran Chapel, Orphan Grain Train and Camp Carol Joy Holling to the Coordinators training. Each of these groups would also be provided with a DVD of 2006 activities.

Youth Director’s Report: No report.

Events Director’s Report: Judy Janssen has been working on the Congregation Coordinators Training event.

Communications Director’s Report: Margaret Simmons provided a handout with Chapter Newsletter deadlines for calendar year 2007. She also discussed and asked for input for the March Chapter newsletter.

Website Advisor: Bill Beck presented a handout about the website and discussed information that he would like to include on the website.

Community Project Team Director’s Report: Keith Plummer presented one ‘Care Abounds in Community’ activity titled “Concert with a Cause” (07-30242-002). The date of the activity is March 25, 2007 at 7 p.m. and the recipient is ‘Clinic with a Heart. The motion was made by Kristy Plander and seconded by Billie Frost that we approve the project for $800 with a 1/1 ratio. The motion was passed. The Communications Director will mail the packet to the Community Service Project Team. A suggestion was made to update the form separate the following into two questions.

Thrivent Builds Specialist: Phil presented Julie Ferri’s report. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will fund 65% of the three homes to be built in Lincoln. Lancaster County Chapter will fund 10% through the members of the congregations. The first home located at 1709 N. 30th will have the wall raising on February 10th with a gathering following at American Lutheran, 4200 Vine St. The motion was made by Kristy Plander and seconded by Sally Mertens that we allow up to $150 from operating funds for the 2007 events. The motion passed.

President’s Report: Phil announced that Lancaster County Chapter has received $75,445 for Care Abounds in Communities for 2007. The motion was made by Kristy Plander and seconded by Keith Plummer that the maximum funding for individuals in Care Abounds in Community Projects remain at $2500 for 2007. The motion carried.

Announcements: The next Lancaster County Chapter meeting will be held at First Lutheran Church, 1551 S. 70th on February 27th at 6:30 p.m. Scheduled future activities include the Fall Event, Chapter Board Retreat and Financial Associates Reception.

Phil announced that he had ordered stationary, envelopes and thank-you notes for Board members to use for Chapter business. The Records Director will maintain the inventory of supplies.

There being no further business, Phil adjourned the meeting at 8:40 p.m.