The Lancaster County Chapter Board of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans met on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 510 South 33rd Street, Lincoln, NE. President Jeff Peterson called the regular monthly chapter meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and opened with prayer. Congregational coordinator, Jim Oeltjen, welcomed the Lancaster County Chapter Board to Redeemer and spoke briefly about Redeemer’s 90th anniversary celebrated in the past few months. Jeff thanked the members of Redeemer Lutheran Church for hosting the meeting and asked attendees to introduce themselves. Board members in attendance included: Jeff Peterson, Jan Beck, Kristy Plander, Billie Frost, Judy Janssen, Sally Mertens, Vicki Onken, Keith Plummer and Margaret Simmons. Advisory Board members present included: Roger Simmons and Linda Stubbendick. Others present included Financial Associates-Tim and Shirley Hunt; Redeemer congregational coordinator-Jim Oeltjen and Fred Oeltjen.
Reports

Records Director: The minutes of the March 25, 2008 meeting had been distributed to the Board members prior to the meeting. The minutes were approved as printed and distributed. The March 25th minutes will be posted to the website.

New Chapter Members: The motion was made by Jan Beck and seconded by Kristy Plander to admit into membership in the Lancaster County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans from March 24, 2008 through April 21, 2008 – 39 Benefit members, 10 Associate members and 5 Youth members for a total of 54 members. The motion passed.

Correspondence: Kristy Plander read a letter from Lavern Thomas thanking the Lancaster County Chapter for hosting the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast and for the support given to Orphan Grain Train-Lincoln Warehouse.

Financial Director: Kristy Plander provided the monthly financial reports to the Board prior to the meeting. The Operating Fund has a balance of approximately $8500. The motion was made by Kristy Plander and seconded by Sally Mertens to approve the payment for the photocopies of the manual pages. The motion passed.

Communications Director: Margaret Simmons reported that the Project Manual was finally finished and was distributed to the Congregational Coordinators at the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast. The Chapter Board has also decided to give a manual to our other organizations that regularly submit CAIC project requests, which include Camp Carol Joy Holling, Camp Luther, Lutheran Student Center, University Lutheran Chapel, Lincoln Lutheran Middle & High School and Tabitha. Jan Beck asked about a copies of the contents for Chapter Board and all Board members present indicated that they would like to have a copy. The contents of the Project Manual will be copied and provided at the May meeting. Margaret will ask the users of the Manual to submit suggestions and updates for improvements. These will be considered and made available at the 2009 Congregational Coordinators Training.

Due to the Manual being a bigger challenge that anticipated the newsletter at the end of March did not get completed. The newsletter will be completed in the next couple of weeks. Margaret sent a new release about the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast to the Lincoln Journal Star and the Neighborhood Extra. Dennis Buckley, Neighborhood Extra, requested a list of recipients as he is doing quite on volunteer recognition for the next issue. I would like to get a story and a picture to Thrivent home office and the event will be the front page story for our newsletter. I will also try to get a postcard about May 3rd Join Hands Day event sent to the membership this week.

Events Director: Judy Janssen reported that 126 people attended the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast on Saturday, April 19th at Christ Lutheran Church. The invitation that was designed by the committee with input from others was printed and sent to 161 individuals. Response to the invitation was due by 4/2/08 and follow-up phone calls were made to the volunteers that had not responded. In visiting with volunteers they were very honored and proud to be selected for their volunteer work and excited to attend. The coordinators felt that this was a very worthwhile event to recognize volunteers. Judy expressed appreciation and thanks for the work of the Chapter Board (helping decorate on Friday evening and helping serve and clean up on Saturday) and especially the committee members (Jeff-printing/mailing invitations, printing the programs and serving as MC for the event; Roger-handling the certificates and getting the plaques engraved; Margaret-contacting the media; Linda-selection of the caterer and helping with favors; Phil and Dennis-passing out the plaques/certificates and Shane-handling the photography).

This year 27 of the 32 congregations in Lancaster County participated in the Event; 21 of the recognized volunteers attended; 44 of the 80 congregational coordinators attended; seven ministers attended and four of the presidents of the congregation attended. In the future more time is needed from the deadline date of the submission form to the mailing out of the invitations. This year we followed up with phone calls to volunteers, emails to coordinators and phone calls to ministers. The submission form should include a blank for the name and address of the president of the congregation. This year the invitations were sent to the church and in the future it would be better to send the invitations directly to their home. The Board may want to consider inviting the organization the volunteers have worked with such as Tabitha, City Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Matt Talbot Kitchen, Orphan Grain Train, etc. After several years of having this annual volunteer recognition be a breakfast event the Board may want to consider a luncheon or another type of event.

Youth Director: Sally Mertens had no written report but encouraged Board members to attend the Join Hands Day event on Saturday, May 3rd at 2324 Kimarra Place in Lincoln. Youth and adults will be packaging food for the ‘Kids Against Hunger’ project. Sally has received an inquiry about a similar Join Hands Day event to be held at ??? (location please) on Sunday, May 18th. The motion was made by Kristy Plander and seconded by Margaret Simmons to authorize Sally to use the Join Hands Day funds for refreshments for those participating in the May 3rd and the May 18th events and the remaining balance, if any, to purchase supplies for the food packages that will be made during the activity. The motion passed. Margaret will send a postcard to Lancaster County Thrivent members to remind them of the event.

Congregational Service Team Director: Vicki Onken sent emails to the Congregational Coordinators as a reminder of the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast event. There were 15 Care in Congregations activities completed since the March 25th which included the following congregations: Christ Lutheran ($1600); Sheridan Lutheran ($600 - 2 projects); Redeemer Lutheran ($800); Good Shepherd ($800 – 4 projects); St. Paul ($900); First Lutheran ($500); United Lutheran ($450 – 2 projects); Calvary ($800); Prince of Peace ($300) and Our Saviour’s ($250).

President: Jeff Peterson addressed several topics that are listed below in his report.
Volunteer Recognition – Margaret has done some publicity with the Neighborhood Extra. We need to figure out a process to get a few photos for a news release to the media. I will email a group photo to Margaret and check with Thrivent Home Office about follow-up publicity. Kristy will put an ad in the Lincoln Journal Star in recognition of Volunteers Week.

Communication Process – Jeff thanked Margaret for getting the Project Manual completed and distributed. This is great tool in the communication process. Discussion followed about the best way to set up folders in the Chapter’s email account. The consensus was to potentially set up the folders by project request and keep all communications about a particular project in that folder. We have received a project request through the email process and I would like to set up a tracking process to use this tool and not repeat each other’s work. I have set up the Board members and Advisors contact in gmail under Contacts.. I am in the process of putting all the contacts from the volunteer event into the contacts of gmail.

Fall Event - We finished the Volunteer Recognition Breakfast event and now need a community for the Fall Event. The event will be held at noon on Sunday, October 19th at Lincoln Lutheran Middle and High School. The Fall Event committee will be Shane Larson, Sally Mertens, Roger Simmons, Judy Janssen and Jan Beck.

Internet – I have completed some updating to our Internet site. There have been 1312 site hits.

Thrivent Builds Specialist: Linda Stubbendick reported that with the recent rains the basements in Lincoln are full of mud. A question had been asked about how families are chosen to receive a Habitat of Humanity house. Families have to make application for a Habitat for Humanity house and after that the Habitat for Humanity Board makes the decision as to the recipients. In 2008 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will be sponsoring two houses located at 4710 Gary Gately Street (Airpark area) and 33rd and X Street near Peter Pan Park (will be built in Sheridan Lutheran parking lot). The Waffleman is available either August 7th, 14th, or 21st and any one interested should contact Linda via email. Margaret will try to get some information about the Habitat Builds and fund-raising for the churches portion in the next newsletter.

Action Items

Community Service Team Director’s Report: Keith Plummer presented seven ‘Care Abounds in Community’ (CAIC) activity requests that had been received since the January 22nd Chapter meeting. All CAIC approved requests are being funded 1:1 unless otherwise noted.

Project #08-30242-33: This project request for $2500 was from St. Mark’s Lutheran School for the school’s computer lab. This event was held on April 18, 2008 and was titled School play, dinner and silent auction. The project request had been approved via email due to the date of the project. The motion to ratify the email vote was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander approving the project request for up to $800. The motion passed.

Project #08-30242-34: This request for $800 is from Lancaster County Chapter Board for a Join Hands Day hands-on activity for ‘Kids Against Hunger. The activity will be preparing food packages at Kimarra Place in Lincoln on May 3rd and in ??? (Sally, the location ?) on May 18th. The motion was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander to approve this project request for up to $800. The motion passed.

Project #08-30242-34: This request for $800 is from Lancaster County Chapter Board for a Join Hands Day hands-on activity for ‘Kids Against Hunger. The activity will be preparing food packages at Kimarra Place in Lincoln on May 3rd and ??? on May 18th. The motion was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander to approve this project request for up to $800. The motion passed.

Project #08-30242-35: This request for $800 is from Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church for ‘All God’s Children (Todos los Hyas de Dios)’ in Beatrice for general support. The event is entitled the Festival of Tables-Around the World and will be held on July 14. 2008. The motion was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander to approve this project request for up to $800. The motion passed.

Project #08-30242-36: This request for $800 is from Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church to support some citizens from Tanzania, Africa while in the United States for the Nebraska Synod Assembly in June. The event is a Silent Auction to be held on May 4th, 11th, and 18th at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church for transportation and for gifts for them and for gifts to take back to Tanzania. The motion was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander to approve this project request for up to $800. The motion was defeated due to the source of funds should be ‘Care in Congregations’,

Project #08-30242-37: This request for $800 is from Lutheran Service Corp for their Charity Golf Tournament. The activity will take place on May 19th at the Oak Hills Country Club in Omaha. The funds raised will be used to support volunteer service programs. The motion was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander to approve this project request for up to $800. The motion passed.

Project #08-30242-38: This request for $800 is from Lincoln Lutheran Middle & High School for Student Physicals. The event will occur on May 5th and 12th and the funds will be used to support those students who may not be able to participate in athletics due to the cost of the physical. The motion was made by Keith Plummer and seconded by Kristy Plander to approve this project request for up to $800. The motion was defeated due to the project not meeting the volunteer hours and funds raised requirements.

Other Business: Financial Associate Shirley Hunt introduced her husband, Tim, as a new Financial Associate and informed the group that they were working as a team. The Financial Associates from the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Office in Lincoln donated a big screen television for the recent Gala Auction at Lincoln Lutheran Middle and High School event, which was a success.

Announcement: The next monthly chapter meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 beginning at 6:30 p.m. The location is Peace Lutheran Church, 9831 North 145th, Waverly, NE.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:33 p.m. Jeff requested that the Board review the nomination process and the gmail communication prior to our next meeting.