Outreach Committee Meeting Minutes

June 1, 2003

Present: Phil Arula, Graham Kelder, Jenny Mehlow, Rita Schwantes, Susan Davis, Joanne Engquist, Bryan Russell, and Kathryn Hamm

I. Fall Planning

a. Welcome Luncheon

  1. Previous Luncheons: In the past (prior to the formation of the outreach committee), each group in the church contributed to the luncheon. The board of worship originally put it together in the fall and as more committees formed, more groups participated in the luncheon. There used to be two welcome luncheons, which switched to one welcome lunch and one Friendship Sunday after the formation of the committee.
  2. Leadership of Luncheon: After the formation of this committee, it took on both the welcome luncheon and Friendship Sunday. However, there is a feeling that the two luncheons last fall were too close together and lost their individual significance. What exactly is our responsibility for the welcome luncheon as the outreach committee? Part of our mission is to be welcoming and thus we should be involved in some way with the luncheon. Last year we overextended ourselves with both luncheons, as well as the result of both lunches seeming to have the same meaning. One suggestion is to have different committees lead the luncheon and have the outreach committee designate who that is, each fall. However, before last year, people were called up and asked to bring a specific main dish (lasagna) and desserts. The church bought salads and drinks. The outreach committee will make those phone calls this year, and will be responsible for leading the brief intros and conversations at the individual tables.
  3. Program: There has been mixed success with programs in the past because of the food line. We should work on mutual connections between the people sitting at the tables. We should also have the sign-in downstairs. We can have someone take pictures of the tables to get to know the people sitting there. Also, the church is trying to get the bread breakers group going again, which will provide newcomers and members a way to get to know each more.

b. Friendship Sunday:

  1. Timing: It was originally intended to allow people to share UniLu with our friends and not as a recruitment tool. We originally had it on Reformation Sunday because it’s a Lutheran holiday and we want to share what’s unique about our faith with our friends. It’s preferable to have the Friendship Sunday this fall for two reasons: to have a Lutheran holiday to celebrate it on and also because if we wait until spring, it will have been over a year since the previous Friendship Sunday and we could lose momentum. Should we do a Friendship Sunday twice a year or just once?
  2. Food: We will have a ham and vegetarian main dish, and ask people to bring side dishes again.
  1. Stewardship Fair: There will be no dinner this year, so it will probably fall on the Welcome Luncheon, not Friendship Sunday. We can help the stewardship committee tell a story about the church (through what groups we have), rather then just recruiting. We can ask committees to update “UniLu in Brief” as preparation for the stewardship fair. All the information in it is online, which is really good for our community. Also, we may want to think about what visitors are looking for when they visit a church and make sure it’s in the pamphlet. “UniLu in Brief” is good for visitors. “What is UniLu” is really better for congregation members who want become involved in committees.
  2. Calendar:

Sept. 7-Rally Day

Sept. 14-Profile Committee presents at 10am

Sept. 19-21-John Bell will visit from Iona

Sept. 28-Welcome Luncheon

Nov. 2-Friendship Sunday/All Saint’s Day (we can use All Saint’s Day as a concept for the community remembering the dead). Jenny will be out of town on the 2nd, but will help with the prep work.

Nov. 16-shelter dedication

II. Committee Recruitment

Kathryn will be Senegal for the fall. Bryan and Graham are on the profile committee and will be busy during the summer. We will need to recruit some new members. One suggestion is Rod Laurentz.

III. Welcoming

a. Follow-up: We need to work with Joanne about strategizing follow-up with visitors and what happens to the follow-up information. The welcome letters from the pastors didn’t go out for most of the spring because of computer problems. We will work on that in July.

b. Scheduling: We need to create a summer welcomer schedule. The deacons scheduling form has already gone out, so we’ll need to send the form to the non-deacon welcomers. We thought welcoming would not be on the deacon’s form any longer. We need to be cognizant of overlapping schedules..such as sacristans, deacons, and welcomers overlapping problematically sometimes. We need to iron out scheduling different activities for Sunday mornings. Bryan and Graham will send an e-mail to the non-deacon welcomers asking them to sign up for summer services. Once they get responses, they will make the summer welcomer schedule.

IV. Next Meeting: Monday, July 14, 6:30pm, we will order pizza.