The meeting was attended by 23 participants , 15 of which were acting Lay Directors. Brian Cameno announced that regular Lay Director Zoom meetings held every other month on the third Tuesday will continue; and he asked for current contact information of any Lay Directors who are not receiving his communications. Brian strongly encouraged all Lay Directors to attend one of the Annual Gathering Saturday EOI sessions “Secretariat Leadership” at either 1:15 or 2:15PM.
The exchange of ideas discussions centered on three main topics: 1) Locations for Weekends (when a camp is not an option); 2) Declining Participation (team members, pilgrims, Spiritual Directors); 3) Financing the Weekends. Concerns and ideas included the following:
- Locations and accommodations: High school, assisted living center, any community business or building that has shower and cooking accommodations, church building, hotel, converted trailer into combined shower/storage.
- Participation and continuity of VDC people (team, pilgrims, Spiritual Directors) : Aging out of our older team members; need for spiritual directors, revitalization of grouping and ultreya attendance, two secretariats combining resources and personnel, grouping by text or zoom; continued need for face-to -face grouping; “Back to the Mountain” retreats, emphasizing sponsorship responsibilities;grow the sponsorship “family” with Pilgrim, Grand Pilgrim, Great-Grand Pilgrim idea; new National initiative to “find the lost sheep”, ie database collection of inactive 4th day members and campaign to contact and bring them back into VDC.
- Finances: The secretariat funds partial fee for new Pilgrims; Use Thrivent Action Project Dollars and Choice Dollar programs to fund weekend expenses.
Respectfully Submitted
Martha Steele
