Minutes from Mission 2007 Planning Meeting

Held Monday Oct. 30 7pm @ St. Paul's Youth Center
Next Mtg: November 20 at 7:00 PM at St. Paul’s

We began by listing some of the aspects of the 2006 (and earlier) trips we liked. The list looked like this:
• Flying
• Meeting people
• Getting far away from home
• Free time
• Staying at the beach
• Creative expressive worship
• Helping people
• Getting to know God Squad
• Ultimate Frisbee
• RICHARD
• Richard
• Lots of work
• Small groups

There was a fair bit of discussion around some of these items; these items tended to cluster around four ideas:
Service
Worship
Community (within God Squad and reaching out far beyond to new people)
Newness (of place, experience, and people)

We then listed many potential places we might go, along with a short description of what we might do there:
• New York City – work with kids/youth; renovate a park; “inner city” ministry
• San Diego – Head Start; little kids (as done three years ago)
• Los Angeles – same work as NYC
• Navajo lands – work in same area visited four and five years ago; fix & paint a church, etc.
• Alaska – assist in building a camp, and work in that camp; work with native Alaskans
• Hawaii – work in leper colony
• Idaho – assist in building / fixing up a school (as done two years ago, Lilian Vallely School)
• Chicago – Same as NYC
• New Orleans / Mississippi – possibly more hurricane relief, possibly inner city ministry (see NYC)
• Canada (quickly ruled out)
• Mexico: Build houses, migrant worker / immigration issues
• Wyoming – quickly ruled out.
• Taize – The Bishop is taking a group of youth and young adults to Taize France; many are interested in going, but this seemed to be separate from a Mission Trip.
• Florida – Hurricane / Inner city / migrant worker issues

As we discussed each of these possible places and work activities, we grouped activities into four areas:
Social work, especially with inner city youth
Construction
Environmental (inc. landscaping)
Teaching

We also identified potential resources in each location, which I will now misinterpret and misspell:
• NYC: somebody’s new rector?
• San Diego: Episcopal CS
• Los Angeles” Claire’s aunt?
• Navajo lands: Michael Carney’s earlier contact; the Bishop
• Alaska: Shana, the Bishop, Carol Luther, Sarah Crawford
• Hawaii: Michael Carney, Shana
• Idaho: Lilian Vallely School, Richard
• Chicago: Phil, Shana
• New Orleans: ULM, Marc Jones
• Taize: Bishop
• Florida: Katie Taylor’s sister?

After discussing many of these options for location, work, and resources to help in planning, we voted. Everyone could vote for four potential destinations.

The results were:
• New York City: 11
• Alaska: 9
• Hawaii: 7
• New Orleans / Mississippi: 6
• (Nowhere else got more than 4 votes, most got 2 or 3)

We decided that these four offered plenty of diversity, and there was good enthusiasm for each of them, so we assigned people to look into the following:
• Transportation costs, both to get there and while we’re there
• Where we could stay
• What we could do while there (work, recreation, program activities)
• What potentially good or bad dates there are for that location
The following teams were appointed:
• NYC: Erin, Meghan,
• Alaska: Rob, Rob, and Shana
• Hawaii: Sam and Sam
• New Orleans & Mississippi: Calvin, Richard

We had a discussion about dates as well, during which we discussed date conflicts with BREAD camps, the Bishop’s trip to Taize, and more. The weeks with the fewest conflicts (although there are conflicts for all possible weeks) were the weeks of:
• 7/23
• 7/30
• 8/6
• 8/13
An overall trip of approximately 10 days is the target, depending on budget and dates of availability at the destination.

The next meeting will be held on November 20 at 7:00 PM at St. Paul’s. At that meeting, the four teams will report their findings, and we will narrow down the field of potential destinations, possibly to one.