Friday, July 4, 2003

The meeting began at 8:45 am.

1. Opening Prayer and Devotion: Rev Mark Seeger signed the opening prayer and gave us a devotion about Holding Tightly on Jesus Christ. He shared some humorous things about being put on Hold and so on. Shared some biblical comments about Hold.
2. Welcome: President welcomed us to the business meeting. He asked Elmer Francisco to be our Parliamentarian and Elmer accepted. He also asked Lester Ahls to be the chairperson of the Resolutions Committee. Lester accepted. President also asked several others: Jeff McGuire, Mark Majewski, Henry Niemeyer and Don Mowl to be our Tellers.
3. Necrology: Diane greeted us and asked us to have moment of silence to remember those deceased members as listed under several regions on the screen.
4. Resolutions: Lester Ahls came up to the stage and accepted the duty as the chairman for Resolutions Committee. He asked Pastor William Ludwig and Linda Desrosiers to serve with him as well. The deadline for Resolutions would be morning or tonight but hopefully by noon on Saturday.
5. Nominating Report: President asked Rev Dennis Konkell to come on the stage. He explained that it would be Richard Norton, the most recent President but he is unable to attend so Pastor Konkell is taking Richard's place. He thanked for the opportunity to serve again. He shared that those who are nominated must be at the convention. Those being nominated are:

President-elect: Greg Desrosiers was still thinking.
Secretary: Erika Sipchen, Arizona and Linda Desrosiers, Vancouver, BC were nominated but both declined. Tim Johnston, the current secretary, came up to the stage to share that he was willing to continue serving for the third term only if there is no other one interested in the position and that By-Laws have to be suspended to allow him to run again.
Treasurer: Jim Sipchen, Arizonia, accepted to run again for the second term. Jeff Padon, Maryland, accepted and came up to the stage to introduce himself and share briefly about his experience.
Pastoral Advisors: Pastors John Reinke, WI, Mark Seeger, TX, Matt Nix, SD, Tim Eckhart, IA and Paul Tessaro, TN

There will be election after the coffee break on Saturday. Pastor Konkell asked us to think more about others to be nominated and bring the names to the floor.

6. Interpreters: The interpreters were introduced and brought to the stage. The President thanked them for their wonderful interpreting service. Their names were Paula Willing, SE IL near St. Louis, Karen Pale, IL and her husband is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Chester, IL, Dori Zhianakas, from Holy Cross Cary, IL, Linda Nix and her husband is Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church for the Deaf in SF, SD and Pat Wittrock from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Burbnay, IL.
7. Special Guest: The President introduced our special guest, Rev. Rodney Rynearson. RR came to the floor and gave some kind comments saying that it was a real pleasure that he was enjoying it, as he was not planning to come since he was now retired.
8. Real-Time Captioner: Lynn Ettl from Stillwater, MN was introduced.
9. Secretary's minutes: Tim Johnston came to the stage sharing his efforts as a secretary to the best of his abilities. It was a rewarding experience that he made good progress and improvements. The President has been using him well that I began to realize that it was truly the secretary's duty. There was a slight technical issue since he was informed that he can show previous convention minutes from disk on a laptop connected to screen projector but there was no floppy drive so he gave short summaries on selected items from the minutes. The copies of the convention minutes were already made and inserted in each registrant's folders, which was in light blue color. Also, he explained that he was interested to reconsider in running again for a third term and shared the good reasons as he was interested to work with the existing and potential good officers and involve with the efforts to improve the ILDA Convention format and promote the awareness about ILDA. Diane Francisco proposed to accept the minutes as written. Beverly McCulley, Memphis, TN, seconded it.
10. Treasurer's Report: Jim came up and told us that he has been working very hard the past two years. He was having little difficulty with Power Point presentation of his financial report but finished it last night. It was such a wonderful technology so he is happy to see it working. He shared that the treasurer position was a wonderful learning experience, as he never saw so much information was involved and different. He had many experiences with funding and business however none prepared him for that kind of challenge. He admitted that he had a heavy schedule as student, part time worker, and treasurer and so on-it was very challenging and struggling. He was grateful for much encouragement from the ILDA Board. He admitted that two years term was not enough to complete the job well. So he wanted to become more involved in the process and learn more about our programs that he wanted to continue with the progress. The good news was that the financial report was finished but the bad news was that it was not entirely complete. He wanted to share with us how ILDA's financial health is and he had report copies on the table near the water tanks. Preliminary and financial reports between July 2001 and 2003 had lot of problems but he managed to fix them that the amount figures were figured out and corrected. $15,999.87 was the amount in checking account of General Fund for cash flow income, memberships and donations from 7/01 to 7/03. Total expenses were quite high from two years ago - $18,876 in total expense. He had been working on reducing the expenses. The savings account and Missions Project Fund, including DIT and Zechariaus Funds for the years 7/01-7/03 was 22,614.37. He admitted having much learning to use the Financial Software well to run the financial reports. He also had trouble with banks in AZ as their policies and processes changed lot for non-profit organizations that they do scrutinize the funds very closely. When he is finished with internship and schooling, he will become more diligent with the treasury books. He thanked us for our understanding with blessings. President verified about latest report being audited so for the record, it has not been audited yet. So his financial report could be accepted with good faith until it is finalized and audited.
11. President's Report: President reported that the last two years had been a good experience. Since the last meeting in Indy, it was started from scratch with little support from the past officers but he thanked God for His help and the officers for helping him to continue for the last two year. He shared that some thought he was too old but he felt he could carry out his duties for two years that he thanked God for taking good care of him and his health. LCMS Ministry has been cutting funds that 9 pastors and church workers for Deaf Missions were cut out. He hoped that things would work out better along with ILDA in taking over some of extra responsibilities and ideas. ILDA will support the upcoming Convocation in Houston, TX in 2005. That report will be given later on. He learned lot from using the computer in making communications and chats lot easier. However, some misunderstandings could happen easily. He felt blessed to be a part of ILDA Executive Board as it was a rewarding and challenging experience that he learned lot to become a better leader. He thanked for the support and wished Pam Kane the next new President the best and that she would receive the full support.
12. Pastoral Advisor Report: Pastor Bud Palmer came and shared that he was asked to replace Pastor Mark Anderson who had to resign on account of having another new job. This was because he was cut off from Illinois District as they decided to stop funding the Deaf Ministry. So Pastor Bud was willing to take over the temporary duty until the end of the term during this weekend. Pastor Anderson is still continuing to serve as pastor to those three deaf churches in Northern Illinois with some financial support so please continue to pray for him and his family. As for Pastor Bud, he had something to report. He was wearing a different cap because that was African cap as he will be going to travel to Ghana with another Pastor Reinke in next few weeks. There would be a large deaf population in Ghana that the pastors would be there to give lot of encouragement in coming to the faith in Jesus Christ. He shared with us in what they would do more while they are in Ghana. He informed that there would be DIT meeting on Saturday so those who are involved in DIT program and are expected to get the certificates to please see Pastor Reinke. He explained about the 8 levels in DIT program. He mentioned that Rev Roger Altenberger was laid off from LCMS District in St Louis. Pastor Altenberger indicated that DIT program was being changed somewhat to make it possible and sooner for those to become pastors. Task Force (TF) responsibilities were being transferred to Pastor Bud, too. Task Force used to be called the Standing Committee. Those on the TF committee are: Pastor John Reinke, Dr Mark Prowatski, Pastor Bill Wrede, Pam Kane, ILDA President-elect, and Sandy Green, the assistant. TF committee was really like high-up position which was somewhat awkward so they were striving hard to manage things out so right and good decisions can be made for Deaf Missions as part of His Kingdom. He asked us to please pray for them, the TF to do a good job. He shared about T-Shirts selling to show the ILY sign from God and the rear of T-shirt said Jesus Christ does love you very much along with well known verse, John 3:16. One exciting development was the development of www.DeafJesus.org website to contain various sermons and devotions from pastors for sermon or bible study. The site was still under ongoing construction. Pastor Reinke came up to the stage to inform that the video camera was set up for those interested ones to sign up and sign out the favorite biblical passages or verses in ASL in a specific meeting room.
13. The Deaf Lutheran Editor's Report: Dave Brown shared that the experience as editor was enriching and that DL business continued to be self-sufficient. The reader subscription went down from 803 to 651. Everything continued to be the same as expected such as articles coming in according to the established deadlines. He ruefully that he decided due to personal reasons that he has to leave the post after the September issue has gone out. Some of us expressed the gratitude and desire for him to continue our editor however we would accept his reasons and that a suitable replacement could be found. Dave expressed his willingness to assist and train the next editor.
14. The Deaf Lutheran Business Manager's Report: Larry Ginter shared that it was an experience to serve as DL Business Manager that everything is going well as seen in his report and that he will continue to serve as business manager as usual even wishing that Dave Brown can continue to function as editor but understood his personal reasons. He expressed the interest of taking over that prompted a discussion of finding funds or someone to train him in using certain layout editing software. A motion should be made at the convention about this.
15. President-elect Report: Pam Kane thanked us for the support that she was able to serve the two year term as President-elect as it is with desire and duty to serve for the great Lord across the nation and other nations as seen in her solo signed song last night.
16. Law Committee Report: Pam Kane came back to the stage again and started the power point presentation on the Proposed ILDA Handbook's By-Law Changes. All proposed changes are seen in the report handout. Any discussion to the proposed changes has to be on hold until tomorrow morning. She asked us to ponder these changes for any further changes or accepted with a vote tomorrow. President indicated that any change needing to be changed further would have to be referred to the Law Committee for further study and preparation for next convention.
17. 2003 ILDA Host Pastor: Pastor Gehlbach came up and shared some announcements about the plans for today and three workshops tomorrow but indicated that business meeting is still very important tomorrow. He signed the closing prayer thanking the Lord for the inspiration with the help of Holy Spirit to feel motivated to serve the Lord in spreading out His Word and helping others come to know Jesus Christ.

Meeting was put on hold at 10:30 am and will be resumed tomorrow sometime at 8:30 am.

Saturday, July 5, 2003

The business meeting began at 9 am.

President greeted us and indicated his wish that we would be able to complete all business matters on time since we began about 30 minutes late.

1. Finance Committee's Report: Jim came up and showed us the Power Point presentation of the Budget Review for the past fiscal year from 7/01/2001 to 6/30/2003. The expected income total would be $7,800 but the actual income total turned out to be $15,999.87. The income came from Membership dues, God's 1000 Club dues, donations, interest income from LCEF and Savings and previous ILDA Convention 2001 income and ILDA Pins fund-raising. The expected expenses total would be $19,000, while the actual expenses turned out to be $12,566.29 resulting in net revenue of -$11,200 and $3,433.58, respectively. So that would mean a positive profit so it turned out to be good than expected so God is very good. However, we still need to be very careful in how we spend our money. It was only good thing that ILDA Convention in Indy turned over a profit that they could give the money back to ILDA General Fund. That was wonderful. Now as for the proposed ILDA 2003-2005 Budget for the fiscal years from 7/01/2003 to 6/30/2005, the expected income would be about $10,000 for those similar incomes as listed earlier plus any additional fundraising as we can do it! For the proposed ILDA 2003-05 Budget from 7/2003 to 6/30/2005, the expected expenses would be about $15,000 to cover the expenses for Executive Board meetings both in 2003-04 and 2004-05 as well for Convention expenses in 2005, office/miscellaneous expenses (postage, copying, etc.) It is the hope that we could reduce the total expenses down by $4000. We communicate via the internet so we can reduce the postage and call expenses. That is pretty much about it as we continue to be very conservative. There were some questions and clarifications. There will be audit by independent auditors, which would be more objective when reviewing the financial reports. He is working with that process and it was a long process but our finances are helping that we are over about $79,000. We are still very careful considering the cutbacks across the nation, mission districts and organizations and so on.
2. Missions Project Chair's Report: Erika Sicphen came up and shared that she was given the duty a year ago. She learned lot and developed a brochure. She thanked Pam Kane for being so helpful in bringing her up to the speed about Missions Project program and funds. We have a total of donations about $24,942, which will be distributed to those mission funds that the board approved two years ago after the convention. It was about 52.5% of our goal that we were short of about $22,058 in reaching $47,000 target goal. The newly proposed Missions Project Listing are as follows:

2003-2005 Missions Project
Tentative Listing

1. DIT/Zacharus Fund - $7,000
2. ILDA Public Relations/Video Project (pending review) - $5,000
3. Starfish Learning Center - $3,000
4. Ghana Outreach Training - $2,000
5. India Outreach Training - $2,000
6. www.DeafJesus.org - $3,000
7. Brazil Outreach Training - $1,500
8. World Mission ­ Deaf Mission Society - $1,500
9. Pax Natrua Ranch (Canada) - $1,000
Total - $26,000

A motion came up with a suggestion in cutting down the ILDA Video Project by $3,000 and redistributing that into Ghana, India and Brazil with $1,000 each, as these missions are more important. The president explained that the above listing was already set by the board so one would have to wait until 2005 to make the suggested changes. One made a correction in saying that the members have the right to make the amends as its still part of our ILDA so it was acknowledged that amends could be made during the New Business section.
3. Law Committee's Report: Pam Kane shared that after showing the proposed changes yesterday the members had the time to review them so now is the time to discuss any changes. She went through each proposed changes to see if there are any changes. One made a point in saying that these changes weren't needed to be discussed on the floor but these would be taken care of by the board. So these changes would appear in the Deaf Lutheran Newsletter for their review and send any comments to her via mail or e-mail.
4. Nominating Report: Pastor Konkell came up explaining that those members with yellow ribbons can vote, while those without can't. Pastor Palmer came up and signed a prayer asking for His wisdom and Holy Spirit into our minds and hearts to help us ponder and vote for the right person to serve on the Executive Council for 2003-2005. Pastor Konkell introduced his four tellers and asked us to please vote on a piece of paper ­ be sure to print/write the names clearly not forcing them to figure out like those election auditors in FL! Greg Desrosiers, Vancouver, BC accepted to run for the President-elect. Elmer Francisco, WA, proposed to accept him by acclamation, however it was indicated that it would be nice to take time to ponder and vote after hearing what Greg has to say. But the vote was already taken place to accept Greg Desrosiers. Passed! Greg wanted to share his visions and thoughts. He indicated that it will be a challenge due to financial cutbacks and fundraising efforts. He will investigate additional ways of obtaining additional funds from other sources. David Bunton, WI came up and proposed to accept Tim Johnston for Secretary by acclamation as there is no one interested or nominated as most declined. President explained that Tim Johnston is willing to continue the officer position but he already was finishing the second term so according to the Constitution and By-Laws, two terms are limited so a motion is needed to suspend that. David Bunton made the motion to suspend the ILDA Constitution and By-Laws and his motion was seconded by Carol Ann Seeger, TX. Passed. Tim came up thanking and sharing some comments. Jim Sipchen, AZ and Jeff Padon, MD are two candidates for Treasurer position. Each gave his comments and goals. Voting took place.
5. Jr. ILDA Chair's Report: Megan Gehlbach, pastor's daughter, is a representative for Sara McKinney who wanted to let us know that they are having wonderful times at Valleyfair amusement park and Mall of America.
6. Convocation Report: Pastor Mark Seeger, TX came up and informed us that the report won't be long but it might take no more than three hours. (laughing) The first convocation happened in 1980 in Madison, WI setting up the goals for the deaf ministry for next few years. How many may remember those goals, which might not happen except for some. So in 1997 in Kansas City, Mo new goals were set. Next convocation will be in Jan 2005 during the Martin Luther King weekend. Right now they are setting up the steering committee so some of members will remain but will select new members by invitation only, however they are open to advice or nominations. The reason for having convocation in Houston so the people from North can escape the cold. He shared about three areas to cover, where Deaf Ministry was in the past, where we are now and where we are going in the future. The future thing seems to be a problem but he is not a prophet. He can't share or set the goals but he can imagine that we will be focusing on the youth, what the congregations are going to do and how the funding will work, especially for the pastors and church workers. There will be about 100 people in attendance. Convocation is by invitation and is a planning kind of thing while the convention is a meeting and voting thing. Invitations in the past were to different kinds of people of different faiths to give us an idea of what were going on, what were the problems/challenges and what they were like that it was over 200 in Wisconsin. The last time it was for LCMS people only so we are doing it again however good selections of certain groups will be invited with an effort to make it a good range of varied interests and concerns.
7. Nominating Update: The winner of the treasurer position is Jim Sipchen, Az. Five Pastor Advisors came and introduced themselves along with some comical comments. The pastors were: John Reinke, WI, Mark Seeger, TX, Tim Eckhart, IA, Matthew Nix, SD and Paul Tessaro, TN.
8. Resolutions: Lester Ahls announced that he along with two others, Linda Desrosiers and Pastor William Ludwig that they are having a meeting at noon today.
9. Special comment: Pastor David Bush was asked by the President to share some comments. Pastor Bush shared that he trains our future pastors for the deaf and future church interpreters for the deaf ministries. The brochures on Church Interpreter Training Institute (CITI) were passed out with the hopes that they would be given to any potential pastor or interpreter to attend and improve their signing skills especially the religious signing part.
10. 2001 ILDA Convention Host Chair's Report: Winona Alter came and shared that about 205 attended the convention and only 35 requested refunds. She felt that the convention was very successful as lot enjoyed and became interested to work with deaf people. The only disappointing news was that they had to pay a penalty of $7,000 because they did not meet the hotel's expectations. The profits of the convention went to ILDA's General Fund.
11. 2003 ILDA Convention Host Chair's Report: Mark Johnson came up and noticed that lot enjoyed the convention very much and liked the new ideas with the registration that may help raise more money. About 220 came to the convention and about 12 for Jr. ILDA. Jr. ILDA is for any children of the ILDA Convention attendees. There was lot of fundraising efforts to help reduce the costs. He reported that he is hoping to see more growth in ILDA and that it can happen on other weekend other than July the Fourth weekend and more members are joining in the future so ILDA continues to grow and thrive.
12. Nominating Update: Pastors Reinke and Seeger were tied so voting took place again.

13. New Business:

The first six motions were made in the ILDA Board of Directors meeting.

Motion #1 was made by Pacific Region President, Jack Burns, (seconded by Midwest Region President Glenda Haefner) to accept and carry the Proposed By-Law Changes to the Convention floor to be approved and voted upon this coming Saturday. Passed.

The first motion was dropped because the proposed by-laws changes will appear in the Deaf Lutheran newsletter for the feedbacks.

Motion #2 was made by Eastern Region President Wayne Bornegesser (seconded by Larry Ginter) to accept the Missions Project report as presented. Passed.

The President would like to move forward to discuss the motion #3.

Motion #3 was made by Midwest Region President Glenda Haefner (seconded by Janice Mancill) to accept the 2003-2005 Missions Project Tentative Listing. Passed.

2003-2005 Missions Project
Tentative Listing

1. DIT/Zacharus Fund - $7,000
2. ILDA Public Relations/Video Project (pending review) - $5,000
3. Starfish Learning Center - $3,000
4. Ghana Outreach Training - $2,000
5. India Outreach Training - $2,000
6. www.DeafJesus.org - $3,000
7. Brazil Outreach Training - $1,500
8. World Mission ­ Deaf Mission Society - $1,500
9. Pax Natrua Ranch (Canada) - $1,000
Total - $26,000

Motion #3 was about accepting the proposed Missions Project tentative listing so Erika Sipchen was asked to come up and describe each mission fund and its purpose. She asked us to please make donations towards Missions Project funds during the offering time tomorrow and from now on!

Motion #4 was made by Rev. John Reinke (seconded by Jack Burns, Pacific Region President) that ILDA Convention format be changed slightly to have business meeting to occur on Thursday morning and the tours in the afternoon so the rest of the weekend, Friday to Sunday, can be focused on the workshops. Passed.

Fourth motion was shown, explained and debated but it was removed by Pastor Reinke since another similar motion will appear next.

Motion #5 was made by Jim Sipchen (seconded by Jack Burns, Pacific Region President) to establish a Committee study ways to give some kind of Senior Citizen discount or scholarship with the amount be a pro-rate based on the years of membership in ILDA. Passed.

The President felt that this motion should be passed over to the ILDA Board for further review and study. Passed.

Motion #6 was made by Jim Sipchen (seconded by Pam Kane, President-elect) that ILDA Treasurer create a master charge account for ILDA to contain any ILDA related expenses/charges. Passed.

There were some good discussions on that motion along with good points as there were other ways and restrictions that it would be best to refer it to the board for further study or dropped as there were other ways, anyway. The president felt it would be best to carry it to the board for the further study. Passed.

14. Nominating Update: The past presidents came to help with the prayer and vote counts for Pastoral Advisor. It turned out that Pastor Mark Seeger will be our next Pastoral Advisor.

The meeting was put on hold at 12 pm and will be resumed at 1 pm.

Motion #7 was made by Lester Ahls, IA (seconded by Diane Fancisco, WA) to change the section in the Constitution/By-Laws to allow the President have two terms (2-year/term).

There was an important discussion since the bylaws required that the motion be printed in the Deaf Lutheran newsletter for further consideration about 90 days prior to the convention even though that originator sent in that motion 90 days in advance. Pastoral Advisor, Pastor Palmer, came up to the stage at the request of the president but Pastor Palmer clarified that he was asked to carry out the small remainder of the term when Pastor Mark Anderson had to resign. Not much time was available to read and become familiar with the constitution and bylaws so he strongly advise us not to dwell too much on the business matters as we should be more concerned about the missions and ministry efforts to spread out the Gospel to other weak or unbelievers. The president agreed and suggested that this be brought over to the Law Committee. Passed.

Motion #8 was moved by Carol Ann Pickell, IL, (seconded by Jack Burns, CA) to have ILDA donate $1,000 to Pastors Reinke's and Palmer's trip to Ghana. Carol quickly moved to make a call to close the motion with a vote and it was seconded by May Lou Harrel, AK. Passed.

Motion #9 was moved by James Swalley, IN (seconded by Jack Burns, CA) to have ILDA look for a replacement for the editor of the Deaf Lutheran after the fall issue is mailed out. Passed.

Motion #10 was moved by Dee Mills (seconded by Elmer Francisco, WA) to have DIT people, pastors, deaconesses or vicars be involved with the banner competition because they would know the meanings of bible verses. Failed.

Motion #11 was made by May Lou Harrel, AK (seconded by Bev McCulley, MO) to have the ILDA Host Committee get the badgers identified by the position titles for the officers. Passed.

Motion #12 was made by May Lou Harrel, AK (seconded by Marilyn Aspnes) to have the convention minutes be printed in the convention program book. Failed.

Motion #13 was made by May Lou Harrel, AK (seconded by Marilyn Aspnes) to have the workshops to contain the Bible stories translation and so on. President felt it would be rise to carry that motion to the next ILDA Convention Host Committee for further consideration. Passed.

Motion #14 was made by David Bunton, WI (seconded by Barry Dischinger, NY) to change the ILDA Agenda for 2005 as follows:

Thursday
10:00 am Registration Open
1:00-1:45 pm Open Worship
2:00-6:00 pm Business Meeting
7:00 ILDA Program
Intro - 2)skits - 3) banners 4)choir etc..
Friday Workshops (Spiritual)
Evening Fun/excite ­ Example: Bible games/questions
Saturday Spiritual Workshops continued
Evening Banquet
Sunday Bible Study Worship Home

The president felt that this motion will be better off be carried over to the 2005 ILDA Convention Host Committee, as they will take care of all of that. Passed.

Motion #15 was made by Lester Ahls, IA (seconded by Harry Niemeyer, IL) to have the motions that will be made within next two years be written and sent to the secretary for distribution. Passed.

Three suggestions were made by Anne Enhrichmann, PA a. To have constitution and bylaws handbooks on ILDA be freely distributed to the members. It was clarified that they are available on the ILDA website. It was carried over to Law Committee. b. To have next ILDA Conventions be held on University campus to save costs. It was referred to the ILDA Convention Host Committee. c. To have a new fundraising position be added to the board. It was referred to the Finance Committee.

Henry Niemeyer, IL, moved to close the new business and it was seconded by May Lou Harrel, AK.

15. 2007 ILDA Convention Host Bid: Bonnie White, MD (seconded by Marilynn Aspnes) moved to accept Christ Deaf Lutheran Church, Silver Springs, MD to host the 2007 ILDA Convention in Baltimore, MD. Passed.

16. 2009 ILDA Convention Host Bid: Karen Beiter, NY informed that Alpha Lutheran of the Deaf, Rochester, NY already tipped in the bid but not mailed the official letter yet. She asked us to please accept their bid.

Meeting was adjoined at 2:50pm as the meeting ran twenty minutes past the expected time so the Resolutions, which would be the last thing to be covered, are going to be taken care of through email and the board. After the approval, they will appear in the Deaf Lutheran newsletter.

Respectfully submitted by Tim Johnston, Secretary