General Meeting

 

International Lutheran Deaf Association
Board of Director's Meeting
Peace Lutheran Church for the Deaf
Indianapolis, Indiana
June 19-21, 2001


Tuesday, June 19, 2001

Present: Richard Norton, President, James Swalley, President-elect, Tim Johnston, Secretary, Karen Beiter, Treasurer, Rev. Mark Anderson, Pastoral Advisor, Rev. Roger Altenberger, Deaf Mininstry LCMS Counselor, Carol Ann Pickell, Central Prez, Martha Malone, Dixie Prez, Joe Yeates, Eastern Prez, John Rushton, Great Lakes Prez, Glenda Haefner, Midwest Prez, Greg Desrosiers, Northwest Prez,
Visitors: Betty Swalley, Kathy Burt, Natalie Norton, Right Hand Award Chair, Charles and Lee Ann Kotal, Scholarship Chairs, Pam Kane, Missions Project Chair, David Brown, Deaf Lutheran Editor, Larry Ginter, Deaf Lutheran Business Mgr
Absent: Greg Desrosiers, Northwest Prez (plane arrival delayed.)

Rev. Roger Altenberger gave a devotion on Matthew 28:18 - Great Commission and discussed what the purpose of ILDA Convention would be and how we can best serve our Great Lord.

President Richard Norton called the meeting to the order at 7:15pm.
He extended great appreciation at our making scarifices in using our vacation time to attend the 16th biennial ILDA Board meeting.

1. Minutes: The beginning part of minutes of last 15th ILDA Board meeting was read and copies will be made to be read tomorrow morning.
2. Treasurer Report/Auditor's Report: Karen Beiter gave a report on ILDA's current financial standing using the overhead projector. Currently as of June 15th, the balance is $19,347.34 in ILDA General Fund, $30,205.78 for Mission Project (including $4,500 that was already disbursed for three summer camps), $10,391.47 in Convocation Fund, $4,059.66 in Video fund, $19,255.00 in Zacharias fund, $263.49 in Endowment fund, $1,000 in Jr ILDA fund and $1,260.50 in LCEF CD. Membership count was that we had 206 ILDA members and 79 God's Club members. (see financial reports for further details.) She hoped that ILDA continues to be very economical with their monies. There was a question & answer period about finances and a discussion about what economical savings could be. The auditors already reviewed and signed the financial reports and they were John Beiter and JoAnna Rushton.
3. President's Report: President gave a copy of his report to each of us. (see the President's Report.) He highlighted the 3rd Convocation to be held in 2005 instead of 2002. The chairperson will be Rev. Mark Seeger as he was one of chairpersons in 1997 when the second convocation was held. The postponement was because only one of three goals were met. It seems that year 2005 is more appropriate and easy to remember. He also emphasized how important communication needed to be accomplished with one example of each regional president ending a term to notify the ILDA Secretary of the contact and email addresses of next new regional president. He briefly mentioned that Mill Neck Foundation chose ILDA as a recipient of the John of Beverley Award and the award dinner will be held on July 15th where he will be in attendance on behalf of president elect, James Swalley, who will be unable to attend.
4. Pastoral Advisor: Rev Mark Anderson remarked on how he was able to submit articles for The Deaf Lutheran Newsletter and appreciated the editor, David Brown for being so faithful in reminding him about the articles.
5. LCMS Counselor for the Deaf Ministry: Rev Roger Altenberger gave each of us a Counselor Report on 8 deaf church vacancies, 7 new workers including a layminister and a deacon being assigned, 46 Deaf Insitute of Theology (DIT) students with all pre-seminary students completing 2 Seminary level courses, 62 deaf churches and 228 congregations being interpreted. He worked with both Deaf Theological Seminary programs in St. Louis and Fort Wayne. St Louis seminary didn't have any new seminarians for the Deaf but Fort Wayne had five. DIT continues to be an important program to recruit more deaf pastors and leaders. He mentioned one sad note that California-Nevada-Hawaii District ceased to send financial support to Rev. Rowland due to a reason that was not known.
6. Closing Devotion: Rev Mark Anderson continued where Rev Roger Altenberger began the devotion on the Great Commission. It is still our job to tell about Jesus to others. He shared the experience that he had at Illinois Association of the Deaf banquet at the invitation of Chicago Chapter of IAD President, Carol Lee Pickell (also ILDA Central President.) There he was seated next to Miss Deaf America where they had an interesting discussion about religions. She mentioned about religions becoming a taboo in the Deaf Community. Rev Mark had the opportunity to share about his Lutheran faith and Jesus' sacrifice of His life for the new bride. Who is the new bride? The bride is the church of Christ - the people of whom He finds no faults but perfect enough that he cares for them so much. It is analogous to a new groom in seeing a precious new bride to be so perfect in his eyes that he will focus entirely on only her and nothing else!

Meeting was adjoined at 8:50pm.

 

Wednesday, June 20, 2001

Present: Richard Norton, President, James Swalley, President-elect, Tim Johnston, Secretary, Karen Beiters, Treasurer, Rev. Mark Anderson, Pastoral Advisor, Rev. Roger Altenberger, Deaf Mininstry LCMS Counselor, David Brown, Deaf Lutheran Editor, Larry Ginter, Deaf Lutheran Business Mgr, Pam Kane, Missions Project Chair, Alice Hagemeyer, ILDA Publicity Chair, Carol Ann Pickell, Central Prez, Martha Malone, Dixie Prez, Joe Yeates, Eastern Prez, John Rushton, Great Lakes Prez, Glenda Haefner, Midwest Prez, Greg Desrosiers, Northwest Prez, Charles and Lee Ann Kotal, Scholarship Chairs, Dennis Konkell, Nominating and Local God's 1000 Club Chair, Natalie Norton, Right Hand Award Chair, Jack Burns, Pacific Prez (came in mid-afternoon), Mark Johnson, 2003 Convention co-Chair (evening)
Visitors: Betty Swalley, Kathy Burt, Susan Konkel, Lester (Advisory Council member) and Betty Ahls
Absent: Jack Burns, Pacific Prez (excused for morning and part of afternoon)

Morning Devotion began with a prayer by Rev Mark Anderson. He shared with us how wonderful the magazine titled "Good News" was and strongly encouraged each of us to consider having deaf church or individuals subscribe to this magazine. This was because it made clear indication of how the Lutherans' beliefs lie in good compliance with Holy Bible with clear explanations. He explained about a bible verse, 1 Corinthians 1:30. Jesus Christ already died and forgave all of our sins that it was already done. He continuously gave free forgiveness. His blood as an illustration was attached to almost each believer like a baby's umibilical cord with his mother in receiving all good stuff while discarding all bad stuff back to the mother. All we have to do is admit our errors and give thanks for his free forgiveness without any real need to ask for forgiveness. The magazine's contact information is:

GOOD NEWS, 6973 Chippewa St., St Louis, MO 63109, USA Tel: 800-778-1132, Fax: 314-645-1924
Email: info@good-news.net

The meeting began at 9:00 am. The copies of previous ILDA BD minutes were distributed and read with no corrections requested.

ILDA Region Reports

1. Central Region: Carol Ann Pickell greeted us with an appreciation that Rev Anderson helped in preparing the report while she was overwhelmed with another duty as IAD Chicago Chapter President. The CRC conference of 2000 was held in Gurnee, IL last May by Our Savior's Deaf Lutheran Church. About 60 attended. Rev John Reinke accepted a call as MAL to western half Southern Wisconsin District covering both Madison and Delevan. To her surprise, Rev. Jack Dorr quietly retired from Deaf Ministry of Central Illinois District and now resides in Florida with his wife. She then gave a report on other activities and happenings in the Central region. (see her report.)
2. Dixie Region: Martha Marlone shared that it was a new experience for her as a president but appreciated past president, Carol Seeger, for all her help and advice. Dixie Deaf Lutheran Regional conference was held in Austin, Texas with about 35 in attendance. There are 8 active deaf ministries: Jesus Deaf in Austin, TX, Holy Three-in-One in Houston, TX, Eternal Mercy Deaf in Memphis, TN, Christ Deaf in Jackson, Ms, and Redeemer Augusta Deaf in GA having active pastors, while Our Savior in St. Augustine, FL, and Rogate Deaf in Clearwater, FL, were added but John of Beverley Deaf in Dallas, TX, relocated to hearing Peace Lutheran church. She continued in sharing the full report of happenings in Dixie region. (see her report.)
3. Eastern Region: Joe Yeates introduced himself as the president with it being a new experience to him. He regretted that he didn't get all the region's churches reports but had reports from three churches. St Mark and St Matthew Lutheran Churches in the NY area have been vacant for ten years. Now Rev Bill Wrede was assigned as a Mission Developer serving both churches and also worked at Mill Neck School. St Matthew in Clifton, NJ, continued to have worship services by lay leaders/deacon. (see his report.) In addition, an email of report was sent by outgoing regional president, Diane Munoz which was being printed and distributed. (see her printed email of report.)
4. Great Lakes Region: John Rushton greeted us with full enthusiasm and joy for the Lord. GLRC was held successfully in Columbus, Ohio with good attendance. He shared the reports of other deaf and interpreted churches in the region. Christ Lutheran in Cleveland had moved to a grand new church building with the Lord's continued blessings. Trinity Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh had a successful workshop, "Tell Good News about Jesus" by Rev. Mark Ruppert. With wonderful news, John Rushton became a deacon for Alpha Lutheran Church in Rochester, NY. (see his report.)
5. Midwest Region: Glenda Haefner, president, greeted and shared that much of information was all in her report so she would share few highlights. Midwest Region conference was held in Solon, Iowa by Word of God Deaf Lutheran Church with about 28 in attendence but was full with joyous spirits. She passed out Midwest/ILDA Resource Books to deaf churches and held a workshop on the resource books. With praises to the Lord, two new pastors, Revs. Fred Leighty and Dennis Konkel, were assigned to the Iowa District East and West as MALs, respectively. Another pastor, Rev. Tim Eckert is still a MAL at Trinity Lutheran in Davenport, IA. (see Midwest region report.)
6. Northwest Region: Greg Derosiers greeted us with warmth and love from Christ. He regretted that his wife, Linda, chairperson of ILDA 2005 Conference was unable to attend but wanted to wish continuing success at current ILDA Convention. He also passed out colorful postcards announcing upcoming ILA 2005 Conference and the excitement was evident in the air. He shared some bad but much wonderful news about the happenings in the Northwest region. One pastor being called to another church out of the region and that church had begun to close down. Not much information was received from Calgary, Alberta,and Regina, Saskatchewan. But Pastor Drummond helped in hosting a very successful NWLDA camp in a gorgeous location of Montana with over 80 in attendence. There was going to be about 6 DIT students from that region. There were several other interesting highlights all mentioned in his report. (see Northwest region report.)
7. Pacific Region: Lee Ann Kotal, vice president, took over for the president, Jack Burns, in giving the report as Jack was unable to be present due to his required medical commitment to be done that morning. He was present in yesterday's meeting. Lee Ann shared that Pacific Region conference was held in Irvine in Orange County, CA, with about 30 in attendence. Sadly, Rev. Brian Smith accepted a call to a hearing Lutheran Church in NY but with the Lord's blessings, the deaf Lutherans continued to be very active in Southern CA area. Rev. Don Leber, MAL of southern CA continued to serve the Lord with loving stubborness despite his being considered to be permanently disabled. He continued to work with Deaf Youth Lutheran camp with love. Rev. Dahmann continued to serve deaf church in Fremont as self-sufficient after the church property was sold. Rev. Rowland serving both Sacramento and Stockton, would receive a salary cut from Northern CA District starting in Jan. Slow growth in churches might be one of the reasons. Also, Arizonia continued to have interpreted services. No word of action was known in Nevada. (see Pacific region report.)
8. Most of the regional presidents commented about the continuing difficulty in bringing in youth blood while some having had nice successes with youth camps.
9. Deaf Lutheran Editor: David Brown greeted us with warmth and that he would strive to share his report with his limited signing abilities. Despite that he continued to tell us of wonderful news. He now has a wonderful computer and production equipment totaling about $6,000 thanks to a generous donation from Mill Neck Foundation. The DL production and budget had become well stabilized a couple of years ago. He continued to hunt for more articles and news from each region. Readership averaged between 782 to 827 subscribers. He mentioned that budget the became tighter due to present subscription of $7.50/individual and $7/blanket plan. Past issues were now in PDF formats available at www.LCMSdeaf.org/ilda website. He also managed to create a fabulous ILDA website. Rev Mark Anderson emphasized that each of us ought to check out his website as our Lord had given David Brown such outstanding talents in making this website very beautiful. (see the editor report.)
10. Deaf Lutheran Business Mgr: Larry Ginter shared that he continued to enjoy working with David Brown and DL business for four years since. The total subscription is around 780 with some blanket and individual plans remain unpaid. He hoped to receive the payments at the ILDA Convention. He shared his appreication at Mill Neck Foundation for donation of monies on new computer equipment. One suggested using email as the means in sending DL newsletters to help save postage costs but David Brown pointed out that income from subscription may be dwindled quickly due to DL newsletters becoming free via emails. (see the biz mgr report.)
11. 2001 Convention: Winona Alter greeted us warmly in the name of Jesus Christ. ILDA Convention will be held at Marriott Hotel as scheduled June 21-24th. Everything was going very well and they overdid themselves in ensuring that everything was all arranged including little details. New ideas were also offered by them. As of Monday, June 18th, it was learned that only about 70% of the hotel rooms were reserved below the targeted 80% which might mean that conference rooms and others would not be given for free but discounts might be given. The total approximated cost for these rooms will be $6,700. She continued saying that Indy ILDA Host had received much more monetary donations and grants than expected so everything would be well covered. A great amount of planning details were shared beautifully. Approximately, 250 had been registered. (see the '01 Conv report.)
12. Right Hand Award: President Norton explained that his wife, Natalie, was taking over the position after other two had to bow out with regrets due to personal situations. Natalie passed out the list of nominated ILDA folks for our review to be voted upon. Then both Natalie and Rev. Altenberger would tally the vote counts. The nominated folks were: Diane (Waters) Francisco of Spokane, WA, Ronald Madding of Portland, OR, Charence F. Schultz of Arcadia, CA and Helen Shoup of Frewsburg, NY (see the report for details on each Christian office involvements.)
13. Scholarship Committee: Charles Kotal greeted us in the name of Jesus Christ and mentioned that he hadn't received any nominated names the last couple of years but finally got several recently. As known, there were still common shortages of pastors and field workers in the LCMS as with other hearing Lutheran and various religious bodies. Various reasons were attributed to retirements, disabilities or accepting calls to hearing churches. Now we were finding new ways to recruit new deaf pastors and leaders through DIT program which was gradually gaining better footing. With much pleasure, he shared that we had six new candidates from the Fort Wayne Seminary but none from St. Louis Seminary. The names of the candidates were: Lawrence N. Brandt (hearing) of Whicita Falls, TX, Steven Cholak (hearing) of Akron, OH, Mark Ehrlichmann (deaf) of Minneapolis, MN, Scott J. Johnson (coda) of Denver, CO, Kurt C. Klingbeil (hearing) of New Richmond, WI, and Terry L. Quick (hearing) of Fort Wayne, IN. (see the Scholarship report of biographical details.)
14. VOTE OF APPROVAL BY THE BOARD: Richard Norton proposed to accept Charles Kotal's scholarship recommendation that ILDA awards $1,000 to each five candidates except for Lawrence Brandt as he wasn't entirely committed to Deaf Ministry, yet. (seconded by D. Brown.) Passed.
15. 1999 Convention: Pam Kane shared the report using the overhead projector indicating 322 ILDA and 29 Jr. ILDA registrations. The amount of $17,667 was the total revenues for the pre-ILDA meeting of which mostly came from fundraisings while $8,521.37 was the total expenses with a balance of $9,145.24. The amount of $52,236.93 was the total ILDA Convention revenues while $45,192.24 was the total expenses leaving a balance of $7,044.69. The total profit from both pre-ILDA and ILDA convention was $16,189.93. (see the '99 Convention report which will be on the ILDA website.)
16. ILDA Publicity Video Project: Alice Hagemeyer introduced herself and explained the purpose of ILDA Publicity Video project to promote better awareness about ILDA in all deaf Lutheran churches and individuals. The idea was started a few years ago during past President Larry Gorton's term when it became noticeable that many didn't know about ILDA. Mill Neck Foundation gave a generous grant of $6,500 for this project. It was greatly appreciated since the video production was quite expensive so a five minute length video presentation was decided as well as keeping it short so the better information be well received. The planned presentation would be on the history of Deaf people and ILDA. All information including photos were already gathered and James DeBees was chosen to produce it but had since been extremely busy so the video project was delayed. Alice regretted the unexpected delay after placing full trust without any signed agreement so she would make a firm request that it be completed by Dec '01 with prayers. The video committee was: Rev. Mark Anderson, Linda Desrosiers and Larry Gorton. (see ILDA Publicity Video Project report.)
17. Law Committee: President-elect, James Swalley greeted and shared what he did with law committee. The committee consisted of Rev. Mark Anderson, Carol Ann Pickell, Central prez and Winona Alter, secy of Central Region. He received two complaints about ILDA By-Laws. One was about allowing females to run for ILDA president and president-elect positions. Finally it was noticed that there was a mention in allowing females to run for top positions in the red ILDA Handbook so there would be no action to revise the by-laws. It was now with knowledge that females could become president candidates. Another one was about extending the required number days of 90 to 6 months in allowing the final convention financial report be submitted. It was because not all cancelled checks were turned in in time for the final report. James explained that no action would happen as it would be put into understanding that the finishing ILDA Convention host could have extra time to finish the final financial report.
18. VOTE OF APPROVAL BY THE BOARD: James shared the third motion from Rev. Mark Anderson to add a clean list of who was really part of the ILDA board members to avoid any further confusion for each upcoming ILDA Convention. It was supported by John Rushton and seconded by David Brown. Passed.
19. God's 1000 Club: Karen Beiters, treasurer, updated us that there are 79 members in this club but had received the mentions from others planning to join at the ILDA Convention so she hoped to see the number increase to 100. Winona Alter added that 1000 God's Club luncheon will be held at Marriott Saloons A, B & C at noon on Saturday for about 60 members.
20. Nominating Committee: Dennis Konkel greeted us warmly in Christ. He explained that the outgoing ILDA president automatically becomes chair of the Nominating committee. The names nominated as of printed are: John Rushton for president-elect, Tim Johnston (2nd term) or Carol Seeger as secretary, Pam Kane for treasurer and Rev. Mark Anderson (2nd term) or Mike McDonald for pastoral advisor. Lee Ann Kotal and Pam Kane were nominated for president elect and Jim Spichen and Russel Healy for treasurer and John Reinke for pastoral advisor. Dennis would collect more names during the convention and approach each nominated person for full confirmation.
21. Resolutions Committee: Charles Kotal greeted us again with full rolled-up sleeves on this committee. He would take the floor at the convention to let the ILDA folks know about approaching him with any resolutions to be made. He and the committee would work on resolutions during the convention. Names were suggested to be on the committee: Lester Ahls, Glenda Haefner and Rev. Mark Anderson.
22. Mission Projects: Pam Kane greeted us in Christ again. The target for Mission Projects was set at $55,000 but was short by $25,000. She shared that David Brown created a very nice brochure on Mission Projects with all information printed beautifully. She hoped to take the floor during the Convention to request/encourage more financial contributions from the ILDA conventioneers. Pam recommended keeping the same target and modifying priority order of projects to be disbursed with monies. She gave an overview of the proposed mission projects to be financially funded by ILDA in details. (see Mission Projects report.)

Republic of Madagascar Schools for the Deaf $2,500 priority: 4
Sao Paul Lutheran Church of Brazil $2,500 priority: 3
Nyandarua School of the Deaf $3,000 priority: 11
Summer Camps (CA, NE & TX) $9,000 ($3k ea) priority: 5
Ghana $2,000 priority: 6
DIT/Zacharus $11,000 priority: 1
Starfish Learning Center $3,000 priority: 13
Macau (missionary) $2,000 priority: 7
Pax Natrua Ranch (Canada) $1,000 priority: 12
India House Improvement $3,000 priority: 10
New York West Camp $2,000 priority: 8
ILDA PR Video Project $5,000 priority: 2
Concordia Special School Ed (Macau) $1,500 priority: 9

Total: $47,500

Total votes were counted and the resulting priority was now listed as seen above on the right side. The board approved the new priority. This would be brought to the convention floor for final vote.
23. 2003 Convention: Mark Johnson gave the report on the upcoming details of '03 Convention to be held in Bloomington, MN, south of Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul where the Mall of America is. He worked along with his wife, Linda, and a small committee of several subcommittee heads. It was a bit struggle due to two big events happening this year which were his Deaf Lutheran Church's 100th year celebration and Senior Citizens' Convention of about 2000 expected in attendance. Once these events were past, more better work on '03 convention would begin. He gave all details of what will be planned to have. (see '03 Convention report.)
24. Unfinished Business:

VOTE OF APPROVAL BY THE BOARD

25. New Business:

Evening Devotion was given by Rev. Mark Anderson. He shared about the importance of being true followers of Jesus Christ in telling others about Good News. Jesus Christ already encouraged us to be of good cheer without any fears for He already overcame the World so no longer have any false devil-influenced fears. He shared on how other Christian martyrs had endured the persecutions while proclaiming Good News in other countries as opposed to the Christians in America appearing to be silent about Jesus Christ while living with comforts. We each need to have a greater faith with God in approaching anyone to talk only about Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit take care of the rest on Good News.

Thursday, June 21, 2001

Present: Same as yesterday.
Visitors: Kathy Burt and Betty Swalley.

Morning Devotion: Rev. Mark Anderson shared a powerful devotion on the simple truth: Believe in Jesus Christ is all you need to do and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to serve Him with glad heart.

Meeting began at 10am.

1. Richard Norton informed us that ILDA Consitution & ByLaws already listed who are on the Executive Council, the Board of Directors and Committees so last night's attempt on finalizing the motion will not be needed. Refer to Article VII, VIII & IX on pages 6 and 7 of ILDA Constitution & ByLaws. The ILDA Handbook could be modified and revised as recommended by the ILDA Board or members even from the floor (refer to ILDA Const. & ByLaws Article XIV Section B pg 9.) But any revision on ILDA Constitution & ByLaws must be proposed at least 90 days ahead to be reviewed and voted upon (refer to Article XXI pg. 11.)
2. New Business:

a. Greg Desrosiers made a motion (seconded by Jack Burns) to have Section K Publicity and Section U Historian duties under Article XX be merged and rewritten in the ILDA Handbook. Passed. Referred to Law Committee for the revision.
b. Greg Desrosiers made another motion (seconded by John Rushton) to increase the amount of paid advertising to $20,000 instead of $1,000 under Section D of Article XXV in the ILDA Handbook. Passed.
c. Glenda Haefner made a motion (seconded by Jack Burns) for seven regional presidents to have a meeting together during the convention. Failed. (There would be a leadership training on Saturday during the convention.)

3. Announcements: Karen Beiter asked all ILDA Board and Committee members to fill out the travel expense forms. She also shared the guideline in determining which ILDA officers, board and committee members' expenses will be covered by ILDA.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 am. Richard Norton performed the closing prayer.

Respectfully submitted by

Tim Johnston, Secretary