February Meeting Minutes

Hi everyone!  Here’s what happened at the February meeting:

After intros & devotions (thanks Julie Schranck!), Scott Moore introduced Brittany from the Broomfield Events Center.  There’s an event coming up that would be a great way to get our youth together.  The Colorado 14ers are the NBA D-League team associated with the Nuggets and the Nets.  Mark Randall, former Denver Nugget and coach, will be speaking about teamwork and sportsmanship at “Faith Jam” on Saturday, March 21.  He’ll begin at 4PM followed by Christian bands, a buffet, and the game at 7PM.  It’s only $5 (normally tickets are $20) plus an additional cost for the buffet (you could go offsite to eat dinner if you’d prefer).  That price is for everyone, kids and adults.  If you would like more information, contact Brittany at 303-800-2753.  If you’re going, write “Rocky Mountain Synod” somewhere on your order form so we can all sit together.

Jessica Mohon, an admissions representative from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, NE, gave us some materials about the college.  If your youth are looking for a smaller, one-on-one atmosphere at a Lutheran college, this would be a great place for them to check out.  They have academic and athletic scholarships, plus there are scholarships just for being Lutheran.  It’s only about an 8-hour drive from Denver.  Besides Nebraska, they have more students from Colorado than anywhere else.  Come visit – bring your youth!  If you need more info, call Jessica at 402-941-6509.

Scott Moore encouraged every church to set up a Lutheran College Fund to encourage more of our students to go to Lutheran colleges.  Kristen Baltrum added that Laurie Brill from the LECNA is happy to work with congregations to set this up.

Julie Schranck let us know that Julie McNitt recently became a mom via adoption (she found out while we were all at Rainbow Trail for the Youth Worker Retreat).  Julie proposed devoting about ten minutes of our meeting in April to adore baby Peter and shower them with blessings.  Gary and Kevin fiercely opposed the use of the term “baby shower,” as it is not manly.

Brandon Newton from Glenwood Springs is having a hard time finding affordable transportation from the New Orleans airport to his group’s hotel near the Super Dome.  He’s wondering if anyone is taking a bus that gets into New Orleans in the daytime on July 21st and wouldn't mind waiting a couple more hours before driving back on July 26th that he could sublease from.  If you could help, email him at brandongslc@qwestoffice.net.

Ben from Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp let us know that there are discount trips available if you’d like to do Compass Points July 26-August 1, August 2-8, and August 9-15.  Also, there are days open in March for ski trip packages.  Let people in your congregations know that’s available to them.  Also, they are setting up youth worker training for volunteers – that could be volunteers who work at your church with you OR volunteers who work at churches with no paid youth worker.  It looks like it would happen from a Thursday to a Sunday (October 22-25 is a possibility), and some youth ministry professionals in the Rocky Mountain Synod would be called on to be presenters.  Ben is open to suggestions as to how to shape this event, so please email him at ben@rainbowtrail.org if you would like to share your ideas.  Ideas people suggested: risk management/legal issues, program development, politics in the church/what you might not know happens behind the scenes, recruiting more volunteers/how do you identify gift & invite others to get involved, tools for leading a small group, what resources are available from the synod, the shifting paradigm of youth ministry, setting boundaries, and different tracks for people who are new and people who have been around a while.

Kirsten Nelson-Roenfeldt reminded us that Messiah Mountain Retreat Center is booking now for spring and summer dates.  If you are in need of space, MMRC is about 5 miles from Red Rocks, which is a great location.  Call 303-697-8717.

Dan Bollman thanked everyone for their hard work on the Middle School Gathering.  We were really blessed this year with great planning teams.  Talk to Dan Bollman if you’d like to jump on a planning team.  We also need some talented youth to be on those teams.

Molly is looking for a youth ministry position.  If you know of anything that would be a 20 minute drive or so from the Lakewood area, please let her know – molly.sullivan@msn.com.

Gary Knutson recommended that we join forces next year for the Souper Bowl of Caring to get the word out about what we’re doing.  Kayla recommended the LYO take charge of it.  RTLC’s Grace Race will be on Saturday, October 10^th.  They got a big grant to help fight World Hunger, so please put it on your calendar.

Kristen Baltrum asked that anyone who was at the Extravaganza please fill out an evaluation form online.  That will help shape future events.  Also, if you’re going to New Orleans for the national gathering this summer, get registered for free online adult leader training.  She also handed out a recommended reading list for youth workers.  She recommended that we table the discussion on Core Value #4 so we have more time to talk about it.

Scott Moore suggested that next month we talk about whether or not Thursday mornings are a good time to meet.  If you can’t make it on Thursdays but would like to be there, please shoot me an email and let me know what days are better for you so we can add that input to the discussion.

Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 12.  Looking ahead, plan on being here for the May meeting on May 14^th.  We’ll be going to the Rockies game afterward.

Thanks!