Christian Education Board Meeting

September 28, 2008 @ 6:00 p.m. @ Kennett GBC

 

The following members were present:  Kent Luke (President); Jeff Smart (Vice-President); Bryan Johnson (Secretary/Treasurer).  The other members had schedule conflicts and could not attend.

Opened in Prayer by Brother Kent Luke. 

Treasurer’s Report:  BTD            $4,638.69

Opening Discussion dealt with the proposal by Larry McKain.    The following is the terms expressed by Larry McKain of New Church Specialties in a phone call with Bryan Johnson:

The date he has available, should we all agree, is March 7, 2009 and suggested the following in terms of format, location, cost, etc.

 

Time:  9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

 

Location:  A facility that will allow tables and chairs to be setup that can hold a large crowd.   Audio / Visual capabilities (though he can bring his own if necessary) and that the luncheon be simple with catering preferably on site.

 

Format:  Rather than doing "break-out" sessions, he wants to have the entire day in a seminar type atmosphere, as his format and information he desires to share, needs to be taught on a gradual, step-by-step basis, as there is a of material.

 

The Topic:  Re-focusing the local church.  Resources will be made available for the attendees to get assistance on implementing the strategies suggested. 

 

Promotion:  They will provide a color brochure electronically as a handout to be given to those who come that day.  We would have it printed as I understand it.  Furthermore, they will send us advertisement "snippets" to help whet the appetite of those who are thinking about coming.

 

They will also assist on the promotion by notifying those in the area from other churches, (though I mentioned, our peoples have to the first to be given the opportunity) as they are a Nationally Known Organization who works with numerous denominations and will do their best to be sure that its a "sold out" event that numerous churches can benefit from.  They will also do an "Email Blast" as the event nears to remind the folks of the event.

 

They will give us promotional materials to help us in our personal promotional efforts as well, by email, autoresponder, etc.

 

COST:  $1,250 plus any override of income after all expenses have been paid.  In other words, if a profit is made, it will not stay in our pockets but rather will go to their organization as they have a monthly budget of about $100,000.00.  However, we would not be out of pocket, as the objective is to make it pay for itself.

 

Suggested price of $49.00 / person with a group cap of $200/$250 however, that would be completely up to us in terms of price as a contract will be sent to us to be reviewed and signed which spells out the terms of our agreement.

 

NO HOTEL COST, as his brother lives in Dexter and he will gladly stay with him.  All he asks is for the fee of $1,250 + travel expenses.

 

He said that the normal cost for a one day seminar runs $99.00 / person and they normally ask for a minimum of $2,500 to be paid.  However, in working with Franklin Demond (Congregation Ministries' Director) and our GB churches, he has agreed to work with us as much as possible, in terms of cost and preparation and is ready to come upon acceptance of terms.”

 

Those not in attendance tonight all stated by email, that if we can afford to bring him in, we should do so.

·         We voted and agreed to contact Larry McKain and his organization and sign a contract to have him be our speaker for the 2009 CE Board Workshop.

We discussed our budget and projected an expected total cost of approximately, $2,400.00 including meals and all other expected expenses based on an attendance of 200 people.

We discussed his proposal of the normal charge of $99.00/$49.00 per person charge and felt that would be counter productive in getting our people to attend and decided on the following.

·         We voted and agreed to charge $15.00/person with a $90.00 church (group) cap.  This will include a lunch that will be provided to the attendees.

Based on the recommendation from Larry McKain on facilities, we cannot use the Kennett Church but are looking at other options.  Brother Jeff Smart will check with the Rector Church on both the date and the availability of this location for the seminar.  On the way home, Kent Luke and I also saw that the Lynn Oak Church has a new facility built that may also be a possibility but contact will need to be made to see if it will meet our needed requirements of 200-300 people capacity with tables being setup and with audio / visual capabilities.

In terms of catering in food for the luncheon, John Kruger, the Pastor of the Kennett Church, is going to check on the possibility of catering in the area for the Rector location if we decide to go there.  Jeff Smart will speak with some people he knows about the possibilities in catering food in as well.

We discussed maintaining the same approach to advertising as we did last year but will be adding a few options as well, including an auto responder email service and working in cooperation with “New Church Specialties” as well.

We concluded the meeting with a short discussion of other workshops throughout the year that will provide training to our leadership in the local churches by using more local and regional people in the areas of Pastors, Deacons, Christian Education (Sunday School included), Marriage Enrichment, Adult Retreats, etc.

However, since several in our board were not able to attend, we will pick this up at our next meeting.

We will be meeting again after the first of the year and will communicate back and forth through email until then.

Submitted by:  Bryan Johnson