GOOD SHEPHERD TRANSITION TASK FORCE MINUTES
February 4, 2009
The Transition Task Force (TTF) met in the Good Shepherd Chapel on Wednesday, February 4, 2009.
The meeting was called to order by Gene Morsching and opened with prayer.
PRESENT: Self Study Team members – Earl Martell, Ron Kaaz, Wade Douglas, Debra Aman, Tom Eisenbeisz, Charlie Jakober; Staff Needs Team members – Mark Malchow, Lois Walpole, Dale Aman, Willis Johnson, Gene Morsching; Mission/Vision Team members – Jim Kretchman, Judy Bledsoe, Lynn Sandvig, Jerry Streckfuss, Art Russo, Rhonda Punt. Also present was Glenn Jakober, Transition Team Leader and Peggy Serfoss, Recording Secretary.
GUESTS PRESENT: Don Reshetar, Lonnie Anderson and Roger Youngman – all from the Bethlehem Lutheran Church transition task force team.
Gene Morsching reviewed the purpose of the Transition Task Force which basically is to lead the Congregation in the developmental work of the interim period and to serve at the direction of the church council in addressing mission/ministry needs essential to the work of the future call committee. He also briefly described the purpose and responsibilities of the Self Study Team, Staff Needs Team and the Mission/Vision Tem.
Gene introduced the guests from Bethlehem Church and thanked them for attending.
Don Reshetar shared their experience in using the TTF model at Bethlehem and also elaborated on the self study group’s experience in the absence of Bill Roth. Lonnie Anderson, chair of the Bethlehem staff needs team, and Roger Youngman, chair for the mission/vision team also shared their respective team’s experience of what worked and what didn’t work. A question and answer period followed. The Bethlehem guests were very generous in sharing their experiences, handouts of minutes, Glossary of Terms, survey, etc. with us. The Good Shepherd teams were very appreciative of all the information and thanked them for attending this meeting.
Gene stated he had developed a package for each team containing a Member Information sheet and starting points and handed out the packages.
At this time Glenn Jakober, as chair of the TTF, shared his responsibility to shepherd the process, to help get the process started, and pull the teams together. He noted he feels good about the composition of each team and offered to attend individual team meetings if needed.
An end date to the process was discussed and it was felt that June 1 would be a realistic date.
Following discussion, it was decided the next meeting of the TTF will be Wednesday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m. in the Chapel.
Submitted by Peggy Serfoss
Recording Secretary
GOOD SHEPHERD TRANSITION TASK FORCE MINUTES
March 4, 2008
The Transition Task Force (TTF) met in the Good Shepherd Chapel on Wednesday, March 4, 2009.
Those present introduced themselves: Self Study Team members – Earl Martell, Ron Kaaz, Wade Douglas, Deb Aman, Tom Eisenbeisz, Charlie Jakober; Staff Needs Team members – Lois Walpole, Dale Aman, Willis Johnson, Gene Morsching; Mission/Vision Team members – Jim Kretchman, Judy Bledsoe, Lynn Sandvig, Jerry Streckfuss, Art Russo, Rhonda Punt. Also present was Pastor Sue Seiffert, Interim Pastor; Glenn Jakober and Peggy Serfoss
Absent: Mark Malchow
Glenn Jakober called the meeting to order and reviewed the agenda. Pastor Sue Seiffert led the group in prayer. Pastor Sue also gave us some of her background information and stated this was her 10th interim congregation.
Pastor Sue passed out a schedule for team members to sign up for her home visits.
She also distributed a form showing Stages and Developmental Tasks of the Interim Period. She indicated that the more aware we are of the developmental tasks (Coming to Terms with History, Enabling Needed Leadership Change, Discovering New Identity, Commitment to New Leadership and Denominational Linkage), the easier and quicker we will accomplish the stages. The developmental tasks interplay through the process of the stages. Another form distributed was Interim Time Questions regarding God’s presence in the past, God’s presence now and God’s presence in the future.
Ron Kaaz reported for the Self Study group and indicated the members have been very participative. The group’s initial tasks thus far have been to review and retype the Bethlehem survey to make it appropriate for Good Shepherd if it’s decided to use that, establish additional survey questions, collected questions from other teams, established a distribution process and established survey compilation method.. They also had Bill Roth from Bethlehem speak to their group to get additional information on how the process went at Bethlehem. There was considerable discussion about the length of the survey and making sure a broad representation is heard. Pastor Sue stated we need to always keep in mind what is the purpose of the survey and recommended that we gather information from more ways than just the survey.
Jim Kretchman reported for the Mission/Vision group. The group reviewed and carefully considered to either recommend, abandon or adjust the mission statement of Bring In, Build Up and Branch Out. They feel the vision is what we would like to be and the mission is how we get there. Our current mission is very good, but is what we’re saying what we’re doing, i.e., what are we doing well, what could we do better, and what haven’t we been doing? He explained their rationale in each area of Bring In, Build Up (who do we build up?), Branch Out. They feel this is a circle rather than an arch as is currently displayed. Again there was discussion and questions and answers among the group. One recommendation that was mentioned was to hire another pastor to do the visitation.
Gene Morsching reported for the Staff Needs group. This group felt that the staff and committee surveys used by Bethlehem were very good and have been distributed to the committee chairs and to the staff this past week. He mentioned that they haven’t quite figured out a follow-up or tabulation process and that subjective responses may be hard to tabulate. He also indicated that each staff member will be visited with on an individual basis.
Pastor Sue said she was impressed with the progress the teams have made to date, but that we need to focus on keeping the congregation in mind by giving and receiving information from the congregation and don’t rush just to meet deadlines. She recommended Temple Talks with the teams rotating each week as to their progress. Other suggestions were team members to wear “Ask Me” buttons and the pictures of the Team members be more prominently displayed and that we prayerfully ask for guidance.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m. in the Chapel.
Submitted by Peggy Serfoss