National Council Meeting Notes May 2015

May 2015

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Attached are notes from the 1st National Council Meeting of 2015, which was held on the 12th Floor of the New Yorker Hotel, April 25-26th.   It was our first meeting together with the newly elected members for the 2015-2016 session, and together with Dr. Ki Hoon Kim and Dr. Michael Balcomb, we quickly united and were ready to get to the work at hand.

Attached is a summary of the notes and topics that were covered over the 2-day meeting, particularly the organization of committees and the responsibilities each will be taking on this year.  Of notable interest will be the continuation of the Grant Program, and a proposal for a Strategic Summit Conference on ways we can substantially improve our ability as a church “to communicate the profound message of our True Parents to the American public”.

The weekend was packed and the sessions long, but we do hope the attached notes will help you understand the projects being addressed by the National Council.  Each District Representative was fully engaged in every discussion, and you can feel certain they are there to represent the particular “bright spots” and also the “concerns” of your District.  One of our main goals this year is become a more relevant, transparent, and effective voice between our membership and  our National Headquarters that we can all work together and move forward on the great foundation of our True Parents.

We welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,

 

National Council Executive Committee

David Burgess, Chair       Mari Curry, FFWPU Vice President

Lucy Park, Vice Chair

Terry Yamane, Secretary

 

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FFWPU NATIONAL COUNCIL

 

April 25-26, 2015 – Meeting Notes

New Yorker Hotel

Present:  Mari Curry (FFWPU VP), Libby Henkin (Dist. 1),  Noah Ross (Dist. 2), Alain Tamelessio (Dist. 3), Christine Hempowicz (Dist. 4), Teresa Yamane (Dist. 5), Lucy Park (Dist. 6),  Jeffrey Schmidt (Dist. 7), Cindy Pfeiffer (Dist. 8), Christine Amelia Schnorr ,Rep. Rick Schnoor  (Dist. 9), David Burgess (Dist. 10) Bryan Lancaster (Dist. 11) Mark Moore (Dist. 12).

Noah Ross (2014 Council Chair): Dr Balcomb and Bishop Kim are invited here to share the vision of True Mother, to give us an understanding what their challenges and struggles are, and to focus our efforts, and to plan.

1. KI HOON KIM

Dr Kim:  I came to the US in 1977 for continued study, but Father said that before that I have to pay indemnity. People like to see change. (In summary) My prayer is, how I can achieve the kind of standard; to be humble, listen and get feedback, suggestions, discussions and find out the best outcome. Changing is our mission – the religious term is “resurrection”. It can take 1 night, 1 week, 1 month. Even HPs took 6 thousand years for restoration. Change requires time and portion of responsibility. People demand change especially in a crisis time. Please watch carefully what TM has been doing. The day after TF’s Seunghwa, she gathered everyone for dinner, changed the staff, and committed to invest resources into the young generation. So let’s think and change our community step by step.

Noah: If we continue to do the same things we get the same results. Now let’s hear from Dr. Balcomb.

1. MICHAEL BALCOMB

(In Summary) Thank you everyone for coming, and to those who have been involved in the National Council from the beginning. I’m happy to see 7 women and 5 men making up the Council. It’s nice to see younger faces around the table too. Our HQ is young too, with more than half people in their twenties or early thirties. We have an enthusiastic team.

It’s important to consider what is top most in TM’s mind. If TPs come and we are thinking about something else, there is always some indemnity to be paid.  TM is hoping to see the US church moving forward in 3 top areas:

 

1. Tribal messiahship

Who among members is willing to say that I will be a tribal messiah, and make commitment? All of us have to ask ourselves, did I make that commitment? In the next 4 weeks that remain until TM’s visit, please reach out and witness to someone you have been close to. It’s not as difficult as it seems to be. Start with anything, work on whatever level. I hope that this Council will be a source of inspiration and challenge.

2. People who left the Church

TM is urgent to extend a compassionate touch to everybody. What I’m hoping for is to find a way to invite back, and offer something, not judgment. We are trying to invite them for fellowship. It also includes healing divisions and hurts. Another question is how do we proclaim TPs firmly but with sensitivity.

3. Cranes Generation

TM has a concept of the Crane’s generation, younger people between 20 and 35. It’s not about working for the church, but that all those people will find a way to offer their talent for the sake of God’s desire. This is tied to an issue on how to build a constructive approach to bring cultures together, and not apart.

 

INTRODUCTIONS OF COUNCIL MEMBERS:

Libby Henkin (Dist. 1)

Noah Ross (Dist. 2)

Alain Tamelessio (Dist. 3)

Christine Hempowicz (Dist. 4)

Teresa Yamane (Dist. 5)

Lucy Park (Dist. 6)

Jeffrey Schmidt (Dist. 7)

Cindy Pfeiffer (Dist. 8)

Rick Schnorr, represented by Amelia Schnorr (Dist. 9)

David Burgess (Dist. 10)

Bryan Lancaster (Dist. 11)

Mark Moore (Dist. 12)

Mari Curry (FFWPU – VP)

 

REVIEW OF NATIONAL CHARTER, ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS:

Nominations were taken and the following officers were elected to the Executive Committee:

• David Burgess (Dist. 10)           Council Chair
• Lucy Park (Dist. 6) Vice Chair
• Terry Yamane (Dist. 5)             Secretary

At this point, Mr. Noah Ross was applauded for his great work as the outgoing Chair, and Dr. Burgess was welcomed as the new.  From this point on, the meeting was chaired by Dr. Burgess.

REVIEW OF COMMITTEES:

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Launched Grant Program
• Finance Committee: Stephen Jares really helped
• Flexible Approach
• Judicial system, local councils established
• Grants: bright spots
• Growth: recommendations were good
• Grants helped witnessing
• Expanded Council with others
• Grants allowed development
• We are still here
• Charter working and flexible
• Grants showed the reality

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE CONCERNS:

• Was unbalanced to grants
• Embarrassed by change in funding amount
• Interaction of Council and H.S.A. Board
• Independence of Council
• True Family issues
• Implementation of Recommendations
• Local councils and District councils need monitoring and mentoring
• Grant follow-up
• National support for field is limited
• Communication and education
• Re: council
• Need better communication in committee
• Finance needs translation
• Re: budget
• No commitment yet for the amount of grant
• District communication is weak
• Structure, tithing
• NC representatives at districts
• Need clarity on priorities

David B.: Thank you for the input, and stimuli for further meeting. Now we have Committees to staff. Our rule of thumb is not too spread ourselves too thin. There is a fair bit of work to be done.   Ad hoc committees can be created too as needed.

2:40pm Business Meeting begins.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Grants Committee – Christine, Ricky, Libby, Jeffrey
2. Charter Committee – Noah, Libby, Alain, Bryan
3. Recommendations Committee – Noah, Cindy, Ricky, Mark, Bryan
4. Judicial – Alain, Lucy, Jeffrey, David
5. Financial – Christine, Cindy, Terry, Mark

David: we tried to accommodate your recommendations as much as possible, most got what they asked for, but if you have some comments, speak to me privately. Now until 5p.m. we are going to have our committee meetings.

The task is to elect a Committee Chair, formulate the beginning plan, realizing that there will be a 2^nd meeting October. Between now and then committees need to decide when they will meet together, etc. Plan: what needs to be done and how to proceed with it.

 

Reconvened at 5.08pm.

REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES:

1.  Recommendations Committee – Chairperson, Noah Ross

The goal is to make recommendations for the church to meet its goals. Goals: tribal messiahship, church growth, younger generation, healing and re-membering. Issues are identity and strategy. We need to clearly understand what we are offering to the public, our value proposition and what differentiates us. Plan to have a conference, maybe in Las Vegas, to discuss strategy, envisioning; with stakeholders and leaders. Goal – prepare and plan for this conference to maybe take place in June or July .

Mark Moore: finding people who had success in witnessing from the US or even other countries. We have so many faithful members, but we need to understand how we package and sell it.

David: last year we had recommendations presented, and this year it’s going in a different direction. We don’t have in place all policies and procedure which you would use to operate.

2. Grants Committee – Chairperson, Christine Hempowicz

Christine: The recommendation from the Committee is to continue the Grant Program.

Libby: each of us is going to go back and get feedback. We need to know what the focus will be this year. Looking for other sources of grant money and whether to raise the matching support.

David: we need information on how the grants went.

Christine: We will need that in less than two weeks, so that Board will have it to review. I need to pull everything together into a cohesive document. It’s a tight schedule. chempowitz@gmail.com

David: We do want to promote the grants program. We are at the formation stages here. Let’s give it a chance to work. But we need to be able to present the results well.

Noah: Witnessing, Cranes generation; these are areas of concern for Dr B and Dr Kim. So the NC can expand to include these areas.

3. Judicial Committee – Chairperson, Alain Tamelessio

Alain: We should familiarize ourselves with the Whistleblower Policy, and schedule a meeting to go over it.   Also, try to help local churches to solve their problems, to find a way to professionalize, provide a proper structure when it comes to appointment and resignation of pastors; reach out to the legal office/Dr B to talk about issues and find how to anticipate them; how to implement a Council of Elders. We agreed to have two meetings next month.

4. Charter Committee – Chairperson, Libby Henkin

Libby: We will gather recommendations on changes to the Charter; formalize the amendment process; get contact information for the local council chairs and have webinars/classes on how to implement charters; also train council chairs (Robert’s Rules of Order)

5. Financial Committee – Chairperson, (undetermined)

We did not yet select a Chair.

Mark: I wasn’t sure what the purpose of the Financial Committee is yet. We are not CPAs.  I would like to talk to Stephen Jares who was last year’s Chair.

David: this is a challenging point, we wanted to have an oversight. It needs to be effective. Transparency is important.

Cindy: we can contact the 3 main people (of the H.S.A. Board) if they have a contact person for us to communicate with.

Christine: Stephen Jares received a lot of knowledge last year. The FC received the financial statement. We hope that HSA would give us access for that.  In addition,  we should understand the churches in our districts and how the financial reporting is done. We should try to help develop a minimum standard of reporting.

Sunday, April 26

8.25am Highlights of Business Meeting

MOTIONS MADE:

1. Noah: I would like to make a Motion: That the NC sponsor an outreach summit conference this summer around the beginning of July to convene key people to discuss and plan our overall outreach strategy, and that NC requests HQ to supply appropriate funding.

Mark: seconded

The Motion was discussed.

 There would be a key group of some of us, some of HQ, some of future youth leaders, leaders on the field, people who actually succeeded. The goal is to bring the right people together, not just a bunch of talkers and complainers. We haven’t figured that our exactly.

Noah: I spoke with Dr Kim and Dr B, they were supportive. They need a strategy. And Dr B seemed to be happy about that, as it’s hard to take on that from their side.

David:  The NC needs to play a role in the public life of our church. If we don’t do that, we risk going away at some point.  If there is no further discussion, we will move to vote.

Noah:  The recommendation is to request the funding for this meeting from HQ.

Voting:  Motion  Passed unanimously.

2. Christine: (I have 4 motions). 1st motion: Conduct Grants Competition for 2015.

Seconded

Motion was discussed.

Noah: are we saying that it’s worth doing and we recommend it to HQ?

Christine: yes

Mark: have we followed up with communities about past grants?

Christine: yes, preliminarily.

Jeff: sitting in on the grants committee yesterday, a lot of work went to it. It’s too precious to do it fast. I’d rather see the grants program every other year; one  award, and then 2^nd year feedback.

Lucy: I guess the question is how much receivers have time

Christine: it’s a 6-month timeline to use the grant.

David: I actually don’t see any conflict of this going in parallel. Granters are going to be evaluating the success of the grants. Problem in our case was that the grants got delayed. Evaluation runs with the granting.

Noah: I would like to speak in support of the motion. I think it generated huge amount of excitement in the field. It showed some leadership on our part. We don’t know how successful it has been. We need consistency. The field needs it badly. I would hope however that we can structure the grant program to be more manageable.

David: Any other comments?

Libby: with the 1^st year funding, some of the problems we are going to see are because the grants were given late, and the timeline was messed up.

David: any further comments? If there are none, we move to vote

Voting: Motion passed unanimously.

3. Christine: 2^nd Motion: Recommendation for HSA to fund the 2015 competition .

Motion was Discussed

Christine: I would suggest drafting an amendment to include rational included in it. It’s not going to be based on preliminary result, thought they are already promising enough.

Libby: we need to frame the competition a little bit differently

Noah: I’ll move to amend the Motion: Grant committee to prepare a recommended amount with rationale to be presented to HSA quickly.

David seconded.

Noah: I thought that all awarded were worthy. We still had some, which could have been funded.

Christine: in a professional grants world, many of them fall short. The ones that we seriously considered had the WT element.

David: let’s take a look at the big picture. We want to educate, encourage and professionalize our church functions. Some didn’t have good purposes, some didn’t write good grants application, though proposals were good. If we don’t continue, we never are going to improve. A big goal is how we educate and develop, how we are going to achieve that professionalism. It was just the first step.

Voting:  Motion and Amendment Unanimously adopted

4. Christine: Motion 3: Focus the 2015 Grant program in three areas: Witnessing and Tribal Messiahship, reengaging former members and support for local/district level Cranes development.

Jeff: can we clarify the cranes club?

Mari: ages 25-50 to bring young professional people. The mission is to mentor and develop professional skills centered on TM, to benefit the local community and influence outside; use the skills and talents for God’s purpose. We had the first meeting in Las Vegas.

Jeff: were there a lot of international participants or only US in Las Vegas?

Mari: Yes, there were many participants. But we are only responsible for the US cranes club. Every national chapter has their own meetings, which fit their demographic.

Lucy: can we incorporate the word “education”. After discussion, the request was withdrawn.

Voting: 11 in favor, 1 opposed (Alain)

At 11:57am reconvened after attending Sunday Service at 43^rd Street.

David: We are not going to have time to go over our concerns, but we can do that via email. We would like to review what we have here. I assume you have reports from your districts. Let’s send them to Terry. Please send these reports this week. Committees are supposed to address concerns from the field. The chair of the committee will convey them to the Council Chair. So much work went into this. There is still so much that can be done for this Council. We need to provide good communication and good customer service. We need to be able to report back.

5. Christine: Motion 4: Recommendation for the 2015 grant program to require a minimum of 20% match.

Seconded

Christine: 20% would be the money from other sources

Alain: I suggest to raise it to 30%. It will show the seriousness of the applicants

Noah: I propose and amendment of 20% cash match.

Seconded.

Christine: I agree. Though it’s not uncommon to use the in-kind contribution, it has to have a good accounting system and sophisticated organizations. Cash is more verifiable.

Voting: on the amendment: Unanimously Passed.

Noah: I move that the National Council resolve that the Council members may attend the meetings of District Councils and recommend that HSA requests District Councils to invite NC representatives to participate.

David: Where there is a good communication it is great.  It is not everywhere though. Communication is a big piece of this.

Voting: all in favor. Motion passed.

David: I call for motion to adjourn the Council.

Noah moved to adjourn

Voting:    all in favor.  Meeting Adjourned.

Closing Prayer.