UMAMD Committee Leaders
Conference Call
April 11, 2016

Present: Janine, Brian, Lynn, Sharon, Tim, Greg

  • Brochure: Lynn took the draft from last month and has done some editing. The largest change is to emphasize the information on how to join our organization. Some discussion was held about the logo and other editorial suggestions. Lynn was authorized to go ahead and complete the project and print 1,000 copies to use for General Conference 2016. Once the final draft is complete, Janine will send a copy to all our members encouraging them to send in their annual dues, and asking those with updated addresses to share that information with us.
  • Greg: First, we celebrated his new role as hospice chaplain and the excitement he has on closing on a home. Greg shared that we do have funds in our treasury, around $3,000.
  • GC2016: The following ways of advocating are planned:
    • Sharon, Lynn & Janine will be present for the portions of the event.
    • Our petitions will be summarized on a half or quarter-sized sheet of paper and inserted into the brochures.
    • We will have a portion of a booth available to us.
    • Bishop Peggy will lead the communion service Saturday, May 14. Lynn and Sharon will talk with her about including disability concerns during this moment.
    • A list of petitions was sent to our members; but apparently one petition did get left out. Janine will resend the corrected list.
    • Articles for Love Your Neighbor are being submitted.
    • We do not have email addresses for delegates. So we are limited to using regular mail.
  • Closing prayer by Greg.
  • Next Call: If something comes up needing action before General Conference, we will have a conference call on April 25. 10 Pacific/11 Mountain/12 Central/1 Eastern.


    UMAMD Committee Leaders
    Conference Call
    March 14, 2016

    Present: Janine, Lynn, Sharon, Russell, Tim, Greg

    • Writing to delegates, who will write, what do we say: individual letters make a big difference. There is consensus that individual letters expressing support and prayers are good. Mention of our issues would be good. Need bullet points. Lynn will contact Jackson Day to see if he has bullet points. 275 US delegates on committees will be looking at our petitions. Northern Illinois (Terry McDorman) and Eastern PA (Barb Skarbowski) are spoken for. Need to ask DMC and AMD to help send letters to others.
    • The Love Your Neighbor Coalition Request for support and how we respond/ GC newsletter articles: Lynn has concerns that it will interfere with Disability Ministries stuff. Janine says she can't do one without the other. We don't have the $10,000 to send them, but how do we otherwise support? Differences of opinion. Need to send articles to them for their GC newsletter. Janine/Tim to send out another request to AMD and include the guidelines. Tim will also put it on FB and in the weekly e-mail.
    • Review of a draft brochure will send in separate email (thanks Tim): One suggestion to add at least one picture. Lynn says "very word-intense." Group picture from Dallas — Sharon will ask Tom who took it, who has it. E-mail from the website could be used as contact info. Janine asks Tim to forward the e-mail from that to her and Russell. He would like Janine to send him a reminder in a week or so. The brochure needs work. It's a first draft. We would like to have this brochure to hand out at GC. Janine requests a final draft by our next meeting.
    • Beyond GC, establishing a group to work on a 2017 meeting: need a program committee to work on this. Lynn will be for support only, not chair. Russell will work on getting a committee together. Need to find funding whether we meet with DMC or separately. Maybe could piggyback on Summer Institute or with DMC.
    Next Meeting: April 11, 1 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific


    UMAMD Committee Leaders
    Conference Call
    February 8, 2016

    Present: Janine DeLaunay, Brian Burch, Lynn Swedberg, Tim Vermande, Sharon McCart and Eric Pridmore, and Russell Ewell

    • Tim shared that his weekly email is based on material from the Facebook page and sent to the UMAMD mailing list and to the DMC members.
    • Brian contacted GBOPHB again and confirmed they are not willing to distribute material to those receiving CPP benefits on our behalf. However, each Annual Conference Journal lists members of the Joint Committee on Medical Leave and those appointed to Medical Leave. So, the information is public, just not convenient.
    • A brochure describing the UMAMD is in process and should be ready for our next meeting. Thanks to Tim, Lisa, Gary and Nancy for working on this.
    • Eric shared about his experience of serving on the Mississippi Annual Conference Nominations Committee. He noted that their conference database has thousands of names and addresses who have not served on committees in years. He also noted that keeping the data base current is a massive undertaking. Likewise, we need to constantly work on updating our records and finding ways for persons to serve.
    • Next Steps: (1): Communicate with Bishops/ connectional table/ chairs of the Board of Ordained Ministry; we will need to collect that info; (2): Brian will focus on a couple of conferences in the Southeast Jurisdiction where we are lacking members and send them copies of Janine's letter, a membership form and the brochure; (3): Have brochures ready for GC2016. These would be cheaper than give-a-ways. If we can afford it, having them printed commercially would be best.
    • Petitions for GC2016: with our petitions scattered among various committees, the desire is send letters explaining our petitions to delegates based on their committee assignments. Lynn found sample letters composed by Deb Wade in 2012. Lynn is working through the Advance Daily Christian Advocate and our connections in LYN to develop the appropriate database. A list of petitions is on our website.
    • Dues: Greg is investigating whether we could take dues via PayPal. We may find it helpful to connect with an annual conference and use their online system.
    • UMW Mission U: Russell continues to use his connections within this organization and others to find ways the UMAMD can serve as advocates. Two suggestions are: (1) assign a point-person to interview those campaigning for Bishop specific questions about their stances on disability concerns. Those running for Bishop do not know how large or small our organization is and this would be a good opportunity to be bold. (2) Bishop Letter on Disability: At this time, the council of Bishops are not putting out any position papers. However, we could continue to push for this. David Watson wrote a letter that could be used by the Bishops as a model.
    • Love Your Neighbor: Janine reported that LYN will be meet Jan. 20 in Portland. In terms of articles, Julia Frisbee the LYN communications leader shares that she has a few articles from UMAMD members sharing how the UMC has included them. No articles sharing stories of discrimination have been submitted. LYN's budget for GC2016 in $100,000. When asked if the UMAMD could raise $10,000 towards this need, Janine shared that we do not have this capacity.
    • Next meeting: March 14, 2016

      Utterly convinced our God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine,
      Brian Burch, Secretary


    UMAMD Committee Leaders
    Conference Call
    January 11, 2016

    Present: Russell Ewell, Janine DeLaunay, Tim Vermande, Lynn Swedberg, Brian Burch, Lisa McKee & Sharon McCart
    Our meeting opened with introductions and prayer. Janine recapped our November and December meetings.

    Old Business

    • Activating disability concerns committees at conference levels. In December, Janine wrote a letter inviting clergy on medical leave to join our group. We are still in need of a mechanism for sending the letter. Brian will contact the GBOPHB for a second attempt to see if they would be willing to send out the letter to those receiving CPP disability benefits. While the listing of those on medical leave is in the Journals, GBOPHB is hesitant to release a mailing list.
    • Legislation and support for disability related petitions for GC 2016. Thanks to Sharon, Janine and the LYN Coalition we have a full list of delegates to both General Conference and Jurisdictional conferences consisting of over 2,000 names. Lynn is ready to manipulate the spreadsheet and narrow our focus, but needs to learn which legislative committees are dealing with which AMD/DMC petitions.
    • Participation in the Love Your Neighbor Coalition. Janine is our representative to this group. She asked for clarification of how do we respond to issues where there is not agreement within UMAMD? Janine will be meeting the LYN people at pre-conference briefing. Janine can represent the AMD and take action. LYN has a good piece on disability and Janine feels it's up to us to bring our concerns forward. Lynn is requesting volunteers for newsletter and social media communications.
    • Work with BOOM in terms of people with disabilities and candidacy process. This is important but can wait. The Disability Committee is working on writing the book and working with UMCom on the Welcoming Church course. The Welcoming Church course will be revamped before General Conference, where it will be publicized. Lisa is working with seminaries to assist them in their process of self-assessment in terms of persons with disabilities. Can we improve our publicity for this group? Could Dodie Risse be of help? It is important for someone to check with Dodie. Tim is working with a group on a brochure for the AMD and a draft version should be ready in another week or so.
    • Continued follow-up with UMW and Mission U Russell recapped his fall meeting with Mary Chang. In response to her suggestion that we develop a set of video stories, Janine wondered if we could do "Chuck Knows Church" series along the theme, "Chuck knows Disabilities." Lisa says there is a portal on the GBHEM site where people can upload their call stories. Maybe we can utilize that. The Julian Way also is making videos that address disability issues in a humorous way.

    New Business

    • Tim shared that effective the end of February he will no longer be contracted through the GBGM to oversee web and social media for the various Disability groups. He is now working on individual contracts with each group. Will we sign a contract with Tim and will we as a group be willing to provide funding for this contract? It was decided that Janine, Russell, Greg and Bill Dowling would put this new contract together.
    • Who has agreed to do what? Lynn: work with GC 2016 Delegate spreadsheet; winnow out who we need to contact; seek out writers for LYN. Janine: contact Jan Nelson to find out committee assignments; will continue with LYN articles and can some be written ahead. Tim: continue to work on communication and brochure; continue with the website and insure we have a contract in place to continue this ministry. Brian: contact GBOPHB about a mass email/letter inviting those receiving CPP disability payments; contact Dodie Rissie. Lisa: working on video idea, particularly a web-based

    Next Conference call: Monday, February 8 with the same time schedule

    Submitted,
    Brian Burch (with lots of help from Sharon McCart)

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