Old Business

We discussed continuing to pass out the Ziploc bags and list of articles to be donated each Sunday for the migrant workers kits which will be blessed on Dec. 10. Janet Davies would possibly work with the Sunday school class on Family Sunday, December 3, the first Sunday of Advent to collect and begin the assembly of the kits. Members of the Mission Board will continue to assemble the kits after church. We will write an article for the January newsletter describing what we collected and the distribution to the migrant workers. We thank Janet Davies, a past board member, for her continuing help, support and guidance in this important project.

In order to distribute the Skyland Run monies Stephen will find out the address of the Fiji High School students as well as the United Campus Ministry.

We discussed the articles for the newsletter. Stephen will write an article for the January newsletter. It will include all the wonderful generosity of the Skyland church members who contributed: 32 turkeys that were distributed by the Western Service workers to families in Santa Cruz and Watsonville at Thanksgiving, money for blankets on Blanket Sunday, Dec. 10,

kits for migrant workers, and the family presents for the giving tree. Stephen reminded us of how important it is to recognize the impressive generosity of our church. Mary Ellen McTamaney will write an article on the Amani Pastoralist Project for the February newsletter. Joan Law will write an article on Hope Walks for the March newsletter.

New Business

Jackie received a request from the Church Council to write up a description of the Mission Board and its duties. Jackie will write this and email us a draft for feedback.

Jackie reported that there are many exciting changes to the Skyland Church website, most notably the Church Calendar. Since Anne Evans was the only member who wasn’t present at the council meeting, Jackie kindly explained how to add an event to the Church calendar. Church calendar>create an event>add the event title & start time>submit new event and put in the password. Sounds like fun. The collection for Blanket Sunday will be on December 10th. We also made a motion to have a second collection for blankets on Christmas Eve.

Jackie explained that at the last council meeting it was decided to change the budget process. In the past the budget requests from the various boards had come after the pledges were written out for the following year. This year the council would like to have a spending plan including expenditures in place before the annual meeting in January. Thus the council asked that by the end of December that the Mission Board decide on an amount that we will request for the UCC share. We had a lengthy discussion about our responsibility to the greater UCC church. For the 2006-2007 fiscal year we requested 4.75% of the budget or $6,753 out of a $141,820 budget. For the 2007-08 fiscal year, we request 5% or a projected figure of $7,100 out of a projected $142,000 budget. Stephen added that the percentage is based on the previous year’s budget and that 5% is a reasonable amount to contribute for the UCC share.

We then discussed the mission board membership. We are thrilled that Nancy Jo Lopp has agreed to join our board. Since she has done so much work on the Mission Booklet we consider her a working member already. Welcome Nancy Jo. We will also seek another member to join us.

Joan Law then told us of a letter that she had from Anandon who has a new teaching assignment at the Tamilnadu Theological College. Pradhu is one of the recipients of the Anadon India Student Fund and is still in school.

Joan Law invited us to meet at her house on January 23 at 7:30PM.

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