Pastoral Council Minutes
February 05, 2007

Attending:
Rose Braun, Father Mark Burger, Connie Girard, Steve Gross, Tim Harmon, Denise Kick, Jerry Koehne, Tom Kroger, Steve Meinhardt, Claudia Miller, Louise Moyer, Jane Mueninghoff, Ann Perry, Tim Reed, Bruce Simeone, Barb Utrata, Jerry Barney, Debbie Kreiner, Kathy Mack, Mary Ann Lampe (scribe).

Preliminaries: The Council meeting opened at 7:00 pm. The Pastoral Council prayer was said and the reflection was led by Bruce Simeone. Tom Kroger will lead the reflection next month.

Agenda Items:

1) Approval of minutes from January 2nd meeting – all
The minutes were approved as written.

2) United Nations’ Millennium Villages Project – Jerry Barney [Justice & Peace Comm.]
a) 7:15 PM Telephone Conference with Jeff Walker, Millennium PROMISE Board Member and Donor
Before the telephone conference, questions were collected from Council members and Tim Harmon volunteered to
read the questions to Jeff Walker. The conference opened with Jeff Walker introducing himself and his associate,
Jennifer Cho. Question: How often do you receive feedback from villages and does it include financial accounting?
At least annually and probably quarterly. We are in contact daily and follow strict accounting rules with financial
reports annually. We are just now setting up a data collection process. Will manage on a daily basis. We will
track 8 or 9 major tracks, such as, malaria, school attendance, crop production, etc. and report quarterly.
Question: Exactly what happens to our donations? Would go to villages in goods and services. For example,
fertilizer, seed, water. Administration money would come from New York from separate fund raising projects. No
overhead is related to our contribution.
Question: What’s the status of previous villages? No failures to date. Started in July, 2004 with a village in Kenya
and another in Ethiopia. The one in Kenya has been recognized as a great success. Attendance in school has
improved since they have been brought out of hunger and they now have funds available to start a cash crop. Other
villages have seen increased crop production from 16 percent to 1000 percent. In Uganda, there has been a 43 per-
cent increase in school attendance due to less malaria and chubby babies are being born due to better maternal
health. There are cluster managers on the ground to ensure training, etc. is done right. We are setting up a model with clusters in ten different locations.
Question: Are there videos available showing progress? We have ones from Kenya and Malawi.
Question: How many villages, so far? Seventy-nine from 2004-mid 2006. Launched 67 last year.
Question: Have there been any villages experiencing civil unrest or problems with neighbors due to jealousy? We
have gone in to stable areas with local government support. In Uganda, staying in southern part. We have had no
problems other than some minor reports of theft.
Question: Would you explain independence from UN regarding funds? We are totally independent from the UN. We
use them to process funds. Through them we can avoid paying import duties. We have totally separate funds,
accounting, auditing. We are working toward being able to process our own funds.
Question: What about infrastructure, such as, roads and docks? Infrastructure is another area where we get the
national and local government involved. Water and energy are in close cooperation with the government. Shared
services around clusters. Funds we contribute would not be used for roads or major infrastructure.
Question: Do you need a legally binding commitment? Yes, we need a legal commitment in order to guarantee a
5 year commitment.
Question: What services are provided by health services? The kind of services government is normally driven to
provide. Basic health services and treatment of major diseases, malaria, hiv, TB, proper birthing facilities.
Question: Are there any other groups such as ours who are already involved? Not a group exactly as yours. We have 5 individuals and some families. There are a lot of people looking to get together groups to sponsor a village.
We are pushing for better reporting such as on-line reporting. Will let you know some contacts. You could talk to
Tracy (Po?) who is heading up a group of individuals from Chicago.
Question: Why are you running out of villages? We are going to take on 10 clusters and evaluate results in 3 – 5
years. If this works, then we have a program in place for thousands of villages. We need logistics, technology, etc.
in place. The government of Japan is already sponsoring 10 villages.

Jerry Barney has an e-mail address to contact you with additional questions if they arise.

After the telephone conference, Council had the following comments and questions. How would the parish pay?
Monthly, quarterly, annually? Do we have a time line for moving ahead? Jerry is actively seeking partners. We
wanted last month to commit to Good Shepherd; now we have more hurdles. Fr. Mark – The question on legal
contract will be answered tomorrow. If the diocese says “no”, then we will have to do a cluster which does not
require a legal contract. Finance Council is afraid will take away from debt repayment. No objections from Council to moving ahead. If this comes together, it will be God’s work.

3) Pastoral Associate: Youth Ministry Update – Debbie Kreiner
a) Overview of Activities and Current Topics
Debbie passed around some hand outs explaining many of her activities. In the past, we concentrated on sports
and social activities, but leaving out faith formation. Now we are focusing more on Catholic faith formation. We
are encouraging more involvement in pastoral care, prayer and worship here at St. John’s. REALITY ON Sunday
evenings is our weekly faith formation. We read scripture and do some activities. We concentrate on that Sunday’s
reading or their own interest possibly from current events. We normally have a large attendance. We post a lot
of info on the website. Debbie is on the website committee.
b) Issues/Needs/Challenges
We can’t take for granted that the kids are okay. All kids are broken in someway. We have ten with ADD, some have
substance abuse problems. Time is always a challenge. Getting the calendar coordinated with all the schools and
work around their schedules. We need more volunteers on the website committee.
c)Feedback
We appreciate youth participation in Campton Mission. Enjoyed participation in 9:30 mass as liturgical ministers and
greeters.

4) Pastoral Council Section of Updated Website – Rose Braun
Is there anything we need to add to our website? Our e-mail addresses are still posted on the website. They were supposed to have been removed. Who handles the Parishioner Feedback Forms that are sent through our portion of the website? Please look at the website and send an e-mail to Rose for things that should be added or deleted.

5) Volunteers for Meeting Reflections – all
March 5 – Tom Kroger; April 10 – Steve Meinhardt; May 7 – Rose Braun

6) Fr. Mark’s Comments
Father Linh is on vacation in Vietnam. Father Ray’s celebration is this weekend in the gathering space.
Louise- Any help after Mass will be appreciated.

7) Adjournment and Closing Prayer
We adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Next Meeting: Monday, March 5, 2007 at 7:00 pm. in Undercroft D.