Tres Dias International Secretariat Meeting

Ebensberg, Pennsylvania

 

Saturday, July 9, 2005

 

The 90th meeting of the Secretariat was called to order in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit at 5:10 pm.  The meeting was opened with prayer by Pastor Bill Thwing. 

 

Present for Saturday and/or Sunday meetings were: Cathy Allen, Don Bohl, Julie Bohl, Eric Borman, Bill Boyd, Paula Boyd, Wilson Burton, Tonya Busic, Bruce Cato, Paul Collins, Roberta Collins, Pat Fullerton, Terry Gilbreath, John Green, Ken Kessler, Pat Kessler, Judi LeMasurier, Merv LeMasurier, Paul Markowitz, Jeff Mehl, Valerie Mehl, Jeanne Norwood, Tim Real, A. Ben Seal, Adele Smith,  Rene Stephenson.

 

Absent – Mike Vigil.

              Barbara Chambers, Barry Eaton and  Jean Bowles absent without notice.

 

It is believed that Barbara Chambers resigned  by two different people but President Terry Gilbreath has had no phone call or written resignation.  Ray Bowles has resigned from committee work but we have no information from Jean Bowles. Barry Eaton had been expected to attend.   According to policy they are disqualified for membership after missing two meetings.  Juli Bohl will contact Jean Bowles and Terry Gilbreath will call Barry Eaton for follow up.   

 

John McKinney gave an overview of Tres Dias Secretariat using a powerpoint presentation for general information.

 

Several Informational Sheets were passed out: Committee Volunteer Sheet, Key Schedule Dates, Minutes from Mach meeting, Community Highlights Report, Attendance Requirements Sheet.

 

Bruce Cato was asked to act as parliamentarian for the meeting.

 

Minutes:

Corrections- of minutes were as follows:

 1) Wilson Burton- Maddie McCLoud – spelling.

 2) Valerie Mehl- Addition of “Some dates are not confirmed” for future meetings.

 

Pat Fullerton moved that we accept the minutes as amended. This was seconded by John Green. Vote- approved.

 

 

Agenda:

A. Ben Seal made a motion to approve the agenda.  This was seconded by Pat Fullerton.  Voice vote – approved.

 

Treasurer’s Report:

Treasurer’s Report: Judi asked if we could approve the treasurer’s report as of June 30th as given at the Assembly.  This was seconded by Bruce Cato.  Vote- approved.

 

A. Ben Seal made a motion to accept the Financial report as amended by Rene Stephenson at the Assembly.  Judi LeMasurier seconded  the motion.  Vote- approved.

 

Committee Chairmen:

Terry Gilbreath would like Paul Markowitz to continue to serve as Services Chairman and Bruce Cato to be appointed as Policy Committee Chairman. Wilson Burton made a motion to make these appointments.  Seconded by Tim Real.  Approved.

 

Terry Gilbreath made  announcements. Tomorrow there will be a church service here after the first session of Secretariat.  We will start at meeting at 8:00am in the community room.  The meeting was recessed  at 6:00 pm.    

 

Sunday, July 10, 2005

The meeting was reconvened at 8: 08 am.   Bill Boyd opened the meeting with prayer.

Ben Seal made announcements and gave directions for committee meetings downstairs.

 

New attendees to secretariat recognized. New secretariat members recognized:

                                            Paul Collins

                                          Roberta Collins

                                            Jeff Mehl

 

Committee Assignments - were announced as follows:

 

 

Services Committee

Chairman - Paul Markowitz 2007

Eric Borman 2007

Jeanne Norwood 2006

A. Ben Seal  2007

Ken Kessler  2007

Mike Acevedo

 

Executive Committee

Chairman - Bill Boyd 2006

Paul Collins 2007

Merv LeMasurier 2007

Rene Stephenson 2006

Valerie Mehl 2007

Wayne Irwin

Paul Dau

 

Administration Committee

Chairman -Juli  Bohl 2007

Paula Boyd 2007

Tonya Busic 2006

Pat Fullerton 2007

Pat Kessler 2007

Tim Real 2006

Harriet Holmes

 

Membership Committee

Chairman – Judi LeMasurier 2006

John Green 2006

Adele Smith 2007

Faye Gilbreath

Joan Green

Mike Holmes

Paul Weis

 

Policy Committee

Chairman- Bruce Cato 2007

Cathy Allen 2006

Don Bohl 2007

Wilson Burton  2006

Roberta Collins 2006

Jeff  Mehl 2007

Mike Vigil 2007

Charles Allen

Harry Davis

Bob Decker

Rick Lane

Shirley Lane

 

Committee Work.

Committee work sheets passed out.  We need to discuss the implementation of the new rollos in our committee meetings. Some things to consider: the Rector’s script.  Policy and procedures, by-laws etc will need to be adjusted.  A letter will be prepared to go out to all communities with suggestions of what the communities need to do to implement the new changes.

 

Terry recommends that as committees we think of what impact this change will have on each of our committees.  He would like input  from each committee.  This letter  will be sent to each community and the goal is to send it out within a week.   What does each committee need to update to get everything in line?

 

Bill Boyd mentioned an example: Services Committee prints and publishes the new materials. Copyrighted? 

 

Bruce Cato mentioned the training workshops scheduled for the October meeting.  Should training people immediately start teaching the new rollos?  We will also need to change the Essentials to match. 

 

There was some discussion about possible decisions concerning electronic media versus print versus CDs.  This was discussed from a cost basis as in using a CD.  Discussion also centered around making a manual usable for all communities. Bruce Cato clarified the responsibilities of Policy Committee versus BRC.  The BRC is mandated to make the documents ready.  Policy Committee is responsible for oversight and will approve or amend the documents.

 

President Terry Gilbreath emphasized that we need to get these talks ready.  Due to lack of time, we will have Officers and Committee Chairs meet on Friday, October 28, 2005 from 1:00-5:00 pm.

 

We need more time in committee.  It has been suggested that we try a Friday afternoon Secretariat meeting in March.

 

To Committees at 8:43 am.  We will meet back in the Community Room at 11:00 am following the service.

 

Reports from Committees:

 

Executive Committee- Bill Boyd

Valerie Mehl reporting.

1)      Copyright issue is resolved.  He consulted  with Don Bohl; he will send us proper wording  for materials.

2)      Merv LeMasurier will handle our taxes to be filed by November 15th.

3)      Our service mark was applied for in April and is pending.

4)      Assessment and voting procedures forwarded to our committee.  This continues  to be under discussion and review.

5)      Discussed new Rollo considerations.  Recommend paypal be used for materials/ manuals. 

 

Policy Committee – Bruce Cato

Jeff Mehl reporting.

 

The committee recommends voting status for Bob Decker. Vote – approved.

 

 

Review of  the Tres Dias Essentials for the purpose of removing terms such as 

      “denomination,” “interdenomination” and “ecumenical,” and to perform a   

      complete periodic review with recommendations for any changes.

Tres Dias Dictionary:  Mike Vigil has prepared a draft of the 40 approved words 

       and copies were sent to Committee members for review via email.  Several    

       additional words have been proposed.

 

Development of a Policy/Procedure Manual:  Bruce has reviewed all of the Secretariat minutes posted on the website and created a draft document which lists all pertinent motions and follow-up (or lack of).  This will list them by subject for ease of use.

 

Follow-up on approval of the new rollos and meditations:

Review of the Essentials to mesh with new rollos. Some changes of titles will be needed.

It was felt the Committee should attempt to list the specific documents that will need to be reviewed for compliance to the revised rollos and meditations:
               Combined Lay/Spiritual Team Member Book being prepared by the Blue                                            

                Ribbon Committee

    Rector’s Manual

    Chief Aux Manual    

    References to the new rollos/meditations on the Local & International websites. 

    Weekend schedules established by the local communities.

    Local Constitution/By-Laws that have references to the rollos and meditations.            

 

 “The Policy Committee recommends to Secretariat that advance permission be given to local chartered communities to reproduce all copyrighted material for the purpose of conducting Tres Dias weekends.”

 

A question  discussed at the committee meeting was, “Do we even need a copyright?”

A. Ben Seal had a point of order and felt that discussion of  the report needs to be done in committee,  not here. Bill Boyd said that the secretariat has not acted on this; it is not a motion.

 

Membership Committee – Judi LeMassrier.

Recommend: Mike Holmes and Paul Weiss as voting members of committee.  Vote- approved.

 

We need to translate the Essentials into other languages. They will try to follow up on this.

 

Judi LeMasurier reported on her trip to Korea.   The Korean Project was to contact communities and find out how many Tres Dias communities there are.  Are they really Tres Dias? They are not chartered and dues are not paid.

 

Saeronom was visited.  This community wanted to be sure they were following the essentials.   40 pastors are supporting this community.

 

The Korean culture is quite different from ours.  The Korean communities did not have a relationship with each other.   Land of the Morning Calm, and other communities didn’t even recognize each other.  Judi LeMasurier was able to introduce them in a meeting. She asked them to pull in the other communities.  She also was able to explain the schedule and Essentails. ie: that if you are Tres Dias,  this means you do this on this day.   If you are not doing TD- then prayerfully consider dropping the name TD.  They are successful and she told them to keep doing what you are doing  if they choose– only under another name.  Seoul – they have spread to Indonesia, Japan and China.  

 

The communities that she met with said that they abide by the Essentials.  John Green is assigned now to the Korean project.

 

She recommends that we have two slots, one for chartering US communities and another for International.  

 

Funding for foreign communities – A  blurb will  be put in the newsletter with contact names and information. A letter to go with assessments is another way to publicize funding needs overseas.

 

Essentials Workshop Book – this is assigned to membership.  This will require changing names  to coincide with the new rollos.  This will be passed to  Policy Committee for approval.

 

 

 Administration Committee- Juli Bohl

Assignments have been completed.

They are trying to complete a continuity book.  Putting down what we do and updating sections of this.

 

They have completed- “How to Hold a Secretariat Meeting”.  We have to ask communities to host us. They would like this information posted on the website. One

of the frequently asked  questions when approached about hosting is, “ What is the expense? “

 

Administration recommends that we set aside a fund of $200.00 to be available to communities for the two Secretariat Meetings (no fee to delegates) to help cover  expenses such as: copies, meals, etc.  This would total $400.00 per year. 

 

Merv LeMasurier suggests that we be budget this expense for THIS year from the contingency fund and have it budgeted to Administration next year. A motion is not needed for this.

 

Pat Kessler is writing a section on election procedures.  We have none at present.

 

Paula will work with the sections for nominations. There continues to be confusion in the communities between nominations  for Secretariat positions and delegates, etc.

 

Pat Fullerton is heading up a subcommittee of banners. A. Ben Seal will drive the banners and poles to N. Texas for the next Assembly.

 

Harriet Holmes  is dealing with survey of all communities to find out the number of active members each spring to determine the number of active members.

 

Delegates sent to the  Assembly remain  delegates until the next assembly in 2006.  We need to send information to the delegates as well as presidents of the local Tres Dias Communities. Anything we send to a community should also be sent to the delegates as well.  A list of delegates with addresses will be provided to the Secretary.

 

 A List of Upcoming Dates for Secretariat Meetings and Assemblies were handed out.

 

Services Committee – Paul Markowitz

Mike Acevedo  will send out palanca to communities for their weekends.

 

Printing of new team guides (SD and lay together)  needed.  Services request a final proof copy as soon as possible to get started within 30 days. They want to send them out before the October meeting.

 

Question :

     Ken Kessler: Who will be providing the final copy to be printed? 

Terry Gilbreath: BRC will have this done, but what about going through policy?

Bruce Cato: Decisions about modifications need to be submitted to Secretariat.

Bill Boyd : Actually this copy will come from Curtis but will be approved by BRC. 

 

Discussed possibility of changing our logo to the new logo used for this Assembly. 

We have permission from A. Ben Seal who designed it.  Motion recommended  to change the current outside page for manual to the logo used this weekend.  This change would incorporate the world, rainbow and Tres Dias cross.

 

Clarification – Should the term International be included or left out.  

Terry Gilbreath was concerned with changing that this can water it down.  Bill Boyd  felt  the same.

 

After some discussion Rene Stephenson called the question.  Vote – passed with only 2 opposed.

 

Adele Smith thanked for  her work on the newsletter.

 

Don Baldwin presented our prayer requests to the Lord.  Thanksgiving was given for answered prayer concerning Bob Decker and Maddie McCloud.

 

Ben Seal made a motion to adjourn the meeting. This was seconded by Judi LeMasurier.

Vote-passed.  Meeting adjourned at 12:15pm  in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

Terry Gilbreath closed in prayer.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Valerie Mehl

Secretary