Membership & Constituency Committee Report

August 2007 

Questionnaire

 

Present: Danny Langley (MI), Susan Panek Polizzi (NJ), Shakespeare Osorio (IL), Leigh Johnson (CT), Holly Vincent-Bean (MMBB); guest at last committee session: Mar Imsong (MS)

 

1. Introductions were shared around our personal stories and who ordained us into ministry.
2. We heard from our committee chair of the 3 suggestions proposed by the Exec. Comm. a.) developing an MC brochure, b.) immigrant clergy issues, and c.) welcoming and sustaining the new NJ Latino councils.
3. With reference to sustaining of the NJ council, Miriam as VP of the Exec Comm. and as a Hispanic will make herself available as a MC resource to NJ as a resource and to affirm the NJ council throughout the year. Initially we will be sending a letter of welcome (Span. & Eng.) to the President of the Council, visiting with someone from the Council if travel permits, and writing and calling during their initial year.

 

The committee considers valuable that new councils similar to this one, are pointed at this model particularly in their communication with the Anglo Council and their Region.

 

We accept/affirm/rejoice in the reality of new forms of councils coming into the Council; however the question of being “are we ready to work with these Councils?” was asked. These may be non-English Speakers for example –translation of materials may be needed. “Are we ready to accept what comes with the reality?” Writing a reimbursement check for example becomes a challenge –why not be proactive (see the reality before it becomes a problem).

 

4. When we began to look at the task of developing a new BROCHURE, other issues and questions became evident. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing:

• What the MC offers?
• Why would want to belong; what benefits it provides?
• What makes it unique? 
• Who participates and who is left out of the council?

 

Out of these issues we drafted and passed out a survey for the Senate to complete. We will use this questionnaire to send to local councils. Some of the findings from forms returned to this point reveal concerns over:

• Fellowship, collegiality, and time spent together in community with others like us (clergy persons) are important.
• Barriers (keep folks from participating in MC) are expressed in the form of distance, poor communication, use of language (“Council”, “Senate”, “Discernimentarian”, “Parlimentarian”, etc. for example), imagination, lack of perceived value.
• Some Councils are providing parallel resources to their regions, others are not functioning at all and others have activities and events that vary among councils.
• There are groups of people not being included), recruited or sustained by MC (mostly at the local constituent council level).
  • Retirees, new pastors to ABC life, seminarians, pastors in transition. Perhaps one way to address this issue is to have local councils attempt to stay in touch with their region in keeping track to who is in seminary, church transitions, and retirees in their area.
  • Young Clergy are not being fully represented in MC.
  • We are concerned about folks leaving the council and who is coming in, but realize that the local council is mostly responsible for this reality. But that we could strategize on how to reach more young clergy membership from the angle of the national MC.
• Promotional pieces need to have an overall, “same” look; that includes the website; Membership and Constituency will be in touch throughout the year with Communications on this.
• We will develop a “promotional package” of resources for the MC which would include items like: a PP, bites or clips, a brochure (maybe more than one), tangible items such as a bookmark or postcard, or bulletin insert, templates for local council use. Some of these pieces may be costly, but others (electronic) may be fairly simple to accomplish.
• The brochure is the first piece to be developed and made available at Senate 2008. It will be developed after hearing back from a second round of surveys that will be sent to the president and other local council folks. We will draw the content of the brochure from those findings.
  • Brochure Plan
    • Send questionnaire to local councils
    • Collate results
    • Meet by conference call to review results
      • We will also collect stories, photos and quotes so that they “speak” the identity of the MC.
    • Draft content from review (this includes working with Kate)
    • Draft brochure from review (Danny Langley volunteered his wife Renee’s graphic design skills to do this for us; includes Kate)
    • Consider delivery ideas:

     

5. When considering immigrant clergy issues, we invited Mar Imsong and Shakespeare Osorio to speak to us and share their stories, stories that represent
• The Thai and Burmese are a significant immigrant groups and are not being cared for in our Regions and participating in the Council.
• “We don’t have papers and we haven’t left a paper trail. Paperwork is another culture and papers sometimes prevent participation.” Ex. Ordination requirements.
• “Anglo” churches need to be made aware of the INS situation(s) of immigrant American Baptist clergy. There is a fraud investigation process underway for Religious Worker Visas, which has put some legitimate immigrant clergy in critical situations causing inappropriate delays and sometimes denial of visas, for example.

1. A lot of education in general is needed.
2. Churches need to know the implications of the process.
3. Churches need to be aware of their responsibilities of hiring an immigrant clergy.
4. Our Council work needs to look at our work “outside the camp” and not inside the building structure. We urge each council to reach out, find creative and intentional ways of reaching out to immigrant clergy. 

We can MC be of support:

• One concrete way to begin to address this issue is to 1.) introduce ourselves as a Council to ethnic causes, and perhaps through the Asian Caucus find circles of Burmese refugees from Thailand, and other groups to introduce the Council, and empower and relate to ministers and clergy people.
• Our national and local councils can certainly educate.
• National organizations need to be more intentional about offering help to immigrants. A letter from the Region is not the same for the US government as is a letter from a national office. Ex. letters of endorsement validating the clergy person’s ministry. Rethink

 

A thought for the road: The Ministers Council is “a safe place where you can be a person when you are a [clergy person] pastor . . . .Shakespeare (Osorio) 

 

Possible use in press release:

• The Membership and Constituency Committee welcomes the new Latino Association NJ Council, and makes itself available as a Ministers Council resource “to walk along-side” it throughout 2007.
• Membership and Constituency will develop a “promotional package” for both national and local council use; the first of these products is a brochure to be made available at Senate 2008.
• Taking into account the current issues of immigrant clergy, we urge (cry out to!) our national office and our local councils to seek out immigrant clergy and to offer concrete support.

 

Notes take by:

Miriam Chacón Peralta 

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