November 2012 Core Meeting Minutes

November 5, 2012 at Mary Immaculate Auditorium #1

Attendance

Present
Carmen Pernudi, Ricky Jones, Rosemary Moreno, Andrew Guerrero, Danny Lopez, Laurie Serrano, Rosie Cárdenas, Larry Ruiz, Sal Barrios, Azucena Bonillas, Eugene Torres, Deacon Ken Elsey, Fr. Porfirio Garcia, OMI

Absent
Susan Castillo, Sandy Klevinskas

Opening

Opening Prayer
Brief moment of silence followed by a prayer led by Ricky Jones. Then we sang along as Rosemary played a song by Matt Maher called “Alive in You.”

Prayer Exercise
Deacon Ken shared a reading from St. Paul about all that he went through as an apostle and the hardships he faced as a result of the gospel and his desire to remain humble and not boast (2 Cor 11). He asked the Core to reflect silently for a moment and ended with a prayer.

Review of Last Month’s Minutes
Andrew motioned that we accept last month’s minutes as-is and Rosie seconded that motion.

Citizen to Be Heard

The following issues were brought to the attention of the Core:

Bea Rulli: She presented a possible menu for the men’s retreat. Most of the meals were planned that they can be made ahead of time, frozen, and then thawed out and baked at the retreat center. She also expressed a concern with the time taken in lining up for food. Her idea is to do family meals, where there would be family-sized platters on the tables where each table would be able to serve themselves from there. Carmen explained that the Core doesn’t really have to approve this, but rather the director and retreat teams can make these types of decisions. On another note she presented the idea of having a Christmas concert for incarcerated girls, perhaps the weekend before the men’s retreat. She also wants to do the Christmas caroling at the convalescent homes again this year. Danny motioned we accept the proposal, and Larry seconded. The proposal was accepted by the Core.

Old Business

The Core addressed issues brought up at the previous meeting.

Projector: Carmen explained that the projector has arrived.
Community Day of Reflection: This event will take place on the 11th of November in the parish hall at Mary Immaculate. Ricky will make a bulk phone call to the community with information about the event asking people to please RSVP at http://sfvacts.org. Food will be catered and child care will be available. Andrew explained that it is an opportunity for the whole community to get together.
Robert’s Rule: Carmen stated that there was a concern brought to her attention that at the last meeting the Core didn’t follow Robert’s Rules in making the vote regarding the amount of retreats per year. Ricky said that the manual doesn’t require that we follow Robert’s Rules and that if we all took a vote that should stand. Andrew added that those in opposition had the opportunity to vote against the proposal.
Dates to Keep for 2013 Retreats: Carmen explained that since we are going down to two retreats per year, we need to select which dates we want to keep since there were four dates already scheduled at the De Paul Center. She suggested the dates for the women in April (18th – 21st) and the men in September (12th – 15th). Fr. Porfirio expressed his concern that the Oblate priests will all be unavailable that weekend in April. Carmen will check with the priests at the retreat center to see if they would be able to help out with the confessions. Andrew motioned to accept these dates, Ricky seconded, and it was accepted by the Core that these be our dates for 2013.

New Business

The Core brought new ideas and issues to the table.

Find Persons to Pull the Trailer: We need to find a couple of people willing to pull the trailer to and from the retreat center to drop off and pick up all the supplies for the retreats. The Core would like to have a few options just in case something happens, we have a back up.
Liability Insurance: Sal explained that we need to get liability insurance for the retreat center.
Core Member Absences: Carmen showed that the Charter states only 3 allowed absences are allowed per year and that we haven’t necessarily enforced it. The rule doesn’t require that people step down, but allows the Core that option. She asked that we all discern whether we are able to commit to the monthly Core meetings.
Bus for Retreatants: Larry mentioned that we needed to schedule a bus for the men’s retreat. Carlos, one of the co-directors, stated that he has already scheduled a bus for $500 and that if all goes well we will be able to pre-schedule for upcoming retreatants. Fr. Porfirio asked that confirm that the bus has insurance.

Selection of Women’s Retreat Director

The Core went through the director selection process which included prayer, scripture, and discernment. The names of each nominee were placed in a folder and the Holy Spirit selected Deysi Martinez as the director for the women’s retreat coming up April 18-21, 2013.

Coordinator Reports

Each member of the Core gave an update:

Supplies: Danny explained that inventory has been taken.
Men’s Retreat: Eugene explained that a retreatant from a previous retreat who wasn’t able to attend the retreat, wanted to apply his payment to this retreat. His other concern was the cooking, but with Bea Rulli’s help he thinks that they will be alright. Another concern is that there only a few retreatants signed up. Rosie suggested that each team member invite and encourage one man to come on retreat. Carlos passed out the team’s follow-up plan for post-retreat activities that follow the four pillars of ACTS. Each month there would be two activities for the men to remain active in the St. Ferdinand community. He also mentioned that there will be another off-site team meeting November 18th at 5pm. Lastly, he passed out a team budget. Carmen commended the men’s directors for their organization.
Pastoral: Fr. Porfirio encouraged the Core to be in communication with their pastors. Ricky added that he had spoken to Fr. Stan about this and he was also concerned that there wasn’t really any representatives from ACTS that were keeping him up-to-date.
Financial: Sal handed out the financial report which stated $17,200.85 in assets, $13,094.14 in liabilities, and $4,106.71 in equity. He also stated that we should try to pay back the parishes which makes up for most of our liabilities.
Facilitator: Andrew thanked the ACTS community for showing up at the meeting. Carmen thanked everyone for their work and support. The men’s team has cancelled their meeting on November 17th in order to go down to Azusa to support St. Frances of Rome’s Candlelight. She extends an invitation to the community support our sister parish.
Support: Laurie said that she had ordered the glowsticks and that Carlos has given her a detailed outline for Candlelight. Larry had a concern about the pulpit talks and recruiting of retreatants for the men’s retreat. He suggested that perhaps the men’s team could coordinate with men’s choir to better showcase the results of the retreat.
Music: Rosemary explained that she wouldn’t be able to do the music/screens for the return Mass in December, but that she will prepare the slides.
Women’s Retreat: Azucena stated that she will be meeting with the new director and also coordinating a reunion this coming month. She asked if the follow-up that the men were planning would be open to the women. Sal also asked that everyone discern whether they would be open to providing their homes for a small faith community, because if nobody takes the initiative then they won’t happen. Fr. Porfirio added that the Family Catechism program is based in homes of parishioners and has been very successful.
Social: Rosie said that the dinner dance raised over $6000 including a donation of $2000 from Wells Fargo for the St. Ferdinand Outreach Center and the LA Mobile Food Bank. Carmen thanked Rosie and her committee for their efforts. Rosie explained that she learned that when there is a worthy cause people will be generous, even those that are not involved with ACTS. She added that this event really brought the community together for a great cause. She was glad to see that our community was able to have fun and raise money for our community. Carmen asked if there were any plans for a holiday fundraiser. Rosie said that she is open to it, but that she doesn’t have any plans in place. She also said that she doesn’t want to do another fundraiser without the backing of the Core. She feels that she hasn’t had much support from the Core and ACTS in putting on these events.
Communication: Ricky explained that he had been contacted by Jay Vela, the executive director of ACTS Missions regarding the website. He explained that he was asked to remove the “Director’s Resources” section from the website, which featured content from the Director’s Manual in digital format due to copyright infringement. Jay explained that ACTS Missions has not sought to publish these materials online because they prefer that directors attend in-person trainings. Ricky added that he was glad he was able to participate in this meeting via webcam from Phoenix.

Closing

Review of Meeting
All had positive comments about the meeting.

Next Meeting
The meeting will be held Monday, December 3rd. Andrew will do the opening prayer and Larry will do the closing prayer. Rosie will bring snacks and Carmen will be bringing drinks.

Closing Prayer
Danny Lopez led the closing prayer.