Notice of next two meetings We will meet at 12:30 at Fourth Reformed on Wednesday, June 27, and Wednesday, August 1. Larry Hollar and John Gromek would like to visit us soon and may be able to attend a meeting.
Present Al, Nancy, June, Mary J., Stephanie, Ron, Lou, Dave, Shauna, Dominic, and Mary D.
Present Al, Nancy, June, Mary J., Stephanie, Ron, Lou, Dave, Shauna, Dominic, and Mary D.
Opening prayer Mary opened the meeting with a reading from 1 Corinthians 12:4-8 and a prayer for perseverance and generosity.
Huizenga letter We signed a letter to Representative Huizenga expressing our conviction that society must exercise an “option for the poor.” The letter will be sent to Rep. H., his chief of staff (John De Witt), and the manager of the Holland office (Greg Van Woerkom). Also, Carol will deliver a copy to Rep. H.’s office on Lobby Day.
United Way Community Assessment Dave reported that he just got word from Pat Moran about ways that our student helpers could be involved with the updated Community Assessment. Fonda and the students will consider these opportunities.
Student Helpers Stephanie Rogers, our intern, attended the meeting and introduced herself. Brenda Cuellar, our summer volunteer, cannot make our meetings, since she is working when we meet. The primary project assigned to Stephanie and Brenda is to develop a plan to get Hope students involved with Bread. They will probably have to work under the umbrella of Hope United for Justice. Dave suggested that the students may also want to work on creating a questionnaire for the Congressional and Senatorial candidates in the 2012 elections.
Survey on "$50,000 Question" Lou presented results of his e-mail survey of some area CRC pastors, asking the whether their congregations would be willing and able to contribute $50,000/year for 10 years to make up for the proposed cut in SNAP. Most said their churches would not come up with that sum, though some expressed willingness to try. Also, some expressed skepticism about whether SNAP funds are spent wisely. Nancy said she will supply some relevant materials from her son.
BECKMANN VISIT
Publicity materials Mary passed out samples of the postcard, letter, and poster that have been developed. We decided that, when possible, we should use e-mail to disseminate our materials, since that path is inexpensive. We also decided against sending postcards to the list of 142 area churches that we used a couple of years ago to promote our Hunger Awareness Program. We reasoned that our previous response rate was so poor that the expense is not justified. Also, we will deliver some materials when we visit the churches. (See below.)
Visits to area churches and agencies We decided to target the churches on the list of 30 churches from Mike Troutman and the churches on the CROP list. Stephanie is creating a list of churches to visit and organizing them geographically. We agreed to pair up to visit the churches. Stephanie is collecting names of people willing to visit churches and will assign churches to pairs. We will try to complete our visits in June, since we need to give the churches adequate notice. Al and Mary will meet on Friday to develop a script for the visits. They will also decide on a packet of materials to give to each church.
Social media Dominic informed us that we need to think about ways to direct traffic to our web site and facebook page (facebook.com/hollandbreadteam). Google analytics shows that our site is receiving very little traffic. Dominic added that Google has given him $100 worth of ads for free. He will work on using that ad money to direct traffic to our site. Dominic has also set up for us a free google apps account, which allows us to send gmail from hollandbreadteam.org rather than having to use our personal email accounts. Finally, Mary encouraged attendees to look closely at our sites and offer suggestions for improvements.
Huizenga letter We signed a letter to Representative Huizenga expressing our conviction that society must exercise an “option for the poor.” The letter will be sent to Rep. H., his chief of staff (John De Witt), and the manager of the Holland office (Greg Van Woerkom). Also, Carol will deliver a copy to Rep. H.’s office on Lobby Day.
United Way Community Assessment Dave reported that he just got word from Pat Moran about ways that our student helpers could be involved with the updated Community Assessment. Fonda and the students will consider these opportunities.
Student Helpers Stephanie Rogers, our intern, attended the meeting and introduced herself. Brenda Cuellar, our summer volunteer, cannot make our meetings, since she is working when we meet. The primary project assigned to Stephanie and Brenda is to develop a plan to get Hope students involved with Bread. They will probably have to work under the umbrella of Hope United for Justice. Dave suggested that the students may also want to work on creating a questionnaire for the Congressional and Senatorial candidates in the 2012 elections.
Survey on "$50,000 Question" Lou presented results of his e-mail survey of some area CRC pastors, asking the whether their congregations would be willing and able to contribute $50,000/year for 10 years to make up for the proposed cut in SNAP. Most said their churches would not come up with that sum, though some expressed willingness to try. Also, some expressed skepticism about whether SNAP funds are spent wisely. Nancy said she will supply some relevant materials from her son.
BECKMANN VISIT
Publicity materials Mary passed out samples of the postcard, letter, and poster that have been developed. We decided that, when possible, we should use e-mail to disseminate our materials, since that path is inexpensive. We also decided against sending postcards to the list of 142 area churches that we used a couple of years ago to promote our Hunger Awareness Program. We reasoned that our previous response rate was so poor that the expense is not justified. Also, we will deliver some materials when we visit the churches. (See below.)
Visits to area churches and agencies We decided to target the churches on the list of 30 churches from Mike Troutman and the churches on the CROP list. Stephanie is creating a list of churches to visit and organizing them geographically. We agreed to pair up to visit the churches. Stephanie is collecting names of people willing to visit churches and will assign churches to pairs. We will try to complete our visits in June, since we need to give the churches adequate notice. Al and Mary will meet on Friday to develop a script for the visits. They will also decide on a packet of materials to give to each church.
Social media Dominic informed us that we need to think about ways to direct traffic to our web site and facebook page (facebook.com/hollandbreadteam). Google analytics shows that our site is receiving very little traffic. Dominic added that Google has given him $100 worth of ads for free. He will work on using that ad money to direct traffic to our site. Dominic has also set up for us a free google apps account, which allows us to send gmail from hollandbreadteam.org rather than having to use our personal email accounts. Finally, Mary encouraged attendees to look closely at our sites and offer suggestions for improvements.