November 1, 2007 Meeting

Sign In, Social Networking, Morning Hospitality

Introductions

Present: Zach Rawson, Kate Berry, Linda Able-Thomas, Sean Burke, Jessica Heinen, Maria Amundsen, Bill Casey, Erin Mohler, Amber Christie, Barry Shay, Pat Howard, Amber Erickson, Carrie Davis, Nancy Hoschield, Jackie Sheldorf, Kelly Linder, Becky Phillips, Nate Lamuska, Steve Richter, Jimmy Dunn, Amy Schroeder, Cari White, Greg Mattern, Paula Minnell, Jolaine Jennissen, Joy Hoffman

Prayer

Isaiah 40: Spontaneous Prayer: Maria
Picture/Story Icebreaker: Jimmy

YMN Business

YMN Retreat

  • Leadership planning with Jon Heyer and Julie Montgomery
  • Goal is to go to St. John’s Univ in March
  • Hope is to stick with normal meeting dates  Thursday March 6 overnight to Friday March 7 (waiting on confirmation of dates)
  • Advantages:
    • Lilly Foundation Money – reasonably priced
    • St. John’s has a theology dept – have a prof to lead the retreat for us
    • Praying with monks
    • Dining hall to cook for us
  • Annunciation bus to ride together if you’d like
  • Going up on Monday with Molly Goers to check it out and plan with prof
  • Email Jimmy before Monday if you have topic ideas, ideas of things to do
  • Idea is to be enriched but also to get to know each other better

Highlights from 10/25 Risk Management Training

  • Catholic Mutual insures the Church, not individuals
  • Wants to review every contract that we sign
    • Fax it in and they will get it back to you in a few days
    • Check with your pastor/admin to see if you are actually authorized to be a contract signer
    • Staff and volunteers to sign any car rental agreements as “(name) on behalf of (parish name)”
  • Hayrides
    • CM prefers that we use business rather than private family/farm
  • Internal Financial Controls
    • On property damage, there is a $1000 deductible
    • Theft and misappropriation of funds are where CM is giving out the most money right now
    • Limit cash/valuables in office/youth room and keep them locked up
    • No separate checking accounts – all funds to go through the church and do financial background checks on people handling money
  • Car rentals
    • Always buy the add’l comp and collision then sign “(name) on behalf of (parish)”
  • Private Vehicles
    • More risk for the vehicle driver
    • Needs to have at least $100,000/$300,000
  • No VANS (minivans are ok)
  • From CM, the language “Strongly Recommend” really means Don’t Do It! But they can’t specifically tell you not to do it because then they could be sued as well
  • Mission Trips
    • Under 18 = no power tools (even includes drills, lawn mowers, weed whippers)
    • Include on permission slips any activity that you think they may be doing 
  • Chaperones
    • Be at least 21 or over
    • Be Background Checked, VIRTUS trained, and signed Volunteer Code of Conduct
    • Background Checks are transferable in theory, but it can be a red flag if people are bouncing from area to area
    • At least 2 chaperones with youth at all times
  • Drivers
    • Must be at least 21 to drive anyone under 18
    • Those 18-20 can drive themselves
    • If not meeting at the church, parents/families can arrange own transportation, however, in that case you cannot provide directions – address only
  • We should also have medical info sheets on any volunteers and staff
  • Hotels
    • Only case in which adults can be in youth rooms is the parent of their own child
    • Alternate adult and youth rooms
  • Cabins/Classrooms/etc
    • Adults to sleep away from youth preferably near the door
  •  Websites
    • link only to the official church website
    • strongly recommend against any outside internet activity (MySpace, Facebook,…)

Bill’s Bulletin

  • CM is on our side – they are here to help us
  • NCYC next week in Columbus, OH
  • WYD in Sydney – any questions contact Bill; some parishes are having trouble getting plane tickets
  • Bill’s office is moving, ph # will be the same
  • Bill will be going out to parishes more, as he is now on the parish ministry team

Announcements

  • Nate – Twin Cities TEC new director as of a couple months ago; TEC is here to encourage/support us; open to more TECites for Nov
  • Steve – FREE Youth Leadership Summit (Retreat for Leaders of Youth) Nov 16-18; 2 ½ hrs south of the Cities
  • Kelly – business position open at St. Stephen’s in Anoka
  • Nancy – 3rd Youth Minister Position at Our Lady of Grace

Professional Development

Technology to Improve Ministry
with Mike Bernard

Masters in Christian Philosophy, Bachelors, and ½ MBA

  • Handout: list of sites to check out (look @ bold ones first) & video making tools
  • 1 Thes 2:12-13 (NLT)
  • Internet
    • 2 out of 3 teens use IM in 2005
    • many have more than one IM name
    • most say they can maintain 6 IM conversations while doing other work
    • many teens, IM and texting is preferred method of communication (kids don’t email!)
    • 55% of teens use social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook,…)
    • 48% use it more than once per day
    • 85% of those who use networking use MySpace (tends to be younger), 70% use Facebook (tends to be older)
    • New one is MyYearbook.com
    • In 2006, MySpace had 40 Million unique users
  • Technology To-Do list
    • Part of our role is to teach them responsible use of internet and technology
    • Liability issues to think about
    • Try to learn one or two new things at a time
    • Teach their parents how to use technology!
  • MySpace
    • If you choose to go on, it is a great connecting tool with students, but you need to teach them how to be safe – use privacy settings!
    • Front Page and back page
    • Can do basically whatever you want to it
    • Watch out for inappropriate ads
  • Facebook
    • Newsfeed is an interesting feature
    • Again, use privacy settings!
    • Option for limited profile
  • Encourage parents to be on MySpace and Facebook
  • More liabilities
    • Music downloading – do it legally only! Itunes, Napster…
    • Talk about not plagiarizing too
    • Defamation and Liable
    • PAF to include photos going on marketing information or social networking sites
    • Photos – make sure to tag correctly or, preferable - do not tag at all
  • MyYearbook.com
    • Match stuff
    • Hot or not
    • Hybrid of many different sites
  • Instant Messaging
    • Trillian – hybrid of AOL, Yahoo, MSN, … all together
    • Pigeon, MEbo other options
  • Mozilla Firefox
    • Much better than Explorer
    • Free to download and has great plugins like
      • Adblockers
      • Download helper – install FLV player in order to play videos that you have downloaded
  • Fundraising Online
    • FirstGiving.org – does cost a little
    • GoogleCheckout – free for 503c organiztions and very much like Paypal
    • Raises more money because it’s convenient
  • YouTube
    • Can create videos and connect to your church’s website
    • GodTube is an alternate with more restrictions on content
    • MySpace also has a video page
  • Text messaging
    • Many email programs (NewYahooMail, GoogleMail, Outlook2007?) will allow you to write an email and send it as a text message (up to 160 characters) to students cell phones
  • Technology as tools
    • Ask kids for help with images from camera phones, videos for promo, etc.
  • Podcasting
    • Another great option
  • Additional Questions???

Contact Mike Bernard
www.realresources.org
612-746-6468
mikeb@realresources.org

Submitted by Maria Amundsen