was a great event. Pacfica had about thirty women in
attendance. While I don’t have an official count, I believe we
fell short of meeting the challenge but still we had an
excellent representation from this synod. If you have an
opportunity to speak or hear from someone who attended,
they will be more than willing to share! We elected Beth
Wrenn from North Carolina as president, Charlene Spillman
from Texas as Vice President, Betty Brandt from Minnesota
as Secretary, and Anjanette Hodges from Virginia as
Treasurer plus seventeen executive board members from
around the country. While there was not a nominee from
Pacifica, Sharon Heck, from Southwest CA Synod was one of
board members elected.
Our SWO (synodical women’s organization) board met
yesterday. Five of us were in Salt Lake City. Our next
Triennial will be in Spokane WA. As we thought of planning
ahead for that event, we realized that would be the five year
mark and the year we would plan to again be in HI for our
Pacifica convention in November. So we made the decision
to delay that a year. After attending in Spokane, women will
have a year plus to save and plan for HI. Spokane in 2011
and HI in 2012!!
Plans are shaping up for our own convention, “Forever
Young…Come As A Child”, in November. We too will be
electing board members as well as a secretary and vice
president. Jan Parthemer from First Lutheran in Vista has
agreed to be nominations chair – a big THANKS! A
nominating form and note from her are also in this newsletter.
Please prayerfully consider serving, you won’t regret it and
will grow in many ways!
Well, it was a day later than promised, but a letter of
invitation along with registration forms and a scholarship
application were mailed July 1. It was sent to all the contact
names of units which I currently have on file. Then it was
sent to all who attended last year’s convention and our March
1st event. In March we did not ask for your address for
registration, but many sent checks and those addresses were
retrieved. So if you attended but I did not have your address,
you did not receive the mailing. It is however in this
newsletter and on our web site. Plus of course copies may be
made from the mailing.
Questions have been voiced regarding the cost of this year’s
convention. It perhaps has been assumed that a church setting
would be much less costly than a hotel setting. While I know
I have addressed that with the board and planning team,
perhaps it has not been “public”. I have long supported the
idea of holding our convention in a church setting, but the cost
was not the major factor. Flexibility is perhaps the major
factor. So for women who attend only on Saturday, it will be
less expensive. A major portion of the registration fee is food.
Catering is not less expensive than a hotel because of travel
time and costs – bringing food and staff to the church. In
times past, we would perhaps expect our women at the host
church to prepare and serve the meals. But our convention
and time together are not meant to be spent in the kitchen!!
Then this year, we have added the children and youth
program. Pastor Cathy and Eisha will be volunteering much
time and expertise. But there still are some modest costs
which we have opted to spread among all rather than charge
each child – and therefore be a greater encouragement for
those “younger” mothers to attend. They too will help bear
that cost in the regular registration for each woman, but not
the full cost for each child or youth they bring. Another major
cost which is represented in the registration portion, is the
housing and food for our board members and other guests –
the churchwide rep, our chaplain, our parliamentarian, our
office manager, and our planning team. Our planning team
has become quite frugal but we do also incur décor expenses,
honorariums, mailing and printing costs, and our convention
booklet, to name several. At the same time, we work very
hard to make this time together very worthwhile for all who
attend. The worship, learning, fellowship, and even the fun
are not to be missed!!
ACTING BOLDLY IN CHRIST!
Eunice
