ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM COMMITTEE MINUTES January 25, 2003, Rochester Minnesota PRESENT: Mildred Larson, Chair, Diana Allen, Gina Dugan, Eric Severson, Sam Wormley. Also attending: Beth Atkinson and Harriet Hodgson, Co-Chairs Local Arrangements Mary Amundson, Vice President PSD Board. NOT PRESENT: Janne Eller Isaacs MINUTES OF 10/12/02 APPROVED. Gina will send the Jan 25 minutes to Mary Amundson and Carol Jean Larsen. INTRODUCTIONS Special guests with us today include Mary Amundson, Prairie Star District board, Harriet Hodgson and Beth Atkinson, 2003 Local Arrangements Co- Chairs. DETAILED RUN THROUGH OF 2003 CONFERENCE Congregations in Changing Times, 40 Years in the Prairie Star District, April 4-6, Rochester MN Beth and Harriet shared the master copy of the conference brochure. Together we reviewed the schedule of events and fine tuned details, particularly noting ways to enhance the theme throughout the conference. Mary shared Carol Jean Larsen's email with conference questions and suggestions. We specifically addressed each item as outlined below and information will be relayed back to Carol Jean through Mary Amundson and Beth Atkinson. Beth will coordinate ribbons, special invitations and info for name badges with Sarah Greene. 1. Conference Visuals - 40th balloon at each banquet table, bouquet at registration table. Logo used on posters marking the way to conference events and on the side walls during the Sunday worship. Conference colors of soft prairie blue, wheat and pale yellow repeated on poster backgrounds and table decorations. Will use a photographer from within the Rochester congregation to take a group picture after Saturday lunch. Ribbons on name badges to signify past and present PSD board members. Personal invitations will be sent to past board members. Rochester's silk banner and the PSD Banner will be used. No story board, but Mary Amundson will work on the timeline flyer, contacting Carol Jackson for a copy of the timeline that was used last November at the history workshop. There is a timeline in the UU Pocket Guide as well. Mildred will meet to Janne Eller Isaacs to ask if she would coordinate short snippets of history. Use of a "snippets box" at the history table. 2. Chalice lightings/opening words/speaker intros - PSD board presidents and trustees will be invited to light the chalices and read snippets of history at various gatherings throughout the conference, as well as youth. Tapas buffet for Friday dinner, a Spanish buffet. Use of chimes to signify transition times throughout the conference. Gathering in the atrium, banners pre-hung from balcony (a necessary adjustment to fit the space). Carol Jean Larsen - Welcome and opening words in the atrium Irv Miller/Dillman Baker Sorrells - Light chalice and reading Gail Bishop - Drum procession instead of banner procession into main room for keynote. Don McKinnon - Introduce Stefan Jonasson (Gina asked and Don confirmed yes) 3. Saturday Sam will coordinate who is introducing Judy Lecturer, Carol Hepokoski, checking with the first PSD president from Ames. Sam will contact Carol Jean with this info. Gina will send the committee copies of the past Judy Lecture informational brochure and a short history from a past conference. Awards - questions referred to Dillman Baker Sorrells. Dillman was copied on Carol's email. Beth will follow up. Chalice lighting at luncheon, offered first to past PSD presidents. Sarah and Beth will coordinate special invitations to PSD board members. Annual Business Meeting - Carol Jean Larsen. Break - Sports Bar social gathering. Request that it be smoke-free. Banquet dinner - centerpieces made by Rochester UU member. Music following banquet. Worship led by youth Saturday evening, 9:15 pm. Annual Conference Program members will assist Local Arrangements in time- keeping throughout the conference. Sunday Covered walkway to worship service in civic center, grand piano reserved Choir practice Breakfast buffet and table topics 4. Bookstore. In good shape. Open Friday night. Increase publicity. Sam and Gina will ask the Keynote and Judy Lecture speakers for text copies of their lectures to be made available for a small fee in the bookstore. (Stefan will provide a text copy.) The committee agreed, no one wanted to provide audio tapes of the speakers. 6. Reminders. Diana Allen will send out reminder letters to all workshop presenters confirming their beginning and ending time for their workshop with a request for them to stick to the timetable. 2004 CONFERENCE THEME Thank you to the Kansas City UU's for sending creative theme ideas for us to ponder. Growth theme for 2004 to coincide with pilot media program in the Kansas City area. Expectation is 25% growth as a result of the media campaign. UUA has a link to the KC website. Mildred will send theme choices to the PSD Board at the February Executive Board meeting. This committee expressed a preference for having a short concise title for 2004. The final theme picks are: Growing Season Gathering for Growth To begin collecting ideas for 2004 speakers on the topic of growth, Gina and Sam will ask 2003 speakers for ideas. Does anyone have suggestions for speakers on Growth, or the media effort in the Kansas City area? Other suggestions included Forest Church, Larry Peers. PROCEDURES MANUAL Gina distributed a summary of conference details including past themes, speakers, location, host congregations from 1990-2003 which will be useful for future conference planning. CONFERENCE EXPENSES Speaker's expenses - Gina and Sam will contact speakers to remind them to bring travel receipts to the conference. Beth Atkinson will collect. The conference treasurer will send reimbursement checks after the event. Hotel expenses and meals are included in the conference budget. In addition, a $300 stipend is offered to each speaker, for a total of $600. Committee member's expenses for meetings - a reminder to all that we need to submit mileage expenses for our meetings so PSD has an accurate picture of the costs of this committee. Submit expense report to Mildred Larson. For planning of next year's budget, include summer mailing call for workshop presenters. CONFERENCE HOSTS TO GUEST SPEAKERS Gina and Sam agree to serve as welcome hosts to the two guest speakers. This involves greeting upon arrival, communicating workshop and presentation times, time-keeping, arranging for speaker introductions, collecting receipts for conference treasurer, inquiring about recommendations for next year speakers. CONTINGENCY PLAN In the event that a speaker should cancel due to an unforeseen emergency, Sam will ask Rev Brian Eslinger if he would be willing to fill in as Keynote Speaker or Judy Lecturer on short notice. (Brian agreed.) COMMITTEE PRIORITY**** The Annual Conference Program committee strongly advocates for a district web coordinator as a paid position within the PSD office, siting a need for coordinated district web pages, specifically posting conference archive info on the web, including past conference budgets, themes and conference sites to meet the planning needs of the future Annual Conference committees. Useful links to archive data including Awards, Program, Local Arrangements, and Site Selection would be very helpful. Sam Wormley would volunteer to represent the Annual Conference Program committee to communicate conference information to the district web coordinator/webmaster. OTHER BUSINESS This committee has found past Local Arrangements volunteers make excellent Annual Conference Program Committee members and recommended continuing to invite "locals" to share their expertise with other committees within the Annual Conference Working Group. Concerns were expressed over whether the Site Selection group was active. The role of site selection is important in the overall planning coordination between programming and local arrangements. What is the 2005 site? Who is the 2005 host congregation? It is very difficult to add hotel negotiations to the role of Local Arrangements, which both Ames and Rochester congregations experienced. NEXT MEETING April 5, 2003 at the Rochester Annual Conference after the business meeting on Saturday. Annual Conference Program Committee will host a gathering of 2003 and 2004 Local Arrangements members for introductions, debriefing and resource sharing. The committee will meet again in Minneapolis in May, June or July to select Keynote Speaker and Judy Lecturer and revise timeline for committee's work. In October we will meet in Ames IA to select workshops and invite members of the Kansas City Local Arrangements to join us, including representation from the PSD office. Respectfully submitted by Gina Dugan