National Brotherhood Executive Board Meeting – October 2020

Conference Call Minutes

Tuesday, October 27, 2020 – 1:00p.m. EST

PRESENT: Jeff Butcher (President), Thomas Welch (Executive Director), Jack Hanstein, (Vice President), Charles Craven (Secretary), Patrick Parham (Treasurer), Ed Bartle,  Roy Benavides, Larry Biddle, Ed Davis, Ken Dick, Billy Harrison, Dick Hooper, Conrad Jones, Andrew Joyce, Tom Martin, Richard Medlock, Ed Milbrada, Keith Purser, Richard Williams, Michelle Gelock 

ABSENT: Bishop Paul Lambert (Chaplain), Roland Flowers, Everett Price, Waring Webb, Kathy Copas, Jess Shelton

Jeff Butcher called the meeting to order at 1:04pm; Ed Bartle led with prayer.

Jeff then opened a roundtable for all Board members to share current worship practices in their areas while struggling with coronavirus: continuing virtual worship where virus totals are still high, and limited re-opening where possible. He also invited all Board members to submit names of all in need of prayer.

–Ed Davis, Huntsville,Texas—The Board rejoiced that Ed and his wife have recovered from COVID. Ed gave a grim report on prison ministry because of the virus, which has been shut down with families of incarcerated unable to visit since March 13. Over 200 inmates in the Texas Prison System and 56 correction officers have died from Covid. 

–Ed Bartle, Province IV VP Central & North Florida: A Central Florida church has 45 men interested in forming a new chapter. Tom Martin visited a recent meeting.

–Charles Craven, Knoxville, TN: St. John’s Cathedral is continuing in-person services with about 70 attending. A successful outdoor service has been held at local Lakeshore Park on all warm-weather Sundays, ending for the winter last Sunday. Knoxville coronavirus rates have recently expanded.

–Roy Benavides, Province VII: Diocese of Rio Grande is Zooming most services, as COVID spikes are continuing in cases, hospitalizations, and death-rates in El Plaso and Lincoln County.

–Tom Martin: Atlanta diocese remains strict, allowing only outdoor services with 50 or less. Zoom thankfully enables virtual Sunday worship as well as local BStA chapter Bible studies.

–Billy Harrison, Province IV: Almost all Florida dioceses participated in a recent Oct. 18 Zoom meeting. Billy and Tom Martin will call to check up on chapters not Zooming in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A December 6 Zoom meeting will plan a providence-wide retreat to be held in early 2021.

–Richard Williams, Province II: Recent successful controls on COVID have enabled many churches to re-open. You-tube continues at his church. Many meetings continue virtually. A Convention meeting will be held on November 7. A special St. Andrew’s Day service is planned. The Queens Assembly will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a special service on December 13 at 4pm—hopefully in-person but otherwise on Zoom and YouTube. 

–Jack Hanstain, Province VIII—Diocese of Arizona may have to move from Phase 2 back to Phase 1 because of rising virus numbers. Most churches are holding Zoom meetings and YouTube services. Brotherhood continues to hold Saturday morning Zoom Bible studies with about 15 loyal participants. Sacramento churches also continue Zoom meetings. 

–Dick Hooper, Florida—They are hoping chapter meetings can revert from virtual back to in-person meetings in November, though recent spikes will probably cause more closings than openings.

–Ken Dick, 1st VP Field Operations and Middle TN—His church recently began adding in-person meetings to continuing Zoom. But they had to shut back down when parishioner came down with Covid. He virtually attends a Southern California church that offers a regular service with music, though with no congregation present. Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt recently addressed his congregation.

–Ed Milbrada, Province V Southern Ohio: A search has begun to replace their Bishop, who just announced retirement. Ohio continues to be red-zone on the virus: Diocese is not allowing in-person services. A Province 5 members-at-large Zoom gathering is set for Nov 4.

–Conrad Jones, Province III, Virginia: Conrad is currently searching for new parish home; visiting various churches shows great differences in worship styles. Diocese of Virginia is presently allowing no in-person services until further notice. He attended a Zoom chapter meeting at St. Stephen’s in Culpepper, VA early this morning; Tom Welch will visit there during Thanksgiving week. Pennsylvania Brotherhood chapter is celebrating their 90th year. Province By-laws are being reworked following a September meeting. 

–Patrick Parham, Houston: His church held its first in-person service since the pandemic began, with distancing requirements, which included a Baptism.

Jeff requested prayers for Kentucky Diocesan coordinator Josh Wainright, who suffered a heart attack and now faces surgery. Prayers were also requested for the devastating fires out West, especially in the Colorado Rockies. Also for new Deacon Bob Dinell, recently injured from a ladder-fall. Jack requested prayer for Brother and retired Navy Seal Bob Slavel, recently sustaining an injury that required leg-amputation. Further prayers were requested for peace from the ongoing protests. 

MINUTES: With motion and second, Minutes were accepted as printed.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Per Patrick Parham: T Rowe Price account is now $70,472. Total assets $69,617. Total Ministry Pledge income: $125,948 (as opposed to 117,926 this time last year). Program operating expenses are $15,999, which is $27,885 less than this time last year (probably due to COVID). Foundation investment total is now just under one million: ($975,511). Net operating income: $75,030 as of end of September. Considering the past quarter was our toughest, we have made it through. (For Patrick’s complete 7-page report, see his email: “BOSA October Performance Reports – (10-31-2020)”) sent Nov 16, 2020, 2:53 PM.)

— Finance Committee went over the budget at a recent meeting, tweaking it to be more realistic as we look to next year.

–Amazon website protocol-needs were mentioned.

–A plan with Kroger is available in four states – Michelle will help in determining how we use this.

Richard Williams moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report; Dick Hooper seconded; “Aye’s” were unanimous.

OLD BUSINESS

Racial Reconciliation Task Force Update—Jack Hanstein and Dick Hooper. In their weekly meetings they are working towards trust that promotes fuller conversation. Consensus is developing—trust will take time. Membership is evenly divided between white and people of color. Seven of eight Provinces are represented.

Nominating Committee—still in progress; will resolve over the next few days.

Strategic Plan Update—Tom Martin’s recent report on training and feedback is included in this month’s edition of The Cross. 

Communications Committee Test Run (Ken Dick, Tom Welch)—Tom stated that the test run was almost complete. Postcards were recently sent; Jeff commended them as unusually attractive and creative. Rather than hiring people to do this job, we need to let brothers make phone calls as a community-building effort. Brothers receiving the calls were unvaryingly grateful, and we are learning a lot about their chapters. It will take 700 man-hours to go through the entire database.  Dividing that among 20 brothers makes the job do-able. Tom Martin offered to participate.

Ken announced a Province Presidents’ Meeting on November 10 at 5pm to spread out the calls among provinces and dioceses “so one person is not doing 1,000 names.” 

Roy Benavides stated that Gary Allman, who recently resigned, will be in the loop to offer advice.

NEW BUSINESS:

–Master Zoom Conference Call Schedule –was sent out recently and received, per Jeff. With these Province meetings we will be talking to the entire membership once a month for the first time. Jeff is making sure ACNA is included.

–New Members Orientation will be on December 2 at 8:00pm. Jack will cover the Constitution; Jeff will cover history. Michelle and Jessica will cover the web page. A swearing-in ceremony for all new members will follow. One week later our newest chapter from Papillion, Nebraska—“the youngest chapter we’ve ever had”– will be installed on the same evening as the Province VI meeting.

–Roy Benavides and the ACNA in South Carolina are both planning virtual retreats.

–Dick Hooper recommended a virtual presentation on Ministry Pledges to promote better understanding and hopefully pledge income. Duly noted, per Jeff.

–per Roy: We plan to restore our social media sharing via daily Facebook , Instagram and Twitter.

–Convention info: commercials, Podcasts—Tom Welch declined to address those at this time.

Tom then gave the following additions to his report: (See Tom’s report at end of Minutes.)

+++He attended the Province 5 meeting on Saturday. 

+++Yesterday he was with all Dallas assembly officers. 

+++On membership numbers to date vs. last year: Last year we had 225 new members; this year 211.

+++We are asking for birth year on new member applications to define trends and “hot spots” in areas of our ministries among different age groups. A primary interest among younger Brothers, half of whom grow up without a father figure, is discipleship and mentoring.

+++From phone calls with those born after 1980, Tom learned that they lump racial reconciliation and restorative justice together as synonymous. 

+++Bishops who are making themselves available on calls with Tom include Bishop Sutton in Maryland, Bishop Ian Marcum of VTS, Carl Wright of National Cathedral. Tom will meet with them the week before Thanksgiving around November 16, and bids our prayers for meaningful communication.

–Jeff emphasized a continuing need for a Junior Board Representative—a junior Brotherhood Board member. He invited nominations.

–Jeff deferred the following Agenda items to a later meeting:

“Fund Development Rollout,” “New Appointments: VP MAL/Membership Chair,” “Feast of St. Andrew Day,” and “DMML/Project XII.”

–Province Presidents’ Reports: Most were made at the round-table that began the meeting.

+++Province VII: Roy Benavides made the following three announcements:

  1. A virtual retreat led by Tom Martin is scheduled for November 19-21.

  2. Also: the day before the retreat on November 18, St. John’s in Tulsa is having a mentorship Zoom session with The Rev. Matt Marina, the priest who led on Mentorship at our Austin convention.

  3. Calls are being made to members-at-large and to Diocesan coordinators to list chapter meeting dates, Zoom meeting sessions, and updates on their directors. This information will be forwarded to the National staff for record-keeping. 

Because of a confusing meeting announcement, Andrew Joyce and Larry Biddle joined the meeting late. Jeff assured them that the confusion was not their fault, and invited their submissions:

–Larry announced a retreat led by Bishop Lawrence on October 31 for all Carolinas chapters. It will be both live and virtual.

–Andrew has received an email reply from his contact in Japan. He expects “hard numbers” for Brotherhood chapters and members in Japan today. They will be included in his article for the November issue of The Cross: “The Brotherhood of St. Andrew in Japan.” He is also in regular contact with the Philippines. Rough estimate for Brotherhood members in the Philippines (despite lack of Internet) is around 3,500—most likely more.

Jeff will be out of the office November 11-19 – Jack Hanstein will be in charge during this time.

Next Meeting: Due to Thanksgiving week, the originally scheduled November 24 meeting is moved to Tuesday, December 1, at 1:00 PM Eastern time.

Fr. Bartle offered a closing prayer.

Meeting adjourned 2:15pm.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Below is Tom Welch’s report:

Executive Director Board Report

 November 2020

Office Matters
We continue to come in under budget for staff and admin. expense. Telephone traffic from the field is low aside from board members. All staff has remained healthy this year.
New Members for 2020 will likely result in a modest net growth of membership. I continue to call and welcome every new member when their applications come in. 216 this year, so far.
December CROSS edition (print) is ready to go to the printer now. Digital release on 12/15.
Ministry Pledge update (hopefully) at the Board Meeting.
Conventions 
General Convention & DoK postponed until July, 2022.
Thus far I only know of one national convention that may be held in-person next year; and even that might change.
Brotherhood Triennial Convention
Poll the field via CC about holding virtual vs. in-person convention in Baltimore?
BOARD ACTION ITEMS. I need a decision from the full Board in December on whether to hold our convention combination virtual and in-person or completely virtual…or not at all in June.
National Council Chairman Dick Hooper (emcee for a triennial) and I had multiple conversations about convention pre-pandemic. We developed the schedule and secured speakers months ago. We should follow his lead in these conversations about convention.
If we go virtual with convention, we will have to write a $7, 837.50 check to the hotel and lose our $5,000 deposit. I had already had affirmation from the hotel that so long as we moved our booking rather than cancel the booking completely, they would work with us. (In fact, I met with the Sales Director in-person on the 19th in Baltimore.)
The present 2021 budget proposal provides no money for the new Board Orientation/Strategic Planning meeting.  Action item, my formal request to budget for this meeting using our $5,000 deposit with the hotel and generate another $7,837.50 through food, beverage, a/v and housing expenses. 
Ideally and practically, we should hold the meeting in Louisville, BUT, if we hold the new Board Orientation in Baltimore late in Q2 or early in Q3 we could potentially reduce or eliminate our losses. 
Another consideration would be to concurrently hold Board orientation AND a multi-Province Summit for one or more of the workshop topics. The Board should be mindful that discipleship/mentoring continues to be far and away the highest interest level among seven ministries throughout our demographics.  Holding new board orientation in Baltimore AND workshop topics for the field in general would allow for an in-person summit with a virtual option for workshop attendees. 
Whether or not we hold a summit I am requesting the Finance Committee and the Board budget for an in-person new board orientation for 2021. RE: II C 2 c above
I should have alternative date options from the Royal Sonesta by 12/1 and if I do will share during our Board Meeting. Once I know what direction NCC Hooper will lead us he and I can again develop the new convention budget and agenda in short order.
ELECTION of Officers and Board Members
Please refer to the website to carefully review your Constitution and Bylaws regarding elections.
In short, we were already preparing to handle the entire election process via mail prior to the planned triennial being in-person, not al all, a combination of virtual/in-person or fully virtual.
Should the Board elect to go virtual this summer with convention or, by presidential decree (with input from the Board), suspend the triennial convention one year, elections could be held twelve months later. That means all in office now would remain through next year. If they opt out of another year, then the national president would fill those vacancies.
Prov. Pres. elections are conducted outside of Nat. Office.
The Board has multiple decisions to make in December throughout Section 1.C.
Executive Director Meetings
Multiple chapter zoom meetings and one in-person (Christ Church in Bowling Green).
Diplomatic run to DC/BWI the week before Thanksgiving.
Meetings the week of 11/16 with Bill Campbell of ECF, +Sutton (Dio MD), +Goff (Dio VA), +Markham (VTS Dean) and Rev. Kim Coleman (UBE President). Rescheduled meetings with +Carl Wright (assumed next National Chaplain) and Dean Randy Hollerith of National Cathedral. I also met with +Seage (DioMS) on 11/24.
Each of the meetings followed the same format/outline for discussion. All of the individuals appreciated the extra effort it took to have real “face time.” Things were accomplished through this channel that just aren’t  happening over a zoom venue.
Some of the content to these discussions I must hold in pastoral confidence. The crux of these visits was to provide updates on our ministry and provide relationship building depth that can only happen during in-person encounters. Each of the meetings involved prayer.
The briefings summary
We have an interest from Bill Campbell at ECF (Episcopal Church Foundation) to help underwrite efforts in the space of racial reconciliation. They appreciate our ministry and our fiduciary trust placed in them.
Bishop Susan Goff (Dio VA and Conrad’s bishop) would like to include video snippets about us and our sub ministries on her diocesan website. DC Jim Carlock joined me for this zoom meeting and truly led most of the conversation/report to Bishop Susan. He did a great job with it.
Rev. Kim Coleman opened us with prayer. We met in the National Office of the UBE on the campus of Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. As I watched her read the article in the October CROSS about racial rec. efforts and Sacred Ground, things truly took off. She would like to work with us next year in the workshop space to, in her words, “show the church corporate how we (BStA & UBE) can grow in relationship and be an example for all.” I must tell you this was a transformational meeting where I believe both of us felt the Wind of the Holy Spirit fill the room about halfway through our meeting. She wants to talk with her board members at the UBE, as I do our Board, and for the two of us to talk again in mid-January. (Perhaps we can join with them in Baltimore late in Q2 or Q3). I had hoped to have 45 minutes with her. It was 110 minutes, by far my longest meeting that week. This was my 5th personal one-on-one visit with her since June. If you would, take a few minutes to listen to her Thanksgiving Message, paying note about their national conference in 2021 as well as an effort taking place in Louisville, Kentucky.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgxwKjdvMMGGXFnjjftkGxVwDSwpg

Bishop Ian Markham (Dean of VTS) wants me to visit with him again late next year to discuss plans for a real presence at VTS in 2022. We had a good 45 minutes with one another. He was extremely interested in the “serving millennials” workshop we hosted the week earlier. The remark that Matt Marino+ made about “that age group loves to belong to a group and hates to join an institution or organization” prompted some further discussion. He asked for a copy of the workshop.
Bishop Eugene Sutton, Racial Rec. Advisor, among other things, wanted to know if we were still coming to Baltimore in June and if we still planned to have Mr. Rowan as a keynote. While all my meetings included prayers from these clergy members, this one included a laying on of hands over me with prayers for me personally and that of our ministry. I am humbled every time I am with this man. This was my 2nd visit in his office.
+Brian Seage,  Bishop Advisor for Recovery As you may recall, this is my “home” bishop (I lived in MS from ’73-‘16). He was pleased to get this update, not surprised we hadn’t received “good press” from news outlets about our expanded work with racial rec since September and interested in seeing the video on Serving Millennials. Time with this bishop is always like visiting with family. 

Executive Board Agendas

November/December 2021

The Brotherhood of St. Andrew 

December 7th, 2021 8PM EDT                                                             

Brotherhood of St. Andrew 

Executive Board

 Agenda

Presiding: Conrad Jones, BStA President

Meeting Host/Moderator:  Roy Benavides, Sr. VP Administration

Join Zoom Meeting

Prayer:  
Opening Comments: President Conrad Jones
Approval of October minutes: Charles Craven
Finance Report, October: Patrick Parham
Old Business
Membership renewals/update:  Tom Welch
ACR redesign Update:  Tom Martin
New Business
New Province VII president Chris Matthews
Strategic Partnerships: Gary Allman/Tom Welch
Board Commitment: President Conrad Jones
Communications Committee ( Cross, Newsletter, Social Media, website) – VP Gary Allman lead
Field Operations Committee (training and chapter/member development) – VP Tom Martin lead
Program Development Committee (7 ministries) – VP Keith Purser lead
Finance Committee (Budgets/Reporting) – Treasurer Patrick Parham lead
Fund Development (Planned Giving and Foundation Fund)- VP John Blossom lead
Membership Growth initiatives – Executive  Director Tom Welch lead
Database integrity (Neon functionality and member contacts) – Sr. VP Roy Benavides lead
Fund Raising – President Emeritus Jeff Butcher lead
Cross Distribution: Tom Welch
2022 Budget Final Vote: Charles Craven & Conrad Jones 
Strategic Priorities: Conrad Jones & Roy Benavides
GROWING membership and chapters
BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION
DOING our ministry and mission work
EXPANDING MINISTRY OUTREACH
COMMUNICATING more with our base
STRUCTURING FOR SUCCESS

Approval of Ex. Director’s Employment 2022 (executive session)
Executive Director Report: Tom Welch
Field Operations: Tom Martin – 1st VP Field Ops 
Planned Giving: 1st VP Rev. John Blossom
Program Development:  Keith Purser – 1st VP Program Development
Chapter Reps and Member at Large – Lyn Reavis
Prayer Requests:
XIV. Closing Comments and Prayer: 

Next meeting January 25th, 2022, 8pm EST Time

Scroll to Top