Thrivent Chapter #30487
Minutes of October 24, 2011  Meeting & Octoberfest Dinner
Christ the King Lutheran Church
5296 Park Ave.    Memphis TN

Board Business preceding Dinner:

The Board voted to award $50 to each congregation represented at the dinner for seed money for a service project and to give the voluntary door contributions to Habitat for Humanity toward our participation in a Habitat Build in 2012.  The Nominating Committee, Paul Alwardt, Diane Reimold and Don Gregg, presented a slate for the 2012 Election of Officers.  All Community Service funds have been used or allocated.

Thrivent Member Workshop

 Diane Reimold, Congregational Advocate Director, presented the “Making a Difference Workshop” to 15 members preceding the dinner. 

 Member Dinner Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 PM by Chapter Vice President, Paul Alwardt.  The opening prayer was given by Rev. Norman Groteluschen.  Attendees then enjoyed a great German meal prepared by many excellent Christ the King cooks.  Grilled bratwurst, hot German potato salad, sauerkraut, mixed salad, sugar- cinnamon spiced apples, warm apple cider and an assortment of sweet desserts were enjoyed by 60 guests and volunteers.  Member donations were accepted resulting in $290 collected for Habitat for Humanity of Memphis in anticipation of Lutheran volunteers participating with other area religious organizations in the construction of a Habitat House in 2012. 

The Bunnett Family provided live music during the meal.  The Bunnett sisters sang several Gospel and Southern songs with “Dad” Bunnett providing guitar accompaniment.

The 2011 Chapter Board members were recognized and thanked by the members for their service.  The Financial Advisors and Congregational Advocates in attendance were introduced and thanked by the Board for their service during the year. The Chapter Dashboard results year to date were shared with the group.  All funds have been allocated for projects, some of which have not been completed.  We are working hard on our assigned goal of “locally raised funds” so we can earn the “Chapter Excellence Award” again. 

The 2011 “Choice Dollars” program results for our Chapter area recipients were reviewed.  This program has resulted in more funds being received for use to help with volunteer projects in our Lutheran congregations and schools than would have been realized under the former congregational sharing program.Fred Schmitt shared information regarding the 2011 Spring “National Charity” member vote results, where St. Jude Hospital received the largest percentage of member votes of 10 qualified charities.  St. Jude received almost $280,000 of the available $1 million.

Diane Reimold, Chapter Congregational Advocate Director, recognized the congregations that have completed community projects during the year and awarded each congregation attending this event $50 to be given to their favorite project or charity. Diane then asked Kimberly Goble to review the results and experiences of the “Tornado Disaster” project held at Christ the King on July 23, 2011 with the participation of many area Lutheran churches and volunteers.  $22,000 was raised at that event to go with $11,000 of supplemental Thrivent Region funds (total of $33,000) to be used to help in the several nearby tornado ravaged communities.

Election of 2011 Officers

A list of the nominees for Chapter Leaders for 2012 was read to the members and members were asked for any additional nominee names to be added to the list.  No additional names were offered.  A motion was made and seconded that the slate of nominees as read be elected by acclamation.  The ayes prevailed with no dissenting votes heard.

The Chapter Leaders elected for 2012 are:  President, Paul Alwardt; Vice President, Al Dearen; Records Director, Janice Craven; Financial Director, Cathy Winter; Congregational Advocate Director, Diane Reimold,; Community Service Team Director, Rose Klimek; Communications Director, Peggy Krohn; Events Director, Teresa Fears; Youth Director, Christopher Miller; Assistant Financial Director, Don Gregg. Appointed Leaders and Advisors are:  Internet Advisor, George Allen; Official Chapter Photographer, Robert Prince; Financial Representative Advisors, Dan Hesse, David Knoenschild, Fred Schmitt, Richard Morgan, Mike Kinard, Kimberly Goble and  Henry Greinke.

At the end of the member meeting a door prize drawing was held for a 19” TV paid for by the chapter.   Four other items worth a total of $150 were donated for the drawing.  Rose Klimek donated 3 of her ROZE paintings worth a total of $250.  Total prize donations $400.  These were not money donations. 

The meeting was closed by acclamation vote.
Rev. Norman Groteluschen closed the meeting with prayer. 

I sent a note to the three families that Thrivent/Lutheran volunteers built homes in recent past years. I had hoped that I could give an update at the Thrivent Member/Octoberfest last evening, but since I didn't send it till late Friday I didn't receive replies until today.

Someone reminded me at the meeting that sharing the news of the funds returned to our community is all well and good as a measurement tool, but that our goal is to help and serve others with our time, talents as well as treasures, for it all is given to us by God. With that in mind share the following notes I received from the families with your congregations as you see fit. ( I entered the year and locations so to remind you of who and where)

Compiled on 10/24/2011

(2007 house in Memphis)

Hi Paul,
Excuse my delayed response. I haven't been online in a few days. We buried my aunt on Saturday.
Jordan and I are doing okay. He is thriving and doing very well at his new school, Downtown Elementary. I am a senior still at LeMoyne-Owen College, and I graduate next May. I was asked by the editor of Lifeglow magazine to submit an article based on the type of stories that they publish. If they like it, they will publish my article. So, right now things are going OK.

Twana Coleman

(2008 house in Northaven)
Paul, I'm taking classes at South West trying to get my credits did'nt have that many credits. I'm trying to take up Physical Therapy which is my goal. Jacqurius is doing good he plays in the band at school, and trying out for Basket Ball. Raniyah is doing good too, improving in her Math she was having a hard time. Shes doing a lot better, they ask about u and your wife all the times. We would love to come vist your Church again if thats ok we are graetful for all you all have done for me and the kids thanks again. I hpoe you can still let everyone one how we are doing that ask about us.

Be Blessed, Rasheedol Fields

(2009 house in Memphis)

Hi Paul,
The family and I are doing well. With the kids having thier own rooms zaliyah have been on the honor roll since the move and zion and been asked to come to whitestation to be in there math club. Never knew how much of having your own would make difference in my kids life. The other children Jr and the new one i was pregrent with we named her Ziana are doing well also. Thank you for the thought of my family and I. I hope its not to late to share this info. I love yall and we are so graceful and bless to even have met you,your family, and friends. I talk about u and what your friends had done for my family and i all the time. Please continue to keep us in your heart and prayers.

Love
The Bobo Family

What does it take to put on a phenomenal fundraising event?

 1)      Choose a cause that people will be passionate about –

Some of you many not know that I am a financial representative with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and back in May I read an article from our fraternal area stating that there were $250,000 available to match $.50 on the dollar for fundraisers targeting tornado disaster relief for the South and Joplin, MO.  I had read things in our church bulletin about making contributions to Lutheran disaster relief agencies and thought, wouldn’t it be great to take advantage of Thrivent Financial’s matching program and work in a coordinated effort to raise even more money. 

2)      Choose people who have servant hearts -

I wrote to the leaders of the various ministries at CTK, Lord of Life and Grace Celebration (churches I work directly with through Thrivent) and told them about the current opportunity and asked to get together to brainstorm about how we wanted to organize a fundraiser.  On June 2^nd we held our first meeting.  We didn’t have much time because the matching opportunity would end on August 1^st.  We looked at our calendars and the churches and chose July 23^rd to allow approximately a week to get everything tallied and sent off.  Some of those planning the event would be on vacation, but we pressed forward feeling that was the best day.

3)      Delegate -

As the group decided how we wanted to proceed with the event, we all agreed that we wanted to have one big event vs. bombarding people with many small requests for support.  As we designed our event, different ministries took on various aspects of the day: Faith in Action – yard sale, LWML – cakewalk/bake sale, Youth group - carwash/moon bounces/face painting.  Each of these ministries had representatives that agreed to take charge of every aspect of that part of the day: organizing, setting up, getting volunteers to help the day of the event, and cleaning up their area at the end of the day.  We also had individuals step up and help with publicizing, food purchasing/prep (breakfast, grilled food, popsicles), trash collecting, poster making, requesting support from other churches, creating banners/yard signs, finding parking for volunteers (Park Avenue Church of Christ and Woodland Presbyterian), selling tickets, organizing musical entertainment, designing, printing, finding sponsors and selling our official T-shirt, tracking money raised, providing security, providing first aid, writing newspaper ads, contacting radio/tv stations for additional publicity and the list goes on.  Each and every person involved in heading a part of the day did what it took to prepare, run and cleanup their specific activity.  Without them, we couldn’t have done it!

4)      Reach out to your brothers and sisters in Christ for tireless, dedicated volunteers to fill in wherever needed –

To me, this was the most amazing part.  When the planning committee reached out to our church family to ask for help, the outpouring of support that we received was truly unbelievable.  We had such a wonderful response from people who simply asked, “How can we help?” I know I don’t have a complete list, but I know that we had well over 100 people who signed up to help or came out on the day of the event to offer their assistance.  In addition to Christ the King volunteers, we had the youth group and brat cookers from Grace Celebration Lutheran Church.  We had volunteers from Immanuel Lutheran Church who took charge of the bake sale and provided many of the wonderful treats/deserts sold that day.  Habitat for Humanity provided fans/shade tents etc. We had bake sales, carwashes, t-shirt sales, and musical concerts held on the campus of  Lord of Life Lutheran Church in support of our event.  And just as importantly, we had people from area churches and our community come out and support the day by visiting our yard sale, having their cars washed, buying a hamburger/brat, picking up some relish from St. Paul’s (West Memphis), walking the cake walk, getting their face painted, buying a t-shirt, or providing musical entertainment for those in attendance.

As you can see, a lot goes into holding a successful fundraiser.  To date (not officially) we’ve raised approximately $22,500 (or $33,750 after Thrivent Financial’s match).  That’s an incredible sum of money.  I can hardly believe that it’s true.   But, if I were to sum it all up I’d say, that with the help of God, all things are possible!  He provided the hardest working, most dedicated group of people I could have ever hoped to work with.  We not only raised an unbelievable amount of money that will help so many families who have lost so much, but it also brought together a community of believers who were strengthened by the common focus and servant hearts of all those involved.  I really get emotional as I reflect back on what all occurred on July 23, 2011.  It was one of the most amazing days in my life and I thank every single one of you for allowing me to be part of it.

  Sincerely, Kim Goble