MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT SPIRITUAL CHURCH
Newsletter Vol. 6 No. 1
06-01-11
BOARD MEETING MINUTES: June 1, 2011
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church Board Meeting 6/1/11, 3:30pm PT - 5:30pm PT Present: Sindy Todo Briana Saussy Fred Burke catherine yronwode nagasiva yronwode by phone conference. =========================================================== 1. BOARD ELECTION AND OFFICER APPOINTMENTS The following members of the Board were elected: catherine yronwode, nagasiva yronwode, Fred Burke, Sindy Todo, and Briana Saussy. Officer appointments were as follows: President: catherine yronwode Vice President: Fred Burke Treasurer: Sindy Todo Secretary: nagasiva yronwode =========================================================== 2. OFFICER REPORTS REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT - Open House and Workshops Results, May 8th and 9th Bishop catherine reports that everything went well, that there was a last minute substitution for the Sangoma Bone Reading Workshop to be put on by Jerome Finley and this was handled quite at the last minute by Reverend D. John Michael Hilford. Rev. Hilford was a student and colleague of Mr. Finley, and willing to come to our aid to substitute for Finley, in part in solidarity with our church and our projects, having to cancel a previous Mother's Day engagement he'd made in England. Reverend Hilford also was taken with the Crystal Silence League (see below) and wanted to assist in the announcement of, and participation in, the distribution of prayer through this network. He therefore volunteered to provide the blessing of Bishop Briana Saussy's child Jasper as part of that announcement, and this, in combination with the Bone Reading Workshop (revised for the instruction by Rev. Hilford) were both successes. The new Cookbook "Hoodoo Food!" 2011 was printed. Additionally, the workshop put on for the second year in a row by Sister Robin generated a further edition of the Cookbook which will be used in four years to construct a squarebound publication of recipes and conjure purposes for which they are designed. There are now 2 editions of this which have resulted from last year's and this year's 'Conjure Cookoff' workshops. Bishop Sindy Todo requested that a 3-book set be sent to her as she had been unable to attend, and Bishop nagasiva confirmed that this would be done. {and it was subsequently sent off to her. ny} A new pavillion set-up purchased by Lucky Mojo for the event made it possible to have a set-aside reading area, and photographs were taken of this arrangement. Additionally, Alan Scott took video of the event and these will eventually make their way to the Lucky Mojo website, inclusive of the beautiful array of crystal balls. REPORT FROM TREASURER (Bishop Sindy Todo) Sindy conferred with the CPA she knows and confirmed the value of waiting until our 501c3 approval before separating completely our books and payroll, and accepting the business now handled by Lucky Mojo Curio Company (for candle services). Its detail has had the ground laid for it with the construction of the new church database, but this is just the first step to autonomy. 2010 - approx. $2000 income and about $400 loss for the year 2011 - approx. $1130 income so far (a good deal of it from the May Workshops event; without debits yet reported) REPORT FROM SECRETARY (Bishop nagasiva yronwode) The Board has through the course of the past year completed its revision and review of the Church Bylaws, which have received unanimous Board approval and become part of our filing process. The CPA recommended to us by our lawyer Don Winkle completely abandoned the process of our filing for the 501c3 approval and provided nagasiva with the forms and minimum instructions after filling out the form to the extent she was able after sitting on it for 6 months. nagasiva will need to coordinate this filing after a few more questions of clarification. Ms. Goranzon, the CPA, apologized profusely and forfeited her fees (no receipt was forthcoming, just email). Delays included code errors in the files sent by the CPA in email, necessitating a hard copy, as well as a few errors in the dates of our anniversary and accounting. ======================================================== 3. COMMITTEE REPORTS a. AIRR COMMITTEE (Bishop catherine yronwode) Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers AIRR is doing very well; new members have joined, some members will not be renewing; also people have interest who need to take the course first. The site is growing; and the yahoo group remains active and of value to its participants. Edward Gutierrez has spearheaded a project as part of the Tech Team of creating the various pages necessary to fill out the African diasporic religious tradition. A project begun by catherine and added to by Bishop Fred Burke, Sexton Matthew Pavesic, and Bishop Briana Saussy is the Book of Psalms. It is now being completed by catherine and Ali Olomi. It's a master page for scrolling for Psalms for use in conjure. Some of their contents are from "Secrets of the Psalms" (by Selig). The page is not hosted at AIRR; it will be hosted at the churches in our denomination. One would then click from Psalm to church pages and be taken to the main church site. This should increase traffic on website. A project in the works is based on "On the Benefits of Reciting the Surahs", which is to break this apart surah by surah for a similar type of online practical reference for use by Muslim folk magicians. -------------------------- OMBUDSMAN of AIRR (Bishop Brianna Saussy) It's been quiet for the past year with minimum complaints Some suggestions for clients, workers helped, as did the construction of a singular complaint filing process. The complaints that were received primarily had to do with failure of communication/contact. First main issue was with Professor Porterfield. His client paid him for a 1/2 hour reading, then emailed him twice, and Lara Rivera posted to the yahoo group (Lara/Dave are living in the same house as Charles). His email was forwarding to her as was previously taken care of by her (but this time we weren't notified of it). The professor told Bri he was not going to renew his membership in AIRR. catherine suggested that we pay the client and *remove* Charles from AIRR, and there was a general consensus that this was a proper solution. It was suggested that a standard be established for the Ombudsman that 3 attempts attempts at communication were sufficient to coordinate with someone listed at the site: 1) through the AIRR yahoo group, 2) via phone, and 3) via email. The Ombudsman may then report this to the church Board for a decision about how to handle it. There was a general consensus about this procedure. Robin York and Starr have also had occasional communication problems but these have been resolved with the mediation of the Ombudsman. At most they received a single phone call from the Ombudsman and they repaired their communication issues after such contact. -------------------------- AIRR WIKI; YAHOO GROUP. Several developments within the year were reported which pertain to technology and personnel. Lara Rivera may become a communication problem or lapse from membership. We have once again to consider whether the committee will be listing those who are readers and not rootworker (currently this is specified on their AIRR page). catherine formally stated that at this point the decision was that in order to be listed as part of the project you have to be a rootworker also, and not merely a reader. In response to this statement there was a consensus agreement. nagasiva agreed to contact Professor Porterfield via Facebook should he decide to continue with AIRR and explain to him that like Doctor Johannes, those who go on sabbatical still needs to pay their annual fee. For someone who DID want to rejoin but not at the usal annual renewal, it was agreed that there would be another $30.00 for compensating the Tech Team for their efforts, and then a $100.00 fee at the time, due again at the next June 1st. Within 1 year such a renewal might be initiated, but afterward the application process would need be used again with a $100.00 fee payment. There was general agreement on this plan. -------------------------- b. THE FAN FUND (Bishop Fred Burke) There were similar administrative problems with the fan producers this time around as the first attempt earlier this year. The salesperson was handling it and has been rectified. We revised reformat of our quark documents to a different size. A template awas needed, and this made it easier to communicate our actual requirements to the printer. At this rate we may not be printing the next fan until 2013! Reports as developments arise. -------------------------- c. LADIES AUXILIARY (Bishop catherine yronwode for Sister Robin) Sister Robin Petersen is the head of the Ladies Auxiliary, and Bishop catherine yronwode reported for her. As referred to above, in relation to the May Workshop success, we now have 2 Publications of Hoodoo Food! (2010, and 2011). The 2010 first publishing (100 of them printed at Kinkos) was sold out and reprinted (100 more). We had a good turnout for the workshop, awarded prizes, and there were rave reviews. We will continue to make these booklets until it can be turned into a compendium as a square bound book! -------------------------- d. THE CRYSTAL SILENCE LEAGUE (Bishop catherine yronwode) First proposed at a church Board Meeting on 11/30/07 as: "It is resolved that the Crystal Silence League network of prayerful individuals shall be re-created and the publication formerly available from Claude Alexander Conlin, which described a previously-functional network of similar capacity and with the same name, will be published by the Missionary Independent Spiritual Church and put forth in PDF or other format for distribution and cultivation of the League's continued existence." -- Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 6 The league was started by C. Alexander in 1919. Bishops Fred, catherine, and nagasiva put together a revision of his text, "The Crystal Silence League: Personal Codes, Lessons, and Instructions". A rough was put together for the workshop. We just received shipment of the revised cover. All Board members will get 2 copies of the book. All affiliated churches who distribute the book will receive a CD and permission to reprint them. Such permission consists of what can be changed: * inside front cover (currently information data for Missionary Independent in Forestville and Four Altars in the High Desert of California), * page 32 (currently an explanation for how to direct prayers to the league for assistance), and * the inside back cover (currently listings for spheres). and what CANNOT be changed: ALL OF THE REST OF THE BOOK. These web pages will be revised so as to list the book: http://missionaryindependent.org/gift-shop.html http://missionaryindependent.org/crystalsilenceleague.html http://www.crystalsilence.org/giftshop.html Dr. Kioni, Bishop Emeritus, has asked for the right to distribute the book also. His church needs to formally affiliate with ours before we will allow such a distribution. We have 3 other applicants, as well as affiliation requests. These were included in the 'official version' as just arrived today. More on affiliation and how this is to be handled below. =========================================================== 4. AFFILIATIONS/DENOMINATION PROPOSALS (Bishop catherine yronwode) It was suggested that our denomination be expanded so as to incorporate into it an informal affiliation with the following churches: * Sanctuary Of United Light San Antonio, Texas. Pastor: Rev. Briana Saussy. * Sacred Clarity Spiritual Church Dallas, Texas. Pastor: Rev. Valentina Burton. * Santisima Muerte Chapel of Perpetual Pilgrimage Forestville, California. Pastor: Rev. Sister Robin Petersen. * House of Prophecy Spiritual Church Birmingham, Alabama. Pastor: Rev. Jeffrey Vanderson, D.D. There was general consensus about the establishment of this informal affiliation, with further decisions on it tabled until a later date. ========================================================================== TABLED UNTIL LATER: * Divine Harmony Spiritual Church Miami, Florida. Pastor: Rev. D. John Michael Hilford. END
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