Leap

Last evening, the camping commission of Canada East Mission of Community of Christ met again via teleconference to work on plans for the up-coming Director’s Retreat. As I listened to their thorough and careful planning, I couldn’t help but think of how far we have come. It represents something of a quantum leap from where we were just two short years ago.

Until 2011, CEM sponsored the fall Director’s Retreat and Camp Staff Training day in the spring. Several people who had been involved in both told me Director’s Retreat was very helpful, but the spring gathering was not as strong. That observation was reflected in the attendance. It became clear that we needed a team of people with skills and experience to take over the leadership and direction of our camping ministries. From this realization our camping commission was born.

In the spring of 2011, the weaker Camp Staff Training Day was replaced with Skills and Leadership weekend. For the first time at this event, several key instructors were available to teach camp staff important skills. For example, a professional trainer was provided to help us in the area of conflict resolution and to lead our conversation on the risks as well as the opportunities of using social media. Apostle Susan Skoor offered classes in pastoral ministry. Mike Hewitt instructed Directors and Business Managers about planning, budgeting, and reporting. Other skills were also imparted. It was an excellent start; a strong leap forward.

In the meantime, the camping commission began to turn their attention to some important questions around emergency preparedness. How ready are we at our camps for an emergency? For example, exactly what steps would we need to take to protect our campers in the event of a tornado? What about a fire? Are the directors and staff aware of these steps? Too often, the answer is no, and clearly we need to change that.

If an unknown and potentially hostile intruder were to appear on the grounds, what do we do to protect the children? What exactly will we do in the event of a water emergency? Do we know how to direct emergency personnel (fire, police, ambulance) to the correct area on the campgrounds? Who is responsible to make that call? Who will go to the road to guide emergency personnel when they arrive? In some cases, our campground boards have clearly been working on these areas, but are the camp directors aware of this preparation and how to take advantage of it?

At this year’s Directors Retreat we will begin working together to become better prepared. Campground board executives will be invited to share with directors the plans and preparations they have made. An expert in emergency preparedness is being invited to come and provide appropriate instruction. All this will lay the groundwork for a major emphasis and training at the spring 2012 Skills and Leadership Weekend. An effective coordinated plan is beginning to emerge. It is an amazing leap in the right direction, and our campers will be safer as a result.

Posted by Carman

Archives

Here I am at the end of the day without having posted anything to the Blog!
It must be time to dip into the archives. With Mission Conference coming up soon (October 15, get details here) I thought you might like to read the following from our Archives.

Here's Construction.

Check out both links and then leave your comment.

Posted by Marion

Plans

As I begin to prepare this blog post, I have literally just hung up from a long conference call with members of the CEM Camping Commission. Five people, all of whom have busy careers and families gave up yet another evening to wrestle with difficult questions and problems so we can have high quality, safe camps and reunions this summer. I am profoundly grateful. I know that every one of them had other things they could have been doing. For example, none of them got to watch game seven of the Montreal – Boston series tonight, although I am sure some of them would have liked to. Nor did they get to do any of the other things they might have done.

Planning for camps is not easy. Putting good policies in place requires a lot of careful thought and much discussion in order to reach decisions. Who will talk to this person or that? Who will enquire how the boy scouts (for instance) handled that issue? Once we have decided, who will write this policy up and send it to the rest of us? It is a lot to ask of these busy people.

If that weren’t enough, this is also the group that is planning and leading the Skills and Leadership Weekend for all camp and reunion staff at Ziontario on June 17-19. They have done excellent work in preparation for this event in order to make our camps better and safer than ever before. They are recruiting top notch, professional instructors to teach such topics as Conflict Resolution, Group Facilitation, and Social Media Guidance. They are providing for lifeguard training as well as instruction on cooking for large groups. Camp Directors and Business Managers will be given clear guidance on the procedures CEM and the camping commission expect them to follow. Quality child care is being arranged so young adults can take advantage of this training without being held back. You can see why I am grateful; this is a lot of work!

If you are a director of a camp, reunion, or retreat in 2011, I hope you will be at this weekend. Further, I urge you to convince all your staff to take advantage of this training too; it is that important.

If you are already committed to being on staff at a camp this year, there is really no place else you should want to be. If you have any role at all in our camping, reunion or retreat program this summer, or even if you think you might like to be on staff at some future camp, I urge you to reserve the June 17-19, 2011 weekend for this event. Not only will you learn a lot, but you will be with great people, and you will have fun.

Even if you never attend a camp but offer ministry or leadership in a congregation, you will benefit from being at this weekend. The skills you will learn will help you anywhere.

Further more, the camping commission and the CEM staff think this training is so important that we have agreed to offer the Leadership and Skills weekend with no registration fee. You don’t see that in our camping program every day, so why not take advantage of it while you can? Watch for more information to follow soon.

See you on June 17th?

Posted by Carman

Sunshine

As I write this in the middle of the afternoon, the brilliant sun is pouring into my office. I’ve long since closed the blinds enough to be able to function while dodging the sun in my eyes and the glare on my computer screen. I hate to shut out this amazing gift that is the winter sun, and I delay as long as possible, but each day it’s earlier and earlier. The angle of the sun is still low enough that it dips in here shortly after one o’clock. In summer, with the higher sun I can usually resist quite a bit longer.

My daughter-in-law posted a note this morning about a big pile-up of cars on her way in to work, most likely caused by that early, but still low in the sky, rising sun. And the afternoon traffic reporter will be talking about the western sun in drivers’ eyes. At this time of year it’s setting right at the afternoon rush hour.

Oh it’s still plenty cold out there. Someone said “I call it ‘fools’ sunshine’ because it just looks warm.” These are the days the moms have to remind the young’uns that they do still need snow pants even though the sun is bright! And all those newcomers from tropical countries are trying to adjust to the apparent contradiction of blazing sun and bitter cold. Once when I was in Africa I was chatting with one of the maids in my hotel. She had no hope of ever visiting a faraway place like Canada and had lots of questions about what it was like to live here. Mostly she was intrigued by such things as changing seasons, trees without leaves and days that were longer and shorter at different times of year.

I appreciate all this more now having spent some time in Tahiti (Hawaii would be similar) near enough the equator that the days are pretty much twelve hours long all year round and while leaves do fall off some trees, it’s never all at once so there’s always green above, below and around you all the time. I remember how strange it felt to have the sun go down at six o’clock despite the still balmy temperatures. My brain struggled to deal with a short summer evening! In Canada the light lingers in warm weather.

Our days are lengthening noticeably. Over the next two or three weeks we’ll gain an hour of daylight! How are those extra daylight hours affecting you? They surely do impact us who make this adjustment, for better or worse as our seasons roll around. What are your energy levels doing these days? Or have you come to the point of desperately needing a winter holiday in a warm place? Have your “snow-birds” been in touch? Will they be returning any time soon? And how will that make a difference in your planning?

I often tell people that we plan activities without regard for the possibility of bad weather, otherwise we’d plan nothing between November and April! But as the days lengthen I sense more activity out there in the congregations. Is it the sun stirring things up? Something is.

Posted by Marion

Hatches

All signals appear to be that we should be “battening down the hatches” in anticipation of some severe weather on its way here. All around me people are preparing for canceled meetings, lots of gas in the tanks, pantry stocked and plans made for kids at home for snow day—maybe even multiple days.

I’m thinking of ways this relates to an ongoing conversation we’ve been having around our CEM lunch table lately. It’s as if there’s something anticipated; no one is quite certain what it will look like, but there’s the definite sense that we’d better be getting prepared. One of the tasks of leadership is to cast the “long eye” into the future to try to discern the signs and signals and then to come up with some strategies to make ready. Whether this future is a stormy one or not, there’s still the need to get prepared.

The tendency is to look at the storm that’s already forming up on the near horizon. How do we meet this year’s budget? Who will take on the church school director’s job? Who will speak next week, next month, next year? How do we get more bums in pews? And we know that if we focus on all those urgent questions, we’ll find ourselves asking more serious questions. Is it time to sell this building? What happened to the next generation of leaders? How will we replace those faithful donors?

Of course in some instances the life-cycle of a congregation has indeed run its course and we will need to celebrate decades of ministry and blessing to a community and say a fond good-bye. That will happen. But sometimes it’s just lack of vision and strategic thinking and focusing on the “urgent” rather than the “important” that bring us to the brink of an unwelcome and unnecessary future.

Whether or not this blizzard hits us, there will be storms in our future. Our task as leaders and as members is to realize that we need to be ready. And being ready is long-range. It’s making sure the kids feel included and respected. It’s ensuring the youth get to connect with friends and have opportunities to expand their world into the broader church and into the wider community. It’s giving youth and young adults genuine roles and real responsibilities and making ready to hand off leadership to a new generation, already equipped with practical skills and experience and supportive networks to take over. It’s taking time out from the nitty-gritty of all those urgent things that need our attention to slow down and take the long look to make sure we have a future when it arrives.

I’d sure love to hear from you some of the things you’re doing in your congregation to look into this longer future. Maybe a couple of stormy days might give you just the opportunity you need to do that.

Posted by Marion

Talking

“We Human beings discover what we know by listening to ourselves talk…”
- Phyllis Tickle; The Great Emergence, p.19

Something about the above quotation resonates with me. There is an important truth resident within those words. It is often through the process of talking that we are able to clarify our thoughts as we push through the cobwebs that have grown up in the mental doorways we have not needed to enter for a while.

In our home, for some reason we have our best conversations in the morning. It will start with something one of us is thinking about and needs a second opinion on. The discussion will begin before or during breakfast as we clarify the issues, and by the time I need to leave for the office, the conversation will be in full voice. “I have to go, but hold that thought” is a common expression at such moments. Alas, one is not always able to pick up the threads where one has dropped them!

We also do a lot of talking in our office. This is not the casual kind of water-cooler conversation about the previous night’s hockey game, or what one had for dinner the evening before. Instead, we wrestle with questions. Sometimes we work to make sure we are asking the right ones, and then talk together as we try to figure out the best answers to those questions. As the staff of the Mission Centre has become smaller, and the problems and issues have grown more complex, the conversations have become ever more helpful and important.

How can we help congregations move from maintenance to mission?
What can we do to encourage more leadership in the congregations?
How can we further empower our amazing young adult leaders?
How do Witnessing/Inviting ministries differ in an urban environment from a rural one?
How shall we accelerate the pace of our pastor training program (CPI) so as to train more people faster, but without causing a huge increase in costs?
How do we offer ministries and opportunities to Post-Congregational people?
Who are the best people to lead the new What Matters Most workshops?
And increasingly, how shall we deal with some of these issues after Marion retires later this year?

Astute readers of What’s the Good Word? will recognize that some of these same themes also show up in this blog from time to time. It is all part of the process of talking, as we discover together what we know.

The above questions are but a sample of the things we talk about as we seek to empower the congregations and leaders for mission, so I wonder, what about you; what are you talking these days?

Posted by Carman

Directors

This past weekend, 34 people met together at Scarboro Missions for the 2010 Directors Retreat. This is an annual meeting of our camp, reunion and retreat directors, some of their key staff, plus people who are being mentored as directors of the future. It is always a weekend well spent.

For me, this year was especially rewarding because it was the first time this event was led by our new CEM Camping Commission. Despite having worked very hard to be ready, this four person team was understandably nervous. They needn’t have been; they did a great job, and they were embraced by the wonderfully supportive members of our wonderful camping community. Our camps will grow stronger because of their efforts.

Generally the meeting begins with a review of the season just past. Here we share our successes and celebrate victories. This year we were especially thrilled to hear stories of young lives changed and transformed as a result of the loving and accepting community found at camp. Just one story of a life changed in this way makes all the planning, all the phone calls searching for competent staff, and all the work of preparation worthwhile. Tears of joy were shed, for these are lives saved and transformed. We thank God.

Soon the group turns its attention to learning from each other. We listen to those who have achieved great success in their particular area. This year, we celebrated excellence in children’s programming at Erie Beach reunion, and exceptional team building in the leadership of Senior High camp. In this section of the weekend, techniques are shared and ideas explored as we seek to learn from each other’s success.

As the comfort level in the group grows, problems are also revealed, explored and wrestled with. Questions are raised about ways to handle difficulties already experienced, or anticipated in the future. As always, I am impressed with the serious level of intensity directors and staff brings to this effort. Discussion and debate ensue. Sometimes solutions are found, and sometimes we decide we need to keep struggling for an answer. At least one persistent problem comes up every year, and every technique we can think of has been tried. It is a small problem really, but a nagging one. Once again, possible solutions are suggested, and we will try again.

Finally, our attention turns to new ideas, and there are some good ones. For example, what if we chose one reunion and focused on helping parents understand the various stages of child development? What if we had marriage counselors on staff, and instructors who could give parents solid, proven ideas about how to deal with difficult situations? What if we also offered the Good Sense course right at the reunion? Should we do this at an existing reunion or should it be a new camp? Who would staff such an effort? Who would lead it? Where and when would we hold it? This is just one of several new ideas explored.

For all those who look forward to the six reunions, four youth camps, and numerous retreats that happen every year, you may be interested to know that the work of thinking about and planning for next year’s camping season has already begun. There is much to do, but many hands make light work. Perhaps you might like to help. If so, why not give the director of your camp or reunion a call to offer your services? They will be delighted to take your call.

Posted by Carman

Leading

This past weekend, a group of young adults from around the mission centre gathered at the Bathurst Street church in Toronto. The purpose of this gathering was a Vision Workshop with Becky Savage of the First Presidency, and Erica Blevins-Nye of the church’s young adult ministries office. The workshop was number 25 of about 28 such events being held around the world to give the First Presidency a chance to dialogue with young adults and hear what they are thinking.

Of course, like any retreat, the event did not just come together on Friday night all by itself. For months, several young adult leaders have been meeting, both on-line and in person, doing the hard work of planning this event. Schedules were worked out, fun and serious activities were thought of, a budget was drafted, and dialogue sessions were planned. A trip was made to check out the facilities (meeting space, kitchen, beds, showers, parking, etc.), qualified volunteers were found to look after the participants' children, a cook was retained and meals provided. The various dialogue sessions were prepared, worship planners were found and worship leaders recruited. All of this had to be coordinated with the congregation. Small wonder then, that at the end of the event, one of the leaders confessed to feeling a little weary. Pulling off this highly successful event was a lot of work!

While there is a great deal to celebrate about this successful weekend, the aspect that is most encouraging to me is the leadership shown by this fine team of young adults. They know how to lead. They understand how to plan, and the many steps required to make an event a success. Further, they were willing to do the work in order to make the event happen. I am grateful for their willingness, their skills and their leadership.

All of this is just one more evidence of success as we work toward achieving our # 1 mission centre goal: Young Adult Leader Empowerment. We have many young adult leaders, and they have the skills they need to lead. Lets give them room and opportunity to do so.

Posted by Carman

Voting

The weeks leading up to this year's municipal election were interesting, and I think I have learned something about the difficulities of the demoncratic process in rural areas. Perhaps I am beginning to understand why voter turn-out in municipal elections is historically so low. At our house we spent several weeks before hand, trying from time to time to determine who the candidates were, and what they stood for. Their communication with their desired constituency seemed to leave much to be desired.

Up to and including the morning of election day, the following is what we had learned. We received one flyer in the mail from the township telling us where and when to vote, and that, “This flyer serves as your household’s voter’s card.” Okay, good start. We now knew we were allowed one vote for mayor, and four for council.

There were a variety of signs around the village and countryside announcing the names of several candidates, but they really didn't tell us anything except that the candidates can put up signs. Who were these people, and what did they stand for?

Our investigation located a document on the township website which told us there were two candidates for mayor (one incumbent), and nine for council. The document listed email addresses for the two mayoral hopefuls, and four of the nine candidates for council. No websites were listed, and a Google search did not revealed any. Hmmm.

We then thought there must be an all-candidates meeting somewhere, so we searched the web for information on one but didn’t find it. Later we learned from a neighbour that there had been one, and she thought she saw a sign somewhere announcing it but wasn’t sure. I don’t know where the sign was, but we certainly didn’t see it. There were no flyers in the mail or posters in the variety store/post office about it, at least that we saw. Unless other people had a better grapevine than we did I am guessing the meeting was probably not very well attended! Our frustration was beginning to build.

Several weeks prior to the election we had one knock on the door from one candidate, who turned out to be a neighbour. He also gave us a flyer with a picture of his family indicating what he supports. He did not spend long, but he came, and we can vote for him. Good Job!

We had one flyer in the mailbox from one of the mayoral candidates (not the incumbent). From it we learned that she has experience on council and was involved with the food bank. Good, I thought. She understands local issues for the poor, and is not afraid to volunteer. I think I can vote for her.

And the flyer was a good sign. Surely the other candidates pieces would be along soon, right? But that was it! Right up to election day, that was the sum-total of communication we received from the eleven candidates running in our municipality!

Then on the morning of election day, Joan went to the post office on her way back from voting, and lo and behold, there were four more flyers in the mail box. I thought, now isn’t that interesting! Since the advance poll was nine days ago, wouldn’t you have thought the candidates would have wanted their information out early?

At the polling booth, we discovered there were five candidates running for the school board. Who knew!

Now, I accept that it is my civic duty to learn about the candidates and be able to make informed decisions about who to vote for. But wouldn't it be easier to do that if the information was readily available? After all, we are all very accustomed to the so called Information Superhighway now, and most of us hardly remember where else to look for information. In this day and age, does anybody have time to chase the candidates for their thoughts? In the 21st century, shouldn't the candidates make the information available on the internet on a site where it is easy to find and in a form where is is readily understood?

Oh well, they are all volunteers, right? They probably didn’t have enough time. At least they are trying.

Is there anything we can learn from this?

Posted by Carman

Celebration

This Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. Canada East Mission will meet together in conference. The location is Trinity United Church, 400 Stevenson St. N. in Guelph. Many pieces of information will be presented, including the planning for a Canadian National Conference in June of 2012. We will discuss progress made in the twelve months since the goals of 2020 Vision were announced, and of course we will be asked to approved the budget for 2011. Our new Apostle, Susan Skoor, will have opportunity to address the conference and begin to get to know us, or at least to get an introduction.

As important as all these things are, they pale in comparison to the celebration we anticipate later in the day. After lunch the conference will be presented with the calls of nine persons to senior priesthood ministry; six High Priests, two Evangelists, and one Bishop. Approving those calls will be the last item on the conference agenda. By 3:00 p.m., we anticipate that this process will be completed and we will then move into an ordination service.

Imagine the impact these nine people can have on the mission centre and on our congregations! High Priests are called to be ministers of vision, and if ever we needed vision in our congregations, now is the time. Evangelists have a very special calling as ministers of blessing, and we simply cannot have too much blessing. Bishops are called to be ministers of generosity, and our bishops have proven to be more than generous with their time, talent and treasure as they have made wonderful contributions to our cause over the past several years. Is it any wonder then that we look forward to this event with such joy and anticipation?

Following the service, we will move to the church gym where we will enjoy some light refreshments and visit with those who have been newly ordained. We hope you will be there to greet them and to part of the celebration as we take another step into our emerging future with God.

It will be a great day. Why not come be part of it?

Posted by Carman

Empowerment

At the CEM conference of 2009, we presented a ten year plan entitled 2020 Vision. The plan included five goals, the first of which is Young Adult Leader Empowerment. Simply stated, the goal is to give our fine young adult Community of Christ leaders a chance to lead. If we are successful in this goal, we will have excellent leaders willing to take the church into the future. If we do not succeed, we will have a problem. We are actively working at that goal.

Last Friday evening, a group of young adult leaders got together to work on the plans for an upcoming event; the 1st Presidency’s VISION PROJECT. On November 12-14, 2010, young adults from across CEM will gather at the downtown Toronto church for a weekend of fun and conversation with President Becky Savage. This planning team met to make sure we will be ready, and to determine if we had answered the appropriate questions.

• How many registrations do we have so far? Twelve, but it is early yet.
• Have we contacted all young adults in CEM? Not everybody? Well we had better get on it then!
• Do we have cooks? Yes.
• Do we have childcare for those who need it? Yes.
• Do we have sleeping accommodations? Yes, there are 22 cots at the church, and some will sleep elsewhere.
• Do we have people to lead great fun activities? Yes.
• Do we have people to lead the workshop sessions? Yes.
• Do we have people to plan and lead worship activities? Yes.
• Are those who come really going to enjoy this weekend together? YES!
  
  It is a pleasure for me to watch these young adult leaders in action. I am there to answer questions if needed, and to offer support, but mostly I am there to listen. I can sit back and let them lead. By being present, I know what the plans are and that the bases are covered. If they need my help, they have it, but mostly they don’t. They are capable, gifted leaders. I am grateful for their willingness and their gifts.
  
  Shortly, this team will send a small poster to each congregational pastor to be posted at church to help promote this event. Whether you see the poster or not, why not encourage young adults of your acquaintance to come? They will be blessed because they did, and I firmly believe, so will the church.
  
  Are there young adult leaders in your area? Are they being empowered to lead? If not, can you help? Don’t be afraid to let us know who they are and we will try to help too.
  
  Posted by Carman

Model

Goal 4: The Healthy Congregation Model Effectively Deployed in Every Congregation

As a former pastor, I am quite familiar with the experience of not being able to see the congregational forest for the trees. Leading a congregation is a busy task, and it is easy to get so involved in the day-to-day issues and challenges that you can no longer clearly see the big picture. The metaphor that comes to mind is the saying that, “When you are up to your ears in alligators, it is hard to remember that you really came in here to drain the swamp!” A proliferation of alligators is not conducive to effective swamp draining or pastoring.

Add to this the fact that our pastors and leadership teams are all bi-vocational volunteers, and it is easy to see why a clear, simple model of operation is important. Among other benefits, it helps us remember exactly what we have to offer the world, and what our focus needs to be.

Community of Christ has been working with the Healthy Congregation Model for at least five years, but many people are still not familiar with it. The graphic at the top of this page may help us understand it.

A very quick explanation is that the Community of Christ is built from the bottom up on God’s Generous Grace, the Christian Tradition, and on Community of Christ Tradition. It is the Witness of Jesus Christ and the Building of Community that provides structure and supports Peace, Reconciliation, and Healing of the Spirit; the ministry the church offers the larger community. The diagram further says there are three types of ministry we engage in: Witnessing/Inviting, Gathering, and Sending/Serving. A healthy congregation will have a balance of all three. The model says that is what we do, and that is all we do.

This does not mean that every congregation will be the same. Every congregation will respond to God’s Generous Grace in a slightly different manner. They will live out the mission to which they are called according to God’s gifts to them and the leading of God’s Spirit in their midst. Each congregation will respond to the needs of the larger community in which they find themselves, and in that way, bring the Peace of Jesus Christ to those they meet. The fact that people need that peace is the very reason we need this goal.

Some days it feels to me that having the model effectively deployed in every one of our CEM congregations is an impossible task. “What was I thinking?” I ask myself. When I think that way, I realize I have gotten too close to the alligators again. I need to step back and look for ways we can do this. That is what we need to do, one congregation at a time.

Purpose

Last Saturday I attended a workshop for GTA-West congregation as they worked to identify their goals for the immediate future. The workshop was attended by 60+ people and directed by a consultant who led us through a carefully planned process. It was a wonderful day.

The day began with a reminder of the congregation’s purpose statement, which had been carefully identified at an earlier event. I am a big believer in purpose statements. Whether you are an individual, a team, a congregation or a corporation, knowing your purpose makes all the difference in the world. It is the difference between doing something because it is routine and doing something for a reason.

To take on a task without a clearly understood purpose is rather like driving on the road with no map or GPS and no real idea where you want to go. To quote the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”.

Purpose speaks of determination and resolve. It suggests that there is a desired result at the end of whatever process or activity you are engaged in. Doing something on purpose suggests that you know what outcome you want to achieve. If you know your purpose, you can identify goals that mean something, and initiate processes and programs to achieve them.

My purpose in this post is to say, "Well done, GTA-West! You know your purpose and have identified your goals. You now have a roadmap and a GPS. You are on the road to where you want to go!"

Construction

Have you noticed that everywhere you go, everything seems to be "under construction"? Many main streets in my town appear to be dug up just now. And as I've had opportunity to be around the province, it looks as if we're not alone. Construction sites abound; everywhere we're admonised to "expect delays."

Not just road work, but lots of building is happening. Homeowners are trying to get renovations or additions completed to qualify for tax incentives offered by governments. Colleagues report progress on their deck, their basements; even my hairdresser was telling me about a project to waterproof her basement wall so they can proceed with finishing a new family room.

In the face of all this construction we often ask "Will it never be done?"

The answer to that question is "No." We'll always be building something. In fact, if we were to stop, things would quickly fall into disrepair. We'd outgrow our spaces. Believe it or not, someone would begin to complain about not enough change!

What we're doing here is creating our future. I hope many of you CEM folks will be at Mission Conference tomorrow to deliberate on our future plans, learn how you can participate in a major "construction project" as we create goals, establish direction, set budgets and targets for OUR future -- "Under Construction."