Tijuana Ministry Core Leadership Meeting Minutes
December 8, 2014
Attendees: Monica Rising, Bob Malone, Michael Calderon, Kathy and Frank Fanger, Ann and Michael
Yadlowsky, Mike O’Connell, Francesca Paist, Rick Lindahan, Joan Mibach
Minutes: Joan Mibach
Previous Meeting Minutes: There were no minutes from the previous meeting to approve.
Discussion held on feasibility of making the Tijuana Ministry trip two separate weeks during 2015. After
discussion and reflection it was decided to stay with a one week trip. A major deciding factor is limited
leadership to run two separate week long trips.
Website Update: Core team needs to review the Tijuana Ministry website and feed suggested changes
to Joanna Thurman who will be updating the website for the 2015 mission kick off. One suggested
discussed was to break down the registration process into several steps so that we can gather more
specific traveler information and create working spredsheets are more user friendly than one large
spreadsheet covering all traveler information. Ann had suggestions for improvement designed to gather
more information about construction experience and youth interested in applying for leadership
positions. Joan had suggestions for reformatting the traveler core information. Ann and Joan will send
their ideas about registration to Joanna. All others were encouraged to review the website.
2015 Registration: It was agreed to limit registration to 80 travelers and begin a wait list with the 81st
applicant. There was some discussion about what registration represents. If you register, are you
automatically accepted, or is registration an application process? Is there criteria that should go into
accepting a traveler?
Travel Dates: In order to avoid the Terassas II Parish Festival during our trip there was discussion around
moving our travel dates to one week earlier and go from Saturday, July 4 to Saturday July 11. Theresa
Clark agreed to contact Celina in Tijuana to determine when the children are out of School in TJ. The
group was in favor of going earlier so Bob will also find out from Fr. Nick what weeks are available for us
to stay in TJ.
Ann led a discussion about teen training and opportunities for the teens to begin to take on more
leadership roles. She suggested identifying these roles and then inviting teens to “apply” for them.
This will build on the great improvements that Dave and Joanna made to the program last year where
they were able to recruit teens to run their reflection sessions. Attendees agreed that we should work
to expand leadership opportunities for teens in the children/teen programs and the construction
programs for 2015. It was also noted that we should begin to develop recruitment letters that can be
sent out to the teens after the register to travel.
Scouting trip was set for January 8, 9, and 10. Bob will confirm the dates with Fr. Nick. Those who were
present that expressed interest in going: Monica, Frank, Michael, Francesca, Bob, Joan and Jessie if he
is able. Joan said that she will check to see if Dave Lipscomb is interested in going. It was suggested that
we contact Mark Ortiz about going. He proved to be a valuable resource to the trip last year with sis
Spanish skills and understanding of construction. We may want to have another fluent interpreter on
the core team for the future.
It was decided that we will focus on building shell structures similar to what was constructed on the
2014 trip.
Next meeting was set for January 12, 7:00 PM, at Bob Malone’s. Topics to cover at that meeting include:
Scouting trip recommendations for construction sites.
Fundraising
Teen Supervision on construction sites so teens can develop more skills
Trailer packing – what can we take as ‘extras”
Decide on trip dates
Review registration process
Kick off meeting dates at the parishes