Ottawa Alpha Conference Planning Meeting
June 19, 2001, Dominion-Chalmers United Church
Conference dates: 26, 27 October 2001
Organization chart

Alpha - "An in-depth overview of the Christian faith"

MINUTES and ACTIONS ARISING

Attenders:				        Apologies

Eric Angel      Conference Chair	 	John Wright 	   	
Nick Lee        Chair of Organizing Committee	Dave Atkins
Chris Allen     Administration Team Head	Jill Allan
Jenny Moore     Registration Team Head		
Peg O'Connor    Stewarding Team Head
Harry Baker	Hospitality Team Head
Chris Slojewski "Lift Jesus Higher"
Peter Runia	Calvin Christian Reformed
Tony Copple     Alpha Advisor, and recording secretary (591-3903, tonyc@ncf.ca).	  		  	   	    		  
Distribution of Minutes: All Ottawa area Alpha leaders, plus:
Elaine Young, our Alpha Canada Events Co-ordinator
Vernon Robertson, Alpha Canada Roman Catholic Advisor
Rt. Rev. Peter Coffin, Bishop of Ottawa
Rev. Dr. Allen Churchill
Rev. Martin Garniss, Senior Minister, Dominion-Chalmers United Church
Carol Kauk, Ottawa Anglican Cursillo
+ The Alpha Ottawa Website www.ncf.ca/alpha and the Conference site www.ncf.ca/alpha/alphaconf.html
  1. OPENING PRAYER - Nick Lee

  2. THE MINUTES of the May 15, 2001 meeting were approved. Proposed by John Wright.

    Eric stated that, as previously indicated, tonight's meeting would concentrate on just two issues: the dinner venue, and the selection of seminars. Since both subjects have been discussed previously, they were covered as "matters arising." No committee reports were taken.

  3. MATTERS ARISING

    The dinner
    Nick Lee and Harry Baker reported on the status of where the Friday night dinner would be held. The Crowne Plaza hotel cannot serve us for under $28 a head, and we are budgeting $20 (and $5 for break snacks). All other hotels are even more expensive. Alpha Canada has reminded us that this is not a banquet! We have found a caterer - A.J's of Metcalfe - within our budget. This leaves us with the choice of finding a nearby hall, or making better use (than previously considered) of the spaces within Dominion-Chalmers. The number of registrations is a key factor in making that choice. There was a feeling that our numbers may in fact be somewhat less than the 400 - 500 that have previously been suggested based on the experience of other current conferences.

    Although the maximum numbers per fire regulations in the two largest Dominion-Chalmers rooms are 143 and 100, we could use other rooms as well, and we could serve the meal buffet style prior to folk making their way to a variety of approved eating areas (not the sanctuary!) To facilitate such a plan, the caterer needs to be able to set up, and therefore the order of the day would need to be adjusted, ie: move the seminars to the 1:30 pm time slot, and the "Practicalities of Alpha" talk to the 3:15 pm time slot. The caterer would be able to set up the rooms from 3:15 pm. There are several advantages of this plan, including that nobody has to leave the church, and cost savings. We have received approval from Alpha Canada for the schedule changes.

    The afternoon would therefore be as follows

    The final choice of dinner venue arrangement will follow further research by Nick and Harry.

    Seminars
    All attenders will be invited to select one seminar when they register on arrival. The seminars last an hour and will take place on the first afternoon (time will depend on the dinner venue decision).
    Eric invited us to brainstorm on the seminars that we felt would be well received, and also if we had a seminar leader in mind.
    There was a good discussion which began with the suggestions that have come up in previous discussion, and were honed into shape, so that a short list of six was finally agreed. The number of seminars will depend on the number of registrations, and we may therefore reduce this down to four closer to the day. We had been moved by David Crawley's address to the Pastor's and Lay Leader's luncheon, and Eric said that he would invite David to do a seminar on a subject of his choice, but preferably encompassing "After Alpha." There was plenty of discussion on the subject of "Alpha in non-traditional places" - eg. nursing homes, offices. There was also discussion about the place of a French language seminar. Peg reminded us that one of our focuses is the Catholic community and we should include a seminar for Catholics, specifically helping them feel very comfortable about how Alpha slots neatly into other Catholic programs. Peg's suggestion was questioned, but in the event it proved an accurate reflection of Alpha Canada's plan for this conference. Attactions of a prison Alpha seminar are that it can also encompass caring for ex-offenders, and might encourage more volunteers to lead and help with the prison Alpha courses in this region (it is likely that a new course will start in the Rideau Correctional and Treatment Centre in Merrickville in September and we need volunteers, as we do right now for the OCDC course).

    At the end of our discussion the seminar list was as follows: Youth Alpha, Multi-church Alpha, Prison Alpha, Non-church Alpha, After Alpha (+ other material, by David Crawley). This list was to be put to Alpha Canada (Elaine Young) for approval / improvement.

    [In the week following the meeting, there was considerable e-mail discussion with Alpha Canada on the choice of Seminars. The result of this further work has resulted in the following seminar short list, which, although it post-dates our meeting, is included here for convenience. Note, depending on the number of registrations, not all these will necessarily be available.

    Registration
    Jenny Moore recommended a special "dinner-only" price for volunteers who, as a result of their responsibilities, cannot actually come into the sanctuary for the presentations. This was agreed.

    Simultaneous translation
    Tony Copple reported on the quotations he had received - $2,380 for two translators, plus $1,702 for equipment. If we had 20 users this works out at $200 each. He had also canvassed local francophones who said that a lack of simultaneous translation would only be problematical in this region if it were advertised but not provided. It was agreed that this was too high a price to pay. Jenny suggested that we should be aware of linguists among our delegates who might be able to assist people with language difficulties on a one-on-one basis - eg. if a questioner wants to ask a question in French. She will gather in language data as part of pre-registration.

    Questions table
    Jenny suggested that there may be people with questions not covered in the open sessions for whom a question table manned by experienced Alpha leaders during coffee breaks might be valuable.

    Worship Ministry
    Eric said that the names of our two recommended praise music bands have been passed to Elaine at Alpha Canada.

    Supporting Churches follow-up
    Tony mentioned that it may be time to follow up verbally with the 55 supporting churches, asking them for any progress on contacts to other churches in their area, and tactfully inquiring whether they plan to send us a donation. Jenny recommended that all committee members make the contact with their own church on this subject.
    ACTION: ...... All committee members, and Tony Copple to organize the remaining contact.

    Committee work during the summer
    Our next conference planning meeting is not until September. Meantime work cannot cease! Team head are encouraged to schedule contact and discussion on an individual team basis during the summer. In addition to the important work that must be done during this time, this will also help alleviate the problem of volunteers not feeling included or being sure of their functions. The summer is also a great time to re-study the conference handbooks and make sure nothing is forgotten.

  4. NEXT MEETING

    Please set your calendars for the next Ottawa Alpha Conference Planning Meeting:

    The next meeting agenda will include a report on:

  5. CLOSING PRAYER - Tony Copple

  6. OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
    By Tony Copple, Alpha Ottawa webmaster and recording secretary.
    Some of you may be wondering why I have posted the organization chart on the web.
    The minutes of our May 15 meeting mentioned that it is important that all who have volunteered should receive feedback acknowledging their kind offer. To expand on this, please put yourself in the position of a keen volunteer who signs up for one or more positions, but doesn't hear back from anyone. This volunteer does not want to be left out of the conference so arranges personally with another team head to include them in. Come the final few weeks before the conference and it is found that we don't have enough volunteers in one of the areas originally requested by this volunteer. Now (s)he is committed to the new position, and unavailable for the positions previously sought. This minor chaos can be avoided if team heads call all your potential volunteers so they know where they stand. The volunteers that I know of are listed on the orgchart. They know that we know they have volunteered and what they have volunteered for. I have not posted intercessors on the orgchart, but would like to include the names in other categories (unless an individual has a problem with this). There is another reason for posting the org chart. These are some of the the people that we all need to be praying for in the run up to the conference.

    Please check the Ottawa Alpha web site to see if the details of your next Alpha course are correctly displayed.

    Finally, while I have your attention, those of you who know Laurie-Ann, my wife and co-Alpha advisor (and recording secretary for the OAPC), will be interested to hear that she is going to Northern Kenya on a mission trip this August. See more at Kenya mission, and / or attend morning service at Glen Cairn United Church, Kanata, at 9:30 on July 29, when she will preach a sermon on mission and describe how this particular trip has come about.

Minutes taken by Tony Copple
Anything vital missing from this draft before we e-mail the minutes?
E-mail: tonyc@ncf.ca
Written up June 26, 2001


Ottawa Alpha Conference
Alpha Ottawa