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Alabama Baptist Conference |
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Alabama
Baptist Conference of the Deaf (ABCD)
President Cromwell Josey called the ABCD annual business meeting to order at 1:51 PM. Cherybe Thornton and Jennifer “Frog” Eggers were our interpreters for the business meeting. President Cromwell appointed Richard Alford as the Parliamentarian. Chad Fleming opened the meeting with prayer. Vice President’s Report: Richard B. JonesVice President Richard B. Jones had to leave the meeting temporarily. Treasurer Ricky Milford conducted the roll call for him. There were 22 messengers, 6 officers, 3 interpreters and 4 visitors present. The voting body of the 48th annual meeting of ABCD was approved. President Cromwell displayed a graph of messengers and churches present. There were 22 messengers with 5 churches represented. The number of churches decreased this year from last year. President Cromwell stated that “something is wrong!” “We must wake up and make contacts!” There were 101 people registered for ABCD this year as of Friday, March 2, 2007. Last year we had 102. We don’t have Jr. ABCD this year. Secretary’s Report: Tammy Justice The 2006 minutes from the secretary were displayed. Everyone was given an opportunity to read the minutes. Minutes from 2006 were accepted as read. A motion was made by Chad Fleming to accept the minutes as read. Debra Parmley seconded the motion. The motion passed. Treasurer’s Report: Ricky MilfordThe Treasurer’s report was distributed. The report is included in your booklet on page 13. We started with $7,684.04 in total income as of March 3, 2007. Total ABCD expenses were $5189.88. The balance was $2,494.16. Auditors were Boyd Eggers, Jerry Pearson and Paul Pitts. President Cromwell Josey’s church, 1st Baptist Andalusia, gave ABCD a check for $100. Treasurer Ricky Milford said his church paid for the plane ticket for our speaker and paid for the officer’s meal at the last Executive Board meeting. President Josey told us that we need more donations to support ABCD. He encouraged all messengers and their churches to support ABCD financially. A debit card will be picked up on Monday by Ricky Milford. Jennifer Eggers made a motion to accept the financial report. Linda Stinson seconded. All approved. President’s Report: Cromwell JoseyTo Executive Board, Advisors, Committees, Messengers, and Visitors: After last year’s annual conference, the Executive Board, Advisors, and I met in Montgomery, Alabama, at the SBOM building on May 6, 2006. We had a follow up of what had happened at the 47th annual conference. Our goal was to make improvements for the next annual conference. One of the things we discussed was the Mini-ABCD Conference. We voted to use this for “outreach purposes”. We decided that each year we will alternate the location of the mini conference throughout the state of Alabama so we can minister to deaf people since many of them cannot afford to come to Shocco Springs for the ABCD. Last October 28, 2006, the 7th Annual Mini –ABCD Conference was held at Camp Baldwin in Elberta, Alabama. Twenty people were present with Bro. John Lovas as our guest speaker. He is the deaf pastor of Canal Blvd Baptist Deaf Church in New Orleans. He taught us through the word of God about how we should be good stewards and we were all blessed by his teaching. The workshop was in the morning and the worship service was in the afternoon. The 8th Annual Mini – ABCD Conference will be held in Huntsville, Alabama, on September 22, 2007. Our speaker will be Bro. Greg Johannsen of Johnson City, Tennessee. I urge you all to plan to come for that event. On November 11, 2006, the Executive Board, Advisors, and I met again in Montgomery, Alabama at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) building. We continued to work on the plans for the 48th annual conference and for the 8th annual Mini-ABCD Conference. We also discussed seeking a speaker for the 49th annual conference. A few weeks after the meeting, we found a speaker, Bro. John Lovas from New Orleans, and he accepted the invitation. We are very excited about that! On January 19, 2007, the ABCD officers met with the SBCD officers on Friday afternoon and evening to get to know each other and to know what our task will be on August 4th – 10th, 2007. We are very excited about working with the SBCD since this will be a new experience for some of us (except for Bro. Ricky Milford). I encourage all the ABCD messengers to attend the SBCD here at Shocco Springs. On January 20, 2007, since the ABCD officers were here after meeting with SBCD officers, we had our own meeting to finish up our plans for the 48th ABCD annual meeting. We worked mostly on revising the By-Laws. Thanks again for your prayers and support to the ABCD officers. May God’s blessings be on each of you. Love you. Cromwell Josey, President Editor’s report:We remind everyone to visit the ABCD web site at www.albcdeaf.org for information. Reminder: With the approved changes in the Constitution and By-laws, the Editor has been changed to Editor Committee. 50th Anniversary Committee’s Report:We have two more years before the 50th anniversary celebration. It will be in 2009. We need to plan a big celebration. We are now in our 48th year. Time flies. Richard Alford thought it would be a good idea to consider moving the meeting from this room to the auditorium because it seats 750 people and this room only seats 250. We may have a lot of people attending the 50th year celebration. OLD BUSINESS: Vice President Richard B. Jones presented recommended changes in the Constitution and By-laws as published earlier to the members. He stated that the officers reviewed and discussed the changes in depth. The officers approved the changes and directed the Constitution and By-laws committee to publish the recommended changes. Additional changes were recommended from the floor. Discussion followed with some changes made. Richard B. Jones made the motion that all the recommended changes to the Constitution and By-laws be accepted. Cherybe Thornton seconded the motion. The motion passed. None opposed. New Business: Treasurer Ricky Milford made the motion to increase the annual ABCD fee from $3 to $5 for registration starting next year. Paul Pitts seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed. The money will be used to pay for workshop leaders, district coordinators, etc. It has been $2 since 1994. Terry Cox wanted to amend the motion to state we would increase the fee slowly over 3 years until we reached $5. Ricky said that we can vote again over the next 3 years on this matter. All were in favor with the amended motion and it passed. Anne Clower seconded the motion. Jerry Pearson made the motion to close the business meeting. Terry Cox seconded the motion. The motion passed. Richard B. Jones closed the meeting with prayer. The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 PM.
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