New Pathways in the Desert

Summary of ECWR Board Meeting, January 22-23, 2004

The Board gathered in Palm Springs over the weekend of January 23rd for our winter board meeting. We had a productive and meaningful time together. EC Palm Springs provided warm hospitality and accommodations for all, including a potluck dinner Saturday night at the home of Dave Atkisson and Rand Larson. Momma and her entourage even made an appearance decked out in one her finest polyester pantsuits.

We were delighted and blessed to attend Desert Oasis Chapel on Sunday morning. Sensing the need in Palm Springs for a loving and affirming church, this new fellowship was formed by several faithful EC members We were refreshed by the worship led by Shauna McFadden and the encouraging words shared by Pastor Nick Warner.

The board continues to boldly move forward to accomplish the strategies formed over the past two years. We were updated on many of these efforts during the course of our weekend meeting and we made key decisions to enable the ongoing progress. I’d like to share some the information with you.

New Regional Conferences and Conference Coordinator

One of our new strategies is to create one-day regional conferences to be held in locations where there is some EC presence, but no local group. A key in the success of the new conferences is the addition of a part time conference coordinator. We are pleased to have long-time EC member Michael Darling join our team as the coordinator. He is currently involved in planning for Connection 2004, but has already begun formulating ideas for the first regional conference.

Redesigned ECWR.org Web site

Jamie Horn is leading the effort for the web site redesign project. We are blessed to have several "tetchy" EC members participate in the planning effort. The team has successfully defined the requirements for the site and is currently soliciting bids from web site designers. Based on the number of people visiting our current web site and the number of people who came to EC because they found us on the web, we know it to be a key tool in the marketing and outreach of ECWR. We are committed to a new and improved web site that will provide an updated "look and feel", drawing people in and providing updated content to bring people back.

Communication, Marketing, and Outreach (CMO)

Hopefully most of you received the new EC Gram via email last month. This is just one of the many new ideas the CMO team has implemented to help keep people connected and reach new people. The team is working diligently to build an effective marketing strategy that can provide support to the web site, local groups, and all conference events. Some of the other initiatives underway are: redesign of ECWR logo, addition of a "tag line" with the logo, internet advertisement, building alliances with other gay/Christian organizations, and development of a marketing survey.

We are eagerly looking forward to Connection 2004. As with all of our annual conferences, it should be a warm, encouraging, restoring experience, not to mention fun. We will celebrate 25 years of gathering together every summer. We are truly blessed to have been able to sustain this event throughout the years and there is no doubt it has changed lives and even saved lives. Please come celebrate our silver anniversary with us.

Many of you gave generously in 2003 and we can’t thank you enough for your faithful support. This generosity will help us achieve some of the plans we have for reaching more and more people who so need to experience God’s unrelenting love and grace.

Jill Yeomans

ECWR President