We Need Your Help at General Conference April 22nd - May 2nd

UMCMA will be present at General Conference to promote the legislation that the Association passed in July 2007 and to be an obvious campus ministry presence. UMCMA members are urged to attend General Conference for all or a portion of the time to help monitor legislation and promote campus ministry. UMCMA has 10 rooms reserved for those who will be helping with the legislative process – and this can be YOU!

If you are willing to come and give 8 hours a day for UMCMA legislation, you can stay in one of the rooms for $60 a night (per person/double occupancy). If you work for 4 days, you pay for 3 nights and get the 4th night free. {The $60 rate is available for UMCMA members whose dues are current.} The rooms are available from April 22 through May 2. The hotel is the closest one to the convention center, literally across the street. Students can also attend if they are will to help with UMCMA needs. Limited scholarships for both campus ministers/chaplains and students are available for workers. Scholarship Application

Worried you don’t know what to do? There will be orientation and briefings each day in the UMCMA Hospitality room at the hotel for those who are helping. You will be provided with tasks and assignments that will help you be an effective voice for campus ministry. We will also need persons to hand out campus ministry promotional materials, so there are jobs of all nature. The Hospitality Room will also be open regularly for campus ministers, chaplains and friends to gather.

The primary need is to monitor the legislative committees which occur primarily during the early sessions of the gathering. The legislation you voted on last summer is crucial to the future of campus ministry. It is critical that campus ministry be present and visible at General Conference. UMCMA members (and your friends), please consider attending and helping even if it is only for a few days – it will make a difference!

If you can’t attend General Conference, you can still help by contacting your delegation and urging them to support UMCMA legislation and helping them to understand why it is important to the future of student ministry. Actually, ALL UMCMA members need to contact their delegates and urge support of your legislation.

To reserve rooms, contact Leslie Long at: lalongokc@sbcglobal.net

Special Membership Drive (now until April 15, 2008)

Since General Conference is quickly approaching, the Coordinating Committee for UMCMA has authorized a special one-time membership drive with special discounts.

If you are a full-time campus minister, and you are signing up for UMCMA membership for the first time, the cost is $60 and your membership will be effective until July 2009. This means that you will receive the remainder of this year (through July 2008) free.

If you are a part-time campus minister (or a board member, a student, an intern, or a retired campus minister), and you are signing up for UMCMA membership for the first time, the cost is $30 and your membership will be effective until July 2009.

This special membership drive ends April 15, 2008.

You can download a membership form from the UMCMA website

You can also contact the UMCMA membership secretary directly at

Rob Kirby (rkirby@wesleyui.org)

UMCMA Membership Secretary

Wesley Foundation at UIUC

1203 W. Green Street

Urbana IL 61874

Opposition to outside petition

To: Public Letter to members of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry

From: Malcolm Frazier and Beth Cooper, Co-Chairs of the United Methodist Campus Ministers Association (UMCMA)

February 11, 2008

We want the members of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry to know that the Coordinating Committee of the UMCMA has voted to oppose the GC petition entitled, “Petition to 2008 General Conference to Study the Effectiveness of the GBHEM Campus Ministry Section and the possibility of the Campus Ministry Section being moved to the General Board of Discipleship.”

At the December, 2007, meeting of the Coordinating Committee (Co-Com), a motion to oppose this petition was adopted. The Co-Com, furthermore, requested that no one using the funds, equipment, or housing provided by UMCMA can work to support this petition. This petition is not on our website (www.UMCMA.org).

While many members of UMCMA have felt the loss of support as a result of staff changes at the GBHEM and at their July, 2007, biennial conference, voted to share their concerns with the members of the GBHEM, this petition to General Conference was developed in October, 2007, long after the July biennial gathering. The December, 2007, meeting of Co-Com focused on many of our concerns and our common work together as we met with many staff members of the GBHEM including General Secretary, Jerome Del Pino.

We would be happy to answer any questions you might have. We look forward to working with you on our common concern for campus ministry with young adults in campus settings.

Sincerely,

Malcolm Frazier and Beth Cooper

Prayer for NIU community

Please be in prayer for the NIU community. Here's information from the Wesley Foundation (United Methodist) campus ministry.

Press Release from UMCMA Executive Committee

The Coordinating Committee of UMCMA wants to let you know what we have been doing since we met in Fort Worth last summer.

Below is an article that the executive committee of UMCMA wrote for "Campus Ministry Matters" (a publication of GBHEM.)


We will also be posting this info on the umcma.org website.

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The United Methodist Campus Ministers Association is beginning a visioning process to coordinate with the new strategic timeline that GBHEM has developed. At the Nashville meeting in December, the coordinating committee of UMCMA met with the Executive Staff of the board and representatives of the GBHEM Board of Directors, to engage campus ministry issues. A fruitful question and answer period was followed by time spent with Dr. Jerome King Del Pino, General Secretary of GBHEM. A total of twelve GBHEM staff met with UMCMA leaders and campus ministers over a four-day period, exploring together vision, leadership, funding, development, program issues, changes on campuses, and changing dynamics in United Methodism.

UMCMA also learned about the work GBHEM has done to reinvigorate Campus Ministry, including the approval of two new staff positions related to the Campus Ministry Section and the overall mandate given to the Division of Higher Education by the Board’s strategic plan. They plan to get further updates and to work with GBHEM on future events and the overall mandate given the DHE by the Board’s strategic plan.

The coordinating committee of UMCMA voted to oppose the Paul Schultz petition that calls for a study of campus ministry with GBHEM and the possibility of moving campus ministry to GBOD. The coordinating committee also voted to send this information to all General Conference delegates, notify GBHEM, include its rationale on the UMCMA website, and request that the petition website remove the UMCMA link and add a statement indicating that UMCMA does not support the petition. UMCMA voted that persons lobbying for the Paul Schultz petition cannot lobby for UMCMA legislation.

In other business, UMCMA made decisions about its General Conference presence, updating the UMCMA website, preparing for the Bi-Annual Gathering in the summer of 2009, and providing resources and support to United Methodist campus ministers.