Minutes of the Santa Clara Valley Lutheran Parish's
Breakout Session at the November 9th 2013 of
District D of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA

Conference dean Rev. Anne Carlson convened the breakout session
at 12:45 in classroom 2 at Advent Lutheran Church in Morgan Hill
on Saturday, November 9th, 2013.

The following clergy signed in:
	Rev. Anne T. Carlson (New Creation, San José)
	Rev. Gwen Hermanson-Schaefer (Faith, Los Gatos)
	Rev. Joan R. Randall (All Saints, Cupertino)
	Rev. John Sullivan, Jr. (Hope, Santa Clara)
	LaVinnia Pearson (Interim Pastor, Christ the Good Shepherd, San José)

The following lay voting members from congregations signed in:
	Bethel Lutheran Church in Cupertino:
		Nick Arnett (male)
		Cindy Arnett (female)
	Christ the Good Shepherd in San José
		Randy Presuhn (male)
	Faith Lutheran Church in Los Gatos:
		Eva Woodall (female)
	Grace Church of Evergreen in San José:
		Cathy Duncan (female)
	Hope Lutheran Church in Santa Clara:
		Colette Krinock (female)
	Immanuel Lutheran Church in Los Altos
		Doug Daetz (male)
		Gisela Daetz (female)
	New Creation Lutheran Church in San José
		Annette Howell (female)
	St. John Lutheran Church in Sunnyvale
		Linna Harnack (female)

The following visitors signed in:
	Cristina Beauchemin (New Creation Lutheran Church in San José)
	Marsha Brashear (St. John Lutheran Church in Sunnyvale)

Also present was Rev. José Luis La Torre Cuadros, Assistant to the Bishop.

The following congregations had no presence at the meeting:
	Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church in San José
	Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in San José
	Immanuel Lutheran Church in Saratoga
	Los Altos Lutheran Church in Los Altos
	Our Savior Lutheran Church in Santa Clara
	Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Saratoga
	Pueblo de Dios in San José
	St. Luke Lutheran Church in Sunnyvale

The first item of discussion was identification of potential nominees
for the Synod Council seat currently occupied by Rev. Susan Birkelo, who
will be termed out.  Action was deferred to the conference's breakout
session at Synod Assembly in 2014.

The second item of discussion was a review of the various congregations in
transition.  The status of Good Shepherd Cupertino was clarified:
although the property is owned by the Synod, and Bethel Cuprtino may
have a financial administrative role (there is a Bethel sign in front
of Good Shepherd, but according to Bethel's pastor that will be coming
down at some unspecified time), the Good Shepherd congregation
is a mission of one of the Lutheran Church bodies in Taiwan.
No other actions were taken in this review. Also mentioned was
Peublo de Dios in San José and its new interim pastor, Eduardo Trejo.

The third item of discussion was publicity for District / Conference
gatherings and their agenda.  Problems include getting the information
to the pastors and ensuring that that information gets to the voting
members.  One of the challenges is that, for example, the contact
information for congregations' voting members is not generally
forwarded to the conference secretary.  After some discussion, no
action was taken.

The fourth item discussed was a suggestion by Pastor John Sullivan of
Hope, Santa Clara, to employ synod video segments to foster identity.
No action was taken.

The fifth item was the election of a dean.  Rev. La Torre Cuadros
supervised the ecclesiastical ballot.  Rev. Anne Carlson was
elected unanimously on the first ballot.

The sixth item was the identification of potential nominees for
next year's election of a bishop.  After some discussion,
five names were surfaced for forwarding to the Synod Nominating
Committee:
	Rev. Elizabeth Eckdahl of St. Mark's in San Francisco
	Rev. Jim Friedrich (retired) recently of Prince of Peace, Saratoga
	Rev. Anita Warner of Advent in Morgan Hill
	Rev. Mark Holmerud (current bishop, Sierra Pacific Synod)
	Rev. Jeff Thiemann of Portico Benefit Services
Randy Presuhn took the action item to relay this information to the
Synod Nominating Committee.

The seventh item of discussion was the assignment of congregations
to conferences and districts, including the need for constitutional
changes to implement some of the possibilities that have been
considered. This is still under discussion, and there is no time
table yet.  The Deans will be discuss this at their annual retreat.
No action was taken.

The eight item was election of a conference secretary.  Randy
Presuhn was elected to a second term.

With no other business to transact, the meeting adjuourned.