Our registration filled up quickly last year, so register your foursome soon!
 There will be prizes and contests on each hole! 

Not a golfer? Consider sponsoring a cart ($25) or a hole ($75). You can also donate a gift card ($10 or more to any area business). Or join us for lunch that day at the golf course ($10). All funds go toward our Youth Mission Trip Fund. 
 

Email: Erin Heisler (erin.heisler@att.net) for registration or sponsorship forms!

With the incorporation of the new Conference bylaws, the Personnel Committee will now be appointed by the Board of Directors from among the members of the Board. The current Personnel Committee voted a name change to Human Resources Committee and will continue to assist and advise the Conference Minister in matters pertaining to staff, Conference compensation guidelines, and developing call documents for local churches. Special thanks are given to Rev. Allan Martling who has been a member of Personnel for over ten years, and Rev. Teri Bracy who has served for six years. Rev. Peg Faulman of Owosso will be the new convener for the Human Resources Committee.

If you think that bicycling from Lansing, Michigan to Cleveland, Ohio over four days instead driving four hours is silly; that camping out on the floor of a church after bicycling sixty to seventy miles sounds more like torture than fun, then you'll probably not want to join me and others bicycling to the 30th General Synod in Cleveland, Ohio.

I admit it.  The idea was hatched as a reaction to a delegate (a rural western state if I recall correctly) that suggested that if we supported our denomination working towards being divested from fossil fuels we should turn in our plane tickets and walk home.  I may have taken time at a Speak-Out and suggested while I wouldn't walk back to Michigan from California, I would bicycle to Cleveland in 2015.  It was my little part to show them that it could be done.  I looked at some maps, contacted some churches along the way that could house bicyclists overnight, and second-guessed myself every turn of the pedal.

It's really going to happen. Leaving from the Lansing area June 22, stopping in Manchester for overnight, another stop southwest of Toledo, before arriving in Cleveland in time for General Synod.  As much as possible, we'll route ourselves on rails-to-trails in Ohio, but there will be urban streets in the cities - you must be comfortable riding with motor vehicles.

There is a cost involved, but it's rather small (we pay for the fossil fuel for the SAG wagon - hauling the night-time equipment).  You need a good bicycle in good repair, a pannier or bike bag to carry gear you need for the day, and money for meals (and ice cream).  You should also plan for a way to get back from Cleveland (I've got some space in a pickup truck) since I suspect our return schedules are unique.

If you're really interested in bicycling four days in late-June to Cleveland, contact Harold Beer via email: beer@msu.edu or by phone (517) 484-1032.

The PI-MAT met on Saturday, May 9 at the Conference Office. The MAT reviewed the implementation of Annual Meeting resolutions, and heard an impressive update from Walt Kemnitz about the Dream of Justice working group that is seeking to end mass incarceration. Dream of Justice helped to co-sponsor two resolutions going to General Synod this summer. The MAT also reviewed the revised resolution guidelines. Information about submitting resolutions to the Michigan Annual Meeting will be circulated in June.
 

The PI-MAT also said goodbye to Rev. R.J. Hronek who has chaired this MAT for the past six years. Pastor R.J. has received a call to a church in Thomasville, NC and will be moving this month. The next meeting of the PI-MAT will be held at the Conference Office in East Lansing on Friday, July 17 at 11:00 a.m. All are welcome.