By Helen Reed, Chair

Together we are stronger…
The Chinook Winds Regional Commission met on November 29th and 30th. In these two days of work, we believe that we have made some decisions that will help our Region move forward into 2019 with boldness and excitement as well as good support for the work ahead.
We continue to listen to your feedback and weigh each opinion with the good of our whole region in mind.

Regional Office:
We are pleased to announce that the Regional Office for Chinook Winds will be located in the Okotoks United Church. This site is easily accessible and offers us many opportunities for gatherings large and small. It is a comfortable space which reflects the welcome that we are striving to offer. We are still pursuing options for storage of Presbytery information and hope to have that confirmed soon.

Regional Assessment:
After much deliberation and discussion, we have decided that we will be having a small regional assessment. This assessment will be included in the official Assessment notice that you will be receiving very soon from the General Council Office.

In our new structure, we are encouraging our members to work together in clusters and networks and to create opportunities for new programs that can be shared with our region members. Although in the long term, many of these opportunities will be self-supporting, we felt that it would be beneficial to offer financial support to get them started.
The assessment gives us funds for program, cluster and network support.

General Council Assessments:
Your Pastoral Charge should receive your final assessment soon. You will notice that you have choices on how to pay your assessment. You have options of paying a full assessment, a modified assessment, and paying on an annual or monthly basis.

Policies:
We reviewed the current policies of Alberta and Northwest Conference. There are many that will be a good fit for us moving forward and some that will need to be changed. To help in this transition period, we will follow the policies and procedures of Alberta and Northwest Conference, where applicable. Where policies are deemed to need review, we will do so in a timely manner and share with you all changes.

Staffing:
Chinook Winds Region is currently served by:
Executive Minister: Doug Goodwin dgoodwin@united-church.ca
Executive Assistant: Mauricio Araujo maraujo@bc.united-church.ca Pastoral Relations Minister: Lee Spice lspice@united-church.ca
Treasurer: John Den Hoed

Inviting you in.
The work of the Region, much like the work of Presbyteries, will rely on skilled volunteers. We are going to create working groups, supported by Pastoral Relations and Community of Faith councils, to help with the work of our church. These will be small groups so we will be inviting applications so that we can help place folk in the best place for their skills.
Please consider if you can offer your time and experience to any of the following:
• Pastoral Relations;
• Community of Faith Support;
• Interim Ministry;
• Sexual Abuse Prevention;
• Property and Assets and Pensioners.
(Application forms will be available soon)

Next Commission Meeting:
Our next meeting will be on December 11, 2018.

Commissioners: Helen Reed (chair), Tammy Allan, Bob Wallace, Ray Goodship, Sue Brodrick, Kathy Yamashita, Russel Burns, Darrel Beaver.