BETHEL COLLEGE MENNONITE CHURCH Congregational Meeting MINUTES
Special Meeting to Vote on the Abuse and Prevention and Response Policy
Sunday, November 21, 2021, 10:45 am, via ZOOM and In-Person

Our faith in a God of love leads us, by the power of the Spirit,
to follow Jesus in doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.

1. Call to order and Centering Prayer: Moderator Elizabeth Schmidt called the hybrid in-person and virtual meeting to order and followed with an opening prayer. She then announced that a quorum was present and welcomed all who were in attendance in-person and virtually. She thanked Pastor Renee for managing the virtual broadcast and Pat and Chuck Friesen for counting virtual attendees to help establish that a quorum was present. She also thanked the Abuse Prevention and Response Policy Committee members Dawn Yoder Harms, Yolanda Kauffman, Nathan Koontz, Renee Reimer, Jill Robb, Bethany Schrag, Dale Schrag, and Wes Schmidt-Tieszen, for their hard work creating and establishing the policy.

2. Vote to Accept or Reject the Abuse Prevention and Response Policy: Opportunity for discussion having been made available during several weeks prior to the meeting, some ballots were mailed out and returned previous to the meeting, and other ballots were distributed to those in attendance at the meeting, filled out and collected by board members Ada Schmidt-Tieszen and Dale Schrag. Virtual attendees were simultaneously invited to vote by the Zoom meeting means provided. A total of 102 ballots were submitted including those submitted by mail, via Zoom and in-person. The final ballot count after meeting adjournment yielded 94 YES votes and 8 NO votes. 

3. Moderator Elizabeth Schmidt adjourned the meeting at 11:00 am local time.

Respectfully submitted,

John Kliewer, interim clerk