47th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The 47 annual conference was held using Zoom on Saturday, November 14.  Nine women from our unit joined the meeting. There were 185 attendees from all around Florida.

Dr. Judith Pierre Okerson. conference President called the meeting to order right at 10 o'clock. 

Bishop William Carter gave the invocation. He reported that 4 of the 8 superintendents in Florida are women.

Donna Spear, conference treasurer gave Mission Giving recognitions. There were 88 Five Star Unit, proudly we are one of therm. And 140 Rainbow Givers with seven of our unit members on the list. 

A nice memorial Service was conducted.

Anne Winn gave the number of members who have passed away from each district. ECD had 12. Atlantic Central had 79 and Gulf Central had 61, they are large numbers.  I wonder if many lost their lives in storms? 

Ressie Mae Bass gave a nice tribute to Ann Hunter, former Conference President who passed away this year.

Edith Bricker spoke about Social Action for  Climate Justice.

She gave us training on using our phones for the letter writing campaign to Chevon to cut methane emission. 

It is very easy, here is what you need to do. Go to unitedmethodistwomen.org

 At the bottom of the web site click on advocacy. Scroll down to Climate Justice and click on it. Scroll to Sign the letter to Chevron and click on it. Fill in the form with your information and click on the space for the draft letter to appear, and then hit submit. 

Harriet Jane Olson was the guest speaker

 She gave a great motivational and informational speech on how UMW is moving forward. She reminded us to breath and see how we are all in it together, both locally and globally. She reminded us to recognize success we have had during the pandemic, both personally and as units. She reviewed projects that UMW have been doing especially in social action. She highlighted three projects in Africa that are helping women there to become leaders and given livelihood training. The Faith Talks that occur twice a month and podcast. How we all have grown in use of technology. This has encouraged younger women to become more involved and seeing UMW as more relevant. 

The business meeting was opened. Four new officers were voted on and installed.

 Mission U will be held in mid July at Southern Florida College and also virtual with School to Prison Pipeline being the topic studies.

 There is a  virtual women's retreat to be held on Dec. 6 from 1:30 to 6:00.  The cost is $10 and you register at www.flconfumw.org. It sounds like a nice event. 

The meeting ended exactly at noon.