Over 35 men from across North Georgia met at the United Methodist Children's home for the Annual Business Meeting and Leadership Training of the United Methodist Men on May 16th.

Jasper Russell, President of the North Georgia Conference United Methodist Men called the meeting to order.  Rev. Ed Tomlinson, District Superintent Atlanta Roswell and Cabinet Representive to United Methodist Men welcomed the men on behalf of the Conference and opened the moring session with prayer.

Rev. Diane Parrish then provided an inspiring devotional and testimony. She then led a brief workshop on reaching the children of incarerated men and women through the Kidz2Leaders ministry.  Several interesting statisics were provided including "83% of the children of inmates will end up in prison themselves".  The prime objective of the ministry is to reach these children so that they can learn to live differently and avoid following thier parents into prison.

The Business portion of the meeting opened with reports given by the Jasper Russell - President, Gene Bowles - Treasurer, Chuck Duncan - Vice President of Adminstration and Conference Affairs, Norman Johnson - Vice President of Activities, and Mike Pniewski - Co-Chairman Retreats Committee.  Nominations were taken from the floor for the 2009 - 2010 Nominations Committee. The following officers were elected to serve:

Following the Business Meeting lunch was served.  After lunch, two Leadership Training Sessions were held.  Cary Loesing, Executive Director lead the training session for District Officers, and Chuck Duncan lead the training session for Local Fellowships.

Activity reports from District Presidents and local Fellowships were made followed by an interactive exchange of challenges being faced and ideas on how to address them.

The event closed with powerful prayer and sending forth by Rev. Tomlinson.

Note: a detailed Secretary report will be posted shortly.