Men's Retreat Northwestern District Style

I know this sounds strange to some around the country, but we really look forward to our annual retreat in the dead of winter (February). I suspect partly, because it is in the dead of winter resulting in fewer distractions so more men can make it. Here in MN, everyone heads north for in-state vacations
because that's where the fishing is. I'll share the calendar events as they unfold:

1. Secure a speaker. We have secured our speakers for the next three years. We like to announce the next year's speaker on Sunday morning's session so guys can start planning right away to invite their friends.

2. Send out e-mail announcements reminding guys about the retreat throughout the year to visit the website for more information.

3. Send out announcements/posters/registration forms the week of Thanksgiving. We have found out that sending them out any earlier than that is a waste of time. However, we found that using first class postage was beneficial in culling out old bad addresses. We rotate out any addresses older than three years old. We track this on an Access database.

4. After a few days, we then post the same information in .pdf format so that anyone in the district can get them by downloading them and then printing them out. It is cost prohibitive to have on-line registration. I then send another e-mail out to the district letting them know that the information is in the mail or on-line.

5. We know how many beds we have, so we have a first come, first served rule for registration. We encourage men to register early, to not wait to all register as a group.  We also have a line on the registration for the men to list their church and what town it's in. That's because we have at least 6 churches that have Hope in their name in our district.

Other notes:

6. We use necklace name tags so that all the guys can get to know the other guys' names. This is also their meal ticket, no name tag, no food. This one new addition cut down on men coming but not paying. We suspected, but had no way of proving, that a good number of guys were not paying their fair share. When you have over 250 racks full and receipts for only 220 or so, it didn't take me long to come up with a way to put a halt to that practice. Our numbers dropped initially, but now they're almost back to where we were 5 years ago when we discovered the problem. Our bottom line is better also - gosh, what a surprise.

7. We have four speaking sessions for the main speaker; Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon is free-time. There is broom-ball, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, inner tubing down the tubing hill, basketball, volleyball, rock climbing, cribbage and ping-pong. There have been ad-hoc snow football and snow volleyball games some years. There are other table games and sitting in front of the fireplace chatting with other men. We have annual tourneys for ping-pong, basketball three on three, 6 man volleyball and cribbage. Tourney winners get CMA men or camp clothing.

8. Saturday night is the annual steak fry done over briquets, done up by a half dozen or so guys doing the cooking. We also have buttered mushrooms for those that want them as they go through the chow line. Baked potatoes, canned corn and fresh rolls fill out the plates. Yes, it's becoming a tradition.

9. Saturday night at the end of the speaking session we provide an opportunity for men to speak and share what God is doing in their lives. We have had three men come to Christ during these times of getting right with God.

10. After Friday night's session, we have a "snack", which is really a light meal because many of the guys leave right after work and don't have time to catch a bite before they get there.

11. We have at least one guy or group of guys share what they did on a short-term missions trip in the past year. We also try to secure a missionary home on furlough. That's tougher, we're only batting about 50% on that. We try to get other ministries to share for 10 to 20 minutes at the beginning of the sessions to keep the guys informed of all that there is going on in the district.

12. I have a hoot doing announcements. We have a good picture guy that adds to the ambience of announcements.

13. Provide good hand-outs from the speakers talks, so the guys can take just little notes, not extended long ones.

14. We leave right after the noon meal on Sunday.