FLORIDA GATHERING

 89 NOMADS gathered at the  Life Enrichment Center in Fruitland Park on February 15 for the Florida Luncheon. Joan and Gary signed everyone in and collected their $10. We were only charged $9.00 for each lunch (no tax this year, I had NOMADS tax exempt certificate). The camp donated the extra $89 to NOMADS.

 Before lunch people gathered and talked.

  When they signed in they were given a paper to get ten different signatures on.  They had to find a board member, someone who had been a NOMAD for at least 10 years, someone from their state, someone who worked a disaster project,  someone who wasn't retired.

 It kept people meeting and greeting.

 Nancy had a lot of promotion items for sale. She raised $445.

 Lunch was served at noon. It was Cuban or spicy chicken sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and a full salad bar. We are so blessed to have this facility to hold our gathering.

 Enjoying the meal and fellowship.

It was a smaller group then in the years past, but it sure was nice seeing those who attended.

 After we ate I went over the paper they had been given. It allowed me to highlight disaster projects, annual meeting, recognize our new NOMADS and oldest NOMADS ( one  couple had been NOMADS for 21 years).

 Carolyn and Nancy gave reports from the board. Carolyn is on the nominating committee, so she promoted running for the board.  Nancy shared statistics on membership. Bill was going to share about the endowment fund but they had to go to Wisconsin for sadly their nephew had just died in a car accident. Our prayers are with the family.

 Dave added some laughter to the program with his routine of You May Be A NOMAD....

Larry answered some questions and then closed with prayer.   After the luncheon Dennis had leader training with 17 attending. 

CAMP AND RETREAT LEADERS

 The National Camp and Retreat Leaders Gathering (UMCRM)  was held at the Life Enrichment Center and Warren Willis Camp in Fruitland Park  from January 28 to February 1st. Thanks to Camp Wanake, who use NOMADS, we were notified of the event and invited to have a workshop and vend. Larry and I went up for breakfast on Tuesday morning, along with a team of  NOMADS that are there working, we were given special recognition for the camps love of NOMADS.  We put on a workshop with about 10 people attending. We used the NOMADS DVD and had a power point from the pictures many of you sent me from the camps where you have worked. Having RV sites is always the biggest problem for a camp to have NOMADS.

 Tuesday night was a Vendor party. There was music, food and a photo booth along with many vendors.

 We were honored to be able to set up a display and talk to so many about what was needed to have NOMADS at their camp.

We were also thanked by many of the camps for the work that NOMADS do for them.

 It was a very festive event. We were glad we had the opportunity to spread the word about NOMADS to more camps. We heard form many of them that they wanted to join NOMADS when they retire. What a perfect match.