MAKING NOISE IN ILLONOIS

 We left PA on Thursday morning, September 12  and drove to Illinois for the NOMADS annual meeting.

 It was held in Crescent City.

 At the fairgrounds.

 Since we no longer have an RV we stayed at the Super 8 in Gilman.

 The 4-H building was were most of the event was held. The only problem was it was hot and only a few rooms had a little air conditioning.

 We had a project coordinator meeting on  Saturday morning. Then we spent the day visiting with everyone.

 Lots of items being sold at the promotion table. We need to get out and spread the word about NOMADS to keep the organization going.

 The official shirt for this meeting.

 I liked the quote on this shirt. One of the NOMADS donated a large stack of them to be sold.

 Sunday morning service.

 Sunday afternoon Dennis had leadership trainging.

 That evening the membership committee hosted a meal for all first timers to annual meeting, alumni and those who have worked over 50 projects.

 It was a nice meal.

 Nancy recognized each group and they were given a small token of appreciation.

 The Lee's have worked projects since 1989. There were about 10 couples at the meeting who have worked over 50 projects. The Hahn's and Norton's had worked over 100 projects!
 Try to keep track of the number of projects you have worked, we want to recognize you for all the love hours you do.

 The meal was followed by a service to celebrate the lives of NOMADS who have pasted since last years meeting. There were 24.

 Louie Lyon had the service and each person's picture was on the screen while he read something about them.

 Louie had a Bible study each morning at 7:00. We had a 20 minute drive but we made it each day.

 At 8 we sang, thanks to Tammy, Rodney and Cheri leadership.

 Dennis gave us morning announcements.Nancy and he worked hard to help this meeting go smoothly.

 Each morning someone had devotions. Bill Koch had a good devotion on Monday morning.

Chantel Corrie, the Midwest Distribution Center executive director gave a presentation. She thanked the NOMADS for all their work at the center.

 Often they have made the school table and benches. Here is a picture of them being used in Haiti.

 Making rice meal is another project at the center. Today some of the NOMADS packed 1100 rice packages.

 Some of us went on a tour to Fair Oaks farm. It was an hour away.

 Farm to Table sure sounded familiar to this United Methodist Woman.

 We had a tour of the cow facilities. We were in buses or behind a glass enclosure, so the cows would not pick up any germs from tourist.

 The cows going to be milked.

 They walk in get on this carousel as it rotates, gets milked and then backs themselves out and go back to the barn.

 From the time the cow gets on till it gets off is 8 minutes. They do this four times a day.

 We then took a tour of the pigs.

 We watched a pig being born.

 The piglets stay with their mama for 21 days.

 There were a lot of pigs!

 Before the tour we had a delicious pork dinner. ( yes, all the pigs are raised for meat). We were given a coupon to get ice cream, yummy.

 Some of the women spent many hours sewing clothing for the Midwest Mission. They made 31 outfits.

 Monday evening was a chili cook off.

 We had a taste of  them all.

 This was the official judges. I think the winner was Mike Katona's.

 The Country Theatre Workshop Group entertained us with gossip singing.

Tuesday morning Tammy Kunz brought greeting from UM VIM-NCJ. Her goal is to be a NOMAD when she retires.

 And of course Tuesday is Auction Day. Lots of lovely items were brought for the silent auction.

 There were tables and tables of things to bid on.

 And the bidding started.

 After the silent auction was the Love Auction. It was nice that Wayne and Eddie drove in for the day to be the auctioneer.

 How did we pay that much for a watermelon? Thanks Dennis.

 It is delicious.

 My other big purchase was the quilt. Looks great on the bed.

 I was so happy to find out that Gloria Moyer had made it. The auction and some donations  raised $51,000!!!

Dinner was on our own that night so a group of us went to Watseka for a good Mexican dinner. Wes had been a pastor at the Methodist church here before he retired.

We heard from each board member about what their responsibility on the board were and they gave a reports. Carla gave her "State of NOMADS" report. Here are some of the statistics: 830 active and 180 alumni, only 20% were at the annual meeting.
 New members are coming from the eastern part of US, it use to be from the central,  20% of our members are single and 20% are full timers. Members are working more and only 9% of projects had to be cancelled.We have worked over 115,000 love hours this year. 181 projects scheduled in 2019, there were 4 new agencies and 14 cancelled projects.

Wednesday night was a pot luck dinner. Lots of good food.

The choir gave a concert that evening. We sure have a lot of good singers.

Tammy is an amazing choir director.

Everett  Easley was going off as board chairman and Bill Koch is coming on.

A plaque was given to them in recognition of all the work on the board.

These are the new board members.

Last year board. (Steve Trout wasn't here because his RV broke down)

Our new board.

 Bill recognized Jerry and Jan for all the work they did for this annual meeting. 

We had two days of good workshops, thanks to those who stepped up to lead one. 

Next year annual meeting is in Lewisburg, WV September 20 -24, 2020  Go if you can. It is fun, educational, correctional, informative, just a great week.

After a very good catered dinner on Thursday evening we were entertained  by the group "A Natural High". This meeting recharged us and we decided to continue as Project Coordinators for Florida. Gary and Sharon Hatcher agreed to help out by taking over Alabama and Mississippi.