Quite a few Church members along with their pastor, Herb Teitgen, sat in on the meetings. Prior to this, the Media and Ministerial Services Teams met on Thursday and Friday. Since this was the first meeting of this fiscal year, the Council Code of Ethics and Council Member Job Description were read. New council member Patrick Read was welcomed and was asked to give a short icebreaker. Following that, Herb Teitgen talked about the rewards and challenges of serving a Canadian congregation while living in the United States. A PowerPoint presentation from the Canadian office contained various graphs depicting growth patterns. Graemme Marshall reported on personal correspondence questions he has received. The Media Team PowerPoint presentation showed statistics from the Beyond Today television program and the results of the recent Reader's Digest ads. The council was informed of future plans for the rest of the year. Next, the Ministerial Services Team reported that leadership development is still an important issue for the Church. Canada is tapping into some of the U.S. programs. There will also be a ministerial conference later this year for all Canadian elders, as well as the Western Canada leadership workshop weekend in Calgary, Alberta, on June 21-22. Each pastor gave an update on how the Spring Festival season went in his area. The trends are positive. The National Office was asked to do a study regarding the potential need to move from the current office space. The council reviewed the study and referred it to the Strategic Planning/Finance Committee for further discussion. Next on the agenda was a discussion regarding the new Strategic Plan and Operation Plan that UCGIA approved. The question as to whether Canada should model next year's plan after these was also referred to the committee. Monday began with a report from the Strategic Planning/Finance Committee. They submitted a resolution for ratification of expenditures to keep charitable purposes ratio in acceptable CRA guidelines. The committee will continue to work on the Strategic Plan for 2008-2009 to have it ready for council approval during the September teleconference. The committee also worked on strategies for the National Office to use for finding new office space. The Governance Committee presented a proposal to amend the policy on establishing new churches and Bible study groups. A motion was passed to accept the amended document. An Elder Appeal Policy for Canada was approved by the council. Refinements to the lay member nominations process were also discussed. The regular session ended with a brainstorming session. Then the council went into executive session to discuss designated funds and reserves and conduct the annual review of the director of operations.