There were 9 members 1 prospective member in attendance.  Attendance included Ariann Brown, Jill Muegge, Carlie Johnston, DJ Bradley, Jack Ott, Jim Tomanek, Duane Prorok, David Rosacker and prospective member Jeff Simons of Outlook Nebraska. 

 

Our speaker was Elizebeth Murphy, of EMSPACEGROUP.  her firm provides consulting services for public relations, marketing, strategy and planning for mostly non-profit clients.  A few ofher firm's numerous clients include the Metropolitian Area Planning Agency, Activate Omaha and Omaha by Design.

 

(Yes you spelling experts, Elizebeth is the correct spelling, she said it was her mother's fault that she was consigned to a lifetime of mispelled first name)

 

 

Rolly Kleeman, our Host for the speaker, introduced Joe Ricketts.The subject of our speaker is a new retreat center located in the hills overlooking the Platte River in Sarpy County, titled THE CLOISTERS ON THE PLATTE.  Joe, founder of TDAmeritrade, was born and raised in Nebraska City, Nebraska and was educated in Roman Catholic Elementary and High Schools and also graduated from Creighton University.  In the past, Joe was introduced to retreat center sponsored by the Jesuit Order.  Currently there are 27 Ignacian retreat centers in the United States and the Cloisters will be in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was a co-founder the Jesuit Order. 

 

The Cloisters on the Platte Foundation is a non-profit foundation established by Mr. Ricketts.  He is passionate about making The Cloisters a reality and is personally funding the Foundation's construction of permanent retreat property.

 

There will be 3 day retreats available in the Cloisters, starting on Thursday evenings with a leadership presentation by a Jesuit, followed by the participants going silent with personal and private prayer for most of the retreat days. 

 

The retreats on particular weekends will be all-women or all-men events, there is a chapel to accomodate 80 people and there is a large "Stations of the Cross" to be located in the woods.

 

The retreat center is not restricted to Roman Catholics and Christians of other faiths are welcome. 

 

Joe indicated that speakers are needed to spread the word about The Cloisters and parishes in the area will have designated contacts for the Cloister.  More information is available from the web site:  www.CloistersonThePlatte.com.  Additionally, specific information can be obtained by emailing info@cloistersontheplatte.com  Broshures were handed out at the meeting however, a visit to the web site will provide similar information.

Steve