Minutes from Church Charge Council - October 2011

Church Charge Council Meeting
October 10, 2011

Pastor Cassen Wayne Butler shared scripture and his story to open meeting. “Keep your mind, your eyes, and your ears open to be ready for when God calls you.” He then opened with prayer.

In Attendance: Chris Hipp, Anne Hipp, Jay Martin, Martha Martin, Pastor Larry Baird, Chris Sipson, Paul Sipson, Pastor Nate Lange, Bobbie Cap, Bob Kaiser, Sue Kaiser, Mark VonWald, Margaret Giles, Sheila Rader, Diane Blume, Donna LaVallee, Linda Harbison, John Harbison, Anne Fetzer, Jan Garrison, Elaine Johnson, Jaz Jablonski, Bob Eldred, Gail Conschafter.

Gail was elected as secretary. Secretary was asked to send an electronic copy of minutes to District office.

Reports:
Lay Leaders
Elaine Johnson reported for the three lay leaders – herself, Tracy Swartzmeyer, and Jim Ellson. First item for the committee was plan to laity Sunday. The committee also took responsibility for greeting new faces and also to listen to members with concerns. To honor our outstanding lay person, Charlie Yund was selected.

Pastoral Compensation packages have been presented to the Church Council.
Nate’s package was presented first. Nate has opted out of pension at this point. Total package is $21,750. This is a half time position. Elaine pointed out that Nate is acting as a Youth Coordinator. Martha Martin questioned as to whether there was any compensation for his housing. A housing compensation package will be voted on at a later date. That is also listed as part of his package. The vote was taken and passed unanimously.
Larry’s package totals $84,659.38. Travel money for conference comes from a different account and is not part of his package. A vote was taken and passed unanimously.

Pastor Butler reminded us that we certainly have a gift with our Associate and Head pastors.

Stewardship referred to Chris Hipp of Finance.

Finance
Chris reported that we are not in a position to present a budget for next year, as we have not had a stewardship campaign. Stewardship campaign is in progress and will be presented in November. Chris shared what we have done in the past.

Nominations
Ballots for positions were distributed. Trustees already elected are Bob Kaiser, Sharon Nicholson, Jill Atkinson, John Gast, Tim Phillips, Carol Dearlove. Votes will be taken for Arlyn Pifer, Jan Garrison, and perhaps one more. No more nominations were offered. Motion to close nom was made by Chris Hipp and seconded by Charlie Yund.
Leadership Development committee. Colleen Marx and Margaret Giles have been previously elected. Those needed to be elected are Bill Schall, Martha Martin, Larry Fetzer, and Linda Harbison. Nate asked to check last years’ charge conference minutes to see if Chris Bidell was elected. If he was elected, his name will just appear as elected. If he was not elected last year, we are going to place his name on this years’ ballot and elect him this year. Ballots were collected and tallied.
Pastor Butler gave ballots to secretary to be included with the hard copy of the minutes.

Lay Speakers
Four certified lay speakers – Fred Claus, Mark VonWald, Thom Volk , Bobbie Cap – have filled out reports as to what participating activities they have participated in. Pastor Butler asked all to vote by saying Halleluiah! They were voted in unanimously and thanked with a round of applause.

Pastor Butler what is happening in our conference. He brought bags for Trinity 5000 program. He suggested we put up our progress up on our web site. The ad for Hands 4 helping was in the Buffalo News yesterday. (October 9, 2011)
Safe Sanctuary did not need addressing, as we already have a policy in place.

Africa University choir was here in Kenmore and some head them locally and some went to Rochester. Goal is to start an endowment fund to fund scholarship money. The goal is a million dollars. There is no deadline for this fund. Fay Cleveland is our district rep to bring this to the forefront.

We have already updated our church profile.

Committee on Native American Ministries is asking that we have a contact person to send information to in order to publicize what is going on.

We also have to vote on housing exclusion for Pastor Larry. This allows the pastor to take a portion of his salary and put it into an allowance to provide a home. Cleaning supplies, lawn care. This does not come in addition to the salary but is earmarked as part of his salary. Pastor is to keep records to verify what was used. Pastor Larry’s inclusion is $4000. They would have to prove their expenses if they were audited. If they do not use the full amount the remainder would be then included in taxable income to the pastor. This was approved unanimously.

A moment of celebration was shared as we affirmed Nate for candidacy. Pastor Larry asked for a moment of privilege and shared a story about Nate. Nate thanked the group for allowing him to minister here at TUMC. Nate grew up at Trinity. Vote was taken by ballot and passed unanimously.

The best thing that has happened over the past year was that we raised enough money to build a clinic in Haiti. The cost is $71,000 – which took a little over 2 years to raise. Our church contributed over $15,000. We have trusted the conference with our pastoral leadership. We have been very involved with refugee settlement.

If we had a prayer for TUMC for the next five years what would that be?
1. Clean water provision for those that do not have it.
2. We as a church would grown in our faith, knowledge of Jesus Christ and be able to share that outside our walls.
3. To be able to contact those members and attendees that are still out there and invite them back into our church.
4. We would have the programs and/or ministries that would draw people into our church.
5. We would have a group of all ages filling our pews on a regular basis.
Pastor Butler asked that we keep these items in our daily prayers and what we might do to put hands and feet to these prayers.

Homework:
“Leaders need to have the right questions.” Choose one of these questions and discuss them. Write down some of your responses.
Please send within the next four months to DS Butler.

Question 1 – if your church closed tomorrow – other than your members – who would miss it?

DS Butler thanked the group for being present and asked that God bless us all. God has called us by name – marked, named, and claimed by God.

Meeting adjourned at 9:50 PM.
Respectfully submitted,

Gail Conschafter