Church Council Meeting
June 18, 2012
Charlie opened the meeting at 7:00 with the unison reading of the
Mission Statement.
Attendees: Pastor Larry
Baird, Charlie Yund, Bobbie Cap, Nate Lange, Gail Conschafter, Anne Hipp, Sue
Kaiser, Paul Sipson, Jan Garrison, Mike Fonte, Terri Bellanca, John Harbison,
Ellie Robinson, Liz VonWald, Donna LaVallee, Jim Tamsen, Mark VonWald, Fred Claus
Nate opened in prayer.
Welcome and roll call – Gail Conschafter
God Sightings – Liz shared some of the sharings on Father’s Day
with her Sunday School Class. John
Harbison shared about his trip and meeting with a group that is excited and
very interested in Haiti. John is
organizing a trip to Haiti in November.
The “angels” were busy painting Historic Trinity this weekend. Discussion on Red Doors.
Minutes from May’s meeting:
Motion to accept by Fred Claus and seconded by Jan Garrison. Passed unanimously.
Changes to Agenda: None
Calendar Events: Ellie
Robinson presented “one Starry Night” on December 2. The idea behind is the church tries to make
itself into Bethlehem and experience the Bible story of Christmas. Sheila
Rader, Ellie Robinson, and Regina Truitt are heading up the committee. Lots of help is needed. Church families and their friends are
invited. All Island churches will be
invited. See handout. Ellie explained some of the items that are
needed.
Choir
Performance: This Thursday June 21
at Historic Trinity. Sue Kaiser
suggested something on the sign out front.
Sue is looking for Dave, as he is the one that would change the sign.
July 4: Youth is doing something and would partner
with Liz and Mark for food. Nate and Liz
will talk further. As a note, Fantasy
Island is open after 5 at a reduced rate for Island residents – this may affect
attendance.
VBS: July 8-12 from 6-8:30 PM. Dinner will be served each night. The theme is an underwater theme (Operation
Overboard). 4th of July float
is well underway. July 12 will be the
Potluck dinner and Pastor Larry will be the speaker. July 16, the Touch Tank will be here as a
follow up to sum up the week’s events.
Helpers/volunteers are always welcome.
Youth Mission
Project: July 8-14. The conflict
between this and VBS has been resolved, but the kids will definitely be
tired. Because Breakout is close, it
makes it possible to do both. Stock is
for sale at $25 each. Next years’
project will be to the DR. Dates to be
announced soon. Luncheon after 10:30 service
this upcoming Sunday. Stock is for sale
between now until the group leaves.
Trinity Men’s
Sunday Dinner at Seneca St. UMC.
Dinner at 3:00 and their service is at 4:15 PM. July 22 is the date.
Everybody camp:
August 17 &
18: Billy Graham Assoc. sponsoring an
event at Cocoa Cola Field. This is geared towards youth. Ages are Middle School and High School.
Family Night:
Summer Splashdown – August 26 6 PM – Sunday. Spaghetti dinner will be served. A sampling of Sunday school lessons will be taught. Karen Doyle – preschool. Gerry Write – 1st and 2nd
grade. Kiera Hayes and Judy Johnson will
teach 3rd through 5th grade. Liz and Mark will do Kid Zone. Bonfire and games to follow.
August 26 - Sue
wants to make sure the trip to the Bison.
Game is put into the Tidings. The game is usually done by 4 PM so there
should not be too much of a conflict.
July 14 – Garden
Tour headed by Martha Martin. This will
be the last one for Trinity and it will be turned over to the Garden Clubs on
Grand Island. Historic Trinity is a part of Trinity’s budget.
Sept 9 – Rally Day
chaired by Laura Mason.
September 22 &
23 – Rock the Lakes is a region wide event.
Franklin Graham will speak. First
day to target youth and the second day is more for families.
Oct. 12 & 13 –
UMW retreat
Oct. 20 – Taste of Trinity
is growing. Time frame is 11-3 for food and then take out for dinner. Basket auction would be 10 to late afternoon.
Breakfast food could be sold from 10 – 11 if anyone is interested in setting up
a stand for that. Paul suggested we have
more food booths. Basket auction will
occur also. This is also the same night
as Trunk or Treat.
Nov 10 – 17 – Trip
to Haiti
ACE – Feb Seminar – Dates
and speakers to be announced.
Charlie reported that this building
is being used by a non Trinity group (on-going) which could have conflicted
with the Concert. For future reference –
we need to be careful when scheduling events. The list should be brought to
Church Council so we are aware.
Committee Reports:
Attendance Review:
Charlie shared that we are all attending church. See handout. We have risen a little bit, but
have not increased a great deal. New
recording system is only 2 weeks in, and we are getting a better handle on
attendance. Attendance cards will be
placed in Historic Trinity and the Choir loft.
Jan reported that she received a call saying they were knocked out of
the holders. The early part of the year
is our best attendance. There was discussion on counting the children in
service. Larry commented that “Yes,
attendance is important, but we are spending a lot of time on insignificant
worries.”
Budget Review: Chris Hipp
From Blog:
Finance
Committee report to the 6-18 Church Council Meeting
At May
month end:
General
Fund giving was $151k vs. $154k in 2011
Expenses
were $147k vs. $159k in 2011
The
General Fund balance was $14k vs. $8k last year.
We
continue to pay our monthly apportionments as the General Fund balance permits.
YTD we have paid $14.1k of the $54.6k annual total.
We have
several long-standing funds which have had little or no change for at least the
past 18 months. We propose to close them and deposit the funds into the General
Fund. They are:
Scouting
Awards Fund
Mom’s
Morning Out
MAC
group
Children’s
Ministry
Adult
Christian Education
We
request feedback on this proposal
Respectfully
submitted,
Chris Hipp
We have paid about 25% of our
apportionments. We will continue to pay
as long as the budget allows. Liz asked
that the outstanding funds be switched to Sunday school. Those affected by these accounts, please see
Chris. Charlie encouraged us to allocate
money to our strategic priorities. (Children, youth and contemporary service)
SPRC: Donna reported that Nate’s salary has been finalized. Joe Martino is set to take over the Trinity
Belles. The committee is refining the
Safe Sanctuary guidelines. There is a
meeting/staff appreciation picnic on August 19th at Harbison’s. The plan is to review Linda McCaffery’s
position before September. Tom Burkman
will be back, but Donna will be serving as Chair until October.
Youth: Nate reported on the blog:
The youth ministry at Trinity is off to a good start. Last fall
the ministry was effectively confined to Sunday school and workcamp. This year
has seen the births of Momentum and Friday Night Fellowship. Momentum is a
weeknight small group which has grown from 2 kids when we launched to averaging
6-8 kids each week and deepened from a fun fellowship time into a more
substantial time for spiritual growth. Friday Night Fellowship is a bi-weekly
(typically) gathering where we hang out, have fun, and build relationships; we
just started it during May but have had as many as 15 kids (at the most recent
one)- including many of this year's 15 confirmands (all of whom we're working
to keep connected) and kids from outside our Trinity family. Our Sunday school
classes were ably lead and I'd like to thank all who worked to make that
happen. Our Middle School class experienced some growth but our High School
class stayed pretty consistent and we are looking forward to investing more to
develop those vital ministries in the fall. In the meantime we have a busy
summer schedule ahead, the highlights of which are included below:
- Momentum and Friday Night Fellowship will continue throughout
the summer.
- Stock Sale- now through July 8th!
- June 24th: Workcamp Fundraiser Luncheon (following 10:30 services).
- July 1st-2nd: Youth Lock-In- there will be snacks, games, and decorating for
VBS.
- July 8th-14th: Buffalo Breakout- our summer mission’s project.
- July
20th: Stockholders Meeting- an evening of food, fun, and stories from Buffalo
Breakout.
- August 17th-18th: FM 419- music, fun, and spiritual
development put on by the Billy Graham Association.
Thank you all for your continual support!
Nate
Close to 20 kids attended last Friday’s bonfire. Nate is pleased with the group and its growth
and improvement in Bible study. Confirmation
class had 15 and 10 are still involved on a regular basis. Scheduling is part of the issue with the kids
being so active in outside activities and sports. Mark, Liz, and Nate and Angie have been
working hard to transition the kids from Sunday school and Youth group.
Pastor’s
Report: Larry shared
Team Trinity – Getting it Done for the Lord.
Staff has been looking at strong leadership. In the fall, we will move to a team
model. Concentrate on key area. Existing team is Children’s team ministry –
develop a sense of team. We have no existing
teams for some areas. The idea is to
recruit and equip them as easily and thoroughly as possible. Right now is an effective way to train
leaders. This is available on line. Staff and core leadership can design and tap
into the resources we feel will be best to work with. We can track this….. as each individual can
access it at their own convenience.
Everyone on the team would be working on the same content at the same
timeframe. One of the resources in Bill
Hybels’ “Just Walk Across the Room.”
Larry played a 3 minute trailer. Training
material is available for just about anyone and will fit into everyone’s
schedule – doing it at their own speed in their own time. Nate shared his excitement about this and
love kids and will now have the opportunity to put it all together that could
pertain specifically to the teachers and follow who is participating and
encourage them along the way. Ann shared
that she is not computer literate; however, she was impressed with the ease of
the program. There is a cost involved –
which is $100/month. Larry is committed
to finding the funds for this year. Next
year, the cost will rise a bit.
Discussion followed with feedback.
More discussion followed about logistics on “buffering,” internet,
ect. We are interested in starting new
ministries with new people. Chris asked
how Nate and Larry would add this to their already busy schedule…. Nate
explained it would be a time saver for him.
Larry explained that he should see it as and equipment to implement a
Bible Study… groups would be going on at home, and Larry could resource the studies
and he would not have to be doing Bible studies for everyone. He would be multiplying his ministries. John Harbison motioned to purchase and use
the software to use for leadership which was seconded by Terry Bellanca. Discussion followed. Vote taken, and passed unanimously.
Comments
on Fall Programming: Larry stated that
service times for fall will be at different times. Larry is excited as to what our potential
is. Nate has heard positive feedback
about the change in time for the Contemporary service. There is a coziness that will be lost, but
the feeling of connectiveness between services will more than make up for the
loss of that coziness. The hope is that
we will grow into the space. There are
more details to be ironed out. Mark said
that he has attended churches in the past that it does spur a sense of
excitement with everyone crossing paths.
More information would be appreciated at the next meeting on times of
Sunday school, ect.
Larry closed in prayer and meeting was adjourned at 9:10 PM.
No meeting in July, but we will have a meeting in August.
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Conschafter
