Church Council Meeting
Monday March 18, 2013
Attendees: Mike Fonte, Charlie Yund, Terri Bellanca, Tom
Burkman, Fred Claus, Gail Conschafter, John Jones, Jan Garrison, Laura Mason, Ann
Hipp, Chris Hipp, Sue Kaiser
Pastor Larry opened in Prayer.
God Sightings:
Gail shared the video of Christian Central Academy’s
Worship Team’s “I Will Not Be Ashamed.”
Beautiful swans on East River.
Approval of
February’s minutes. Minutes were approved as presented. Motion by Chris Hipp, seconded by Terry
Bellanca. Approved unanimously
Changes to Agenda
Mike Fonte in Committee
Tom
Burkman will be after Calendar Events
Major Calendar
Events:
Shrove Pancake Dinner Tuesday, Feb. 12
Good Friday fish Fry Good Friday, March 29
Lenten Luncheons
Hand To Plow April 13
VBS July
28 – August 1 - evenings
Crop Walk October
13, 2013
Dominican Republic Youth Mission Trip - July 10 -
17
Fall Festival TBD
Women’s Retreat
One Starry Night December 6 - 7
Hand To Plow - 4 meetings to take place. One has already taken place. Charlie and Terry Bellanca were TUMC’s
representatives. April 13 is the next
meeting. The next meeting is to grow the
church. Lessons learned will certainly be applied here. Meetings are from 10 – 4 with lunch
provided. There are three streams: 1 is
to start new churches 1 is to start new faith communities and the last is the
Hand To Plow which is a revitalization of existing churched.
SPRC – Tom reported
that the limited report is on the blog.
The Staff-Parish Relations Committee held its monthly meeting on
March 4. It dealt with the following issues:
- Added
two paid holidays for salaried employees
- Absence
arrangements for Custodian and Set-up Manager
- Wedding
coordinator
- Fringe
benefits of Associate Pastor
- Event
for staff recognition and appreciation
General
Fund results through February were reviewed. At February month-end GF giving is
$49k vs. $56.5k in 2012, where there were 9 weeks vs. 8 this year. Giving is
forecast to be about $340k at year-end, about $15k less than in 2012.
To get
a better measure on where giving has changed; it will be analyzed by giving
unit at the end of March. With three months data, trends should begin to
emerge.
Several
accounts were discussed. Account 440 (Church Programming) spending is about
twice its annual spend rate. Jim Winter agreed to see what expenses caused
this. Account 466 (Salary Custodian) is also $433 above its projected spend
rate.
How
expenses and revenue were reported for the recent ACE event was discussed.
After
some discussion it was agreed to make an apportionments payment in March
despite having only $3.1k in the GF account at February month-end. The
committee agreed to discuss this subject at our monthly meetings and to
authorize payments when it is financially prudent.
The committee also
discussed Jim Winter’s request for remote access to our CDM financial software
so that he can do more of his work remotely. We agreed to pursue this to
facilitate his efforts on our behalf.
Tom asked where we are spending where we should not be
spending. Chris responded that he
expenses are up, which we have no control over.
Church programming may be a bit misleading as it is a general fund that
contains events that are not specifically categorized. There may be reasons that we overspend in an
account, but if it fits in our mission that may be because it is very important
to our ministry. Some of the money that
was spent was for the Hand To Plow books – no other account to put it
into. There were 20 books
purchased. Charlie will check into the
amount and the actual cost. John
Harbison questioned what was being done to increase membership. Discussion on
attendance for other GI churches. Sue
commented that there was a Nursery School activity last Saturday and the family
room was packed with families with small children. She questioned whether we are tapping into
that group to encourage them to attend our services. Larry reported that there were several from
the Nursery School that came to One Starry Night. Larry feels that those that are already
members are good witnesses to those that are not already members of our church.
John Harbison said he feels we are welcoming when it comes to the Lenten
Luncheons and WOW. These are wonderful
opportunities. Larry reported that the follow up with those
that are “new,” are finding they are using the internet and our website to find
us. Ann reported that when they lived in
North Carolina, a personal invitation was extended to her by a nursery school
instructor. The invitation was
non-threatening and welcoming. Jan
reported that all nursery schools on GI are willing to accept our pamphlets. Question was asked if we have a Hospitality
committee to look into this. Our Sunday
school program has increased 10 fold over the past few years. Programs are in place for all ages, and help
is needed to keep them up and running. Children
will bring in the adults. Good traction
is in and good hospitality is next.
Volunteers are needed to stand at the Welcome Station each Sunday. Our membership is not in huge decline like
other churches. Laura asked that if
anyone from our congregation is in Suburban, please let her know, as she would
be able to stop in and see them.
Charlie asked that the Hospitality committee report to us
by the next meeting as to what their needs are and where we can be of
assistance to that particular committee.
Committee Reports:
Missions: John Harbison reported there has been
discussion on what the Mission Focus will be.
March’s focus is Mexico Missionary.
May will be the Youth Stock Sale.
June will be Seneca Street. June
16 will be Tools for Hope, and July will be the Military. There are several applications for missions,
and the committee will go through them all.
We are in the stage of building furniture for Haiti. The Rotary will release $11,000 once all
furniture is made. Hopefully the clinic
will be fully operational by July. He
has received donations from members from TUMC.
There is a lot of interest of doing mission work. Charlie commented that the Mission Committee
has had their work cut out for them since they have been monitoring all the
“fundraising” for missions. Please
encourage the committee.
Organ
Repairs: Mike Fonte reported that he
has been researching the organ. He has
been communicating with all music personnel.
The pipes and chimes are shot and parts are non functional, in addition
to other parts that have not worked for years.
Costs for minor repairs (non-noticeable) would be approximately $3000 to
$5000. Recommendation might be to
replace with a digital organ for approximately $50,000. This is a huge difference between repair and
replace. Mike suggested if we do the
repairs, get a few estimates to see how they all compare. There is a question as to whether or not
after all those repairs – the difference would be noticeable to the
congregation. Fred questioned if the
organ was repaired – what might be the next part to need replacing? Perhaps a few more estimates on something
other than a digital organ might be necessary.
Sue reported that a church in Colden has a digital organ and the options
and effects are wonderful. Charlie felt
that the short term solution is good for us.
Yet, we may not be ready at this point to invest a significant amount
without a specific fundraising effort. What is the lifetime of a digital
organ? That question could not be
answered.
Pastor’s
Report: Larry thanked the Finance
committee for helping him understanding the finances of the church. He had hoped that we would have gained
overall income. What it appears we have
done is maintained from the loss of our members that have gone. We are a far way from “being broke.” We are in a building position and did not go
backwards. Membership in 2012 – we
gained members in some services – depending on which service. 49% increase in VBS attendance. VBS committee is committed in increasing that
for this years’ VBS. We need to sustain
an overview strategy. Please come and
represent your own area in addition to the whole church. We need to change the church culture enough
so we are outward focused. Sometimes we
are too inward focused and stumble over one another. The seeds are ready to plant, and now we need
to lift up and train those willing who will engage in the areas and turn
outward to draw more into our church.
“If it helped me, I now want to help others.” We have stabilized our finance and
attendance, so now we can start to grow.
We need to understand that we have one segment of our congregation that
are good givers, but health crisis seems to be cropping up. This is not going to change in the future, so
we need to be better in going out to the community to bring people in and show
them what we have to offer. As a board,
we need to get up in the balcony and look at the entire picture. Overall, Larry is mildly encouraged. We need a constant group of people to man the
Welcome Station each week. Ann Hippe is
tremendous at hospitality…. Thanks for all you do and your suggestions. Sue Kaiser remarked that the sanctuary seems
darker. It makes it hard to see pastor
at the pulpit. Larry commented that the
sanctuary is dark, and it is a very challenging sanctuary. The lighting is dated. Mike Fonte commented on Hospitality. Where is the course of action that was
plotted out a few meetings ago? Some of those steps have been put into action
and some of it has been de-railed due to other responsibilities. Teams that we talked about are still a
possibility, but have not happened just yet.
Sue Kaiser offered to volunteer at the Welcome Station on Easter. We need to recognize that we are not where we
want to be, but we DO have a lot of great things happening and have put a lot
of things in action in the last 5 years.
Fred Claus reported that he has been asked to form an IT
team. Vision is to manage all AV
equipment in church. Main point is to do
slides and sound for the service. He
asked for help if anyone knows of anyone that would be willing to help. Slides will be made, just looking for someone
to run.
Fish fry tickets need to be purchased. Please bring family and friends. Fish or chicken fingers with homemade
desserts will be served. The purple felt
crosses are in the vestibule and “just appeared.” Sue questioned where they came from. Nobody seems to know.
Next meeting will be April
15, 2013.
Charlie shared the vision
statement that was developed about 18 months ago.
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Conschafter
No comments:
Post a Comment