Church Council
Meeting
Monday, October 21,
2014
Meeting opened
with unison reading of the TUMC Mission Statement.
Attendees: Larry Baird,
Terri Bellanca, Tom Burkman, Bobbie Cap, Fred Claus, Gail Conschafter, Mike Fonte,
Jan Garrison, Chris Hipp, Charlie Yund, Sherrie Schaus, Sheila Rader
Larry
opened in prayer
God
Sightings: Sherri shared
how her experience in Nicaragua and the fruit of what they are doing is coming
to fruition. Terri Bellanca shared that she saw the end of the rainbow on her
bike ride near the gorge. Mike Fonte shared he went salmon fishing for the
first time. The true God sighting was
that they started fishing and Mike was up to his waste in water. He was there for about four hours and “noticed”
where he was, and was amazed by the beautiful color and sun blazing through the
trees.
Approval Of
Minutes: Motion by Jan
Garrison to approve the minutes from September meeting as presented and read. Seconded by Fred Claus. Unanimously approved.
Larry
reported in regards to the course offered by Adult Ed, the ministerium met and
a letter is going out to the district requesting a course description and will
pursue it until the conclusion. Fred
said when he applied to teach his computer courses, it was quite lengthy and he
is an employee of the district. Larry
has offered to meet with the district to discuss this matter.
Changes to
agenda: none
Calendar of
Events:
Fall Festival October
25 with set up October 24
One Starry Night December 5 – 6
ACE weekend event February
7
Advent Festival December
7
Christmas pageant December
21
Choir Fundraisers (bringing in choir from
outside for concert)
(no
specific dates have been set)***
(proceeds
perhaps to go to organ fund)
Spiritual enrichment dates TBD
Project 5000 November
(Mission Committee is in charge of this event)
Senior Ministries Proposal: Sherri
Shaus reported there is a proposal for a senior ministry team. It has been presented to SPRC. See attachment from Sherri. She believes that the ministry needs to be
done by the people of the church in addition to what she will do. Fred
questioned an idea of “adopt a grandparent.”
Those are the types of things that Sherri is hoping will come from this
“committee.” She has been in discussion
with Abby to include all generations. At this point, we are just looking for
approval. A vote of affirmation was taken and it was unanimously voted to
support the effort.
Pastor’s Report: Church conference is November 15
at 4 PM in Hamburg. Because they needed
another presiding elder, Larry will run another church, and someone else will
run our meeting. We need to pre-approve
items to speed up the process at the meeting.
A correction of the 2015 Leadership is to read the Chair(s) of Lay
Leadership should be Larry/Pastor. Other
corrections on sheet to accompany minutes. Use of building committee do not
need to be voted on, as they report to Trustees. They can be added to the list
as evidence of their hard work. A motion was made by Chris seconded by Bobbie
to pre-approve the Lay Leadership, SPRC and Trustees as presented. Vote taken and passed unanimously.
Discussion on
the audit. (See attached packet) The
auditor was complementary about the way our books are kept. Larry commented that TUMC has more checks and
balances than any other church he has been involved with. This is a good thing. Motion to approve
financial audit by Tom Burkman and seconded by Terri Bellanca. Vote taken and unanimously passed. Discussion on list of inactive members. Letters will be sent and hopefully a response
will follow. The minutes of the last Church charge conference from November
2013 need to be approved. Motion to
approve 2013 Church Charge minutes by Sue Kaiser and seconded by Fred
Claus. Vote taken and passed unanimously. 2015 Pastor’s Compensation was discussed. The
SPRC voted to raise the pastor’s salary by 3%.
The finance committee supports this proposal. Tom Burkman moved the raise increase be
approved, seconded by Bobbie Cap. The salary for the new pastor may be subject
to negotiation. The salary from July 1 –
to December 31, 2014 is tentative. If
there is a change in salary, it must be approved by Finance and Church Council.
Motion of for a full year. The moving
allowance of $3000 is for the new pastor. There is a resolution of $8000 that
Larry can use on income tax as housing allowance. There is no money out of our pocket for
this. A vote on the entire compensation
was taken. Approved unanimously. Larry
stated that it seemed to find people to serve was very easy and the attitude is
very positive. Larry will not be retired until the cabinet approves it. TUMC
will be immediately addressed for appointment.
Hopefully by the end of January, there may be a recommended appointment
presented to TUMC. The profile will be
reported on later in the meeting. We may
meet the candidate early in the upcoming year.
Finance: In September the General Fund had income of
$23.7k and expenses of $29.6k. Year to date giving is $246.1k and expenses $255.5k.
Since we started the year with $7.6k in the GF, we have a
negative $1.8k balance. To date we have paid $21.4k of our annual
$46.6k apportionments commitment.
Our Giving
forecast software estimates our year-end GF giving will be about $355k, which
should permit us to fulfill them.
The Staff Parish
Relations Committee has asked to increase Pastorial support by $2318 in 2015,
which represents a 3% salary for the Pastor along with a modest increase in his
healthcare support. The Finance Committee did not get this request in
time for our monthly meeting, but it has been our historic practice to support
requests of this type and thus I recommend it to the Church Council.
SPRC: Tom reported The SPRC is recommended the staff that have
been employeed over 1 year receive a 1% raise. Music Director, supt building
grounds, custodian set up manager, and one other are those that fit into that
category. Church profile is now a 10
page document that has been revised over the past month. It is a very detailed document. The profile
will be available his week and those reading it will asked to respond within a week. The document then needs to be presented
to Conference. We have recommended to conference we receive a pastor that is
able to stay with us longer than our last three pastors. (This would require the pastor to be younger
than the last two of three pastors) As reported by committee:
The SPRC is in the
process of revising and updating the Church Profile for use by the Conference
in the appointment of a successor to our Pastor Baird. Copies of the updated draft will be available
for congregation at the Information Table on Sunday, October 26. Attached will be a form on which members can
submit suggestions for the strengthening of the document. This form should be submitted in the box on
the door of the church office. Members
of the Church Council are urged to take seriously this opportunity to have
meaningful input into the transition process.
At its October 6 meeting, the SPRC recommended to the Finance Committee
staff salary raises for 2015.
The SPRC commends Sherri Schaus and her proposal for increased lay
leadership in the Senior Adult Ministries program.
The church is in the process of seeking persons to fill these positions:
1)
Bookkeeper. Volunteer(s) that will serve all or part of
the year.
2)
A set-up person to open and close
the church on Sunday mornings and do snow removal from entrances. Terri suggested the wording be changed to separate the two duties.
There may be a better response if the two are separated and it be taken by two
different people.
The SPRC takes note of, and gives thanks for, the fact that all three of
our worship venues are well established and growing.
Committee
Reports:
Mike
Fonte shared the attendance reports. Numbers
for early service and traditional service are up, and Contemporary service is
steady.
Charlie
senses we have fewer children, which is typical with a new hire. It will take a few months to re-build. We are hoping Julie and Abby get our support
and advisement to keep it positive.
Sherri
and Alice have updated the website a bit.
The Children and Youth tab has been renamed to Age Related
Ministries. Please pray for the workshop
that is upcoming next Monday evening. In
an effort to help people feel more comfort about praying with others, it will
be discussed at the workshop. Monday,
October 27 at 7 PM in the lounge at TUMC.
Music/Fall
Festival: In
good shape for this event. Betsy Tranter
is going out of town for a funeral and is charge of Baked goods. Paul is looking for someone to take over the
pricing of the baked goods for Friday night and Saturday morning. There are still some slots to be filled:
bussing tables after 1:30. Auction
roamers are still needed. Greeters from 3 to 4 are still needed. Fred offered to take a shift. There may be a need for more trunk or treat
cars. Candy is most likely needed. If
anyone has a basket to donate, they are still being accepted. A question was
asked if the information table will be staffed, and Sheila is taken care of
that.
There
will be no need to meet as we will be at the Church Charge Conference on
November 15. Carpooling… meet here at
3:15 in the parking lot.
Sheila
reported One Starry Night is in progress.
Set up to organize will be November 15 from 9 to noon. Concern about Advent festival is the day
after One Starry Night. This is a lot for the kids to do!
Larry
reported he was encouraged by the attendance report. A new conference center is being purchased in
Liverpool – no longer in University Church. This is a major improvement for
handicap accessibility and parking. This
will have a missions portion to it. (A
good ministry tool.) The resource center
and archives are also going to be moved to this location.
Bobbie
questioned the 150 Anniversary plan. We
are still looking for volunteers. People
are giving Larry information about our church.
Larry would like to get officially started on this after the first of
the year.
Closing
prayer by Larry.
Meeting
adjourned at 8:50 PM
Respectfully
submitted,
Gail
Conschafter
