November 20, 2013 Present: John Canellakis, Owen


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St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church Vestry Meeting Minutes-November 20, 2013 Present: John Canellakis, Owen Donley, Candy Fowler, the Rev. Kurt Gerhard, Amy Graham, Jocelyn Brown Hall, Charlie Johnson III, Janet Lee, Garrett Lowe, Marilyn Nowalk, Jay Sommerkamp, Patrick Steel, Martin Teel, the Rev. Loren Lasch, Steven Balke, Dorian del Priore. Absent: Carrie Anderson, Josh Firebaugh John Canellakis provided dinner. Garrett Lowe led the prayers. The meeting began at 7 PM with a quorum present. 1. October Minutes: The minutes of the October meeting were approved with minor corrections. 2. Annual Meeting: Kurt Gerhard reported that the nominating committee’s slate of candidates for officers and vestry was elected at the annual meeting, with no nominations from the floor. 3. Stewardship: In Josh Firebaugh’s absence, Kurt Gerhard reported that 80 pledges were in on Sunday, Nov 17, including 30 pledges new that day; total pledges for 2013 were 140. Sixty percent of Vestry members have pledged; Kurt hopes that total will increase soon. Before Nov. 17 the total of new and increased pledges to be matched by an anonymous donor was at $11,000. Josh and Tricia Duncan are planning to begin email and phone contacts soon. 4. Cleveland Resolution: Charlie Johnson III explained how Cleveland has been an important part of the school community as well as the church community; as he must retire for health reasons it was important to honor him on Episcopal Schools Sunday so that both communities would be well represented. Charlie asks the Vestry to adopt a resolution thanking Cleveland for his service, and two plaques will be made—one to be presented to Cleveland and one to hang in the church. The resolution was unanimously approved. 5. Clergy Housing Allowances: Under tax laws, the clergy designate a portion of their existing compensation as housing allowance; these designations must be approved by the Vestry. Housing allowances for 2014 of $36,000 for the Reverend Amy Yount, $35,000 for the Reverend Dr. Janet Whaley Zimmerman, and $40,000 for the Reverend Kurt Gerhard were unanimously approved. 6. Outreach Resolutions: Marilyn Nowalk asked the Vestry to approve resolutions authorizing specific fundraising efforts to benefit outreach ministries, including a Dec. 2013 bake sale, a solicitation of cash and in-kind donations for St. Philip’s Christmas Dinner Bags, and a Nov. 24 jewelry sale for the benefit of St. Etienne, Haiti. All three resolutions were unanimously approved.

7. Newcomers: Kurt Gerhard provided information shared by Bishop Mariann Budde from her church in Minneapolis. They offered a newcomers’ curriculum taught by clergy and lay parishioners 3-4 times a year. It was a four week series about what it meant to be Christian and an Episcopalian in that particular church; the group met sometimes at church and sometimes in people’s homes. At the end of the series there would be a liturgical moment in the service receiving people into the parish. It can work well for existing parishioners to participate in these classes/liturgies as well as newcomers, to model making a public commitment to the parish. Garrett Lowe said it would be important to offer these at a variety of times, and Amy Graham suggested offering child care. Martin suggested that a program like this be one route to membership, but not the only one. Bishop Mariann also emphasized the importance of gathering people who have the gift of building relationships and involving them in receiving guests. “Guests” strikes the right note in the beginning, rather than “visitors” or “new people.” Kurt would like to involve the Vestry in making the church hospitable and to work with a Vestry subgroup to develop a program to help assimilate people. Garrett Lowe agreed that “guest” is a good designation, because guests are not expected to do anything yet—these expectations develop as people become ready to make a commitment. Patrick Steel asked about whether the Bishop had spoken about the possible role of the school in bringing people into the church. Discussion ensued in which various people noted that there has been sensitivity about extending invitations to the school community to attend church activities for fear it will seem like pressure. Loren Lasch said a school where she previously worked had similar issues—it can be challenging to make people feel they are welcome at the church without making them worry that they will be disapproved of if they don’t attend services at the church. Kurt noted that the church has tried to encourage the school to provide more information about church activities and services in its communications, but this has not happened. Several people agreed that such communications, correctly phrased, are appropriate, and that efforts to discuss this with school personnel should continue. Loren added that Vestry members can take opportunities to discuss the church and its activities in individual communications with school parents, and that these individual discussions may be more influential than formal messages. 8. Mission Statement. Candy Fowler presented the draft mission statement developed by the working group including Owen Donley, Jocelyn Brown Hall, CJIII, and Garrett Lowe as well as Candy. This statement was not been formally voted on by the working group, but all group members think it is an appropriate vehicle for Vestry discussion. Vestry members agreed that the word “progressive” was unclear and should be deleted. The language of the last phrases referring to the parish’s commitment to children was discussed and new language suggested, along with a couple of other small changes. The Vestry asked Candy to prepare a clean draft for consideration at the next meeting. 9. Pledge Collection 2013. Jay Sommerkamp reported that collected pledges are well short of the $543,000 pledged for 2013, with over $200,000 still to collect. Typically we end up with 9798% of pledges collected, though last year we reached 101%. We are currently about $30,000 lower than last year at this time. Kurt noted that Karen Melchar will be sending out statements soon; this is the time of year we usually collect a lot of money. Marilyn Nowalk said that, once

the church finishes moving its banking to Wells Fargo, we will encourage people to sign up for automatic monthly pledge payments. 10. Audit Committee Report. Kurt noted that next month the Vestry will ratify the audit after the Day School Board has approved its portion. This was an initial transition year to a new system and there have been a couple of resulting issues. At the same time we had a staff transition to our new bookkeeper, Warren O’Hearn; he did not have much time to prepare but did discover that some things had not been done correctly in the past. And the school-church situation is complex even for a bookkeeper with extensive church experience. As a result, there were $10,000 in extra auditors’ charges based on tasks claimed to be out of scope; the church staff will explore this issue further with the auditors. The draft audit is clean, though there are some management recommendations, including one that the church should improve its process for year-end cash to accrual conversion and another that journal entries be reviewed by someone other than the accountant/bookkeeper who made them. The audit committee has recommended that cash to accrual conversions be made quarterly, that Terry Armstrong and Jay Sommerkamp provide periodic oversight of school and church bookkeeping, reporting to Kurt Gerhard, and that there be a formalized audit pre-planning process. These recommendations have been referred to Terry Armstrong, who is considering them. Kurt reported that he has asked incoming Vestry member Dan Bourque to replace John Canellakis on the audit committee. John said that Dan has already attended a meeting and is up to speed on the issues. He noted that he provided detailed guidelines for school and church bookkeeping staff last year but the staff themselves need to take ownership of the process. 11. Reports. Patrick Steel gave the Day School report. The Day School Board has received, but not completed review of, a draft 2014-15 budget that will be coming to the Vestry for ratification next month. This year’s budget proposes a 3% tuition increase; last year’s increase was 2.5%. Historically, tuition increases have been in this range, which is generally below that of comparable schools. Though tuition increases are not aggressive, it becomes harder every year for middle class families to enroll their children. Marilyn Nowalk asked whether the Board discussed the fact that traditionally the school has been budgeting for a smaller number of children than actually attend the school. Patrick noted that this year there will be a substantial surplus, close to $1 million; they will take the tuition budget estimate up next year to avoid running a similar surplus. The tuition question is closely tied to faculty salaries; the school is committed to keeping teacher pay rates in the top third of comparable/competing schools. Without a tuition increase next year, there will likely be a deficit. This is even more true because next year’s sixth grade class is small compared to this year’s. Asked what might be done with this year’s surplus, Patrick noted the need to attend to some physical plant issues that have been underfunded. Discussion followed about the role of the Vestry here; Kurt noted that the Vestry is to ratify the budget, not to micromanage the details. Marilyn Nowalk asked why the Vestry could not get copies of the draft budget, as well as some input from Terry Armstrong, the month before having to ratify the budget, rather than in the same meeting. Kurt asked that a copy of the draft budget be circulated to Vestry members by email; CJIII noted that since it has not yet been approved by the Day School Board, Vestry members who are school parents could make their views known to the Board in advance of the vote.

Marilyn Nowalk asked whether minutes of Day School Board meetings could be circulated to Vestry members after they are approved; Patrick Steel will check on this. Rector’s Report: Kurt referred to his written report and also noted that the nave lighting project is underway. Assistant Rector’s Report: Loren Lasch said she is working on the Christmas pageant and would welcome help from anyone interested. She noted that Karen Melchar did not include in her Parish Administrator’s report the many hours she has spent helping Claudia Hill; Adele Lynch has been similarly busy helping Mary Grace. She asked Vestry members to thank them for their efforts. Jocelyn Brown Hall suggested that we should do more to get more people involved in pastoral care; Loren responded that some parishes have a pastoral care team, and St. Patrick’s could look into that. After celebration of the Eucharist, the meeting adjourned at 8:59 PM. Respectfully submitted,

Candy Fowler Clerk