Council

June 19, 2008

Present: Matt Brucker, Dan Cummings, Sally Sutton , Sally Hinckley, Chris Dow, John McCall, Stan Jordan, Nancy Maclean, Phil Whitney, Jean Siulinski, Carol Zechman, Shirley Curry, Ellie Chatto, Chris Keiter

Not Present: Paul Gray, Deb Andrews, Dave Allen, Elsa Peters

1) Nancy provided opening prayer.

2) Review of Agenda and Approve Minutes.
Dan presented agenda, addition requested for discussion of Council opening.
Dan asked for any comments, acceptance of revised minutes that were distributed, they are approved.

3) Ministers’ Time
John McCall. Elsa Peters is on way to New York for her Grandfather’s memorial service and we send our prayers with her.

In our last meeting Council approved a building space use by George Pressley. John found out the next day that other members of the church staff were not as comfortable as he presumed, as he had inferred that there was energy and interest that it turns out may not have been there. Three different staff members expressed concerns about scheduling and building use and potential conflicts with office equipment use, room usage etc.

John McCall has contacted Mr. Pressley and explained how and why we were choosing to not move ahead in sharing space. Mr. Pressley expressed that he understood, had other options to explore and that he thanked us for our consideration and contacting us to clarify the situation so quickly.

4) Personnel Recommendations
Ellie Chatto was present to talk about the Youth Ministry position.
Aaron French, a 1st year student at Bangor Seminary in Portland, applied for Kim Early’s Sunday School Coordinator position and has experience with Youth Ministry. Elsa would like to focus on Sunday School, working with the teachers and curriculum. That would allow Aaron to focus on the older than Sunday School kids, i.e. Youth Ministry. The Personnel committee has approved him as their choice. He will be here at least 2 ½ years more as a full time student. Aaron has a degree in Classics and has taught Religion classes. Discussion around how this changes Elsa’s job description. John talked about the fact that there are three pieces of this proposal
A. Revise Elsa’s job description to include Sunday School and remove Youth Ministry
B. Approve/be aware of the readiness of the Personnel committee to move forward and hire Aaron French
C. Authorize Ellie to complete and sign an employment agreement with Aaron French to start in late August and to be compensated a base salary of $9,000 year.

The impact of having Elsa as the Sunday School leader is that we would move Christ Kids Club from the first week of the month to the last week of the month to ensure her presence at the communion service. It would also require some additional lay speakers.

5) Chancel Project
Chris Keiter presented an update on the project. Funding of the project was reviewed first. We had previously stated that the project was estimated to be around $50,000. $2,000 from Music Fund. $4,000 from North Church Memorial Fund. Fundraising and sale of unused choir pews would contribute as much as has been raised by July 15th. Unrestricted Endowments would fund the balance, as needed.

The last source of funding that was considered was the Organ Maintenance Fund for about $7,000. Shirley Curry was present and shared that she is concerned that this was not the intended use of that fund. The bottom line from Shirley’s perspective is that we should not touch these funds for a new capital project thus compromising our flexibility to conduct organ maintenance and repairs in a timely manner.

Chris Keiter talked about how not drawing upon the Organ Maintenance Fund increases the Unrestricted Endowments funds that would be drawn upon by an additional $7,000. This would reduce the annual operating expense budget by 3% times the $7,000, or $210 per year. The Council agreed that we will not be using funds from the Organ Maintenance Fund for this project.

Fundraising has been slow. Chris asked Cyndi how much has been received and she stated $500. It has been placed in the Beacon the last three times. There was discussion about conducting a separate mailing. We agreed to send a separate mailing that may stand out more than a paragraph in the Beacon.

6) Council Operations

a. Bylaws : Next Steps
There was some discussion around how “finalized” are the bylaws and do we need to meet again with a 2nd workshop to work through some additional language issues and content changes. There was consensus that there does not appear to be a great deal of urgency in delivering this to the congregation. However, there may be concerns about the Council losing memory around what has been done and having to regain momentum. Dan will send out possible dates for a special meeting in July and we will seek to maximize attendance by coordinating calendars.

There is no regularly scheduled Council meeting in July or August.

b. Choose Moderator/Vice Moderator
Floor was open to discussion around options. Chris Keiter was raised as a possible Moderator candidate effective immediately. Chris agreed to accept the position. Carol Zechmann volunteered as the Vice Moderator. There was consensus agreement of these choices by the Council.

c. Other Business
Council Vacancy

1. We have 11 of our 12 openings full. We have had a member withdraw themselves from Council. The group generally commented that they would like to fill the 12th spot. Chris Keiter reviewed the list of current Council members to refresh members.

2. Some names were suggested to fill the vacancy. Some discussion around having another male member to provide some gender balance with Paul Gray, Dan Cummings and Stan Jordan going off of the Council. Chris Keiter will approach a candidate, and if that doesn’t pan out, Chris agreed to correspond with Barbara and to distribute a list of all new member males that have joined in the last two years and to have some email discussion.

Respectfully submitted by Matt Brucker