Church Council

Meeting Minutes of March 18, 2010

Present: Bob Morse, Nancy MacLean, John McCall, Chris Keiter, Phil Whitney, Roger Addor, Carrie Skeffington, Matt Early, Debra Andrews, Sally Hinckley, Elsa Peters, Andy Ellis and Chris Dow.

Chris Keiter convened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Chris Dow opened with two readings by Ann Weems followed by prayer.

The February minutes were reviewed and accepted.

Minister’s Time:
- Elsa attended an interfaith gathering sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland on the healthcare crisis.
- John announced that Rev. Larry Greer will be the guest preacher at both services on Sunday, March 21st.

Discussion on article “From Stressed to Blessed”:
- Elsa asked the council to read this article in January and she asked us what we thought was being accomplished through the current volunteer ministry of the congregation.
- Responses included church community engagement, Habitat for Humanity, mentors for confirmation, church school teachers, YM volunteers and soup kitchen. In essence, a tremendous amount of work is accomplished by our volunteer ministry.
- Other key points made were the secular culture is changing and that affects church culture.
- The new governance structure was designed so the teams would not be doing all the work. However, that is not the case in some instances.
- We have a low expectation for church membership qualifications which is working against us when it comes to volunteerism.
- Frustration exists with some of the teams having to fill the vacancies on their teams due to the absence of a nominating committee.
- Ideas for helping the teams engage members included utitilization of perhaps a revised Participation Form, new member dinners, announcements in worship, Beacon articles and most importantly personal outreach.
- Discussion will continue next month and hopefully we will have Dave Allen’s input from the Growth Group as we develop an action plan.

Church Vision:
- Elsa reported 80 responses to date on the survey questions according to Survey Monkey.
- The Committee on Vision will meet again after April 5th.
- The council asked Elsa to send out the Survey Monkey link again to the congregation.

Pilgrim Lodge Camperships:
- Elsa told us Pilgrim Lodge camperships are funded by $850.00 from the Holly Daze Bazaar and segregated funds.
- The council agreed that camperships would be available to both children and adults.
- Through Beacon articles and announcements in church, we will encourage those wanting assistance with funding to let us know.
- The church will solicit members of the congregation to help with camperships via the Beacon.

Filling EG&F Vacancy:
- Jennifer Fetting was approved to fill a vacancy on the EG& F Team.

Schools on Wheels Fundraising:
- Maureen Clancy, a member of the Mission Outreach Team submitted a request to the council for a fundraising activity ($500 to $1000 to benefit the Schools on Wheels Project sponsored by the Azande Organization).
- Council decided we didn’t have enough information to make a decision on this. Chris K. will get more details and communicate with each of us by E-Mail.

Check-in with Teams and Committees:
- The question was raised as to whether the council thought there was any benefit to having a meeting with the council and the teams.
- It was decided that the council should make the option available to the teams. Chris K. will be in touch with the teams.

Website Update:
- John reported that the committee working on the re-design of the church’s website has narrowed the choice down to two providers. These providers differ somewhat in the tools they recommend. The committee will meet with them before making a selection.

More Comprehensive Church Budget:
- Chris K. reported on the meeting on having a more comprehensive church budget.
- A sample budget was circulated showing what a comprehensive budget might look like.
- The point was made that the reason for including these other groups with the church budget (Holly Daze Bazaar, Community Crisis Ministries, Discovery Center and Investment Oversight) was for transparency and awareness, not for control.
- Consensus was that this was a good idea but should be reports instead of budgets for the other groups and might be more appropriately titled “Proposed Church Budget and Financial Reports”

Fundraising Activities:
- Report of the subcommittee on fundraising was distributed.
- A variety of fundraising activities were discussed.
- Decided to table further discussion until next month.

Adjourned: 8:32 p.m.
Recorder: Chris Dow