Church Council

Meeting Minutes of February 17, 2011
Recorder: Bob Morse

Present: Roger Addor, Matt Early, Andy Ellis, Sally Hinckley, Nancy MacLean, John McCall, Bob Morse, Carl Murphy, Peggy Murray, Robin Reinhold, John Shoos, Carrie Skeffington, & Phil Whitney.
Absent: Elsa Peters
Guests: Rick Angell & Stan Jordan

Nancy MacLean, Moderator, opened the meeting at 6:35 p.m. Bob Morse read a reflection questioning whether meaning and enjoyment in life can be found solely by keeping score.

January Minutes: Reviewed and Accepted.

Usher Emergency Guidelines: Reviewed a draft created by Rick Angell and Stan Jordan.

Broad areas: Fire Emergencies, Medical Emergencies and Security Emergencies.

Guidelines to be simple and streamlined so usher can readily see them.
• A laminated copy will be located at the back of the church for ushers.
• Not necessary to post on wall anywhere

Concern: There is nothing about the Sunday School in these Guidelines.
• Evacuation drawings no longer located in each room. Important to replace them - refer to Admin Team.
• Teachers are given "fire drill" guidelines - they lead children to parking lots.
• Parents need to be informed that they are not to go to classrooms.
- If a parent removes a child, the child’s teacher or emergency personnel may have no idea where that child is.
• Concern that rotating parents in the nursery have never been given instruction on what to do in case of fire. They need to be informed.
• Question: Do Fire drill guidelines go to parents? Just to teachers?

Editorial suggestion for Usher Guidelines:
• Decision: Reference to separate Sunday School Guidelines needs to be added to Usher Emergency Guidelines near the bottom. " See separate guidelines for the Church School".
• Add a set to Actions by Ushers: Notify Worship Leader that a problem exists if they are not in a position to see it.

Suggestion to identify ENTs and doctors in advance who might be in church when a medical emergency with a parishioner occurs.
• Reflection about possibility of training some members in CPR.

If the church loses electrical power:
• Does the fire alarm system have a battery back-up? Yes. Who checks it? How often?
• If a cell phone were used to dial 911, would it be possible to know where the person calling is located? Yes. South Portland has a GPS system for just that reason.
• If people were in the church elevator, could they get out? Need to mark where key is located.

With power, would someone be able to successfully operate the church telephone?
• Suggestion that instructions need to be placed on each phone on how to use them for emergencies. Refer to Admin Team for signage.

Thanks and appreciation given to both Rick Angell and Stan Jordan for their excellent work with these Emergency Guidelines. Stan will prepare another draft incorporating suggestions.

Web Page: John McCall reported that work for the past three weeks has been intensive with a goal of working out every bug. It is very intuitive, adaptable, and flows well. It should be ‘live’ on Monday, February 21. Possibility of demonstration at some time in Davidson Lounge to show how it works.

Scholarship Committee: They have done excellent work. Council unanimously agreed that special approval is not needed for Committee to request donations to the Scholarship Funds.

Budget Adjustment: Nancy Foran will be taking a Sabbatical from mid-June to mid-October, and will not be paid for her Sabbatical. However, one month of the four months is her vacation, for which she will be paid ($474.25). There was a mix-up in the budget. It will not be changed to reflect the additional vacation payment: we will simply be aware of this over-ride at the end of the year.

UCC Conversation, Part I: At the Council’s request, John McCall shared a diagram of “The Covenant Partners in the United Church of Christ” - individual, local, state, national. Emphasis was placed on the importance of covenant, since lack of hierarchy might suggest we can do whatever we want, thus losing track of meaningful relationships within the larger UCC. “Our glue is covenant.” We make mutual promises to each other, and hold each other “gently accountable.” John talked about the UCC as the merging of 4 historical denominations, but emphasized this does not change the reality that each church remains autonomous.

Financial Futuring:
Questions:
• How do we manage to live with a limited amount of money and do everything that we want to do?
• How do we fund what we want to be as a church?
• How do we apportion our resources? How do we decide to do that?

Realities and Questions:
• Membership trends are down in progressive protestant churches.
• Who will be in the pew in 2015, and how will they be supporting the church?
• We need to be thinking of the long-term. What is a realistic change in our income in the next five years?

Defining Role of a Working Group to be set up to consider facts and trends:
• Financial forecasting through fact gathering from similar churches
- Percentage of staff compensation.
- Percentage of budget for mission outreach.
- Personnel Committees and what they deal with.
• May find reluctance to share, protectiveness, and a level of resistance.
• Will quite certainly be a need to look outside Maine for comparisons and trends.
• What about alternative worship services? How do we attract new members to the church?
• How to we think about and look into the possibility of renting out more space?
• Possible exploration: Tolerance for a congregation to spend money from endowment
• What time line are we thinking about for this to take place? December 2011 for the 2012 Budget year; AND 2015 long term.

Need for sharp focus on what we are asking the Working Group to do -- a Mission Statement.
• John McCall and Nancy MacLean will meet to prepare a draft for the next meeting.

Gratitude and Appreciation: Nancy passed around a thank-you card from three Harle siblings for financial support which enabled them to attend camp at Pilgrim Lodge.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:30 p.m.

Next Meeting: March 17; Robin Reinhold - Opener/Recorder