September 2007
CHRIST CHURCH EPISCOPAL
VESTRY MEETING AGENDA
SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
6:00 Holy Eucharist
6:45 Dinner – David Soule
7:00 Approval of August Minutes
7:05 Application for Candidacy for Nedra Voorhies – Ted Susac
7:10 Financial Report – Dave Wasik
7:20 Preschool Report – Kathy Guin
7:35 Fundraiser Request – Mary Ann Cooley
7:45 Subsidies Policy– John Napier
8:05 Project Update – Mike Bucci
8:15 Youth Ministry Institute Update – Paul Johnson
8:20 Dessert Presentations – Paul Johnson
8:35 Music Minister Request – Paul Johnson
8:45 Budget Priorities – Paul Johnson
9:00 Building Update – David Guin
9:10 Executive Session
Christ Church Episcopal
Vestry Meeting Minutes
September 19, 2007
Members in Attendance
Karen Akens, Jr. Warden, Pam Board, Mike Bucci, Kathy Guin, John Napier, Shelley Putney, Ted Susac, David Wasik, Lilly Andrews, Sr. Warden, Mary Ann Cooley, David Soule, Ken Royston
Staff in Attendance
Paul Johnson, Hillary West
Guests in Attendance
Elaine Champion, Jonathan Hawes, Jim Heck, and Addison Jones, members of the Stewardship Ministry Team, were present for Holy Eucharist and dinner. During Eucharist, Vestry members and Stewardship Team members turned in their pledge cards for 2008. Nedra Voorhies was also present for Eucharist and dinner.
Approval of Minutes
A copy of the August 15, 2007 minutes was distributed prior to the meeting for review and comments. A motion was made to accept the August 15, 2007 minutes. The motion was seconded and carried.
Application for Candidacy for Nedra Voohrhies
Paul welcomed Nedra Voorhies. Paul reviewed the discernment process Nedra has followed up to this point. A discernment committee and Paul endorsed Nedra’s call to ministry and the Vestry approved it back in October 2006. Nedra has been before the Commission on Priesthood and was sent to the Bishop who gave the okay for Postulancy. Nedra is now a candidate for Holy Orders and the Vestry must now approve her going forward from this point.
Nedra stated that she attended classes at VTS this year and did an internship this summer at Emmanuel Church. She stated that the internship was a good experience. Nedra told Vestry that she is a Chaplain at Bon Secours Hospital and has a lot of experience as a pastoral counselor. She would like to have more church experience. Nedra told Vestry that the candidacy date is October 12th.
Mike asked Paul what would prevent Vestry from supporting Nedra further. Paul stated that if a person did not follow the Bishop’s request or maybe didn’t feel the call to become a Priest anymore, that those would be reasons not to support someone.
Mike asked Nedra if she has any concerns.
Nedra stated that she would have like to stay at VTS and not have to work, but otherwise no concerns.
Ted, who was on Nedra’s discernment committee, stated that Nedra is more qualified than most people at this stage of the process.
Lilly asked about the next step in the process.
Nedra stated that October 12th is the next step then General Ordination exams are the first week of January. After exams, another physical, background check, psychological exam, and marriage check. Paul stated that there will also be Deaconal interviews. Nedra stated that she may be ordained to the Deaconate in June and six months later to the Priesthood.
Ted stated that Vestry needs to sign a letter of support and Mary Ann to certify that we are Vestry members. Ted distributed a Vestry Certificate for Candidacy stating Vestry’s support of Nedra’s candidacy for review.
Paul asked Nedra to please leave the room while Vestry made their decision.
A motion was made to endorse Nedra’s candidacy and to sign a letter of support for Nedra. The motion was seconded and carried.
Nedra returned to the meeting and was congratulated by the Vestry.
At this time the meeting was briefly interrupted for dinner. Following dinner all guests left the meeting.
Financial Report
Prior to the meeting, financial reports were distributed for review.
Dave W. stated that year to date there is a surplus of nearly $32K vs. budgeted deficit of over $67K. Less than budgeted spending for staff salaries and timing of outreach expenses are driving a $87K year to date favorable expense variance. Dave W. stated that for the month of August, general revenue was $29K unfavorable to budget, with $68K revenue falling short of the $97K budget.
Dave W. stated that for August, general expenses were $17K favorable to budget, driven by staff vacancies and youth ministry timing of spending. He stated that salary and benefits were $8300 favorable to budget, driven by staff vacancies. Dave W. stated that Children’s Ministry was unfavorable to forecast for the month, but significantly favorable for the year and that Building and Grounds were slightly unfavorable to budget, driven by security system repair costs.
Dave W. stated that we paid $78K from the Capital Fund for the Parking Lot Expansion in August.
Dave W. stated that cash balance at the end of August was $286K, representing three months’ worth of typical operating expenses.
Dave W. stated that he requested clarity from Paul and the Vestry on what we should do with estate gifts from earlier this year. Paul indicated that based on his conversations with the family, the money should be set aside for special purposes. The Vestry approved this recommendation.
Dave W. provided Vestry with a budget timeline reminder as follows:
Sept. 10th – Budget packets were sent out to Ministry teams
Sept. 24th – Budget Summit at 7:00pm in the ed buiding
Oct. 22nd – Budgets due
Nov. 11th – Review with Finance Team
Nov. 14th – Budget presentation to Vestry
Dave W. stated that the part-time analyst hiring is coming along well, they are in the process of interviewing.
Dave W. told Vestry that the preschool is thriving and he asked if we should be looking at getting the preschool more financially independent.
Mike stated that the preschool needed support from CCE in the beginning, especially with bookkeeping, and once the preschool is making cash, they should contribute to the church’s general fund.
Kathy stated that there needed to be one tax I.D. for the church and preschool. The preschool has a new part time bookkeeper, and the payroll has now shifted over to the preschool.
Dave W. and Kathy plan to follow up with these considerations.
David S. asked for Finance team recommendations regarding these items.
Hillary stated that the preschool was given a three year start up process in which to grow and become more independent.
Kathy stated that the preschool offers scholarships and are being good stewards of what they have.
Dave W. stated that he would follow up with Kathy about these financial considerations.
A motion was made to accept the financial report. The motion was seconded and carried.
Preschool Report
Kathy reported that a part time bookkeeper has started and is working with the treasurer to move the preschool payroll. She stated that next month there will be two sets of financials because of timing.
Kathy stated that there have been conversations about shared space, and everyone is embracing and in support of it. She stated that Children’s Ministry Team offered the preschool storage space, and that all leaders are working well with this.
Kathy told Vestry that a child with special needs will begin preschool on Monday.
Materials Timeline
Mary Ann stated that materials for Vestry meetings are getting to her later each month, and it is preferred that materials go out by close of business on Fridays before the Vestry meeting. After some discussion Vestry agreed to get reports in by Thursday the week before a meeting, and Mary Ann will distribute materials by the Friday evening before the next Vestry meeting.
Fundraiser Requests
Prior to the meeting two fundraiser requests were distributed for review.
Mary Ann presented a fundraiser request from the church cub scout pack to sell popcorn the weekends of Sept.29-30, and Oct. 6-7. Mary Ann stated that the church calendar is open those weekends, and there are no other fundraisers going on at that time.
A motion was made to approve the fundraiser application from the cub scout pack. The motion was seconded and carried.
Kathy stated that the preschool would like to show the movie “Facing the Giants” as a fundraiser on Oct. 13th at 7:00pm. The preschool did this last year and it was a success and the costs are already covered for this year.
A motion was made to approve the fundraiser request from the preschool. The motion was seconded and carried.
Subsidies Policy
Prior to the meeting a “Meals, Gifts, and Subsidies Policy” was distributed for review. John read the policy to Vestry and explained that the policy was written in an attempt to clarify when general offerings can be used for meals, gifts, and subsidies.
Kathy stated that she thinks it would be a good idea to get input from the various ministry teams and staff about this.
Karen stated that the budget summit is next week and we want to have guidelines in place prior to writing the budget. Karen stated that each ministry team should have line items in their budget specific to scholarships, subsidies, and meals, and that Vestry should get the details of these items.
David S. asked what are the basic stewardship guidelines and when is something considered scholarship.
John stated that the Missions Team did not subsidize from the Vestry budget last year, but from fundraisers and without any fundraisers being planned this year, there may be no money at all to subsidize those going on Mission trips.
Paul stated that the Missions Team has not yet made a decision on fundraisers.
David S. asked in terms of budget, when do we need to have this policy in place?
The answer was that a policy is needed for the finance team to convey to the ministry teams Sept. 24th.
Dave W. stated that he thinks scholarships feel like outreach. He also stated that we should maybe approve a Youth Ministry allowance, for example, and the accountability starts and ends with Jake.
Lilly stated that she thinks we are talking about three areas: Ministry Teams and their expenses, Ministry Teams run by staff for which they should be trusted to spend as they see fit, and trips. Lilly asked Vestry, “What message do we want to send to the Ministry Teams?”
John stated that we are looking for consistencies.
Mike thinks we should ask the Ministry Teams for information on how they plan on spending their money.
Ted asked for a definition of subsidy and scholarship. Paul stated that a subsidy defrays the cost of something like a trip, and a scholarship is given on a needs basis.
Paul stated that the Ministry Teams need to present their budgets and tell Vestry how they are going to spend their money, and that a final policy is not needed tonight.
John stated that some members of the congregation want to go on mission trips but just cannot afford it.
Ken stated that he does not want to micromanage budgets, and that he trusts the staff to spend money appropriately. Ken stated that we have a good operating definition of scholarship and subsidy for the budget summit Monday night, and he thinks it is a good idea to ask the Ministry Team leaders to explain their needs.
Vestry discussed and agreed that when presenting their budget, each ministry team should spell out their proposed expenses for gifts, meals, and any other extras in a separate listing from the “bare bones” budget.
Paul stated that we have enough information to do what needs to be done Monday night, and that no vote is needed on this now. Vestry agreed and moved on to the next agenda item.
Project Update
Mike distributed a handout with parking lot information and description of Building and Grounds needs.
Mike stated that the asphalt is on schedule for October and that the dumpster will be delivered in October. He reported that they are finalizing lighting and landscaping with the county, and that they are staying on budget.
Mike reported that there has been a lot of trouble with the alarm system, especially with lightning strikes, and the alarm company is not able to fix it. He stated that a fiber optic cable should be installed between the education building, office, and Worship building, and the cost will be approximately $6,000.
Mike stated that Buildings and Grounds also looked into some technology improvements and carpet installation costs that could be part of the operating budget.
Mike reported that the Buildings and Grounds Team has assessed the Milling Area and has suggestions on how to improve the Milling Area for Worship. He stated that the goal of this improvement is to reduce noise and improve overall Worship experience in the Milling Area while waiting for longer term improvements to occur. The Buildings and Grounds team recommends creating dual doors between the Milling Area and the parlor and nursery, moving the water fountain and door to the kitchen in order to eliminate some of the noise. Mike stated that the minimal cost of these improvements would be $5,000-$7,000.
Karen asked Mike if the Buildings and Grounds Team had spoken to the building steering committee. Mike said that they had and were told that it would be a long time before any long term construction would be done. Mike stated that the proposed improvements could be done in a very short amount of time.
Paul asked what is being asked of Vestry tonight, and Mike said nothing.
Lilly asked if these improvements would come from the operating budget, and Mike said that yes, anything under $5,000 should come from the Buildings and Grounds budget.
Mike reported that he spoke to Todd Borden who said that he does not know when the county might approve the sewer work, and just hopes it will happen this year.
Mike stated that there are some capital improvements such exterior and interior painting, sidewalk resurfacing, phone system improvement, and creation of a communications closet that should coincide with the building of the Parish Life Center.
Building Update
Vestry welcomed David Guin to the meeting.
David G. reported that the Building Team found an attorney to look at the contract from the architect and he expects a resolution early next week.
David G. stated that the building team has explored doing sanctuary work with Charles Piper. He also reported that an extension was made to the hourly master plan contract that we had with Charles at no additional cost in order to move ahead, pending approval of the architect’s contract. David G. said that they have reviewed a couple of schemes and looked into getting a choir room attached and looked at constructing a narthex that will be about half the size of the current milling area instead of a narthex the full size of our current milling area.
David G. stated that Charles had come back with some costs for expanding the sanctuary that include interior costs that were not considered before.
David G. reported that Shelly Nicol is the leader of the sanctuary design team.
David G. stated that the architect developed a revised construction schedule which has July 2009 as the date for completion of the Parish Life Center and the sanctuary expansion. David G. thinks that is date is not realistic, and they have not yet talked about how the construction would progress. He thinks the Parish Life Center would be built prior to expanding the sanctuary.
David G. reported that they are considering some items with the Parish Life Center (PLC) like having a kitchen in the PLC as well as showers in order to house Caritas without transporting folks to showers off site.
David S. asked when would cash be needed for these projects.
David G. said that he is not sure.
Vestry thanked David G. for all of his work on this project, and David G. left the meeting.
Youth Ministry Institute Update
Paul announced that the Youth Ministry Institute Team consists of the following people: Ron Andrews, chair, Cindy Harper, Judy Jagdmann, Jeff Miller, Phillip Gravley, Theo DeWolff, David Soule, Vestry Liaison, and Mary Kay Husk from St. Paul’s.
Paul stated that this team’s task is to analyze the possibility of a Youth Ministry Training Program, and figure out how it can be done. The team plans on meeting the first week in October.
Hillary asked if anyone from the diocese has been asked to be on this team. Paul said that no one had been asked.
Ken asked Paul if he received any feedback after the services in which he spoke about the vision for a Youth Ministry Training Program. Paul replied that he did receive feedback, none of which was negative.
Paul stated that a while ago the Vestry talked about how to get the vision of a Youth Ministry Training Program to the congregation. Paul said that he and the wardens thought it would be good to have desserts in church members’ homes and share the vision and get feedback from the congregation. Paul stated that the bigger question now is how do we go about the next six months and prepare the congregation for a capital campaign and building work. Paul said that part of the question is when do we do a capital funds campaign, and we need to decide within the next month who is going to help us with a campaign if we decide to launch a campaign in the spring.
Several Vestry members agreed that desserts would be a good way to share the vision and get congregational feedback. An idea of forming a subgroup was discussed. This subgroup would communicate to the congregation throughout the entire process and would help to get the congregation engaged in a capital campaign.
Paul stated that we cannot get a “yes” or “no” from the congregation without showing them what the project and vision is going to be and that before we begin a capital campaign we need to know how the congregation feels about it.
Lilly stated that we need to have some dessert meetings to get the word out and at the same time form the subgroup.
Lilly and Mary Ann volunteered to get the desserts set up, and Ken stated that we should have about four Vestry members at each dessert and we should ask the congregation to sign up for the desserts.
Mike asked what our message will be for these desserts. Several Vestry members suggested that the message is to convey our vision of building the Parish Life Center, developing a Youth Ministry Training Program, and setting aside a tithe of 10% for an outreach project from funds raised through a capital campaign.
Lilly will make sign up sheets for the dessert meetings and have them available in the Milling Area for folks to sign up.
Music Minister Request
Paul distributed a letter with a request to increase Missy Jennings’, the Assistant Music Minister’s, hours from 20 to 30 per week. He said that Missy usually works over 20 hours a week now. Paul stated that in the near future Keith Tan will be requesting that Missy work full time.
Karen asked if Missy is getting benefits currently. Paul said that yes, he thinks she is but is not sure what the benefits are.
Vestry held discussion about how this will fit into this year’s budget. Dave W. stated that we are ahead of budget this year because spending has been less than expected, not necessarily because giving is higher than anticipated.
A motion was made to approve increasing Missy’s hours to 30 per week from this point forward, regardless of benefit change, and defer considering full time status until the 2008 budget. The motion was seconded and carried.
Pastor’s Budget Priorities
A handout on “Sizing Potential Budget Priorities” was distributed prior to the Vestry meeting. Paul stated that the items listed on this handout are important to him. The budget priorities include increasing our Diocesan pledge to $60,000 (up from $50,000) solidifying Outreach numbers at 10%, increasing the Adult Education budget significantly, increasing the office staff by one, and converting our part-time Music Minister to full-time.
Karen asked for clarification in regards to increasing the Adult Education budget.
Paul stated that he would like the opportunity to bring in teachers of stature, which are ones you have to pay, which means there needs to be more money in the budget.
Paul stated that he would like 10% of our budget to go to Outreach, and to continue to increase the Diocesan pledge by $10,000 per year until we reach 10% of our budget.
Paul distributed a copy of the CCE Employee Handbook draft to each of the Vestry members. He asked that Vestry review this handbook and be ready to vote on it at the October Vestry meeting. Comments and questions should be directed to Lilly and she and the Personnel Team will respond to them at the October meeting.
Dave W. distributed a copy of the audit, years ended Dec.31, 2006 and 2005 for Vestry to review as needed.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Mary Ann Cooley, Registrar
Addendum: On August 22, 2007, Kathy Guin, Vestry Liaison for the CCE Preschool, sent a request to Vestry by email to vote on approving a candidate for the teacher’s assistant position at the preschool. The candidate, Kristen Levengood, was approved for hiring by the preschool board. The Vestry voted by email and approved the hiring of Kristen Levengood.
