April 20, 2020 Stated Session Meeting

Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church

Stated Session Meeting April 20, 2020 7 PM

 

Present: Barbara Amago, Stan Campbell, Pat Chappell, Keith Glidewell, Paul Harrell, Paul Isom,  Marcia Ladd (Clerk), John McDowell, Bruce Raymond, Mary Roodkowsky,  Andrew Taylor-Troutman (Moderator), Jerry Wehmueller (Treasurer),

Excused Absence:

Andrew called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Paul Harrell opened with a devotion and prayer. Concerns and celebrations were shared.

John McDowell moved to approve the agenda, it was seconded and approved unanimously. Barbara moved to approve the consent agenda, it was seconded and unanimously approved.

Consent Agenda-Please read these items in advance. They will be voted on as a group without discussion unless someone pulls a particular entry  from the Consent Agenda

1. Approval of Session minutes-Stated meeting virtually with Deacons on 3/23/2020; Email Votes 3/16, 3/28 and 4/1/2020
2. Approval of the Minutes of the Virtual Congregational Meeting 4/6/2020
3. Approval of Committee Minutes – April Finance and Administration, Membership 3/19/2020, Building and Grounds 4/7/2020, Christian Education 3/18/2020
4. Correspondence – Thank you from CEDEPCA, Earth Care Recertification Certificate

Pastor’s Report Andrew shared that he wants to start livestreaming worship services once we re-open the church. He has a great team Zach Terry, Serena ZumBrunnen, Bob Warren, David Yale, Steve Winegert, our new IT guy. The motivations for this is concern about a second wave of virus and making worship more accessible. He also sees it as an outreach to grow the congregation. Opening the church will not be a one and done occurrence, but rather a soft re-opening in phases. Looking much like the soft re-opening of the country, sheltering the most vulnerable longer. Our retreat on June 6, 9 AM – Noon, will focus on the rest of the year. He asked each elder to reach out to him and try to schedule a time to meet before their next committee meeting.

Treasurer’s Report In general, March expenses exceeded the month’s revenue by $4,058 but year to date we are still showing a surplus of $76,063.  This puts us is a good position to weather the current health situation over the coming months.  Payments to the 2016 Capital Campaign continued to come in with $1,950 given in the first quarter.

Our cash position remains strong and about the same as in February at $338,000 which should be more than adequate to handle our financial situation and continue to pay our staff compensation over the coming weeks. Andrew is going to try to gently remind people who view the worship video to continue to donate.

Clerk’s Report

Marcia turned session’s attention to the Committee Matrix and Manual of Operations asking that each elder review their committee and their portion of the Manual of Operations and make any changes that need to be made in advance of the new elders coming on to session

Finance and Administration

Stan brought two motions to the meeting. The first

To amend the Designated Gift policy per the amendments provided by Finance and Administration in the pre-session packet (added by Session September 2017, amended by session April 2020)

Stan offered the following background: after overseeing a recent gift from a member, F&A suggests an update to the Procedures for Receiving Designated Gifts policy as a way to streamline the process.  The revision focuses the Session on gifts of $1,000 or more and allows committees, with F&A oversight of gift policies, to work with donors on gifts of less than $1,000.  The revision includes the removal of staff names and replaces their names with their titles (instead of Janet, it says accountant; instead of Nana, it says office manager; instead of Jerry, it says treasurer).  It also changes the word Finance to Finance and Administration to correct its name.  And it adds to item #7 that the wish list may be updated at session meetings, not just during the annual budget process. There was minimal discussion and the motion passed unanimously.

The second motion was

to approve the updated Wish List, April 2020, contained in the pre-session packet

Stan noted the major changes were removal of the entrance sign and addition of the livestreaming costs. If there are other updates, they should let Stan know. Andrew added that the live streaming would be a helpful capability to assist in a soft opening, so those whose systems might be more vulnerable would be able to feel more a part of the service. Andrew also indicated he was working with a task force of Serena ZumBrunnen, Zach Terry, David Yale, Steve Winegert and Bob Warren to ascertain exactly what was needed to create this capability. Pat Chappell asked Stan to take the chimes off the Wish List. The motion passed unanimously.

Mission and Service

Paul wanted session to know that his committee in conjunction with Thava Mahadevan had agreed to Thava’s use of $1200 of the $4000 donation to fund the fledgling food program being offered to 10 of the Farm’s most vulnerable patients. Over a longer term Thava has grants in the works to fund the program.

Ongoing Business

Andrew indicated he still planned on having the June 6 retreat, although only in the morning, 9AM to Noon and the focus of the retreat would be on operations at the church for the remainder of 2020, via Zoom. He would like incoming and outgoing elders involved in the spring retreat.

He indicated that the May Presbytery meeting had been cancelled.

Andrew said he will follow Chapel in the Pines tradition of having incoming elders attend the May meeting. To get a sense of what they are about to tackle. That meeting will be the outgoing elders last official meeting. Training for the incoming elders will be done by Andrew. Andrew asked Bruce to give an update for the new parking lot. Bruce has yet to get the drawing complete, it will be another month to get county approval. The company Bruce has targeted to do the parking lot is still working. It may be a couple of months before that company can get started on our parking lot. Bruce hopes it will be done before we come back to worship at the church.

Andrew plans to have a 3 year visioning retreat in the fall.

New Business

As discussed earlier, Andrew would like to move ahead with the livestreaming capability so people who cannot attend the service can still have access to it. There will also be slight increase to our operating budget. He offered the following motion

To move forward with preparations to livestream worship when we re-start church services.  A donor has been identified who will fund up to $3,000 of the set-up cost, which is estimated to be less than $3,000.

Andrew explained that if a volunteer wasn’t available to capture the service, there is someone who we can pay to do that. The motion passed unanimously. Paul Isom wondered if it was flexible enough to move it around to film in someone’s home. Andrew stressed that to protect the equipment and make sure it has a long “life span” it is better not to move it around.

John asked if Andrew would convey our appreciation to the staff for the hard work they are doing.

Vicky Raymond is making masks, if anyone needs a mask she will get them one.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned with a prayer by Andrew at 7:50 PM.

 

Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals

Since the last meeting on March 23, the Lord’s Supper was performed virtually on Maundy Thursday April 9 and Easter April 12. There were no new members, memorial services, baptisms or weddings.

 

 

Respectfully submitted

 

 

Marcia Ladd, Clerk

Approved session May 18, 2020