August 21, 2017 Stated Session Meeting
Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Stated Session Meeting August 21, 2017
Attending: Ruling Elders Karen Atkins, Stan Campbell, Paul Isom, John McDowell, Terry Rudolph, Barbara Strange, Teaching Elder Rev. Lynn Stall (moderator), JerryWehmueller (treasurer), Marcia Ladd (clerk)
Absent: Lynne Hoerter, Maggie Reif, Al Schalk
The meeting was called to order by Lynn Stall at 7:00 PM. Barbara delivered the devotion, ending with a prayer. Pastoral concerns and celebrations were shared. Joe Hammond’s memorial service will be 11AM Saturday the 26th at Galloway Ridge.
Approval of agenda and consent agenda
The agenda and consent agenda were approved by common consent. The consent agenda includes the following:
| Consent Agenda
A. Approval of session minutes – Stated meeting 7/17/17, Email vote 8/2/17 B. Approval of committee minutes – Fellowship Hall Opening Event 8/9/17, Communications and technology August Report, Finance and Administration 8/20/17, Mission and Service 8/7/17 C. Correspondence – Libby Boehne update, Chatham Schools, Straws Documentary request from Fred Royal, Rise against Hunger, CORA Fund Raiser, Fuel Up thank you |
Pastor’s Report
Lynn indicated that Maggie is going overseas for her studies, and in her absence Monty will be attending session meetings and Susie Smith and Barbara Amago will co-chair the committee. Lynn has put together a list of medical people to whom we can turn in an emergency and it is posted in the pre-meeting packet. Terry will make sure it is posted in our buildings. Tristan Bland will work on his Eagle Scout project with Building and Grounds and Bruce. Bruce will introduce him and the project to the congregation this fall, Karen offered the following motion from Building and Grounds to
Invite people to stay to hear about the project and contribute to it if they would like.
With minimal discussion, the motion passed unanimously. Building and Grounds will decide when the presentation will be made.
Lynn started a conversation about the church’s need to identify and develop new leaders. Barbara and Lynn will work on making this intentional.
Committee reports
Finance
Jerry presented the July numbers, indicating the church is in OK financial shape and that the church is still in the black year to date. There are no unusual expenses. he has started expensing $500 a month for the mortgage. August and September have historically been low in revenues. Jerry expects us to be favorable to the budget at year end. The cash assets are $148,000 and all the Fellowship Hall bills have been paid with some revenues due back in reimbursed taxes. Finance and Administration will work this fall on how to manage the mortgage payments going forward. There was discussion about communicating with the congregation to inform the bookkeeper about their plans for capital campaign payments going forward.
Stan presented three motions to session
To allocate up to $500 to the Pastor Nominating Committee for expenses incurred in their pastoral search process.
The second motion is as follows to add to the Building Use Policy as the last sentence of the 4th bullet on the first page
That all groups using the church who have a Certificate of Insurance will include it in their applications.
The third motion is
to approve the Building Use policy as written pending an insurance and finance review sometime this fall
The insurance “expert” for the church, Jim Harlee, is away for the summer and will review it when he returns and Finance and Administration will also take a final look at the pricing.
The motions passed unanimously.
Building and Grounds
Karen brought two motions about the Building Use Policyfrom Building and Grounds about the Building Use Policy, the first was
That whoever is using the building is responsible for making sure their event meets all county, state, and fire marshal regulations. For example no flame retardant materials such as any decorative draping will be used per fire code.
Karen indicated the committee had discussed that they did not want to try and list everything that might apply because: 1) We might not catch everything and 2) that should be the responsibility of who is using the building. They discussed including the example of fire retardant materials as that is the most likely thing that could come up.
Karen also brought the following motion from the committee that will be inserted in the 7th bullet on the first page after the sentence about open flames
That the following will replace the 8th bullet about capacity
The occupancy use is as follows – fellowship hall 125; an additional 15 can be added if both doors to the meeting room were opened during the event making a possible grand total of 140. The person(s) responsible for the use of the facility shall ensure that the occupancy limitations are not exceeded.
The motions passed unanimously.
Education
Paul provided an update on the Education Committee. Joelle Brummitt-Yale started working as part time DCE in early August and her contract will be re-visited in 6 months. There have been two trainings on Godly Play and the church has decided to adopt it for use during the Sunday school hour starting in the fall, although it may start at 9:15 because of the length of the program. People are already signing up to participate in various ways. Between now and the launch on September 10, Joelle will work on getting it organized. The Education Committee met with parents during the second Sunday lunch in August and had a good, frank discussion about what is needed. Paul and Jerry will get together to talk about funding for Godly Play. There is a meeting this coming week to put together the tutoring program for the fall that starts September 13.
Mission and Service
The committee brought the following motion to session
to approve a fundraiser for the Take and Eat food pantry on Saturday, October 14 at 5 PM (set up around 4:30, going until no later than 8 PM).
They sent the following context for the fundraiser. The date was chosen for its proximity to World Hunger Day (Monday, October 16) and it’s to address the food pantry’s current needs without overlapping with the Thanksgiving/Christmas food basket efforts, since the food pantry is still struggling with donations of food, as well as from not receiving certain grants this past year. Mission and Service is still working on the exact details of the form of the fundraiser, but their idea is that it would resemble the chili cook-off, but potentially with an added component of guests donating cans of food as an entry fee like they do at the state fair. We’re going to finalize the format at our next meeting, pending session’s approval.
There was minimal discussion and the motion was approved by common consent.
Ongoing Business
Because of the larger size of our physical plant, Stan expressed some concerns about our need to develop a security plan for Sunday morning and for the safety of the staff during the week. Chatham County Sheriff will do a review of our security and start there. Stan will arrange that and they will prepare a report and bring it to session. The project will be housed under Finance and Administration for now.
New Business
Barbara expressed that it is important for Chapel in the Pines to make a stand against hatred, white supremacy and the violence in Charlottesville August 11 and 12. She proposed the adoption of a statement taken from the PCUSA statement. Stan made a motion
That the session of Chapel in the Pines adopt the PCUSA position on the events in Charlottesville August 11 and 12, and that we post our position on the web site, in the newsletter, our Face Book page and circulate it to the media.
The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Lynn read a statement from Nelson Mandela about reaching out in love.
Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals
Since the previous stated meeting on July 17 the Lord’s Supper was celebrated once on August 6. There were no new members, baptisms, weddings or funerals.
As the business of the meeting was concluded, Lynn closed with prayer at 8:00 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia Ladd, Clerk
Approved session 9/18/17
Reminders:
1. Next stated session meeting September 16, 2017, Karen Atkins has the devotion
2. Fellowship Hall Opening Event September 16
3. Strobilus Art Event September 22-24, Opening Night Reception September 22