July 18, 2016 Stated Session Meeting

Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Stated Session Meeting, July 18, 2016 Narthex

Attending: Ruling Elders Karen Atkins, Heather Bogan, Monty Brekke, Terry Rudolph, Archie (Butch) Smith, Barbara Strange, Jerry Wehmueller (Treasurer) Marcia Ladd (Clerk), Teaching Elder Rev. Lynn Stall (Moderator), Teaching Elder Rev. Mitzi Lesher-Thomas
Absent: Kristin Lavergne, Al Schalk
Guests: Bob Warren

The meeting was called to order by Lynn Stall at 7 PM. A quorum was declared. Lynne Hoerter led the opening devotion, ending with prayer. Concerns and celebrations were shared.

Leadership development: Lynn discussed the article shared in the packet on Duct Tape, asking members to share their perspectives.  

Approval of agenda and consent agenda

The agenda and consent agendas were approved by common consent. The consent  agenda contains the following items:

a.    Approval of minutes – Stated meeting 6/27/16

b.    Committee minutes -Deacon’s Minutes 7/11/16; Fellowship 7/15/16

Pastor’s report.  Lynn indicated she would like to attend committee meetings, and asked to be told when they are scheduled. She passed around a sheet for session members to sign up to spend time with her.

Committee reports

Finance

Jerry went over the June financial reports, our income is a little light and Jerry is unsure if we will make the budget, although he does not anticipate a large discrepancy. There was discussion about the pastor’s discretionary fund controlled largely by Nana. Heather introduced the following motion from Finance Committee:

1.   To change the policy for receiving designated gifts as follows.  The following process should be used to acknowledge gifts:

a)   A log is maintained by the accountant indicating who gave the gift, when it was given, and how it is to be spent.  

b)   The accountant notifies the office manager of the receipt of the gift: the office manager then sends an appropriate thank you note within two weeks of receiving the gift. The accountant also notifies the Finance Committee of the gift and its designated purpose.  

c)   The Finance Committee ensures that the use of the gift is compatible with the church mission, and contacts the committee who will be responsible for carrying out the donor’s wishes.

d)   The appropriate committee will notify the Session when the designated gift has been spent.

e)   The Finance Committee periodically reviews special and designated gifts to ensure that they have been executed in a timely manner.

After some discussion, the motion carried unanimously.

Heather introduced another motion from committee because of the size of the endowment at this time.

As of July 2016 the Finance Committee shall serve as the Endowment Committee.

After minimal discussion, the motion carried unanimously.

Communication and Technology – order of the day 7:15PM

Lynn introduced Bob Warren, representing the Communication and Technology Committee. Bob covered the general information shared in the pre-meeting packet about how to optimize the fellowship hall’s audio and visual capabilities short and long term. The goal is not to do everything now, but in anticipation of how it might be built out. The Building Design team has asked Bob to do some vendor and cost estimates to facilitate their decision making about the recommendations.

Fellowship

Lynne told the session that the new fellowship teams would start in August and there will be 7 teams. The number of teams has been reduced and the size of each has been increased. She also indicated there would be 4 Strobilus events in the coming year, 2 in fall 2016 and 2 in spring of 2017.

Mission and Service

Monty told the session that the committee would like to submit an application to Salem Presbytery for a hunger grant. He brought the following motion…

          To approve $3500 request for hunger grant to support the food pantry

It was approved unanimously.

Ongoing Business

Lynn Stall asked session to officially elect Al Schalk as representative to the August Presbytery meeting.  Lynne Hoerter moved

          To elect Al Schalk as Chapel in the Pines representative for the August Presbytery meeting.

The motion was seconded and carried unanimously.

New Business

Lynn asked the sense of session about a Duke intern for the 2016/2017 year. CITP would partner with Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church to pursue this. The sense was that it should pursued. Lynn will get that started.

Lynn indicated that she and Mitzi had discussed Mitzi’s role during the interim period, since Mitzi’s contract expired the day Lynn started. Lynn’s feeling is that the 30 hours be decreased some. Heather recommended that Lynn work with Personnel to bring a decision back to session next month, and that the compensation remain the same until the next session meeting. Lynn indicated she would let Mitzi know of this decision.

Lord’s Supper, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals

Since the previous stated meeting June 27th, 2016 the Lord’s Supper was celebrated once on July 3. There were no new members, baptisms, funerals or weddings.

The next stated session meeting will be August 15 at the 7PM. Terry Rudolph will lead the devotion.

As the business of the meeting was concluded, Lynn led a closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 8:01PM.

Respectfully submitted, 

Marcia Ladd, Clerk

Approved session 8/15/16

 

Reminders: 

Remember to pray for our church each day at noon.

 Elder in the Narthex July 17 Lynne Hoerter, Marcia Ladd July 24, Terry Rudolph July 31                     

Next stated session meeting August 15, Terry Rudolph has the devotion

August 9, Tuesday First Presbyterian Church in Boone, Al Schalk will be attending