July 20, 2015 Stated Session Meeting

Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Stated Session Meeting, July 20, 2015, Narthex

Attending: Ruling Elders Heather Bogan, Monty Brekke, Lynne Hoerter, Kristin Lavergne, Fred Royal, Archie (Butch) Smith, Marcia Ladd (Clerk), and Teaching Elder Rev. Mindy Douglas (Moderator)
Absent: Al Schalk, Barbara Strange, Stephanie Miller, Jerry Wehmueller (Treasurer) – Excused

 

The meeting was called to order by Mindy Douglas at 7:00 p.m. Marcia Ladd led the opening devotion, ending with prayer. Concerns and celebrations were shared.

Leadership development: Mindy led a discussion on dealing with people with dementia to give the Session a sense of what they need to know as leaders in the church when confronted with members and their families who suffer from this condition.

Approval of agenda and consent agenda

It was moved by Heather and seconded by Kristin that the agenda be approved as revised.  The consent agenda was unanimously approved, as follows:

1. Approval of Minutes – Stated session 6/15/15; Called session 7/19/15

2. Committee Minutes – B&G 5/6/15 and 6/16/15; Finance 6/28/15; Communication and Technology 7/1/15; Communication and Technology roles and responsibilities; Web Site Re-Design Task Force 7/1/15

3. Correspondence – B&G Statement on relationship with Décor Subcommittee

4. Communication and Technology – session over view

Pastor’s report.  Mindy said she had spent a week in Montreat engaged in study leave preparing for her thesis. Indhira is working with Davie Street Presbyterian so will not with us as much. Mindy will be in Boston for the coming weekend and Indhira and Mitzi will lead the worship. Five new members joined the church yesterday.

Committee reports

Finance

Heather went over the June and mid-year financial reports that she indicated were trending correctly; we are over on collections and under on expenses. The balance sheet is healthy. On the mortgage side with our capital funds to date we can fund the monthly payments until January of 2016. Jerry is projecting receipt of additional capital campaign funds that may get us through on the mortgage payments until mid-2016.

Heather presented the following motion from the Finance Committee

Any purchase over $10,000 requires a bidding process with at least two documented bids prior to vendor selection.

There was minimal discussion, the motion passed unanimously.

Heather told session that Building and Grounds is moving ahead with estimates for the bio-retention pond and paving the parking lot. Finance and Building and Grounds will work together on this and keep session informed.

Finally, Heather wanted session to know that the Capital Campaign Subcommittee of Finance is working on themes for the upcoming campaign. The advice they have been given is that the results of the third campaign can be anemic if there isn’t a new goal as the focus. Hence, the tentative plan is to have the construction of a fellowship hall as the focus of the campaign, the cost for which should be $250,000 to $300,000. As chair of the campaign and a professional fund raiser, it is Stan Campbell’s strong feeling that the amount of money raised in the upcoming campaign will be substantially enhanced if the campaign includes a focused giving target like the fellowship hall. Using this approach it is his feeling that there is a reasonable chance that the amount of funds raised will be enough to cover the hall and pay down as much of the mortgage as we would have been able to do without the fellowship hall focus. Lynne also indicated that the Stewardship Committee is discussing setting aside money raised for the annual operating budget to be set aside to pay part of the mortgage. Finance will bring their formal proposal for the campaign to the August meeting. Session asked that Stan be invited to that meeting.

Fellowship

Lynne drew everyone’s attention to the link in the session packet for the fellowship teams. She indicated they would start in September 2015. She asked if anyone had questions or comments.

Mission and Service

Monty asked if anyone had questions concerning the Salem Hunger grant that was distributed prior to the meeting. We are requesting $3500 which is the same as the 2014 request that yielded a grant of $2500. Monty moved that we

approve the grant request from CITP for Salem Presbytery Domestic Hunger funds grant.

Lynne seconded the motion. There were questions about other sources of funding for the Food Pantry, and how the pantry works to fight hunger in our area.

The motion passed unanimously.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

Volunteer fair.  Mindy asked for session input about how we would manage the volunteer fair scheduled for August 30. The Sunday School kick off will take place that morning as well. Bill dePrater had suggested to Mindy that we do this fair as a part of worship, suggesting each committee chair address the congregation about how their committee contributes to our mission and the value of participating in that work. Another suggestion was that we combine this fair format with a hymn sing. It was proposed that people would suggest hymns ahead of time, and we could rotate between hymns and messages from the committee chairs. In the past we have put newsprint on the walls with a brief description of each committee, then people would sign up on the newsprint if they were interested in joining. The elders who are available will meet Saturday the 29th from 3-5 to prepare for the next day’s event. Session decided to call this event a “Ministry Fair – Get Engaged.” We will have tables set up for each committee and it was suggested that committees use props. There was also discussion about winding up the worship segment prior to 11:30 to give people time to visit the committee tables, ask questions and sign up as volunteers. Mindy asked each committee chair to bring to the August meeting

• A list of who will be there from each committee,

• Who will be the presenter for each committee,

• What props each committee will need

• Whether the committee will need a table.

The next stated session meeting will be August 17 at the 7pm. Stephanie Miller will lead the devotion. The September meeting will be held on the 28th and not the 21st. Lynne will be attending the Presbytery meeting in August with Mindy.

As the business of the meeting was concluded, Mindy led a closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 810 pm

Respectfully submitted, 

Marcia Ladd, Clerk

Approved by session 8/17/15

 

Reminders:  

Remember to pray for our church each day at noon.

New Member Sunday  8/23/15

Next stated session meeting August 17, 2015 7 PM Stephanie Miller has the devotion

Presbytery meeting August 11, Tuesday, Jamestown Presbyterian Church – Lynne and Mindy attending

Ministry Fair August 30 during worship