June 11, 2009 Stated Session Meeting

Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church
Stated Session Meeting, June 11, 2009 – Home of Lynne and Bob Hoerter

Attending: Stan Campbell, Lynne Hoerter, Marcia Ladd, Wes McGraw, Stephanie Miller, Michelle Morehouse, Ed Park, Vicky Raymond, Chuck Rickard and Mindy Douglas Adams (moderator)
Excused: Jack Zollinger (Treasurer) and Mary Donna Pond (Clerk)

 

Mindy Douglas Adams called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. Stephanie Miller led the Session in prayer and an opening devotion.

Election of Clerk. Lynne Hoerter was elected Acting Clerk.

Leadership Development. Ed led a discussion of chapter 3 of E. Stanley Ott’s Twelve Dynamic Shifts for Transforming Your Church.

Concerns and Celebrations. Mindy announced the service for John Dopler will be held on Thursday, June 18th at the Gathering Place at Fearrington. Paul Bickell is at staying at Mayview Convalescent Center while he is in transition to a new home. He will be joining the church in abstentia on Sunday, June 14th. Several people shared concerns and celebrations.

The Session reconvened as the Board of Trustees. Stan called the meeting to order. The minutes from 5/8/08 and 7/10/08 were approved.
Election of Officers – Marcia Ladd was nominated to be president of the Board of Trustees as Stan is stepping down. The nomination was made by Chuck and seconded by Lynne. The motion passed. There were no other nominations and Marcia was elected unanimously.
Chuck Rickard was nominated to be vice president of the Board of Trustees by Ed and Wes and was elected unanimously. Mary Donna Pond was re-elected as Secretary; Jack Zollinger was re-elected as Treasurer.
Wes and Vicky moved and seconded that the meeting of the Board of Trustees be adjourned.

Agenda Approval. Hiring an interim choir director for the summer was added to the agenda under the Personnel report. It was approved by common consent.

Approval of Minutes. The minutes of the May 14th Stated Session meeting and the May 28th Called meeting were approved by common consent.

Pastor’s Report. Mindy stated that it has been an exciting month for the Building/Planning Committee with things moving forward with the church architect, Gray Hudson of WKWW.
Mindy reported that the Chatham County InterFaith Council met today with good participation. Dianne Birch of CITP presented the findings of a needs survey done by the United Way. The CCIC is hiring someone to write grants and do strategic planning.
Mindy also was happy to report that school is out for Tyler and that she is looking forward to going to Montreat this month with Vicky and others.

Treasurer’s Report. Jack is away. There is no financial report. Jack and the FAB Committee met with our new bookkeeper, Janet Askew. They are pleased with her progress and expect to have figures for our meeting next month.

QUADRANT REPORTS

Community. A written report was distributed. The directory is progressing but still is not ready to be published. A new sign for the visitors’ table will be in place soon.

Education. The two classes currently in session will continue until fall.

Fiduciary. A written report was distributed by Stan Campbell.

Lynne (Building/Planning) discussed the plans for this coming Sunday’s second meeting with architect at the Briar Chapel Community Center from 3:00PM to 5:00PM. She reviewed architect Gray Hudson’s recommendations for the meeting format. The event will be videotaped and voice recorded. Marcia agreed to take minutes taking note of any comments from the floor. Each presenter will have 15 minutes to be followed by questions from the members.
Lynne reported the architect will be meeting with the Building/Planning Committee on July 14th at 8:30 AM. At this meeting, the architect will present findings about our square footage requirements based on the outcome of the questionnaire.

Stan reported the Finance/Administration/Budget (FAB) Committee met with Janet Askew, our newly-hired bookkeeper, and expect to have an accurate financial picture by the end of this month. Items in our safe deposit box have been inventoried and documented. The digital projector has been purchased with about $100 remaining from the $800 grant from University Presbyterian Church. The FAB Committee submitted a motion to purchase a DVD player with the remaining money. The motion was approved.
The committee continues to search for alternative meeting places for CITP as well as continuing to research Sprung and steel buildings.

Marcia reported on behalf of the Personnel Committee that Aviva Enoch, our pianist, has agreed to serve as interim choir director beginning on June 28th and continuing through the first Sunday in September. Marcia also announced that the choir director to fill in for Jeremy Nabors for next year will start in mid-August. Interviews are scheduled for June 22nd.

Secondly, the Personnel Committee discussed hiring Mitzi Lesher-Thomas as a part-time Parish Associate. In the current proposal, she would work 5 hours per week. Her duties would include Stephen Ministry, Women’s Bible Study in Southern Village and Pastoral Care. She would also attend worship twice a month and preach 2-4 times during the year. The money is available in our budget to cover her salary. After much discussion by the Session, it was decided to ask each quadrant leader to come back to our meeting next month with future hopes as it relates to the question of staffing. It will then be discussed further to decide if the above stated duties which would be provided by Mitzi would fill those needs. Others discussed concern that all our worship leaders would be women and that we should consider hiring a male Associate Pastor in the future. Stan mentioned that everyone should understand that this new position would only be funded until the end of our budget year in December.
Starting in the fall, Samara Joy Nielsen’s duties will include preaching, leading worship and teaching Sunday school.

Chuck , a member of the Personnel Committee, stated his belief that Chapel in the Pines should not be hiring people unless the Session targets a need. He suggested that any extra dollars should go toward building our new church or to begin to create a line item in our budget for a full time Associate Pastor. He thinks that Personnel should make a staffing plan and long term supports the idea of hiring a male Associate Pastor.
Stephanie asked if Personnel had interviewed Mitzi. They had not. Stephanie also wondered if God brought Mitzi to us.

Stan moved that each quadrant come back to the next Session meeting with what their biggest needs are. The motion passed. Marcia will convey this decision to Mitzi.

We will postpone the next chapter in Twelve Dynamic Shifts until August in order to allow more time for committee reports.

Stan brought two recommendations regarding our property loan. The first is that the $498 interest earned on the $100,000 gift from Salem Presbytery be used to pay down the principle. Marcia made the motion and Vicky seconded. The motion passed. Second, it was recommended that we use the remainder of the earnest money deposit (the deposit minus our closing costs) to pay down the principal on our land loan. Ed made the motion and Michelle seconded. The motion passed.

Stan reported as Stewardship Chairman, that we are on pace for our pledges year to date.

Worship. Mitzi Lesher-Thomas was approved to preach on August 2nd.

OLD BUSINESS

Chuck announced the Nominating Committee has chosen Jerry Wehmueller (sp) to take Stan Campbell’s place on the Session. Jerry has also agreed to head up the Fiduciary Quadrant. The Session approved his nomination. Stan will stay on as Stewardship Chairman.

The Session approved a congregational meeting to be held on June 21st to take any nominations from the floor and to hold an election for the elder position vacated by Stan Campbell. The meeting will be announced on June 14th during worship.

NEW BUSINESS

The next Session meeting will be held on July 14th at 7:00 PM. Please note the time change. The meeting will be held at Lynne Hoerter’s home.

Mary Donna Pond was elected to serve as Clerk of the Session for the coming year.

There will be a called meeting at 9:15 AM prior to church on Sunday, June 14th for the purpose of approving our new members. Vicky Raymond offered to serve as Clerk for that meeting.

The love offering money for Jeremy will be given to him in one check prior to his departure for Michigan State University. Mindy suggested that a choir member send him a card or letter each month letting Jeremy know we are thinking of him.

Ed suggested we have copies of our Mission Statement available on Sunday for our meeting with the architect so that as we discuss our new building we can keep our Mission Statement in mind. Ed agreed to bring copies to the meeting.

Wes and Marcia moved that the meeting be adjourned.

Mindy closed the meeting with prayer at 9:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Lynne Hoerter, Acting Clerk
Mindy Douglas Adams, Moderator

Approved by Session July 14, 2009