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| March 14, 2006 Council Meeting Minutes |
Back to Council Main
Councilors present: John Bausch, Kimberly Brya, Cynthia Churchwell, Steve Dyer,
Carol Fessler, Susan Gillette, Chris Hurley, Heidi Law, Will McLean, Peggy
McNamara, Joanne Miner, Jodie Stewart and Janet VanZuiden.
Councilors absent: Rich Franklin.
Pastors and Staff Attending: Joseph Shank, Connie Stewart, Jenny Gleichauf,
Brooke Heerwald and Floy Schrage.
Guest: Harry Grace.
Call to Order and Opening Business
Cynthia Churchwell, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. She welcomed
Harry Grace and Brooke Heerwald to the Council meeting. All recited the Church’s
Mission Statement after which Interim Associate Pastor Connie Stewart shared the
cares and concerns of the congregation. Acting Associate Pastor Jenny Gleichauf
then offered the opening prayer.
A motion to approve the February 14, 2006 Council minutes was made by Carol
Fessler, seconded by Kimberly Brya. Approval was unanimous.
Will McLean, Treasurer, reported that fiscal year 2005 closed with a positive
balance of $14,888. Pledge data for this fiscal year, 2006, is still being
entered but to date $385,000 has already been prepaid.
Continuing Business
Cynthia Churchwell reported that Harry Grace had agreed to chair this year’s
Nominating Committee and that Carla Vorhees will serve as the ninth member of
the committee.
Sharon King’s concerns about reaching older members of the congregation,
expressed at last month’s Council meeting, are being addressed. Pastor Connie
Stewart has met with the Care and Calling Committee and Carol Fessler has spoken
with Sharon King. Connie Avildsen also talked with Sharon King and is planning
to help write an article for the Grapevine.
As part of the continuing goal to communicate better with the congregation,
Kimberly Brya has been working diligently to make corrections to and update the
“bucket” system. This method of tracking the congregation has proven to be a
successful tool for Canvass and it now seems logical to use it as a means of
connecting with the membership. Called Project Connection, Kimberly explained
that when we feel the need to reach out to the congregation to be invitational,
informative, or for opinions, this would be a way of creating personal
connections between members. Each member of the congregation would be contacted
two or three times a year in addition to Canvass contacts. Councilors then
received an informational packet with their respective “bucket” lists. Each
Group is asked to look over the names on their calling lists for validity. Also,
for the program to be a success, it is important that all calls are made, which
requires that every Group follow through. The discussion that followed was
interrupted to receive the report of the Sanctuary Design Advisory Team.
Cynthia Churchwell welcomed Steve Huels and Suzanne Danilek, members of the
Transition Task Force Committee, to the meeting, who in turn were introduced to
Council by Carol Fessler, Worship Councilor. They have been working to determine
what modifications are needed to ready the Alsdorf Activities Center for Sunday
worship services beginning April 23. Their proposal recommends a set of
modifications that will address sound, lighting and painting issues as well as
aesthetic enhancements, for the lowest possible cost.
In short, approval was requested for capital expenditures of $13,300:
Sound System - $2,800 plus $1,500 Installation
Temporary Lighting - $1,800 plus $2,200 Installation
Painting - $5,000 (which also could be considered routine maintenance)
and additional expenditures of $3,600-$6,600, including:
Choir & Clergy Platforms – alternatives range from $1,000 up to $3,000
New Banners, etc. – approximately $2,000
Speakers for Yamaha Synthesizer - $600
These are the core modifications needed to prepare Alsdorf for worship. Work
will begin March 27 and may be completed by April 8 in time for an “open house”
April 9. An updated summary page and drawing for the proposed arrangement for
worship are attached to the hard copy of these minutes on file.
The Chair asked Council for authorization to proceed with the project. Joseph
Shank recommended that the specifics of where the dollars are to come from for
the project could be determined by our financial managers. John Bausch moved to
approve the proposal and expenditures of up to $25,000 to prepare the Alsdorf
Activities Center for worship. Kimberly Brya seconded the motion and suggested a
friendly amendment to add “with the specific sources of funding to be determined
by the Treasurer and Financial Management.“ The amendment was accepted and the
motion passed unanimously.
In closing Suzanne Danilek stated that she welcomes input from members of the
congregation as a way of engaging them in the transition. Steve Huels commented
that volunteers will be needed as the project moves forward. Cynthia Churchwell
then thanked both Steve and Suzanne for their careful work to determine what was
needed and to control costs.
Before leaving thoughts of the sanctuary renovation, for the record the Chair
called for Council to affirm the gift of our outgoing 1956 Austin organ to First
Immanuel Lutheran Church in Chicago, which was unanimously affirmed.
Council returned to the earlier discussion regarding Project Connection. Various
Councilors expressed reservations about implementing the proposed plan due to
the current workload of their Groups, questioned the need to call members who
are very involved (Kimberly Brya responded that those people still needed to be
called and thanked), noted that calls at home are not always welcome and that
people are not all equally skilled in making personal calls. Harry Grace, a
former Councilor and one of the Canvass chairs, mentioned that the Canvass
members have experienced all of the above concerns. Cynthia Churchwell reminded
that committee heads and others in each Group are meant to help in the calling
and that this was identified as a high priority at recent leadership meetings,
both to communicate and collect information and to provide connections to the
congregation. Since there was both confusion about executing the plan and some
resistance to the burden of Councilors making phone calls, it was the consensus
of Council that everyone look at the proposal and forward their concerns to the
Executive Committee. Exec would then determine how the Councilors are to
proceed.
Cynthia Churchwell commented that members of the congregation want to know how
to offer their thoughts regarding the Sanctuary Renewal Project, especially
after hearing Dr. John Cook’s presentation about the use of religious symbols.
She stated that a Design Advisory Committee is being formed. The names of those
members will be published so members can contact them. She also noted that the
Capital Campaign Committee is working on materials for the campaign, readying
for the kick-off of the April 23.
New Business
The Chair then excused our guest and all staff, with the exception of Joseph
Shank, so that Council could go into Executive Session. Council did so at 8:40
p.m. returning to regular session at 9:00 p.m.
Questions or comments were entertained by the Chair regarding Group reports,
previously circulated. Jenny Gleichauf commented that to date $7,900 has been
raised toward the goal of $20,000 needed for the Servants’ trip to Juarez,
Mexico. Hopefully that goal will be reached with proceeds from the silent action
and stock sale on March 19. She also said that plans are in the works to make
Confirmation Sunday, May 21, a special day this year since the Sanctuary will be
unavailable.
John Bausch raised the subject of our website, suggesting that someone should be
in charge of supervising it. He moved, seconded by Joanne Miner, that the
Executive Committee choose someone to supervise the church’s website. Motion was
unanimously approved. Steve Dyer agreed to take on this task for the moment. All
were in agreement that it is especially important at this time (with the
pastoral search in progress) for all the information on the website to be
correct. It was also agreed that Councilors have a shared responsibility in
monitoring the website as well, making certain that information pertaining to
their particular group is current and correct. In this same vein, Carol Fessler
reminded everyone of the importance of both internal and external communication
at this busy time, and Floy Schrage reminded all of the importance of submitting
information on time. Susan Gillette suggested that maybe one person in each
group could be responsible for getting information for the website to Steve.
Steve Dyer asked that for now each group choose a Councilor to be responsible
for getting information to him and commented further that a review of our whole
communication process seems in order.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m. after a
closing prayer by Connie Stewart.
Respectfully submitted,
Peggy McNamara, Clerk
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