2017-09-13 Council Meeting Minutes

Meeting MinutesThe September Council Meeting of the Congregation Council of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ardmore, Pennsylvania was held on Wednesday, September 13 at 7:15 pm in the 2nd floor Meeting Room.

CALL TO ORDERDon Parman called the meeting to order at 7:18 pm. Council member attendance is captured in the table below:

Name Committee Chair Council Role Present AbsentAshburn, Carolyn Staff Personnel XDry, Daniel Property XErtner, Robert Treasurer XFreestone, Patrick Technology Secretary XHammarberg,Carol Stewardship Vice President XHampson, Emily Social Ministry XMartin, Linda Worship and Music XMuller, Claudia Christian Education XParman, Don Finance President XPierce, Louise Cemetery XWilson, David Financial Secretary XYeung, Stephanie Evangelism X

Pastor Laura Tancredi was absent from this meeting.

DEVOTIONSIn the absence of Pastor Laura devotions were skipped for this meeting.

PRESENTATION OF MINUTESPat presented the minutes from the August meeting. MOTION: Carolyn moved that we accept the minutes. This was seconded and approved by council.

COMMITTEE REPORTSCommittee Report

Pastor Don briefly reviewed the content of Pastor Laura’s report.Administration There was a discussion about having a pastor come in for Pastor

Laura once a month so that she could attend Sunday school.Worship & Music No significant discussion.

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Property No significant discussion.Stewardship Don mentioned that Cottage dinners start Friday evening.

Don mentioned the session on the 24th for the cemetery and estate planning.

Cemetery Louise mentioned that the year is a bit slower than normalChristian Education Claudia reviewed that Sunday school was starting.

Claudia mentioned the transition of running the Families with Young Children program.

Evangelism No significant discussion.Financial Secretary Carolyn asked about interpreting the staff hourly report. There

was discussion about finding the source.Treasurer No significant discussion.Finance Committee Don reviewed that through August we were still favorable for the

year. He noted that over the last 10 years giving has remained in the

same range, which is interesting. There was some discussion on perhaps making a push for Simply

Giving signups.Staff Personnel Carolyn noted that the committee met this month.

She stated that job descriptions are current for everyone. Pastor Laura will review next, send to her staff, and hopefully then finalize.

The committee is planning to send out an employee survey to see how we can better serve the employees.

The October meeting will likely cover salaries for next year. There was some discussion around tying performance reviews to

salary and perhaps making that a factor in raises. The group discussed some strategies around setting salaries and

increases. There was some discussion around the process for doing the

review for Pastor Laura. The group discussed the role of the Mutual Ministry committee.

Social Ministry Claudia said that the service project was great and suggested considering doing this more than once a year.

Technology Pat mentioned that he had been asked about music program. Louise mentioned that Pastor Laura has a flash drive for the 24th

presentation about the Cemetery. Pat to follow up with Laura to add this to the website.

NEW BUSINESS/CORRESPONDENCE

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OUTSTANDING BUSINESS Don encouraged the group to start thinking about budgets for 2018 as well as any

requests to take money from the endowment that would need approval from the congregation.

2016 Audit Committeeo Don reviewed the members of the 2016 audit committee recommended by the

Finance committee: Jim Van Horn, Evelyn Reider, and Gail Ruehr.o MOTION: Louise moved to nominate this committee. This was seconded and

approved by council. Don noted that he would follow on with an e-mail since this meeting did not have a quorum to get the necessary approval from the remaining council members.

o POST MEETING NOTE: Don confirmed that the appointment of the audit committee members had been approved by Dan Dry, Carol Hammarberg, Emily Hampson and Pastor Tancredi comprising with those voting in favor at the meeting a majority of the members of council. No objections or questions were raised by any of the remaining council members.

ADJOURNMENT AND PRAYERMOTION: Claudia moved to adjourn the meeting. This was seconded and approved by council.

Don led the Lord’s Prayer to close the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Patrick G. Freestone

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AppendixMeeting Minutes.........................................................................................................................................1

DEVOTIONS..............................................................................................................................................1

CALL TO ORDER.......................................................................................................................................1

DEVOTIONS..............................................................................................................................................1

MAP PROJECT GOAL SETTING..................................................................................................................1

PRESENTATION OF MINUTES...................................................................................................................1

COMMITTEE REPORTS.............................................................................................................................2

NEW BUSINESS/CORRESPONDENCE........................................................................................................2

OTHER BUSINESS.....................................................................................................................................2

NEXT COUNCIL MEETING.........................................................................................................................2

ADJOURNMENT AND PRAYER..................................................................................................................2

Appendix.....................................................................................................................................................3

PASTORAL REPORT..................................................................................................................................4

SOCIAL MINISTRY.....................................................................................................................................6

TECHNOLOGY..........................................................................................................................................8

WORSHIP & MUSIC..................................................................................................................................9

PROPERTY..............................................................................................................................................10

STEWARDHIP.........................................................................................................................................11

CEMETARY.............................................................................................................................................12

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.........................................................................................................................13

EVANGELISM.........................................................................................................................................14

FINANCE MINUTES................................................................................................................................15

FINANCE REPORT...................................................................................................................................18

TREASURERS REPORT............................................................................................................................21

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PASTORAL REPORTPastor’s Report

13 September 2017

1. August 11-12, St. Paul’s team attended a training for Creating Congregational Cultures of Generosity. Myself, Michael Ashburn, Bill Wagner, and Kevin Clouse attended. Over the course of two days, we learned about methods for increasing generosity, financial and otherwise. We created a rough plan to be presented to the stewardship committee, including topics and methods for our cottage dinners.

2. Stewardship Cottage Dinners will begin this weekend. Many thanks to Carol Hammarberg for her front-end organization, and to Carolyn and Michael Ashburn for hosting our training dinner. I look forward to the conversations and excitement these are sure to create!

3. Much of August was spent in planning our many activities that kick-off in early September:a. Confirmation begins September 17. This year we will have 9 ninth graders and two

eighth graders.b. Women’s Christian Fellowship beings on September 21. We will begin with a series on

Exodus. c. New things will be happening in worship this fall, including a Narrative Communion on

November 12, All Saints’ pictures on November 5, and new Advent series “Prayer around the Cross”

d. Our Youth Group will begin having monthly meetings in October for fellowship, learning, and service. We will start with a game/sundae night and discussion of what the youth would like to do throughout the year.

e. Our youth will have an opportunity to travel to Houston for the triennial National Youth Gathering. Planning for this will begin with an information session on September 28 th.

4. Rally Day was once again a huge success! Thanks to all who helped organize our events from Social Ministry and Evangelism, to our sexton Dave Curry for all of his help. We packaged 10,000 meals to help fight hunger around the world, heard from our youth about their summer service trip, and had a wonderful picnic together.

5. The stewardship committee will be hosting a luncheon on September 24, focusing on end of life issues. Presenters will include Bill Frey (living wills), Michael Ghelardi from Thrivent (life and long-term care insurance), Roger McKinney from Chadwick McKinney Funeral Home, and a presentation on St. Paul’s cemetery.

6. Thanks to Anita Engh, we will now be serving Fair Trade Coffee at coffee hour. After researching the costs, we decided to order from Equal Exchange. We also have a supply of coffee and tea to sell to members as well. (And the new coffee is specifically ground for percolators, so it should taste better, too!)

7. Meetings/Events Attended: Creating Congregational Cultures of Generosity; Garden Check; Women’s Dinner; Garden Planting; Pub Theology; Worship and Music; Youth Group; Training Dinner

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8. Hospital Visits: 3; Other Visits: 4

9. Attendance: 8/6: 758/12: 908/20: 808/27: 99

Respectfully submitted,Laura M. Tancredi

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SOCIAL MINISTRYNo report this month.

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TECHNOLOGY

St. Paul’s Technology Committee Report – August, 2017

Members: Patrick Freestone, Michael Cassidy, Beth McElvenney, Belle Miller

Meeting: There was no meeting in June or July. The current plan is to regroup on the website after input from council.

Ongoing:

Troubleshooting audio issue with video streaming. I’ve come to a point where I’m giving up on the audio working from the camcorder we have. Our options seem to be:

o Purchase a separate microphone for the balcony and connect it to the Cerevo (not sure how good the sound quality will be).

o Contract a company to wire the speaker in the balcony into the Cerevo.o Purchase a nicer camcorder that is easier to use.

Consolidate duplicate Flickr accounts and get Beth McElvenney set up to contribute photos

Upcoming:

Pursue website redesign proof-of-concept. Pursue finding webmaster for site content. Set up centralized credential management.

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WORSHIP & MUSICThe Worship and Music Committee met on August 29, 2017.  Plans were made for Reformation Sunday and the Advent Dinners.  The Advent dinners will be held on Tuesday evenings instead of Wednesday evenings.  Additionally, the Committee discussed and approved the Narrative Holy Communion service scheduled for November 12, 2017.  On November 4th, the Committee will meet to clean out and organize the 3rd floor storage area where the Christmas and Easter directions are stored.  The following dates were confirmed:  December 10th, Lessons and Carols; December 16th, decorate church; December 17th, Children’s Pageant. Currently, for December 24th, we are looking at one service in the morning and then the 3 Christmas Eve services in the evening.  The Committee has selected a couple of flagons to replace the one currently used as the flagon is on loan from another church.  Pastor Laura is pricing our selections and we should have more to report at the next meeting.  Also, the Altar Committee is researching prices to purchase new communion napkins and cloths for baptisms. 

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PROPERTY

The Property Committee did not meet in August but will be meeting on Monday, September 18. A few updates:

·         The Large Farmhouse front porch rebuilding is in progress. The shingling of the porch roof can commence upon completion of the porch structure. Painting of house exterior woodwork including all windows and doors is complete.·         An issue was identified regarding the cleaning of the kitchen stove. Dave cleaned the stove and the warming oven in preparation for the September 17 cooking team. 

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STEWARDHIPSaturday evening, September 9th, Michael and Carolyn Ashburn hosted a dinner for the seven families who will be hosting the cottage dinners.  The purpose of the dinners is to provide opportunities for fellowship and discussion about the vision for St. Paul's.    The dates for the dinners are:September 15, 16,  ( 17 at noon after church) , 22, 23, and 29 at about 6:00 in the evening.

The dinners were successful last year with many people suggesting we do it again this year.  Invitations were sent out 3 weeks ago asking people to respond so the hosts can plan.  At this date we have had a slow response so  we have begun making calls reminding people to sign up.

The Stewardship committee is sponsoring a forum on life planning with a lunch provided by Thrivent Financial on Sunday, September 24 following the second service.

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STAFF PERSONNELStaff Personnel

St. Paul’s Council Report – Sept. 13, 2017

Staff Personnel Members: Libby Anderson, Carolyn Ashburn, Bill Frey, Vicki Sack

Mutual Ministry members – Carolyn Ashburn, Jason Baxter, Melissa Gale, Ingrid Gustafsson, Frank Roth

Completed:

Staff Personnel met on Sept. 7. All were present, plus Paul DeLomba Sr., previous Staff Personnel chair. We discussed how salary recommendations have been determined in the past.

Job descriptions have been completed for all staff. We will ask staff to review the descriptions, make any necessary adjustments, and then distribute final copies.

Ongoing:

Before our Oct. meeting, if Pastor Laura concurs, we will ask staff to complete a short survey to assess how St. Paul’s can best support each individual in his or her job.

We are updating a draft of a Compensation Policy that Paul DeLomba wrote in 2015. We are preparing our salary recommendations for budget consideration by end of

October.

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CEMETARYNo report this month.

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CHRISTIAN EDUCATIONNo report this month.

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EVANGELISMSt. Paul’s Evangelical Committee Report – August 2017

Members: Stephenie Yeung, Barbara Parman, Kristin Simmons

Meeting: The Committee met and discussed by email the project to update the church directory. We also organized and coordinated the Rally Day picnic.

Ongoing:

Rally Day Picnic:The picnic was a success due to our members’ participation and generosity in bringing a variety of goodies.

Church directory update:Dates for photography sessions have been set up with LifeTouch. Photographers will be set up in Fellowship Hall on October 19, 20, and 22 as well as November 3-5. LifeTouch is sending us materials to be inserted into the bulletin. They also offer an online sign-up that will make managing time slots easier.

The committee will reach out to members to remind them to sign up. We will also reach out to volunteers who may be able to help out on the photography days (greeting and checking paperwork).

Upcoming:

Prepare for photography sessions with Lifetouch

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FINANCE MINUTES

Finance Committee Minutes

September 12, 2017

Members Attending: Bob Ertner, Bill Henderson, Don Parman, Waneta Peart, Evelyn Reider

1. Review of August receipts and expenses

The committee had an extensive discussion around the several financial reports for August, including appropriate treatment of bequests and movement of funds from the Citizens Bank checking account to the endowment fund account at Vanguard. Evelyn described her progress in learning the Shepherd’s Staff accounts system and the office processes around that software package. Overall the congregation’s financial condition remains strong and year-to-date operating results are roughly breakeven.

2. Investment results

Bill Henderson provided August month-end balances for the endowment and perpetual care funds. Bill renewed his suggestion that council members be canvassed for potential endowment fund requests before decisions are taken to reallocate cash to other investments.

3. 2016 Audit Committee

Don proposed that the committee recommend to council that the 2016 audit committee be comprised of Jim Van Horn, Gail Ruehr and Evelyn Reider. Although Evelyn is presently training to support the accounting function, she had no role in the accounts for 2016 and would have no conflict in auditing that fiscal year.

4. Development of 2018 budget

Following discussion there was consensus that the budget be developed on the expectation that the percentage of the three-year average of the Endowment Fund be reduced in light of higher year-end balances in 2016 and 2017 with the goal of moving toward a more sustainable level (3% to 5%). Council members will be invited to request budget increases as appropriate to support the church’s missions. Congregational input should be forthcoming from the cottage dinners organized by the Stewardship Committee and an open Finance Committee meeting in October.

5. Open committee meeting

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The committee agreed that the October meeting be open to the congregation and held on one of the first three Sundays in October. As was the case last year, meetings will held after each service.

Next meeting: October open meeting

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FINANCE REPORT

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TREASURERS REPORT

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