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St. Martin's Episcopal Church | ![]() |
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church
Vestry Minutes
Thursday, October
18, 2007
In attendance
were vestry members: Ginger Ambler, Sandy Dunton, David Feldman, Melinda Hagaman, Lois Headden, Carolyn Ito,
Kent James, Sarah Noble, Richard Reeves, Dorsey Smith and Michael Terrien. Also attending were Shirley Smith Graham,
rector; Edith Edwards, register; and Lloyd Woods, treasurer. Absent: Douglas Finch, Cindy Jordan, Gary
Osborn
The meeting was
called to order at 6:45 p.m. by Kent James, Warden. We used the discussions at dinner to replace
the personal check-in.
The meeting
opened with a meditation by David Feldman.
Spiritual
Nurture: Shirley used
a reading from Meditations for Vestry Members by Coleen McMahon.
The Minutes for
August and September were approved.
Budget
Report: Lloyd Woods
reviewed the preliminary budget report which had been sent to the Vestry. As is stated it is just a preliminary budget
and will change. The item for an
assistant clergy has been included in the no-growth budget. Sarah Noble thanked Lloyd for having the
preliminary budget ready in October. Shirley
would like to see us consider approving the budget in December. Kent agreed.
Kent said we should have a list of discretionary spending for the
November meeting and plan to approve the budget in December.
Treasurer’s
Report: Lloyd
estimates we will have to use $40,000 from savings for 2007 instead of the 97,000 projected in the
2007 budget.
Nominating
Committee Report for New Vestry Members: Sandy Dunton reported the following people have agreed to
have their names put in nomination at the annual meeting: Dani Jaworski, Gary
Osborn, Ed Pease, and Larry Williams.
She received additional names to contact. The names and biography need to be in the
office by October 26 in order to appear in the “Cloak.”
Delegates to
Council: The
delegates to council for February and October, 2008, will be John Dewhirst,
Gary Osborn, Marie Oberman, and Art Keller.
The alternates will be Ginger Ambler and Carolyn Ramage.
Assistant to
the Rector Search:
Shirley is starting the process of hiring an assistant in July. She will be working on job descriptions for
staff including a description for an assistant rector. She will interview four of Southern Virginia
graduates at Chanco next week.
Report on
Special Council:
Shirley reported that the meeting was orderly, inspirational and on
agenda. The program and budget committee
for the Diocese will recommend a voluntary assessment which will set the
standard at 10% of a parish’s budget.
Richard Reeves
said he has Greg Hilger and Al Wright to nominate for the Finance Committee. He hopes to get at least one other
person. He will contact the vestry by
email for approval.
Dorsey Smith
researched the cost of using a phone system that would automatically call up to
400 names and up to 32 sub-groups. A one
time cost would be $1294. The system is
called “Phone Tree 21.”
Mike Terrien
announced that all the YAC youths are helping out around the church by doing
various jobs including teaching Sunday School.
The following
reports were submitted in writing before the Vestry Meeting and are included
here:
Outreach–Carolyn Ito
The Outreach Commission met
concerning the financial crisis facing Vibrant Life Ministries. A
meeting of all supporting churches will be held at St. Martin's at 4:00 on
Tuesday, October 16. Vibrant Life has purchased four homes in the area
(no money down, just monthly mortgages.) Things are going well for those
being helped. The men are employed and pay rent. In
addition Vibrant Life would like to purchase the White Horse Motel.
The every-other-year Yard Sale will be
held in June, 2008. The two women who organized it last time will be
contacted to see if they wish to organize it again this year.
Ideas for four Outreach projects have
been mentioned to commission members. A form for Potential Projects for
Outreach is in development. The form will help folks with outreach ideas
to collect all the information necessary for the commission to make a decision
as to whether or not to adopt the project. The process for accepting a
project will include application, commission approval, rector approval, and
vestry approval if the project requires funding outside the current budget.
Individual Assistance Fund received
one request for $100.00 to defray an electric bill.
Stewardship–Sarah Noble
Role of the Rector for Stewardship –
Various members shared their opinions on the idea of Shirley leading the pledge
campaign. Kent mentioned that he had
discussed this with Shirley and that she was willing to act at the direction of
the Stewardship Committee. The consensus
of the committee was that Shirley should not be the director of the campaign
and should not be the person signing the initial pledge request letter. The following procedures were decided upon:
1. That the pledge letter be revised slightly with more “muscle”
added and actual pledge goal amount included.
2. That a copy of Shirley’s stewardship
sermon of October 14 be included with the letter, pledge card and
confidentiality envelope and the letter will be signed by Stewardship Committee
members and the Senior Warden.
3. That a second letter, this time from
Shirley, be considered after Ingathering Sunday, November 11, if there are
former pledgers who have not responded or whose pledges have significantly
decreased. The rationale for this is
that there may be life changes reflected in the pledge amount decreases that
Shirley can minister to, if she is made aware of them.
Preliminary Budget – Lloyd presented a
preliminary budget for 2008 showing what revenue would be needed for no growth
other than adding an assistant rector for six months (total revenue - $620,829
or 17% increase) and also a budget figure required for growth (total - $641,979
or 21% increase over 2007). Lloyd stated
that pledge income at St. Martin’s has been decreasing since 2002.
(NOTE:
Lloyd later clarified the budget figures for the committee so that the
letter of October 15 would have the correct figures for the pledged income
goal, which is $575,000. The remainder of the budgeted income reflects
loose plate, interest, dividends, etc.)
Volunteers for “Giving Minute” – John
presented a list of those people who will be speaking at each worship service
about pledging. Here are the names and
dates:
October 21 – 7:45 – John
Herringshaw;
9:00 – Ed/Emily Pease
11:00 – Ralph Cobb
October 28 – 7:45 – Gregg Hilger
9:00
– Dani Jaworski
11:00
– Linda Osborn
November 4 – 7:45 – Dick Orr
9:00 -
Mike Terrien
11:00
– Myrtle Engs
Format, Subjects and Volunteers for
Adult Forum – On October 14, Sarah will present St. Martin’s Past, with a slide
presentation and reflections from St. Martin’s “pioneers”. Rubye DeWitt will be present, as will Carolyn
Ito. Betsy Elliott and Al Wolfe have
been interviewed and have shared their reminiscences
with Sarah. Edith Edwards’ History of St. Martin’s will
be shared.
October 21 – St. Martin’s Present -
Lloyd Woods and Barb Faubert will follow “The Path of a Pledge”, showing what
happens after a pledge card is gathered in.
This will be a Q&A time, with typical questions discussed, as well
as questions from forum participants.
October 28 – St. Martin’s Future – I’m
a little fuzzy with this one. Do we want
to get into specifics about the assistant rector and actual building needs for
2008? Or look into the asset management
book that Shirley suggested? Or
something else? I can’t recall that we
made any definite plans for this session.
Speakers for November 4 Services from
the Committee –
7:45
– Kathy Whitehead
9:00
– No one from the committee attends this service – possibly ask one
of
the Amblers
11:00
– Joe Poole
The mechanics of getting the letter
out will involve using the copier at St. Martin’s and stuffing and labeling
envelopes. Sarah will check with Tim and
can help with the stuffing.
Worship & Music–David Feldman
The Worship Committee
is being re-formed (according to a recent phone conversation I had with
Phaedra) and David and I will meet with them on Wednesday, November
7.
Building and Grounds
Boiler should be back on-line end of
this week and failed Miles Hall hallway A/C unit has been replaced under
warranty.
Communication/Administration
Looking into the cost of a better
phone system. Will report back when the
research is complete.
Hospitality and Fellowship–Lois
Headden
We had three new families at the
reception on Sunday, October 14th. One other couple was one that had
worshiped with us a few years ago (Mike and Polly Foote). Carolyn Ito
reported on Outreach at St. Martin's; David Feldman talked about Music and
Worship and Sarah Noble talked about Stewardship of Time and Talent.
We have three new members of the
Newcomer's Committee: Barbara Buder, Doris Gibson and Shirley Saunders.
All those at the meeting on Monday
felt that the reception went well even though the attendance was small.
Beginning the first of the year there
will be a Newcomer Welcome Reception on the first Sunday of every month at
10:00 a.m.
Finance Committee
Lloyd reported that the Vestry and the
Rector have begun the search process for an assistant rector. The expectation is that this position will be
filled July 1. Lloyd said the 2008
preliminary budget reflects six months’ compensation expense for the assistant
rector. The Finance Committee concurs
with the recommendation of purchasing a fireproof storage cabinet (or cabinets)
rather than a safe for storing records and documents. Sarah will follow up on this with the Vestry
and the Bell Tower Memorial Garden Committee. Lloyd noted for the minutes that
the safe deposit box key that was and should be in the administrator’s files
cannot be located. The second key, which
is located in the financial files, is in place there. Lloyd is projecting a $35,000 deficit at the
end of 2007.
Barb predicted that most of the pledge
slippage will come in. Some 2008 pledges
have been received and the Vestry, Finance and Stewardship Committees are
challenged to bring their pledges in before the Ingathering on November
11. The audit report has been received
along with the management letter. There
has not been sufficient time for Lloyd to thoroughly review the audit material,
but the management letter is brief and appears to have no significant areas of
concern. Lloyd brought up the fact that capitalization of assets has not been
done since sometime in 2002-2003. He
recommends that St Martin’s capitalize items purchased for more than
$5000. This capitalization needs to be
done prior to the end of calendar year 2007.
It was voted that St. Martin’s reinstate the policy of capitalizing
items that cost in excess of $5000 rather than expensing them.
(End of written reports)
Warden’s Report: Kent thanked the Stewardship
committee for all they have done. He
also asked the vestry to look back at the goals set last year to see if they
have been reached
Rector’s report: The Celebration for Ministry service
has garnered some praises from the diocese.
People were impressed with the liturgical dance, the chanting done by
Nora Jackson and the variety of music.
Three letters of transfer in have been
processed.
The Meet and Greet meetings have been
very successful.
The Leadership from the Hearts
Sessions have about 12 people in attendance.
Shirley is leading this with the help of Anne Hearth.
The Diocese has a new web-site. There is also a new web-site for the bishop’s
search committee. People can make
suggestions about names for nomination for Bishop at that site.
Articles to be included in the “Cloak”
are the Annual Meeting, and the nominations for Vestry with brief biographies.
Shirley reviewed the “Norms, a pattern
for living.” Dorsey Smith said he
thought the written reports of areas of ministry were a good idea and followed
some of the norms, i.e. respect, open communication and respect for other’s
time.
Mike Terrien ended the meeting with a
reflection.
Meeting adjourned at 8:39 p.m.
Next meeting is on Nov. 15, 2007.
Respectfully submitted,
Edith Edwards
8/6-8/10: Vacation Bible School
9/9 Fall Schedule Begins 7:45,9 & 11am Services
Church Picnic –10 am Refreshments Avail after 7:45 & 11am9/16: Sunday School & Adult Forum Begin
9/23: Party at Chanco - Transportation Available
9/30: 5pm Celebration of New Ministry - Details soon