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Vestry Minutes

St. Martin’s Episcopal Church

Vestry Minutes

Thursday, May 15, 2008

 

 

The vestry met on Thursday, May 15, 2008.  Present:  Ginger Ambler, David Feldman, Lois Headden, Carolyn Ito, Senior Warden, Dani Jaworski, Andy McNeil , Sarah Noble, Gary Osborn, Junior Warden, Ed Pease, Shirley Smith Graham, Rector, Michael Terrien, Larry Williams, and Lloyd Woods, Treasurer.  Absent: Edith Edwards, Register and Doug Finch.

The meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m. by Gary Osborn, Junior Warden.

The opening prayer was given by Sarah Noble.

NURTURE:  Shirley Smith Graham thanked the vestry for giving her the opportunity to attend a Spiritual Retreat.  She framed her time on a five point model.  The point that she shared with the vestry was that “Love is the house that God built”.  Then she reflected on those who share this love at St. Martin’s.  She feels that St. Martin’s is the house that love built.  Among those mentioned were Barbara Faubert, Vicki Hall and Lloyd Woods who handle all the financial issues and the Sunday School teachers and all those who work with our youth.  Shirley invited the vestry to focus on those that show love for St. Martin’s.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:  Shirley Smith Graham stated that Miles Riley’s name was omitted as a 2008 delegate to Diocese of Southern Virginia Annual Council.  A motion was made and carried that the Vestry Minutes of April 17, 2008 be approved as corrected.  Lois Headden will make sure that these corrections are given to Edith Edwards.

RECTOR’S REPORT:  Shirley reported:

     A.  Shirley said that she is tired and getting ready for her vacation (June 17 - June 30).

     B.  Her joy is that she now has the time to attend  the Finance Committee meetings.  She    feels that the vestry and Finance Committee need to clarify the role of the Finance Committee so that each group can interact with each other better.

     C.  In the ten months that Shirley has been here she has done eleven funerals.  She thinks that this increased volume will continue and she is proud to be a part of a parish that cares.

     D.  On Saturday, May 24th St. Martin’s will take the Bruton Parish’s van to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for Sven vanBaars ordination.

     E.  Shirley shared with the vestry some thoughts from her personal retreat.  She feels that she  is exactly where she needs to be.

     F.  Shirley has done an informal survey and discovered that the two most important and well attended events in the past year have been Planning Your Celebration of Life and Pickett   Miles’ Adult Forum on Finding Spirituality in Sailing.

JUNIOR WARDEN’S REPORT:  Gary Osborn reported:

    A.  Gary announced that there will be a work day on Sunday, May 25 following the 11:00 o’clock service.  He felt that the work day projects should not take any more than an hour and a half.  At the work day he hopes we can tackle five specific project:

               1.  Brush out of wooded areas - trim behind parking lot fence.

                2.  Clean up Tim Johnson’s old office.

                3.  Repair parking lot fence.

                4.  Clean out shed.

                5.  Re stack “gray” wood

           

            Gary will also use the workday as an opportunity to recruit a cadre of people to be on call  for needed maintenance tasks.  He will need two or three people per week once every six or eight weeks depending on how many volunteers he gets.  

     B.  Gary reported that Terry Adair is soliciting bids for a handicapped friendly walkway to  provide access to the Bell Tower Memorial Garden.  He has received one for $3600. These funds would come out of The Bell Tower Memorial Garden Fund but Gary felt

           that the vestry must approve the expenditure of these funds.  This walkway would be

           from the choir area of the Sanctuary to the Memorial Garden.

 

     C.  Lois Headden asked Gary where we were with the document that explained the fees,   rules, etc. for the Memorial Garden.  Gary explained that this had been put on hold but

           that they needed to be revisited and redefined.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT:  Lloyd Woods reported that April was a pretty good month.  We  have taken in $54,000 more in revenue than expenses for the year-to-date.  He did remind the vestry that $36,000 of this amount is in prepaid pledges.  Lloyd is hoping that we can break even at the end of the year.  Non-pledge income is down but probably because these people are now pledging.

 

Carolyn Ito asked Lloyd if the Finance Committee had found a place to fund the chairs.  A question was raised as to whether the chairs had ben ordered.  Lloyd said there was an account where money could be used to fund this expense.

 

VESTRY COMMITTEE REPORTS:

     A.  Memorial Gifts Committee:  Mike Terrien asked Shirley if she could encourage this  committee to meet because it has been a year since the Memorial Gifts Committee has  met.  Shirley will meet with Mike Terrien to figure out what the task of this committee is because she felt that the committee might be unclear about what their task is.

 

      

 

     B.  Bell Tower Memorial Garden Committee:  Gary Osborn reported that Terry Adair does a  lot of good work in the Memorial Garden and everything is fine.  Gary doesn’t see a need  for this committee to meet.  Shirley asked Gary to stay on top of what is being done about  the handicap ramp.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

     A.  Employee Policies and Procedures:  Shirley distributed this document to vestry members  and asked that they trust the work that the committee did with this document.  She wanted

          Vestry members to take this document home with them to review and be ready to adopt it  at the June Vestry meeting.  If there are any questions email them to Shirley, Cindy Jordan  or the wardens.

 

           Shirley hopes that in the next six months to see a Policy of Building Use.  Lois Headden will check with Cindy Jordan to see where we are with this document.

 

OLD BUSINESS:  The teams reported on their vision points work.  Each Vision Point had a goal, explanation of where they were now and action steps which included who each step was assigned to, the resources needed and the projected time line.

 

     A.  Plan faithfully for our future, building upon our legacy of hope, love, care and faith                 (Dorsey, Ed, David, Larry, Doug)

 

             1.  Goal:  Determine projected space needs for the next 20 (?) years and develop  expansion plans accordingly.

             2.   Where are we now?

                       a.  Describe maintenance issues of current zigzag building

                               40+ years old building with flat roof and wooden siding in poor condition

                               No central heating and air conditioning, and 1960's vintage electrical wiring

                               and panels

                       b.  Describe current usage constraints within zigzag building

                               Marginal usage as office or meeting rooms

                               Disjoined from main facility, poor accessibility

                       c.  Describe problems and/or issues with how our current parish hall is utilized

                       d.  Describe needs for education, music, spiritual development, etc.

              3.  Action Steps:

                        a.  Review past building process of Parish Hall

                        b.  Assess parish financial resources

                        c.  Develop a plan for the Parishes future space needs

                        d.  Develop architectural and site options

Shirley pointed out that the first thing needed was a Need Assessment Plan.

 

David Feldman asked at what point is it appropriate to appoint a Building Committee.  Ed Pease felt that we need to deal with the existing facilities and that architectural and site issues are last.

Shirley felt that a Building Committee should consist of ten or less members.  Some people

suggested for this committee were Kent James, Doug Finch, Gary Osborn.  As part of this process the staff and COOP should be contacted to define their needs for the next five years.

 

The most important thing  for the vestry to do is decide how big do they want St. Martin’s to be.

 

     B.  Equip and challenge ourselves and one another to minister joyfully and faithfully to all who join our journey of discipleship (Shirley, Ginger, Andy)

 

              1.  Goal:  Expand programs and participation so that more people in our congregation are ministered to (outside of Sunday morning worship) and so that more people in our congregation are ministering.

              2.  Where are we now:  Shirley and the Pastoral Care committee have been examining   how to continue to provide weekly pastoral care for acute cases(small Pastoral Care    Associates PCA group) while also providing more training to the large PCA group and recruiting more people to be involved in the large PCA group so that the  increasing number of long-term needs can be supported.  Regarding Information  Technology, Andy McNeil has begun an assessment of our information management and distribution needs.

             3.  Action Steps:

                     a.  Expand Pastoral Care program to involve more people and provide   more training to the people involved

$          Ask Finance Committee whether funds can be appropriately found for 2008   expense

$            Identify train the trainer folks

$            Send train the trainer folks to training (August or later)

$            Communicate opportunity for training among the congregation; recruit    new volunteers

$            Work with other Williamsburg churches and/or Bruton to provide our own    trainings

$             Establish the program for the volunteers

                    b.  Assess Information Technology needs.  Identify funds and resources needed   Make recommendation to the vestry.  

 

Shirley reported that there is a large number of long term health care issues in the parish right now.

Andy reported that he has met with Tim to assess Information Technology that we now have.  He is working on a report that he should have by the June Vestry meeting.  He is looking at the best way to handle getting information out (those with computers and those without).

 

     C.  Be faithful and grateful stewards of all that God has given us by nurturing and                         sharing our gifts and talents.  (Sarah and Shirley) 

 

              1.  Goal:  Develop a year-round stewardship approach that utilizes time, talent and  treasure and engages the congregation’s (and the community of Williamsburg’s)  involvement at multiple points during the year.

              2.  Where are we now:  The Stewardship Committee is in the final stage of developing a  3-point charter 1) Fall pledge campaign,  2) endowment(for planned giving), and 3)

                   the time and talent inventory (survey).  Currently, increasing the making and distributing community meals is not in the stewardship charter and should be implemented through another group.  Currently, there is no art guild, so that activity  has to be built from the ground up and, ideally, find a sponsoring group within St. Martin’s.

              3.  Action Steps:

$                Finish developing the 3-point charter and implement these three areas 

$                To increase diocesan giving, put minimum increase (1% by resolution of

               of 2008 Council) in 2009 budget and increase income to meet the increased  $ need. (Carolyn Ito thought that this was a 2% increase and Shirley will  check on this

$                Continue to increase the number of meals we provide and distribute through three channels:

                                         From His Hands Ministry (Grove)

                                         Thanksgiving and Easter Meals (Kerry Armbruster)

                                         Quarterly parish meals after church on Sunday morning (Fellowship)

$                                           Form an art guild to define new community outreach events, schedule  performers, provide budget, do publicity and do event production

 

     D.  Plan faithfully for our future, building upon our legacy of hope, love, care and faith

           (Dani, Lois, Mike)

 

            Dani reported that the goals were to identify the interest of parishioners.  Determine the  cost of activities.  The space available for functions/activities.  One of the biggest goal  is to find means of transportation for activities plus attendance at Sunday services.  Shirley explained that there is a real need now for transportation for our elderly members.

            Some ideas were to have families adopt people from Chambrel.

 

            Mike Terrien reported that all our children are now working in some area of the church.

 

IMPORTANT DATES:

 

$               Sven’s ordination as a transitional deacon, May 24, 10:30 a.m., Washington National   Cathedral

$               Parish workday (“Blue Jean Sunday”) May 25

$               Sven vanBaars (and Jen Kimball’s) visiting day June 1, meet them at the Sunday School Celebration at 10:00 a.m. in Miles Hall

$               Shirley’s vacation: June 17-30

$               Yard Sale (benefitting outreach and youth pilgrimage), June 28

 

CLOSING PRAYER:  Dani Jaworski read a true story entitled “What Is Heaven Like” written by a 17 year old boy who was killed in an accident two weeks later.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.  The next meeting of the vestry will be June 19, 2008.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Lois Headden, Vestry Member

                               





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