2008 Approved Minutes

Year 2008 Approved Minutes
December 09, 2008

The meeting was attended by the following council members: Tom Huss, Joel Kratzer, Nathan Abele, Bev Cook-Finley, Orin Sheumaker, Pastor Muller, Jon Olsen, Pam Huson-Douglas, Vicar Ramona, Myron Miller, Alan Hiscox, and guest Joan Miller.

The meeting started at 7:45 PM with devotions lead by Pastor Tim. He lit a candle to make us think of what darkness is for us. Things like reluctance to change by the congregation; finances; growth of the church; what we can do; what we are willing to do; getting people to have passion to be involved; sad for the Booher Class not succeeding; division between services. He then talked about bright things like: Jesus Loves Us; new people attending church; the church being full of people this evening; change is happening; an opportunity to have a Christian education time; and passion to reach out to others.

Joel submitted a written financial report. Orin made a motion to accept the report as submitted. Jon seconded the motion and it passed. Alan reported that the 2009 envelopes are in and ready to be distributed. Jon announced that the budget is ready and that there will be opportunities for the congregation to review it after each service for several weeks.

Property presented a selection of snow removal contracts. Joel moved to select Schoenenburger as the snow removal contractor for 2009. PJ seconded the motion and it passed.

Insurance policy is due for renewal. Discussion was tabled until the replacement value of church linens can be determined. Jon volunteered that Nancy can research the value of the linens. Information is needed to determine if $16,000 is a sufficient amount to replace paraments and altar linens.

The nominating committee has met and some names have been received. The committee chairs have been asked to help recruit names. On December 14th there will be an announcement in the bulletin asking people to come foreword or submit names to the nominating committee. Pastor Tim handed out a list of tasks that need to be done at Ascension. After review, he feels that there is a need to keep Congregational Life with sub groups of Fellowship, Friends in Christ and Stewardship.

Pastor Tim discussed Sundays at Ascension. Two clear options have come from the discussion sessions. These will be presented in a survey to the congregation in preparation for a decision at the Annual meeting. The options are the same time periods, 8:45 AM service, 10:00 AM educational period, and 11:15 AM service. The differences are which time the contemporary and traditional services will be held. The survey will have the two choices plus an option of no preference. The survey will also ask which service they currently attend. The survey will be in the January Chi Rho and bulletins for the December 21st and 29th services. All surveys are due back by January 4, 2009.
Beliefs and Values discussion was tabled until the next meeting.

Organ dedication date was set for February 22, 2009, with an evening concert featuring past organists.

Meeting was concluded with the Lord’s Prayer at 9:35 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Myron Miller

October 14, 2008

Those in attendance were: Tom Huss, Joel Kratzer, Jon Olsen, Pam Huson-Douglas, Allan Hiscox, Melinda Andersen, Joan Miller, Nathan Abele, Pastor Tim, Bev Cook-Finley

Pastor Tim presented devotions. He discussed how political campaigns may be compared to evangelism in terms of motivation.

There were no minutes of the last council meeting presented as Myron Miller was absent.

Joel gave the treasurer’s report. He pointed out the paragraph summary on his report, indicating that member giving is very close to what was projected and that there is an operating deficit of $26,184 through the first nine months of 2008. He asked that committee spending be as frugal as possible. Joel also shared information concerning a recommendation for a mortgage relief fund drive.

Jon presented a report from the Finance Committee.   He said that the committee meeting had been well attended. He stated that a “personal touch” with a talk during a church service at some point may be needed about finances, in addition to information in the ChiRho. He pointed out the need for a mortgage reduction campaign. He stated that the church had had such a campaign in 1998, and that one had been successful. Jon said that the church needs to stay out of debt, reduce expenses, and gain more income. It was determined that Joel would put a brief statement related to church finances in the bulletin and ChiRho.

Allan said that giving amounts are now posted through September 30th and that third quarter statements would be mailed out. Envelopes for next year are ordered. The numbers on the envelopes for members will have to be changed since there were too many envelope sets ordered before. He wants members to be encouraged to pick up their envelopes to save the cost of mailing

Nathan presented his report, which included a list of projects that are needed at the church. Joel said that he will need some cost figures to prepare the annual budget.

Pastor Tim discussed the upcoming events for Reformation Sunday on October 26th. Myron will head the dinner organization. Tom volunteered to provide the tableware.
Pastor Tim said that a mailing would go out to share the data about Sunday morning suggestions from the meeting on Rally Day. The meeting on the 26th will follow a similar pattern as the Rally Day meeting, and then the Sunday topics would be brought up again at the annual meeting.   He said that a facility event worksheet could be helpful to know what all is needed previous to an event and who is responsible for various parts of set-up. He said there had been some confusion on Rally Day. Pastor Tim expressed some concern that the youth would be on a retreat on the day scheduled for the Ministry Fair. Melinda felt that was okay and said that there would still be representation for Youth at the fair.

Jon discussed office equipment. He said the copy machine had been purchased. A contract with Pitney Bows has been dropped. There is a slower, but effective folding machine. A new risograph is needed. He moved, and Joel seconded, that a new machine be purchased using undesignated memorial funds. The motion passed.

Joel asked if the church has ownership of all software used and said that all software should be kept locked up.

It was reported that the chairs of the congregational life committee have resigned.

Melissa shared that a senior high choir is being formed. The young people will use ten to fifteen minutes of Sunday School time for practice.

The meeting was concluded with the Lord’s Prayer.

September 23, 2008 Special Council Meeting

The meeting started at 7:30 PM. In attendance were Tom Huss, Jon Olsen, Bev Cook-Finley, Nathan Abele, Vicar Ramona, Myron Miller and guest Jack Abele.

Jon presented a copy of the letter that was generated at the Council retreat last March. The letter identified council positions that are currently missing from the current council configuration. Those are Audit, Nominating/Leadership Development, Outreach and Membership Promotion, and Finance. The Finance committee has been recreated. It was determined that the next committee that should be established should be Nominating/Leadership Development. This committee is urgently needed and would populate the other committees. Bev pointed out that with the elections coming in January 2009, this committee needs to be established A.S.A.P. The committee will be made up of the following: Council Vice President, 2 outgoing council members, 4+ congregational members and a secretary. Members of the committee would not be eligible to run for council position. The committee will be required to submit to the council a list of candidates for election 6 weeks prior to the Annual Meeting. The approved ballot must be sent out to the congregation via first class mail 10 days prior to the Annual Meeting.

The length of term for council positions was also discussed. It was proposed that the council positions should be 2 years. The term would be one year as vice and one year as primary or chair of the committee. The office of Vice President and Council President would be the exceptions. They both would be for two years, with the Vice President moving into the office of Council President.

Committee Chairs need to be encouraged to seek their own vice chairs. Committee chairs need to be recruited for one year terms this election and vice chairs for the 2 year term plan, with the second year being the committee chair.

Leadership development training needs to be conducted early the year after the new council is elected.

The meeting was ended with the saying of the Lord’s Prayer.

Respectively,

Myron Miller

September 9, 2008

The meeting was attended by the following council members: Tom Huss, Joel Kratzer, Allan Hiscox, Nathan Abele, Bev Cook-Finley, Jeff Bushman, Orin Scheumaker, Ellie McKee, Pastor Muller, Jon Olsen, Melinda Andersen, Pam Huson-Douglas, Vicar Ramona, Myron Miller, and guests, Pastor Philip Barnehart, Sandy Nicholson.

Pastor Tim led devotions with a reading from Romans 14.

Synod representative Pastor Barnehart addressed council on behalf of the Synod. He thanked Ascension Lutheran Church for our past support and encourages the church to continue to support the Synod and ELCA. Fifty percent of our benevolence goes to the church at large, allowing the church to do more than it could alone. He stated that there is a booklet available that outlines how the monies are spent. Pastor presented a packet to Tom showing our giving history to the Synod, our attendance history, and a form to answer our challenge of giving for 2009. This is due back to the Synod by January 19, 2009. He also informed us that Pastor Terry has retired and gave a copy of a contact list to Jeff. Our main contact was listed as Darcy at 037-644-3303.

Jon made a motion to accept the minutes from August, with Allan seconding. The motion passed.

Finance report was presented by Joel. Joel stated that the report he distributed shows all deposits except a few from the Haimerl Center. Membership giving is up ½%, several large gifts have been received, the membership is responding as asked. The budget short fall is from a reduction in rental income. The finance committee will be meeting to look into the church’s finance position. Allan noted that giving for the first Sunday of the month was down, mainly due to it being a combined service. Orin made a motion to accept the report; it was seconded by Myron and passed unanimously.

Property report was given by Nathan. The utility bills were down $200-300 due to non-use of facility. The Haimerl center utility bills were up due to heating/cooling issues. That will be helped with installing programmable thermostats.

Jeff stated that he needed at a minimum a sexual harassment policy and a computer use policy in place. Bev provided reviews of the policies discussed at last council meeting. Jeff will rework his policy proposals and resubmit them for the next council meeting. Joel asked if our current physical security is active or passive, and if changes have been made. Jeff responded that we need to determine what our priority is, active or passive. Do we want cameras and mag locks to include pre-school or just cameras? Cost can range from $19,000 to $8,000. Our current door card system has some significant drawbacks. It costs $35.00 per service visit, takes 2 days to get reports of entries, and is not tied into the alarm system so doors do not unlock automatically to allow fire fighter access. Tom made a motion asking for a review of church needs by finance committee with Jeff providing specific information on different systems to finance. Orin seconded the motion and it passed. It was decided that Tom, Nathan and Jeff would review the security needs of the church.

Religious Education report stated that the Sunday School curriculum was written by a team led by Pat Abele and Leigh Leonard. The confirmation class letters would be going out on the 12th. Orin thanked everyone for the great effort on Rally Day.

Pastor Tim asked for 29 minutes next meeting to review the survey results from the church Sunday options taken at Rally Day. Tina Sheer was correlating the responses.

PJ asked if the area around the Haimerl Center could be cleaned up to be more appealing. This would help with rental sales. Jeff responded that the current marketing plan is not working; most of current rentals are by work of mouth. He stated that majority of potential renters like the inside of the center, (it seems to be their primary concern), and the outside can be improved. The dumpsters can be enclosed and the gardens weeded. Jeff will get estimates to enclose the dumpsters.

Sandy Nicholson provided answers to questions about the proposed changes to the by-laws that were generated during her presidency. Much of those changes were for a church of larger size than the current congregation. Myron made a motion to have council meet on September 23, 2008 at 7:30 PM to discuss just these issues. Orin seconded and the motion passed.

PJ suggested creating a “So You Are In Charge” guide to assist volunteers and committee members in planning and conducting church events. It was noted that Celeste Schnabel was working on just a guide. This will help in conducting future church activities.

Jon discussed the stolen computer from Roz’s office. Joel made a motion to spend up to $700.00 from the Repair and Improvement Fund to replace the computer. Jon seconded the motion and it passed.

Myron made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:25 PM. Bev seconded the motion and it passed. The meeting ended with the Lord’s Prayer.

Respectively submitted,

Myron Miller