Council Members Present: Airin Cherian, Vicar Judy Converse, Beverly Dougherty, Pastor Ross Goodman, Sergia Hay, Jen Nahn, Mark Olson, Dana Ramish, Cindy Reuter, Alison Roberts, Brian Sniffen.
Absent: Darcie Sunnerberg, Marilyn Waehler.
A quorum is gathered and we come together in God’s name at 7:30 pm. A candle is lit to remind us that Christ is present with us as we meet.
The agenda is accepted.
The minutes of February’s council meeting are accepted as amended.
We respond to the Book of Faith Initiative’s question about the community of the church and our role as individuals.
Dana Ramish then leads a devotion on 1 John 1:1–4 and the joy of spreading the Gospel, and the embarrassment of doing so in the modern world. Next month Alison Roberts will lead devotions.
We sing Christ, the life of all the living (339). The text has been modified to replace a line-ending “thee” with “you.” Changes propagate to rhyming lines, removing the correspondence of poetry with music.
Mark Olson leads us in prayer.
We’re behind about $2500 in contributions for the year, and also coming to the end of Metropcs’ pre-payment from last year. They should now be paying regularly.
We did not properly budget for Pastor Goodman’s Social Security allowance. It was used to calculate fringe benefits paid to the Synod, but the sum itself was not then included in his budgeted compensation. We’ll be making this up out of money budgeted for a Christian Education Director, since that role likely won’t be filled until May.
We went negative in P2, Youth Ministry. The problem was mis-communication about the need for youth funds. The council allocated money for a trip to New Orleans in July, some of which was then spent for various other youth trips.
Ken Heyda is no longer reconciling the Church’s accounts. Cindy, Mark, and Bev will ask the audit committee members to take up this task.
Move to transfer $2,241.74 from Q4 Lilly Grant to P3 Youth Ministry ($1,037.37) and P7 Spiritual Nourishment ($1,204.37) to close out the Lilly Grant account. moved, seconded, carried.
The Social Ministry committee requests $2000 from N7 to support the Eighth Annual Walk for Affordable Housing in Arlington. The walk will be held on April 26. It is run by the Housing Corporation of Arlington (hca).
A $2000 donation puts St. Paul at the “Supporter” level and will include the following:
A “Company logo” on items distributed to Walk participants and on a banner of sponsors displayed at the event. A “Company name” will appear on hca Walk brochures and flyers and in the Walk sponsor section of hca’s 2009 newsletter.
The committee notes that they prefer to provide quiet support and ministry, but the inclusion of St. Paul on the Walk materials will hopefully satisfy the requests they continue to hear that Social Ministry be more public about the support provided by St. Paul.
A bit of background on hca:
Since 1986 hca has helped hundreds of low-income residents live affordable in our community. This year, hca is pleased to announce that they will purchase and rehab ten additional apartments in Arlington.
In addition to owning and operating what will be 58 affordable apartments, hca also administers Arlington’s Homelessness Prevention Fund that assists residents with grants for back rent, security deposits and moving costs to prevent homelessness in our community.
In 2008 the Walk for Affordable Housing raised over $30,000.
More information on hca is available at http://www.housingcorparlington.org/.
Move for St. Paul to contribute $2000 from N7 to support the 8th Annual Walk for Affordable Housing in Arlington. moved, seconded, carried.
Resolution on support for program to make elca materials available in Braille and large print
Move for St. Paul to adopt the Resolution on support for program to make elca materials available in Braille and large print. moved, seconded, carried.
The lease will begin on 1 April. lss is now asking to rent Hillside House, the large meeting room, the Intern office, and the meditation room. As this squeezes us into rather less of the space we have available, it encourages us to more intensely use the rooms we keep. We’re considering better furnishings for the waiting area outside the offices, and for several of the classrooms. To compensate the Korean congregation for the space we’re taking from them we’ll enlarge the common room into the Fellowship Hall.
Improvements and changes we need to make to accept lss as a tenant:
We’ve also talked about the acoustics of the Fellowship Hall. Alison suggests doing that work at the same time as the wall in that Hall.
Beverly moves to create a dedicated account to hold $500 of lss’s rent for Hillside House per month to cover the costs of fixing up the house to lss specifications. moved, seconded, withdrawn.
Thrivent funds may help offset some of these repair and upkeep costs. Perhaps we can put a plaque for some of the recently departed members of the congregation, designating the new furnishings (and the rooms they’re in) as a memorial.
The lift in the parking lot is from at&t, who are working on a new cross with larger, more modern antennas and 3g wireless. They’ve offered $1000 per month.
Clearwire has also asked about Wi-Max antennas on the roof.
Helena Ritzkowski went to see a talk by Greg Mortinson, the author of recent Congregational read Three Cups of Tea. His daughter has a charity called Pennies For Peace (http://penniesforpeace.org/). Helena asks for Council permission to collect pennies for the Pennies For Peace charity on Church property. We encourage Helena to present this to the Social Ministry committee.
The council supports Helena Ritzkowski’s request to run the Pennies for Peace fundraiser for six weeks at the church. moved, seconded, carried.
Cindy brings a congregational concern that there’s a noted asymmetry in the coffee hour contributions. Mark will talk to Diane about putting some of the new folks onto the roster, particularly on teams that could use more help.
We have three active searches right now: Director of Christian Education, Minister of Music, and Attendant of Nursery. Vicar Converse and Sergia will be at a career fair at Harvard Divinity School this month.
Colleen Henry’s appointment as interim minister of music expires a few days after Easter.
Our sexton may be leaving in October.
Six groups are meeting regularly. Vicar Converse reports that the program’s going wonderfully.
The Christian Education committee has sent a suggested policy document to the council. This document was adapted from a large Lutheran church in California. There are many questions and comments, so the issue is held til next meeting.
Beverly informs us that we’re not in compliance with our insurance without a policy on some matter related to this. The insurance policy’s requirement is not directly available.
Judy will follow this up with Eric Sunnerberg, and return next month with compiled questions and notes.
There are new purchase order forms available in the copy machine room. Please do not use old purchase orders. The new ones have been modified to fit with this years budget.
Tellers, please remember not to shut down the computer after you have finished counting on Sunday. It must be on to be used remotely by the Treasurer.
Vicar Converse is halfway through her internship. She’s enjoying her time with this community and will find it very hard to leave in six months.
Pastor Goodman is feeling some of the stresses of having only one pastor. He’s most nervous about leaving town for even a few days and failing to minister to the families of the congregation. Over the next years we should expect that some Sunday services will have our intern and a local pastor presiding. One will be coming next week, as he goes to spend some time caring for his father.
Alison Roberts leads us in prayer.
Pastor Goodman gathers us in prayer and leads communion at 10:00pm.
Respectfully submitted, Brian Sniffen
_________________________________________
Next regular council meeting: 9 April 2009 at 7:30 pm.