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Vestry Minutes

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




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