Report for Vestry Meeting on June 9th, 2016
We met at 6:30 for dinner, provided by Ashley and to share God moments. The whole Vestry was present with Lori, Ken, Elizabeth and Lynn. We were joined by John Kimber.
We started the meeting at 7:00 p.m. and the minutes were passed as amended. Lynn then presented the financial reports. She pointed out that the Schader fund had grown because of interest from CDs. The pledged amount is less than this time last year but the unpledged amount given is more. Lynn explained all line items that were different from the previous month.
John Kimber then addressed the vestry regarding Niles Rotary Foundation’s involvement in donations to the Little Church Fund. Community members make requests to Niles Rotary and those are seriously considered. The Little Church Committee received $5,000 towards renovations and Niles Rotary was promised updates on how the money is spent. However, no updates have been given, to John’s knowledge, to this point. John is requesting that an update be presented to Niles Rotary before July. John is recommending that St. James reapply for more grant money but that an update should be given before that. Bruce said that he would write up the progress so far; the Little Church Committee will provide an article for The Window with details. Meg asked when the granting committee is meeting in July and John was not sure. The Vestry thanked John for coming.
Lynn spoke on behalf of the Women’s Spirituality Group. Ken wrote a lovely article about a new ministry of care packages for the street outreach ministry. The Women’s group decided to work on this project. Lynn asked for approval of $190 to purchase toothbrushes, socks and deodorant. Lori asked that people not bring toilet paper or food items, just the requested items like shampoo, soap and other toiletries. Lori thanked the Women’s Spirituality Group.
Bruce reported on the termite situation. An inspection was completed yesterday including the core samples from the roof over the sacristy. No rodents were found anywhere and no termites were found anywhere. He recommended that we watch the areas that were previously treated. The door into the janitor’s closet had termites and they will return to eliminate them. There were termites under the floor in the parish hall. Bruce recommended to extend the $681 warranty. Lynn said that we should put this amount in the operating budget in the future but that this year we will take it out of the building fund. Lori suggested tableing it until July.
We moved onto a conversation about stewardship where Lori presented the statistics around the pledging income of the parish. Lori pointed out that it is the Vestry’s responsibility to oversee the stewardship plan of the church and financial health of the parish. Vestry members asked questions trying to absorb and process the information. The Vestry will meet to discern our own positions. We discussed the fall stewardship event as an educational as well as a celebration. Vestry decided to meet on July 10th at 4:00 p.m. at Vivienne’s house for a discussion and dinner.
Mary Casas has asked to step down from paying the bills at the end of the year. Lynn Locker has also asked to step down from being the treasurer at the end of 2016. As a result, Lori looked into having a bookkeeper. This would incur an extra cost in the budget, it is an hourly rate of $40-$50 per hour and we would need 2-3 hours per week. The total cost would be about $5,000 per year. We could ask the churches in Fremont who they use to do bookkeeping and hire from there. We could start with bill paying. We will ask Mary and Lynn to submit what they do as a basis for the job description. Lynn talked about Quickbooks; the cost of the new Quickbooks was reduced to $50.00 so the new one was installed and Quicken was also updated through Lynn’s license.
We then accepted the ministry and vestry reports with the correction of Elaine’s name.
The bylaws were then reviewed. We talked about the system for communication regarding Abode.
The meeting was adjourned and we celebrated Compline in the little church, led by Ashley.
~Vivienne Paratore, Jr. Warden