2016-05-12 Council Meeting Minutes

Meeting MinutesThe May Council Meeting of the Congregation Council of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ardmore, Pennsylvania was held on Thursday, May 12 at 7:15 pm in the Meeting Room.

CALL TO ORDERCarol Hammarberg called the meeting to order at 7:18pm. Council member attendance is captured in the table below:

Name Committee Chair Council Role Present AbsentBickert Ciarlello, Laura Social Ministry XClouse, Kevin Education XDeLomba, Paul Staff Personnel XDry, Daniel Property XErtner, Robert Financial Secretary XFreestone, Patrick Technology Secretary XHammarberg,Carol Stewardship Vice-President XHorn, Andrew Treasurer XMartin, Linda Worship and Music XNorquist, Josephine Evangelism XParman, Don Finance President XPierce, Louise Cemetery X

Also present were: Senior Pastor Harry W. McDowell II Pastor Laura Tancredi

DEVOTIONSPastor Laura provided devotions in relation to upcoming Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. She read a passage titled Prophetic Mission from Treasures Old and New: Images in the Lectionary. The passage was intended to help keep in mind all the places the Holy Spirit is acting in the world.

PRESENTATION OF MINUTESMOTION: Pat made the motion to approve the minutes from the prior meeting and the motion was seconded and approved by council.

COMMITTEE REPORTSCommittee Report

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Pastor (McDowell) Paster Skip had one addition to his report. Skip attended the closing ceremony of the Woman’s Christian fellowship. He noted that they have been little trouble and have donated ~$890 to St. Paul’s to use the space. He also provided thanks in advance for the farewell celebration. See Appendix for the full report.

Pastor (Tancredi) Pastor Laura wanted to draw attention to the MAP survey being completed. 49 people have completed it so far. There were concerns raised that we should tell people to not retake the survey if they have already taken it. However, since the survey is anonymous there is really no way to do this. See the Appendix for the full report.

Administration The synod assembly was attended by Carol and Pastor Tancredi:

They found that it was an interesting and low-key conference. The main speaker talked about the anniversary of Martin Luther’s

500th anniversary of the reformation. The Forward Together in Faith campaign was covered. All

churches will be involved in this process. The MAP is part of this. The Bishop announced that she is giving $10,000 to the campaign. The campaign is about doing extra ministry – trying to develop

new ministry and looking to develop younger pastors. The campaign is having some challenges raising capital because

it’s for an intangible cause (they are having trouble communicating what the money is being used for).

Technology Pat updated that he is working through issues with providing access to web site for Laura and Carisa to update it directly. See the Appendix for the full report.

Worship & Music Laura highlighted the talent show. She reminded that they are still in need of both acts and things to be auctioned off.

Josephine asked if we should advertise it outside the church. Barb Keyser is doing the advertising for this event. Laura is going to e-mail Barb and ask her to send Josephine material to advertise.

See Appendix for the full report.

Property Dan reported that the property committee had its first meeting in a while two weeks ago. The committee defined goals for the year. Stu and Dan are learning and coming up to speed. The committee is working on the large porch project, which was approved, the redo of the parsonage, and

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the carillon. One additional item is the condition of the sidewalks and whether we should replace some or all of the sidewalks. Louise mentioned that she had obtained quotes from 3 contractors about 6 months ago. Linda Martin should have those estimates. See the Appendix for the full report.

Stewardship Carol reported that there was no meeting this month. The committee is working on a project to start having cottage meetings. The purpose would be social – to get people in the congregation to get to know each other better. The events would be by invitation and the host would be doing the inviting.

Cemetery See appendix for the full report.Christian Education Evelyn Ryder joined the committee. The library has been receiving $200 a

year for 10 years specifically for children’s books. The committee is reaching out to the family if this $2,000 can be used for other related child education purposes (curriculum and DVDs). See the Appendix for the full report.

Evangelism One thing that came up after the report: People want to change the picture on the online directory. There is a link from the website to the directory. Questions regarding this:

Should we update it? If we do a large number of pictures, they update it for free. Laura recommended running a directory from an app. There

would be a lot of overhead – concern raised by Josephine. Laura said that maybe we could do both. There is a CD with the pictures from the last round of photos. Josephine is going to call and ask what we can do with the pictures. The other app Laura referenced is called Instant Church Directory. Lifetouch also has an app for accessing the directory. Josephine is going to look in to this.

See the Appendix for the full report.

Financial Secretary It is looking like a good revenue-collecting year so far. We were up from last year by ~$30K. See the Appendix for the full report.

Treasurer If pattern consists for the year, we may actually break even and not have to dip into the endowment. See the Appendix for the full report.

Finance Committee The committee is still working on a dashboard and shared an example with council. This is the main focus at this time. The plan is to have the

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dashboard be available to all members of the congregation. See the Appendix for the full report.

Staff Personnel No Report.Social Ministry There was no meeting this month. One key item to mention is that the

committee is moving forward with a community garden and is working on logistics. Targeting an August planting and build in July. We will need to pay a maintenance fee each year, which we will need to do out of the committee’s current budget. The food from the garden will go to the Ardmore food pantry. The program requires that we give 75% away. We could also distribute via a lunch or coffee hour or aid for friends. We still need to give the Ardmore Food Pantry a heads up that we will be sending the food their way. We may want to consider if we can use (some of) our leaves to provide compost for the gardens. See the Appendix for the full report.

NEW BUSINESS/CORRESPONDENCE

God’s Work-Our Hands Sundayo Idea for this year – Stop Hunger Now. Bryn Mawr Presbyterian did this last year.

It is a meal-packaging program. With 40-50 volunteers over 2 hours you can package 10,000 meals. This would allow all members to participate. We have to fund it. The cost is 29 cents per meal ($2,900). If we want to do this, we need to start working on it now so that we can be sure it is funded in time. We don’t know yet how far in advance we need the money. The organization brings everything. Our target date for this would be September 11th. We think it would be okay for us to use a different date if that doesn’t work out with the organization.

o Laura said that she has seen this done and it is a good team-building activity. o There is an outstanding question as to where the food goes once packaged up.o The plan is to get more information and then Laura will send an e-mail to the

group for feedback on whether to move forward.o Carol recommended investigating if we could get a Thrivent grant. Laura

described changes in Thrivent’s process that have shifted towards action teams and $250 gift cards.

Formal approval of carillon purchase and installationo Carol asked if there were questions. No one had any.

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o Pat presented the purchase information from Don’s e-mail. MOTION: Dan made a motion to approve. This was seconded by Robert and approved by council.

o Carol asked how many bids. Laura clarified that there were 2 bids in case anyone asks.

OUTSTANDING BUSINESS

Ministry Assessment Profile Updateo This was covered earlier.

Celebration of Pastor Skip’s Ministryo Pastor Skip was dismissed.o The group discussed some details of the celebration.

NEXT COUNCIL MEETINGThe next council meeting will be held on June 9th at 7:15pm in the second floor meeting room.

ADJOURNMENT AND PRAYERMOTION: Kevin moved for the adjournment of the meeting. The motion was seconded and approved by council.

Laura led the Lord’s Prayer to close the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Patrick G. Freestone

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AppendixMeeting Minutes.........................................................................................................................................1

CALL TO ORDER.......................................................................................................................................1

DEVOTIONS..............................................................................................................................................1

PRESENTATION OF MINUTES...................................................................................................................1

COMMITTEE REPORTS.............................................................................................................................1

NEW BUSINESS/CORRESPONDENCE........................................................................................................4

OUTSTANDING BUSINESS........................................................................................................................5

NEXT COUNCIL MEETING.........................................................................................................................5

ADJOURNMENT AND PRAYER..................................................................................................................5

Appendix.....................................................................................................................................................6

PASTORAL REPORT (McDowell)...............................................................................................................7

PASTORAL REPORT (Tancredi).................................................................................................................8

SOCIAL MINISTRY.....................................................................................................................................9

TECHNOLOGY........................................................................................................................................10

WORSHIP & MUSIC................................................................................................................................11

PROPERTY..............................................................................................................................................12

CEMETARY.............................................................................................................................................13

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.........................................................................................................................14

EVANGELISM.........................................................................................................................................16

FINANCE MINUTES................................................................................................................................17

FINANCE REPORT...................................................................................................................................19

TREASURERS REPORT............................................................................................................................25

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PASTORAL REPORT (McDowell)Pastoral Report – May 12, 2016

Pr. Harry W. McDowell, II

April 2016

Meetings, classes, sessions, special events: 4

Visits: 2

Hospital: 2

Baptism: Adelaide Joyce & Eliza Joyce on 4/17

Jack Trombello on 4/24

Arianna Martino on 5/8

Attendance: Average Sunday Attendance

April 2016- 126 April 2015- 207 (Easter was in April in 2015.)

Activities

4/3/16- Seven students received First Holy Communion at the 10:30 service.

4/21/16- The Synod Council met at St. Paul’s followed by dinner.

4/17/16- Families with Young Children held an outing at South Ardmore Park.

4/25 and 4/27- I attended the Board of Trustees meeting at the seminary.

5/5/16- The Ascension Day service was held at St. Mark, Clifton Heights.

I thought there was a good turnout from St. Paul’s at this event.

Upcoming Activities

5/15/15- Confirmation at the 10:30 service

5/29/16- One service beginning at 9:30 – Colonial Liturgy

VBS 2016

We are gearing up for Vacation Bible School which will run June 27 through July 1. The theme this year is “Hometown Nazareth” which traces Jesus’ life as a boy growing up in his hometown.

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PASTORAL REPORT (Tancredi)Pastor’s Report

12 May 2016

1. The Synod Council of SEPA Synod met at St. Paul’s on Thursday, April 21st. We welcomed 35 council members, representing all eight conferences of our synod, including our Bishop Claire Burkat and synod staff. A big thanks to Stephenie Yeung, who oversaw the dinner, and to Barb Keyser, Jane Knappe, Barb and Don Parman, and Carol Henry for their help.

2. On April 19th, I attended a meeting of the staff of the Center for Pastoral Counseling of Greater Philadelphia. These are trained therapists, with specialties in pastoral approaches to counseling. They work with churches and individuals to provide holistic care. Stephen Ministry is planning to invite one of their counselors for a continuing education session, and hopes to schedule a church-wide event in the fall.

3. Pub Theology continued on April 25th. We had 11 people attend a discussion about “Big Questions About Faith,” including four first-time attendees. Our next meeting is May 23.

4. Work on a logo continues with our subcommittee. We are getting close to a final design and are beginning discussion about how to roll out the new logo—perhaps a big reveal on Rally Day. We are very excited about the logo, and the sense of cohesion it will bring to church media and publications.

5. Synod Assembly was May 6-7 in Franconia. Thanks to Carol Hammarberg, who attended as voting member for St. Paul’s. The theme was “Still Reforming” a reference to the upcoming 500 th

anniversary of the Reformation. We received several resources to use during 2017, a review of how Luther’s reforms are still relevant, and an update on the synod’s capital campaign.

6. Confirmation will be this Sunday, May 15th. We are confirming six ninth graders, who have completed two years of study. Congratulations to our newest members!

7. Our Ministry Assessment Profile (MAP) kicked off on May 1st, and as of Monday, we have had 47 responses! Thank you to those that have taken the survey. Please encourage people you see at church or your committees to take the survey—it only takes about 10 minutes. The link can be found in the regular announcements and weekly emails.

Respectfully submitted,Laura Tancredi

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SOCIAL MINISTRYGood morning everyone,

The Social Ministry Committee did not meet in May (our next meeting is scheduled for June 2). We do have a few notes on activity and upcoming projects noted below:

- We'll be wrapping up our Baby Manna collection this Sunday, May 15th and will donate all money collected to Philabundance.

- We are planning to move forward with the planting of a community garden in August. We will be able to save some cost in the initial installation, since we will begin with the fall planting cycle. We will be working closely with Pastor Laura, the organization who will be installing, and the property committee throughout the summer to make sure we're following appropriate guidelines and have thought through all possibilities. We'll also be seeking dedicated volunteers to help with weeding, watering, and general maintenance of the gardens.

Laura

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TECHNOLOGYSt. Paul’s Technology Committee Report – April, 2016

Members: Patrick Freestone, Andrew Vickrey, Dan Gale

Accomplished:

Published May Chimes update to site and distributed. Updated website main page header with correct service times. Created “editor” logins for Carisa and Laura on site to allow them to make quicker

updates.

Upcoming:

Document 2 known use cases for the website updates for Carisa and Laura (Chimes update; Service schedule update) and meet with them to review.

Update monthly chimes e-mail link to go directly to Chimes PDF Determine if Office365 can be used to store documentation about the St. Paul’s

technology environment.

Meeting: No meeting occurred in April.

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WORSHIP & MUSICDear Council Members: The Committee did not meet formally.  However, we talk regularly keeping each other up-to-date on activities for the Talent Show.  Advertising for acts and donations for the silent auction have been placed in the weekly Church bulletin, the Chimes, and the weekly Church email announcements. Tickets sales for the Talent Show began on May 8 and will continue each week up to the June 12 show.  Tickets will be sold after each service. Additionally, we are actively soliciting donations for the silent auction. Vacation homes, family memberships to the Zoo, Aquarium, Natural History Museum, sports tickets are nice but we are open to all gifts and suggestions.  Also, we are asking members/groups to donate a basket for auction at the Talent Show.  The Worship and Music Committee would greatly appreciate if each Church Council Committee, or one or two Committees jointly, donate a basket if you are able.  Worship and Music will be donating a basket. Unfortunately, I will not be at the Council meeting this month as I will be in Chicago on business.   Best regards, Linda

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PROPERTYProperty Committee Minutes

APR 2016

The committee met on April 28th. In attendance were Dave Curry, Daniel Dry, Barb Henderson, Stuart Krissinger,

GOALS FOR THE YEAR

The committee defined the major goals for the year:

Carillon replacement (project initiated, to be ratified) Parsonage: master bath redo, redo floors and paint walls (project approved and

funded) Large Farmhouse: New front porch (project approved and funded) Small Farmhouse: Routine upkeep Sidewalk replacement preparation and possible partial execution

WORK COMPLETED/UPDATE ON PROJECTS

Large Farmhouse_ The large tree near the driveway of the house was removed in April by Glen Riggs.

NEW/ONGOING PROJECTS

Window Well Covers- Window well cover construction is in progress.

Parsonage- Brian Heller looked at the master bath redo in April and created preliminary drawings which were reviewed and discussed. Committee will obtain quotes and target the demo and redo for after July 3rd when the parsonage is vacated.

Large Farmhouse- Committee will move forward with obtaining quotes for the front porch project in May.

Sidewalks- Some of the sidewalk blocks are in need of repair. It was discussed that a partial repair of some blocks could be performed this year. Alternatively, a project could be planned for the full sidewalk replacement in 2017 (potentially in cooperation with the Cemetery Committee if cemetery sidewalk replacement is needed.

Property Committee

May 12, 2016

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CEMETARYThis month we finalized plans and ordered a granite bench to be placed at the cremation garden inscribed with the name of the first caretaker of the cemetery. The bench will add beauty, give a place for people to rest and reflect and honor this man who began our legacy.

We have had a few funerals and sold a burial lot.

We have started to get estimates for the tree work I spoke of at last meeting.

Thank you,Louise Pierce

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CHRISTIAN EDUCATIONChristian Education Committee

Meeting date: May 4, 2016

In attendance: Joy Baxter, Kevin Clouse, Mary Lynn Kennedy, Hazel Pelletreau, and Pastor Laura Tancredi

Evelyn Reider joined us for the first part of our meeting to discuss an issue pertaining to the library. The mother of a member of our congregation left money to the church when she passed away. Every year, 200 dollars is donated to the library with the specific designation of purchasing children’s books. So far, this money has not been used, and has built up to over 2000 dollars. We discussed contacting the family to see if we could broaden the scope to use the money for other purposes, such as DVDs and Sunday school curriculum, as purchasing nothing but children’s books would overstock our library. We decided that the Bibles for first graders would be purchased using these funds in the future (as they are books for children, we would not need special permission for this). When asking the family for permission to broaden the scope, we would explain that our needs have changed, and purchasing just children’s books does not meet these needs.

Pam’s celebration was discussed next. The mug for Pam has been ordered, and it really looks great. Pastor Skip was consulted on the best option for musical tickets. It seems the most likely option is going to be South Pacific in September. At this point, it seems like the song may not be happening, but we are still working to see if we could possibly pull something together in time.

No update was given on the upcoming Religion 101 event on comparative religion. I have been in talks with David Miller, and he informed me that he found a possible person to lead the discussion for the Hindu portion of this presentation.

Sunday school will be ending on May 15, and we will have a Sunday school teacher appreciation on June 5.

The most recent Pub Theology event had 10 people attending, with 4 new people.

Families with Young Children have a moonbounce event scheduled for May 22, which is also the date of Pastor Skip’s celebration. We are in the process of figuring out whether to have it coincide with the picnic, or to schedule it for later in the day. FwYC will also be having the Summer Fun Series again this year.

The SPY Jr. ice skating event was cancelled.

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SPY had 10 members involved for the Helping Hands Day event. SPY will also be serving at the Life Center again in the near future.

We All Have Questions has been reading the book, “Constantine’s Sword”, and discussing.

Evening Christian Fellowship will be discussing what their next topic of study will be at the next meeting, with the possibility of taking a break for the summer.

The Women’s Bible Study has been doing a series on difficult passages in scripture, led by Pastor Laura.

We will hopefully have the first installment of our movie night in June. We discussed the possibility of utilizing babysitters, and having a family movie showing the same time as the feature. We are trying to figure out the best date, figuring a Sunday around 5:30 or 6 would probably be ideal. Pizza would most likely be ordered for this event.

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EVANGELISMEvangelism Committee Meeting Minutes

April 17 2016

Meeting: Sunday, April 17, 10:30am

In attendance: Josephine Norquist, Dan Dry, Stephenie Yeung

Absent: Renee DiGiuseppe, Brad Barron

MAP Survey:

During the meeting the survey was reviewed and we identified the lack of a comment field. Unfortunately, a comment field could not be added to the current survey. If needed we could setup a place in the Narthex where members can submit their comment in writing.

Activities occurred after the meeting: o The MAP (Ministry Assessment Profile) survey was deployed on May 2 o Reminders are included in the weekly announcements o Weekly emails will also be sent to memberso As of May 10, 46 members have completed the survey

Church logo/branding

The work on the log/branding activities is ongoing. The group has reviewed and provided comments to several draft logos. A final logo should be available soon

Reminder: the group has representation from Evangelism, Social Ministry, Worship and Music, Christian Ed, and Pastor Laura

Outreach:

Two new sandwich boards will need to be ordered as they were damaged during the last thunderstorms.

Parish Activities –Stephenie arranged the dinner after the Synod Council meeting at St. Paul’s.

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FINANCE MINUTESFinance Committee Agenda

May 10, 2016

Attending: Bob Ertner, Bill Henderson, Andy Horn, George Koerner, Don Parman, Waneta Peart

1. Review of April receipts and expenses

The strong first quarter financial performance carried over to April with contributions above budget and prior year comparative numbers ($9000 for April, $30,000 year to date). Expenses in the aggregate continue to run modestly favorable to budget. The committee noted that there will be an unbudgeted expense for resources from the Synod following Pastor Skip’s retirement.

2. Treasurer update

Andy Horn reviewed his Treasurer’s report for council which shows a strong cash position. Year-to-year comparison is affected by the retention of contributions to the Building on Blessings campaign in the general account in 2015 before those contribution were subsequently invested through Vanguard accounts.

3. Financial Secretary update

Bob Ertner circulated the ten-year average report and reports of receipts for February, March and April to the committee in advance of the meeting. The reports underscore the strong contributions year-to-date. While the results to date are short of targets based on 10-year averages, the committee noted that the gap is narrower than in recent years.

4. Finance reports to Congregation Council – dash board

The committee adopted the principle that a financial dash board for council should present key financial indicators as if the other financial reports had not been circulated. While the format is still to be finalized, the committee identified as likely indicators contributions YTD against both budget and prior year, expense centers significantly over budget, expenses YTD against budget, endowment fund balance and rate of return (quarterly), significant unbudgeted expenses, restricted and unrestricted gifts YTD (once to three times a year), pledge and contribution data and mortgage balance (two to four times a year). Input from other council members would be appreciated. The committee also expects to develop a dash board to be published three or four times a year for the congregation at large

5. Coffee hour – May 15

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George Koerner advised that the parents of the confirmation class were providing refreshments in honor of the confirmands following the second service and graciously undertook to handle coffee hour between services. Thanks, George!

6. Open Finance Committee meeting?

As part of a commitment to enhancing transparency around finances at St. Paul’s, the committee endorsed the idea of holding open committee meetings from time to time. Provisionally the first of these will be the June meeting to be held in the second floor meeting room 15 minutes after the conclusion of the single service on June 12. Once the date is confirmed Don will liaise with the pastors and the church office to publicize the open meeting and reach out to individuals who have expressed interest in finance issues in the past.

7. Appointment of audit committee for 2015

Don Parman reported that he had met with Jim Van Horn, chair of the audit committee for 2014 and that Jim had advised that that committee expected to complete its work in the near term. Once the 2014 audit is final the Finance Committee must recommend members for a 2015 audit committee. The committee discussed potential candidates, including those who had previously served in that capacity. Names are not disclosed in these minutes so that those eventually asked to serve do not get a head start in coming up with reasons for declining to do so.

8. Merck securities class action settlement

The church has received notice that it may be a member of a class action settlement as a record holder of Merck common stock during the class period (May 21, 1999 through October 29, 2004). The contention in the class action is that Merck stock was overvalued during the period as a consequence of incomplete or misleading disclosure relating to Vioxx. St. Paul’s does not have at hand any records of such a share position but the committee assumed the most likely case was that the shares had been received as gift to the church and promptly sold. Given the short time the shares were likely held, it is very unlikely that St. Paul’s suffered a loss compensable under the class action. The committee determined that it would not be worth the expenditure of staff time to research St. Paul’s holding and agreed that no claim will be filed.

9. Any other business

Don reported that St. Paul’s had received notice from the attorney handling the estate of a deceased member of the congregation advising that St. Paul’s has a 10% residual interest in a significant estate. Don will follow-up with the attorney for the estate and come back to the committee with any further information about timing for settlement of the estate.

10. Closing prayer

Next meeting – open meeting Sunday, June 12 following single service in the second floor meeting room (subject to final confirmation)

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FINANCE REPORT

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TREASURERS REPORT

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