Trinity Lutheran Church Council Minutes

November 8, 2022

6:00 Shalom Room

 

  1. Call to Order/Attendance-Those in attendance: Pastor Donnita, Kristy, Janel, Elaine and Mike
  2. Devotion-Pastor read Micha 6:8, pertaining to what the lord requires of us.
  • Administration
  1. Approve Minutes-Motion made by Elaine; seconded by Janel. Motion passed
  2. Treasures Report-Jim’s discussed the October financials, mostly self-explanatory. Motion by Kristy; seconded by Janel. Motion passed
  3. Pastor’s Report- See Pastor Donnita’s attached report and V. New Business, A.. Council accepted Pastor Donnita’s interim agreement. In addition, council approved Pastor’s expense reimbursement request, including the following: Printer Ink $45.00, Rocks for Robby’s funeral $40.00, Bulletins for Robby’s funeral $16.00, Good Grief book $9.00, Advent Webinar $25.00, Calendar Planner $14.00, Faith for Exiles book $15.00, and Word $10.00/month all totaling $174.00. Also discussed was having individuals from the congregation write the lead article for the monthly Newsletter and Tid Bits. Mike will contact Charline and ask her to ask for member input. There will be a Christmas Eve service, but due to historical low attendance there WILL NOT be a Christmas AM service
  4. Council Reports/Committee
  5. Worship & Tech-Mike informed council he errored in having discussions with the chair of the Worship committee, who is Kim and not Elaine. When discussing the proposed amendment change with Kim, Kim explained she would prefer to leave the committee make up as is. Mike told Kim he would allow the proposed amendment change to die without further discussion
  6. Stewardship-Elaine gave an update on the anonymous pledge card receipts. There were approximately 21 members who returned their pledge cards totaling around $78.0M. Pastor Donnita was encouraged by the number of returns and dollar amount! NOTE: Following is information that was not part of the November 8, 2022 discussion, but offers a further update. As of 11/22/23 there have been 26 returns, totaling $88,444.00. The following represents ACTUAL DATA. As of October 31, 2022, Trinity has received Budgeted Receipts of $88,113.75. In 2023, we will require receipts of approximately $105,000 in order to meet the budget of a half time pastor. With two months left in calendar year 2022, we will need an additional $16,886.25 ($8,443.12 per month) to meet the $105.0M part time pastor budget = very doable. In 2021 Trinity had 45 giving units, compared to the 26 anonymous pledge returns. We lost three members since the 2021 data, meaning we have around 16 members who haven’t returned their anonymous pledge information. In order to meet the minimum $105.0M estimated 2023 part time pastor budget, we will need an additional $16,800, or $1,050 per year per member.
  7. Education-The education committee is busy planning this year’s Christmas program, watch the bulletin for further information
  8. HR-Due to Terri’s absence, attending the funeral of a very close family friend, Mike reported on the hiring of the new custodian. Alycia Gritton was offered the position and accepted the contract terms. Discussion then continued regarding one of the other candidates. Mike informed council the rational to offer the position to Alycia was 100% qualification related
  9. Property-Mike reported due to low participation in congregational volunteerism to serve on this committee, the property committee will meet quarterly versus monthly. There will be a sign-up sheet posted on the hallway bulletin board where members can make comments on what items they want the property committee to address
  10. Hospitality-Les’s farewell party will be held in January 2023
  11. Evangelism
  12. Finance-Mike will contact the finance committee and ask them to begin preparing the 2023 budget, to be presented at the annual meeting

 

Work Groups

  1. Capital Improvement
  2. Memorial
  3. Backpack Buddies
  4. GRACE-The suggestion was made to ask congregation members to donate food gift cards versus preparing a meal

 

  1. Previous Business (compilation of issues from the past six months)
  2. Signage update (discussion item)-No up date
  3. Develop visit teams??? (Discussion item)-Mike will make an announcement during the next couple church services asking for a volunteer to chair this position. NOTE: On Sunday, November 20th, Deb Cook volunteered to be the group leader. Laurie Brandenburg was present during that meeting also. Because synod has yet to get back to Laurie regarding lay person communion, I asked Laurie to contact Pastor Donnita, who can lead her through the process
  4. New air conditioner –Mike indicated he is in possession of one of the two bids that were requested. Mike will ask Les if he’s received the second. The bid from Thomas HVAC was for $8,700. Mike suggested rather than pull the AC replacement from Trinity’s budget, we run an AC fund raising campaign
  5. Proposed amendment changing the name of the Worship and Technology Committee-See comment above, III. Administration D.1.
  6. New faucets with accessible lever handles will be purchased/installed in women’s bathroom. Shed door and final coat of paint still to be completed-Lynch Plumbing was on site earlier this week and will be installing matching paddles (ADA compliant) handles in the very near future. The shed doors remain a work in process
  7. Snow removal sign up-In the event members don’t sign up to scoop the sidewalks with less than a 2” snow fall, we will have to hire this job out
  8. Post property committee suggested items on bulletin board-move property committee meetings to quarterly-See comments above under Property Committee report
  9. AED signup sheet-The Thrivent grant card was received last week and attempts have been made to pick the unit up (several times)
  10. Going away celebration for Les-See above discussion under Hospitality Committee report
  11. Laurie Brandenburg is in communication with Pastor Kuckuck regarding lay person communion distribution-See above under Develop Visit Teams
  12. Other

 

  1. New Business
  2. Pastor Donnita contract (I have an email; out to synod)-Mike will follow up with synod concerning a November 3rd email to Pastor Erika requesting synod assistance. It may end up Mike will prepare a letter of agreement between Trinity and Pastor Donnita, outlining terms of the interim engagement
  3. November 3, 2022 Zoom meeting discussion with Pastor Erika, recap-Trinity desire to hire a parttime pastor and share with the Tipton UMC church was expressly laid out. Pastor Erika indicated she has been in contact with her counterpart at the Methodist organization, Dr. Moody Colorado. Pastor Erika indicated surprise that the local Methodist have recently informed us they intend to hire their own fulltime pastor, beginning June 2023, as that was not how she was reading the conversation she and Dr. Colorado recently had. Pastor Erica will contact Dr. C and get back to me. We also discussed Trinity sharing a parttime Methodist pastor. Lastly, I asked Pastor Erika if she was privy to the conversation’s synod, Pastor J and Don (from Atalissa) had last summer. She indicated she would follow up with Dan, asking council to hold off contacting Atalissa
  4. HR-Terri update on custodian position being filled-See above comments made under HR Committee report
  5. Other-Mike followed up with Mike and Kay August, regarding their announcement that Jon’s commutation hearing will be held in early January. Mike will be following up with Caitlin Boyle on a couple different fronts: Update the member list of individuals who want the newsletter sent by email only; updated Trinity member contact information spread sheet; locate a power cord for the old copy machine

 

  1. Closing Prayer
  • Adjournment-Kristy made the motion to adjourn; motion seconded by Janel. Motion passed

 

 

Next council meeting—December 13, 2022