Church Council Minutes
January 11, 2010
Blackstone Valley United Methodist Church
Church Council Meeting Minutes
January 11, 2010
Members Present
Rev. Michele Ewers, Dean Fortin, Adele Gentry, Mark Gentry, Tom McKeown, Carolyn Mitchell. Derek Plourde, Bunny Shangraw, Steve Shangraw, Mike Sherry, Ray Talke
Meeting was convened at 7:00 P.M.
The adjourned Charge Conference was reopened. Rev. Michele reviewed and explained the Committee on Lay Leadership Report. A motion was made to accept the report, seconded and the motion passed. The recommendation was made for the Committee to try and locate an official minute taker for Church Council meetings. Once a person is located, they will be added to the Report. The Charge Conference was then adjourned.
Sharing:
Respond:
A. Business
1. Previous Minutes
The minutes from the December 14th meeting were reviewed. A motion was made to accept them as presented, seconded and the motion passed.
2. 2010 Budget
Derek reported that the Finance Committee had just finalized the budget on Saturday. 2010 will be the 4th year of a unified budget. The 2010 budget is $262,936 which is down from 2009's budget because cost assumptions were made in 2009 for the new addition and we now have a year's worth of actual costs to base the 2010 budget on.
Total revenue for 2009 was $225,094 which came in $42K less than our budget. However, the budget has a $60K line item to help pay down the principle on the mortgage for the new addition so the miss was not as bad as it seems. The church actually came in with a surplus and we are in decent shape overall.
A motion was made to accept the budget as presented, seconded and the motion passed.
B. Stewardship of Our Resources
1. Christmas Community Dinner
The feeling was that the event was a success. There was on overwhelmingly positive volunteer response to the event. ~80 people attended (40 from the church and 40 from the community). Based on the results, there has been talk of possibly hosting a Thanksgiving dinner as well.
C. Vision and Mission
1. Pastor's Moment
On February 6th, Rev. Michele Ewers, Barbara Fortin and Dean Fortin will be attending a visioning meeting where they will share info on what activities/ministries our church is involved in. If anyone has anything to share, please get the info0rmation to Barb, Dean or Rev. Michele.
A Lenten study will begin on February 11th and 12th
and end ion the Friday before Holy Week (seven 60-minute sessions on
Thursdays and Fridays). The study will be using the Adam Hamilton
book, "24 Hours that Changed the World." There will be an email
going out to the congregation to see who will participate.
2. Supporting the Brown family
Laural is coordinating the effort and asked everyone to be intentional in their involvement with the ministry. Different options for supporting the family were discussed.
3. Webmaster back-up
Dean volunteered to be the Webmaster back-up as needed.
4. Community kitchen events
Rev. Michele has been trying to get in touch with Kevin Smith to schedule a visit to Matthew 25. Dave Nadreau was also going to try and contact Kevin to see the facility.
Our church has added 2 additional Peace of Bread dates this year as other groups have decided not to participate. Carolyn suggested that we may consider an effort to raise money to help offset the expenses that some other groups can not.
5. SNE Emmaus space request
Dean relayed a request from the SNE Emmaus community to use Faith Hall and the Activities Room for a training session on April 17th. The church calendar is open and the issue was referred to the Board of Trustees for approval.
6. Website updates
Ray requested that any changes to the ministry groups be sent to him so that the website can be updated. He also asked the ministry contacts to validate their email address that would receive any "ministry"@blackstonevalleyumc.org email.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 P.M.