August 18, 2020 at 7:00pm (held via Zoom web/video/telephone conference)
Attending: Carolyn Ball, Rick Hamilton, Sherry Lambert, David Sandridge, Andrea Zimmerman, Matt Zimmerman, Juliana Piacentini, Sue Lewis, Pastor Phil Woodson, Maury Early
Opening
Approval of minutes
Sherry requested to add the amount of check in item 6a. David motioned to approve the minutes pending Sherry’s suggestion. Carolyn seconded the motion. All voted to approve.
Finance/Treasurer’s report
We received one significant pledge payment to 2020 Vision in July. The UMCOR grant is finished, and we returned $723 of the grant that was not used
Trustees
Maple tree was removed.
July 28th service upgrade of Moosetrap was completed. The full cost was less than the budgeted amount of $3000. The new circuit for the dishwasher was installed but a new dishwasher is still pending.
Major leak in Maria’s space. Roger has patched the roof. There was a leak in front of preschool that is being fixed.
Other preschool parking sign will be installed soon. Phil requested contact information for preschool teachers to touch base.
The elevator inspection found no dial tone. CenturyLink and elevator company have been a hassle with communicating. Carolyn may call Andy Thomas to find out who installed it and process or who to call.
David installed the air conditioner referenced in July into Rosie’s office.
SPR
Met August 9th and Monica’s father had just passed. Flowers were sent from the congregation and a week of bereavement extended to her.
Checked in with staff and everyone is doing well. Discussed staff evaluation and Matt had sent list of goals. November will ask each staff member to put together 1 page of what they have accomplished this year and keep in mind how pandemic changed what they had planned to accomplish.
Discuss budget and be clear of where we stand and SPR may be an area we have to make cuts if we are not doing well.
Sherry nominated for chair.
NOW Model
Clarifying two chairs on Council and adding a chair to Council to put laity more in charge of ministries of the church: Nurture, Outreach, Witness.
Sue made a motion to adopt the suggested model. Matt seconded the motion. All voted in favor, and motion carried.
Phil and Matt will meet to put together a nominations committee, which needs to meet over the next couple of months before the Charge Conference. Phil will provide staff with the model on Monday and discuss the descriptions. Cameron and Linda will be primary staff support on Nurture. Rosie will support Outreach. Monica will support on Witness.
Healthy Church Team Update
Prayer event 8/20/20 7:30am to 9:30am. Matt and Phil wrote up a 3 page set of guidelines for what participants need to follow for the outside event. We need volunteers. Matt and David will be there.
Policy for those coming to church in general (masks, sign in/out). Possibility of doing in person worship on October 4th.
Sue volunteers to be Trustees representative. Matt will send a poll to schedule a meeting.
Plan needs to be submitted to DS at least 10 days prior to a gathering.
Outreach ministries
Maury has joined us as Outreach contact! She will catch up with other congregants about various ministries and discuss the unhoused ministry with Carolyn.
Chris’s 60th birthday is Saturday!
Minister’s report
This past month has continued to be a wonderful learning experience and I am beginning to recognize the faces and names of congregants who are showing up to various zoom encounters. I have taken the past few weeks to better acquaint myself with the ministries of the church, as well as the needs of the staff, current financial systems, and have been slowly developing ministry relationships with the many lay leaders of the church. From those learning experiences and conversations, I have listed the following updates, reports, and suggestions to the Church Council:
Sanctuary: I have been working closely with Maria, Rosie, and other people closely connected with the Sanctuary ministry for the past 2 months. Through multiple conversations it became apparent that there were a few of Maria’s needs that were not being met. This was mostly due to the pandemic, but also due to a natural attrition of volunteers. There is still a possibly that the Sanctuary ministry will continue long past the election in November, and so I have worked to help initiate a restart/reset of the Sanctuary ministry that will begin later this week and really kick-off during the first week of September. It is my hope that this reset will allow the congregation of Wesley Memorial, as well as the community, to re-engage with this vital ministry and participate at new levels. Rosie will be sharing that information with everyone very soon – and we hope to launch everything during the event happening later this week.
Worship: The worship ministry team has reassembled over the past few weeks to provide feedback and direction with the online worship services. Cameron has taken the lead in facilitating those meetings and will be working with the laity and pastor(s) to keep the worship services moving forward. As part of our most recent conversation the Worship Ministry Team affirmed that they would like to move toward having a re-opening event on Sunday, October 4 (World Communion Sunday). The Worship Ministry Team will need to work closely with the Healthy Church team to see this through. The current consensus is that this first worship service will occur outside, but other than that it will be up to the HCT and Worship Team to figure out the other details.
Finances: I had a great meeting with David Sandridge to review Wesley’s financial status and systems. Knowing that Charge Conferences are going to be starting soon, I would recommend that the ministry leaders at Wesley begin their budgetary processes for 2021 as soon as possible. Having to do this kind of work during a pandemic seems to take more than time than it used to. I have also had a conversation with Maria and her support team about how her Sanctuary finances are handled. It is my plan to close down the separate bank account by the middle of September and to have all of her Sanctuary donations simply go through one of the church’s “in-and-out” accounts. This will remove the need for the pastor(s) to handle any checks or cash.
Healthy Church Team: I also had a good conversation with Matt Zimmerman about the newly forming Healthy Church Team. He helped put together a quick a simple plan for the Sanctuary event later this week and will be working with the rest of the team to develop any ongoing building use policies and what the October 4th worship service will entail.
Office/Technology: It is my hope that we will be able to sort out the UMC Communications grant this week and order new recording and technology equipment to help with our ongoing online worship creation. I would recommend though, that the Trustees begin to assess the church’s internet and streaming capacity though because I have struggled to maintain a constant connection to the WIFI, or upload any videos at church in a timely fashion. Examples: It has proven almost impossible to be at church while hosting a zoom meeting on the church’s WIFI. It took over 4 hours to upload a 15 min video to a shared google folder and even then, the video did not upload correctly. There is barely enough of a WIFI signal to check my email in the pastor’s office – I have been setting up in the Aldersgate room to do any work on a computer involving the internet.
c. Upcoming Pastoral Vacation (for Phil) Sept 17-30.
Close, Next meeting will be September 15th 2020