Wesley Memorial UMC Church Council July 13 2021
Present: Reverend Matt Seaton, Rick Hamilton, Rocky Shoemaker, David Sandridge, Sue Lewis, Maury Early, Juliana Piacentini, Sherry Lambert, Carolyn Ball, Roger McDonald, Sarah Malpass, Sandy Staggers.
Carolyn Ball opened the meeting with prayer.
The minutes from June 2021 were approved with the following corrections:
Reverend Matt Seaton had asked SPRC if we had talked with the staff about the need for taking time off due to the stress of COVID. His previous church gave staff a two week break with a $500 stipend. It was noted that no one on the WMUMC staff had indicated a need for additional time off but that SPRC would talk with Matt about it.
The gift amounts for Reverend Heaton and Reverend Woodson were $1150.
FINANCE: David Sandridge.
David reviewed the finance report. Maria is still using the funds from a benefactor & from the Marigold grant. She will at some point need funds for transitioning out of Wesley.
We will need a moving fund in the future for pastors.
Alberto was paid $50 per Sunday for translation services. He has moved back to Florida.
Trustees Report-Carolyn
* The part for HVAC in Maria's room in education building came in and repair made. The unit is working fine now. Kennedy Heating and Air did the repair service.
*The plaster and painting repair in the narthex has been completed by Ron Vandeveer. We will need to observe to ensure roof/ gutter problem does not recur and cause any recurrent water damage.
* The low water sensor on the boiler for the sanctuary has been replaced by RE Boggs. This is to address the problem which occurred a few times in the winter when the boiler would cut off and the low water sensor would need to be reset for the heat to function. Furnace filters replaced end of June.
*The problem with the elevator phone line has been resolved with a joint service call with Century Link and Area Access (elevator folks). The annual elevator inspection is to occur July 27th to hopefully get us back in compliance.
* The Moosetrap had ant infestation and Dodson did service call.
*Roger McDonald has reprogrammed thermostats for sanctuary to be cool for resumption of Sunday services inside and for the fans to run continuously.
As above thermostats are currently set to cool on Sundays. As more people begin using the church they should notify Carolyn &/or Roger to adjust it for other days.
Cleaning staff have been coming weekly during the time the building was not in use. Carolyn will notify them to start coming twice a week again.
SPR: Sherry.
Sherry passed along staff job descriptions that are in the files to Pastor Matt. Going forward, SPRC will work on developing a staff handbook and job descriptions where needed. 2. Pastor Matt had his first worship service at Wesley on July 4th! Members of the committee welcomed him during the service. 3. Sherry met with Pastor Matt to discuss Monica’s request to expand her hours from 30 to 40. Matt feels there will definitely be enough work to justify adding the hours, now that we are meeting in person for worship/meetings etc. Sherry passed along that SPRC and Council were generally in favor of adding the hours but concerned about the church’s ability to pay for 3 full time employees. Matt plans to meet with Monica to discuss this further. 4. SPRC will aim to have regularly scheduled meetings. The next one is planned for Tuesday, July 20, at 7:00.
Roger made a motion that the council agree to increase Monica’s hours to 40 per week. The motion was passed. Sherry will notifiy Monica of the approval.
Post-COVID Re-entry Group Update-Rick reviewed.
We prepared the sanctuary for our first indoor worship on July 4
Have had two in-person worships so far. So far so good!
The policy we are following is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GtmWjQy5-p0hX2pQtqH7RzVbJeE40_mb/view?usp=sharing
After the first Sunday, the primary topic of conversation has been about how to handle food serving food, both at fellowship time and for
Conference guidelines are at https://vaumc.org/prg-best-practices/
The biggest issue is preventing people from grouping together; the probability of spreading disease via food is comparatively small.
Our current guidelines are to (1) have prepackaged food and beverages (do not serve buffet-style); (2) limit the number of people handling food (either cater or have self-serve "to go" items); (3) social distance while in line (and ideally wear masks in line while inside); (4) food may be served inside or outside (outside is better, but e.g. having people packed on the breezeway also causes problems).
Discussion about having a culture of social distancing in the church to ensure that everyone including visitors feels safe in our space.
There will be a reception in the Aldersgate room after the upcoming funeral on 7/17. Food is being catered by Foods of All Nations & will have bottled drinks. It will be served by a few persons with gloves.
Nurture-Rocky
I met this morning with Matt Seaton to discuss the pastoral care needs that have presently become most pressing or have potential for the future. Several of our folks have already enjoyed visits by Pastor Matt
I will be providing pastoral leadership for this week in Pastor Matt’s absence. I will be present for the Memorial service Saturday 7/17 for Dick Lentzsch. and will receive the florist delivery at 9:30 that morning.
Holy Communion will be offered for Ruth Worrell this week at UVA
The Lunch Bunch gatherings will be considered for resuming in the future.
Nurture is in the process of assembling lists of Wesley folks residing in local Sr. communities, for possible group meals with the pastor.
Watch the newsletters for pictures of our youngest Sunday guests! They are enjoying Rosie’s weekly art table and the garden playground.
Graduation celebrations were shared with CeCe Cannell and Catherine Lambert the last Sunday in June. Both girls received gift cards for a book, coffee and an ice cream sundae. Catherine is already enjoying her book at the beach.
Matt and I also discussed his visions for the Worship Committee, and other responsibilities under the broad umbrella of Nurture within the NOW system of administration. I look forward to further discussions and visioning for ministry at Wesley.
Witness-Juliana
Juliana & Rosie are working to establish a volunteer rotation for the children during worship.
The Young Adult group went to Carter Mountain recently. Juliana is working on the fall calendar & hopes to have activities every other week.
The firsts Trans Safe Space training was held. It will be repeated in August. It will be virtual. Contact Juliana or Rosie for the link as it is an encrypted site.
Outreach: Maury
School Supplies: Shall we offer to collect school supplies for the Buckingham County elementary school, for now through Aug 1? (Buckingham starts school Aug. 9.)
Church Space: We have IMPACT asking if they can rent office space and an artist, Katie McCartney, asking about renting studio space.
Here are Rosie’s comments/questions. Regarding recent requests by IMPACT and others to rent space in the education building, I would strongly urge church council to spend some time intentionally & creatively discerning future potential uses for the building before renting out rooms for long periods of time. Some questions that arise are:
Is there a potential or any inclination to renovate the building in the next five years?
The building is pretty prime real estate. Can we think of uses that further Wesley’s calling in the community? For instance, church council recently decided not to offer a short term housing to someone who requested it, instead wishing to investigate housing assistance models such as the one at Casa Alma‘s. Has any progress been made on this? Might the education building be used for some sort of short term housing solution? Or something else? Renting space to artists and non-profits is fine, but can we make even more impactful use of the space?
I know there has been talk of having a large church wide retreat at some point after Rev Matt arrives to discuss visions for the future and so forth. Maybe use of the education building could be discussed at that time?
-Council agrees that we will collect school supplies. Maury will have Monica put in the email that we will collect school supplies for Buckingham through August 1.
-Discussion about use of church space. Maury will notify those who have asked to rent space that we will come back to their requests after a future vision planning event with Pastor Matt.
Sanctuary
Can we use the WMUMC name as the organization and the tax ID on the market application forms?
2. Items are listed for suggested donations. Is there any issue with our tax status if items are being sold at a market like this and would we need to collect sales tax or move forward as we have been?
3. David, I understand that you have been distributing money to Maria as requested. When funds start getting very low, would you alert Rosie/Andrea?
4. David Sandridge has put in a “request for inspection” application to the health department. After looking at their website, this appeared to be the best starting point. This will provide a courtesy inspection/consultation.
5. Kathryn and Jordan who were working on finding someone to help Maria with budgeting.
David is working on the kitchen inspection from the Health Dept. We will need a permit/license for Maria to operate a catering business. She currently does not have a work permit. Discussion ensued about future issues with this, such as record keeping, taxes and who will have responsibility for these. It was decided to revisit fund raising for the sanctuary ministry in September.
IMPACT: Current teams are still keeping “feet to the fire” regarding Affordable Housing and after school care for pre-schoolers. Albemarle County schools are offering extended day options for preschoolers starting this fall! Fall IMPACT house meetings will start in September, and a focus for the upcoming year will be Care for Creation.
PACEM: Homeless guests continue to be housed at Premier Circle. Currently there are 51 guests in 41 rooms. We still don’t know if ‘’traditional’’ PACEM will be needed this winter.
HOSPITALITY: Can/shall we start offering fellowship in the Aldersgate room starting August 1? Whenever we decide to start, there will be coordination of teams to cover each Sunday. This will depend on the recommendations of the Post Covid recovery group.
The Wesley Foundation has asked about a welcome picnic on the lawn for August 29 (their 1st choice)or Sept. 5 (their 2nd choice) ? Can we offer a line where about 10 people are servers of large pans of food like fried chicken, mac and cheese, cole slaw, potato salad, watermelon, green beans, Maria’s tamales? People would take a paper plate, need to social distance to some extent, go down the line and the servers would spoon the food onto the plate. Could drinks be individual, prepackaged and self serve?
The Wesley Foundation has also asked about church accumulating items to give as Welcome “snack packs” for new students of prepackaged items like crackers, cookies, nuts, wrapped candies. Do I have the go ahead on that?
Council agreed to the welcome picnic for August 29. Maury will organize the welcome snack packs & possibly the Young Adults group with put the together. Wesley Foundation also has asked if they can have use of the parking lot for Food trucks on Friday nights (except for 9/24 as there is a home game). Council agreed to allow this from 6-9pm.
Minister’s report-Reverend Seaton
Pastor Matt thanks the council & congregation for making him & his wife feel welcome at Wesley. He reports his goal is to listen, ask questions & learn about Wesley to participate in our ministry. He is planning a half day retreat with staff soon.
Pastor Matt closed the meeting with a devotion.