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Bethlehem Lutheran Church Special Council Meeting
March 11, 2008
Present: Larry Beach, Pastor Snider, Jeff Whitehead, Beth Husted, Rick Hart, John Hulbert, Jerry Jacobs, Dan Kipperberg, Amy Goheen, Gretchen Mitchell, Jill Maas, Michelle Bach, Kylene Binder and Patty Pote.
Excused: Joel Mills
The meeting was called to order by President Jerry Jacobs at 7:05pm.
Jerry led the opening prayer.
The council approved the minutes from the February 12, 2008 meeting.
The agenda was approved.
The council approved the appointment of John Hulbert as Treasurer for 2008.
Treasurer’s Report:
John Hulbert covered the budget for February. Contributions continue to be down, with a shortage of $18,300 YTD. Payroll expenses are over budget by $$6879 YTD. Butch Martin took a moment to explain the payroll budget. $1100 of Brian Ottenberg’s salary needs to be reclassified to the school budget for custodial care. Pastor Roiko was overpaid by $2300 and Linda Walters was overpaid by $463, which Butch is working on a re-payment plan with both of them. The 2008 budget was approved by the congregation for an $8000 monthly salary for the senior pastor. We are currently paying $9600 monthly for Pastor Snider, Pastor Roiko, and Pastor Shoup. Jerry said he would email the council the payroll discrepancies, and asked council members to pray about this before we discuss this at our next council meeting.
Jerry requested on behalf of the BLCW to have the $2000 removed from their 2008 budget. Butch said that the BLCW has been paying the nursery care for the Tuesday morning MOM’s group during the school year which is about $160 a month. Jerry asked Gretchen Mitchell to look into this before the council acts on the BLCW’s request.
Pastor’s Report:
Pastor Snider said he would like to take two weeks off in April for continued education and vacation. He will arrange for pastoral support during his absence. The approximate dates are from April 8th – April 21st. The council approved Pastor Snider’s request for time off. Pastor Snider gave each council member a copy of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. He said Lutherans are known for not sharing their faith and requested us to please hand the books out to people. He will have more of these on Sunday and plans on making these readily available to everyone. Pastor Snider encouraged all council members to attend the 6:30 prayer session in the Sanctuary before the council meetings. There is still prayer time available for the Prayer Vigil.
Membership-Pastor Snider said Mrs. Snider has spent about 153 hours updating membership records thus far. It is important for new senior pastor to stay on top of membership records.
Standing Reports:
Youth and Family-Beth Husted handed out copies of the proposal to purchase the “Constant Contact” software. This software will allow them to email the youth families’ information, which will save on the current postage cost. Ryan Brown took a moment to explain the effectiveness of the software and the monetary savings to the office expense account.
Patty Pote made a motion to accept the Youth Committee’s proposal to purchase the Constant Contact software using funds from the office expense account for 2008. Jeff Whitehead seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Property and Grounds-Dan Kipperberg said they are looking at replacing the boilers. Last month we spent $1330 on gas. Our system is over 30 years old and is ineffective. He said they are researching the idea of planting peas on the Wilcox property. The annual work party will be on Saturday, March 22nd. Larry Beach knows someone who will donate 15 dumpsters for the work party.
Finance Committee- Jeff Whitehead recapped his report for the council. He confirmed the $500,000 mortgage balloon payment was mailed today. They are in the process of looking into emailing the quarterly giving statements to members. Jeff has concerns about the labor and the time it will take to create individual documents to send to members. Council members will be receiving their statements in their office boxes. Jeff handed out copies of the “Community Facility Use Fee Schedule” report submitted by Karen Wenzel and Bryan Ottenberg. He requested the council to review the fee schedule and offer input of any changes at the next council meeting. Patty asked us to consider the Christian organizations that may be utilizing our building, and to keep in mind this is “God’s House” when making our recommendations.
Jeff said we had a total of 80 members sign up with Thrivent Financial. He said we will invite Ben Richards back in April or this summer to help members who want to invest in the Give Plus program with Thrivent Financial. Members must be 16 years old or older to qualify for the Give Plus program.
Social Concerns-Larry Beach said the Marysville Food Bank’s annual community garage sale will be held on April 26th and 27th. Donations can be dropped off at the Judd and Black store in Marysville.
Missions-Patty Pote said the committee received a request from our Russian Partners requesting us to advertise for their May 4th fundraiser.
Old Business:
Constitution Copies-Jerry confirmed that all the council members received a copy of BLC’s constitution.
Council Retreat-The council retreat will be on Saturday, May 31st. Jerry said the first half of the day would include the church staff and council members. The second half of the day would be just for the council members. Our goal will be to get to know each other better so we can come together as a team.
New Business:
Call Committee-The committee has not received the next set of pastor names. Kathy Torgerson said the committee will be meeting with the Bishop on the Monday after Easter at which time he will provide the names.
Worship and Music Council Position-Jerry said the three candidates who prayerfully considered and were interested in the position are Betty Bjorn, Kathy Torgerson, and Wendie Jones. Kathy and Wendie were in attendance and each gave a brief statement as to why they were interested in the position. They were then excused from the meeting while council members discussed the appointment.
John Hulbert made a motion to postpone the vote for the Worship and Music council position so that we may each have time to pray over this. The vote will then we made through email. Patty seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Jerry will have each of the three candidates prepare written statements regarding their qualifications and what each candidate would bring to this position. He will send these out in email to the council members to review and prayerfully consider each candidate. Council members will then have one week to vote for one of the candidates.
Authorization Personnel Policies, Job Descriptions, and Salaries-Rick Hart would like the council to authorize personnel to evaluate all of the jobs in the church to ensure these positions are being compensated in accordance with the job responsibilities of each position. This would require an individual interview with each staff member to evaluate their job responsibilities. Rick emphasized this is an evaluation of the staff positions, not the people in those current positions. This is a necessary process to define job responsibilities and salaries for these positions.
John made a motion to authorize the personnel committee to annualize and evaluate BLC’s personnel policies, job descriptions, and salaries for each staff position of the church. Patty seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
April Council Meeting-The council meeting for April will be on Monday the 14th, due to our regularly scheduled meeting falling in the middle of spring break.
Volunteer Names-Jerry said each year the church honors six volunteers for their time and dedication to God’s work. Forest Paulson has requested council members to nominate members who they think should be honored this year. Council members made some recommendations for the nominations. Jerry said any additional recommendations should be emailed to him by this Friday and then he will forward the list to Forest.
For the Good of Order:
Pastor Snider handed out reading parts to selected members of council who will participate in the Good Friday Service.
Jill reminded everyone that the Rejoice News Letter items are due tomorrow. She has a stewardship story to add and asked if she should note that YTD giving is down. Council members agreed she should include the decline in giving with her story.
Jill said there were only three council members at Sunday’s Bible study. She requested everyone who is interested in the council small group to email her with days they are available. She said we may want to consider inviting spouses to the study depending on the size of the group. Jerry strongly encouraged everyone to make this small group study a priority.
Jeff would like the budget update section to be included back into the weekly bulletins. This gives us as a congregation a weekly update of how we are doing on giving. Jeff will work with Karen Wenzel to bring this section back to the bulletin.
Jerry handed out a church calendar for the month of April. He asked the council to look over it and submit any changes to Karen Wenzel.
Prayers April 14th
O: Patty Pote
C: Rick Hart
Patty led the closing prayer.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Michelle Bach
Council Secretary
Attachments:
Treasurer’s Report
February Budget Sheet
Pastor Snider’s Report
Social Concern’s Report
Finance Committee Report
Evangelism Report
Youth and Family Software Proposal
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