Doug Miller, Senior Warden, called the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, to order on May 19, 2015 at 6:30pm. Present were members Youth Representatives Thomas Miller and Jess Miller, George Cornwell, Doug Miller, David Edmonson, Ann Templeman, The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander, Val Bowen, Mary Pat Croft, and Kevin Eley. Absent from the meeting were Jr. Warden Bettyrene Pope, Treasurer Linda Curtis, and Dan Clark.
George Cornwell opened the meeting with a psalm reading. Linda will not be able to do the psalm reading in June. Mary Pat, who had August, will do it for Linda in June and Linda will handle August.
Minutes from the April 21st meeting were reviewed. The minutes were approved. Motion to approve by George Cornwell seconded by David Edmonson.
Treasurer’s Report
Doug reviewed the April reports for Linda. There was a question about cleaning up the vestry books and what should be thrown out and what should be kept. Doug is going to touch base with Jen on this and also check on the housing of the minutes, etc. as a permanent record. George questioned the financial reports we receive, do we need all the pages or just a summary? It was decided to wait until Linda was back before anything was decided on this. Pledge income is down and Linda is concerned. George expressed concern as well since the summer months were approaching and pledge income is historically down during those months. Linda will continue to keep an eye on the pledges. The 2014 final income was received from the Perpetual Honor Fund. Expenses were up in April due to the second half of the storm water fee, building repairs for piano in church, second quarter diocesan pledge, two Dominion bills in April and the annual payment to for security/fire monitoring. Utility expenses are high year to date. Some of this could be attributable to the HVAC problems in the sanctuary but going forward the bills should be good especially since we have a full tank of oil. In addition, our electric rate will decrease next month due to the commercial rate Carrie Quinn negotiated with Dominion. Ann wondered if something should be put in the bulletin about keeping your pledges up during the summer but Samantha didn’t think that works. The banners were discussed since they are a new expense. We have one for the summer service announcement, Vacation Bible School, and Taize services. The banners can be used every year. The $4000.00 expense for the new sound equipment was paid for by the Memorial Fund. It had been sitting in a dangerous place and the new one has recording capability for music.
Rector’s Report
Vestry retreat- Samantha reminded the vestry of the dates August 28/29.
Grants- The grants from the Nickerson Trust were presented to the vestry as determined by the Outreach Committee. Doug made a motion to approve the grants and it was seconded by Kevin, the motion was passed.
Samantha then brought up the grant process. The Charitable Trust would like a more formal grant process. They oversee two trusts. The Mary Williams Trust is specifically for funds and individuals that are elderly and needy. They oversee a second trust that doesn’t have restrictions. St John’s Trusts distribute up to $50,000 in grants each year. Samantha would like to come up with a formal grant request process with more structure and put it on the website so we can widen our influence. Bruton and St. Martin’s have grant programs we can review. The Nickerson Trust has no formal board and it is not known if there are any restrictions or limitations. Val agreed to review the Nickerson Trust to determine what the parameters of the Trust are. The vestry has say over the Nickerson Trust but not the Charitable Trust. After Val reviews the Nickerson Trust and gets an idea for any restrictions, a process to include the Charitable Trust and get the grant process streamlined will be discussed.
Website- Samantha reviewed the emails she sent out about the website services for St. John’s. There are cheaper services but there is more work to maintain them. Faith Connect is as easy as a word document to cut and paste. The cost is $250 to design and the price is $45/month to maintain it and host it on their server. There is the capability for on-line pledging. A Paypal account will need to be set up and Paypal does receive a % of the pledge but Faith Connect does not. A members’ logon will be established so only members will be have access to certain things like the church directory. Val made a motion to approve the expense to have Faith Connect establish and host St. John’s website and Mary Pat seconded it. The motion was approved. St. John’s will be able to keep its present domain name.
Parochial Report- it was approved by the vestry and digitally signed on May 1st. It was been sent.
Covenant Conversation- the Vestry will meet next Tuesday, May 26 at 6 pm to begin the conversation. Doug has written an article for the newsletter. It will be mailed on May 25th and emailed on May 26th.
Jr. Warden’s Report
Bettyrene submitted a written report about work that had been completed around the church.
Electrical Work in Sanctuary- Two electrical outlets need to be added to the Sanctuary; one for a light for the piano and one for the sound equipment (at present an extension cord is being used). Each outlet will have its own dedicated circuit. Greg Brauer requested and received three bids for the work. He recommended going with 4C Construction. They did the work for the renovation and their bid was in the middle of the other two. Samantha thought she remembered there were some problems with them during the renovation and Ann said she would check with the Quinns just to make sure. Doug made a motion to present the bid for the electrical work to the Mary Williams Endowment and Kevin seconded it. It was approved by the vestry.
Cemetery Walkway- a couple of bids were reviewed. George made a motion to approve the lesser bid by Pembroke Construction and it was seconded by David. It was approved by the vestry and will be presented to the Mary William’s Endowment board. Samantha asked if the vestry had reviewed the cemetery funding letter draft and everyone was fine with it.
Q Design Proposal- since the Mary Williams Endowment only covers the church, the language for repairs to the Hoffman House had to be removed. A motion was made to approve the 4th revision of the proposal by Kevin and seconded by Val. It was approved by the vestry. Doug will inform the Mary Williams Endowment Board.
Signs- Ann passed around some pictures of the church signs. There are a couple that look really bad; particularly the one on the cemetery wall leading into the city parking lot and the one on the wall by the driveway that designates the Parish Hall. She also pointed out the post leading into the church from the city lot. A sign that directed people to the Parish Hall used to hang on that but it fell off and hasn’t been replaced. Samantha expressed her concern over the signs. She particularly dislikes the “Historic” reference on them. David pointed out that some of them list the Thursday healing service which we haven’t had in years. It was decided that once the Q Design proposal was approved by Mary Williams Board and they were notified by Doug, Ann would be in touch with them about solutions.
Sr. Warden’s Report
Insurance – The Hoffman House is included in our policy. The church has a very comprehensive plan. Doug knows we receive a discount for a security system but doesn’t know if we can get a further discount for the sprinkler system added to the church during the renovation. Kevin will check to see if the church can receive a discount.
Communion Silver- Doug touched base with Vestal on the Communion Silver appraisal. It had been appraised by Christies and there is a written document to support that. It was appraised at $1,080,000. It was decided not to insure it simply because it would cost too much to do so.
Stewardship- Doug mentioned to Eleanor about heading this up and Samantha has touched base with an email.
Endowment Board – a new member is needed and a couple of names were discussed. Doug will reach out to potential members to see if there is any interest.
Vestry Committee Discussion and Reports- Doug asked that everyone review the committees he forwarded to us from Samantha to see if any have been omitted or any new ones needed. Also each vestry member should think about which ones they would like to work with.
George closed the meeting with a prayer and we were adjourned at 8:17 pm.
Submitted by
Ann Templeman, registrar