The vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, to order on June 21, 2016 at 6:35pm. Present were members Doug Miller, David Edmonson, Ann Templeman, Mary Pat Croft, Bettyrene Pope, The Reverend Mark Riley, Bill Brown, The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander, Rose Hobart, Duncan Garnett, Treasurer Linda Curtis and youth representative, Will Olson. Absent from the meeting was Val Bowen.
Treasurer’s Report Linda reviewed the financials from May. Expenses were greater than income, still waiting on money from the Endowment Fund. Linda can draw income from the Perpetual Honor Fund but with the Stock Market lately there hasn’t been any income to draw. She will be keeping an eye on that. The Hoffman House is down this month due to $1800.00 in taxes that were paid. Since the Easter Offering wasn’t designated, it will be placed in the Operating Budget. Stop Hunger Now has been paid. Those funds were from the Charitable Trust and the donations from Parishioners designated in the special envelopes distributed in the church.
Ideas were discussed to address the lagging pledges. Statements have been emailed, maybe mail them next time with a carefully written letter to anyone way behind (more than 50%) to make sure there aren’t any problems. For now, Samantha will ask Betsy to review to give us an idea of how many pledgers are behind. This should be crossed check with what time frame that agreed to pay their pledge. If it is at the end of the year, perhaps it could be suggested to pay some of that pledge now to get us through the summer.
David continued the meeting with a Bible reading.
Minutes from the May meeting were reviewed and corrections made. Bill made a motion to approve the minutes as amended, David seconded the motion and it was approved.
Rector’s Report – Vestry Retreat- Everyone was reminded of the Vestry Retreat on August 26/27. It will be made up of fellowship, quiet time, & spirituality. Cindy Higgins from First Presbyterian has tentatively agreed to be the speaker. Samantha has reserved the manor house and two motel rooms. At the July vestry meeting we will get the meals organized. Stop Hunger Now-Was a success. There were 57 volunteers. If St. Johns’ decides to do it again, there needs to be a concentrated effort to do the fundraising on the front end. When you sign-up on line to participate there is a donation link. It was agreed that it was a fun event, there was a good cross section of people and a great way to get the youth and older members involved. Charitable Trust- A new member needs to be appointed to fulfill Charlie Edmonson’s unexpired term. Bill Beach was discussed and he is interested. Bill Brown made a motion to appoint Bill Beach to the Charitable Trust, it was seconded by Doug and the motion passed. Annual Council Delegates- The 2017 lay delegates for annual council are Scott Curtis, Randy Devlin, Dan Clark, John Olson and Susan Edmonson as an alternate. Samantha asked the vestry members to consider being an alternate or a delegate for 2018. Bill made the motion for the 2017 slate of lay delegates, David seconded the motion and the motion passed. Visioning – Samantha had asked vestry members to bring ideas for events that would bring people to the church.
- Lecture Series (wide variety of subjects, once a month, faith based and non-faith based)
- Special events involving our history (examples of when Jim Tormey did a role play of 150 years ago, second site service)
- Tours of the cemetery (history of the cemetery-very interesting, David Bishop knows a lot, a guide was put together as an Eagle Scout Project, Bishop Bentley wrote the original guide) (As a aside the cemetery needs a lot of work and Bill Brown has volunteered to organize a work party to clean it up)
- Musical performances (Doesn’t have to be a Sunday, perhaps a Friday evening, ask for donations, take advantage of local college talent and high school talent)
- Outreach (an event like Stop Hunger Now where it can involve a lot of people and be knocked out in a 2-3 hour window)
- Dance hall (have different theme nights, swing, shag, ballroom dancing, students in show choirs would come)
- Movie night (St. John’s has the screen, sound and space, i.e. Lost Boys of the Sudan, show the movie and them have some of the lost boys to come and talk on the subject)
- Hot Air Balloon (tethered in the parking lot, take people up to see Hampton from the sky)
- Sunrise service/Sunset service in Mill Point/Ft. Monroe.
- Coffee shop in the Hoffman House
Questions that need to be asked, who are we trying to target, there are certain ages that would be interested in lectures, music may attract a younger crowd, who are we trying to capture? How do we make the event relevant? There has to be a connection to St. John’s. Tell people who are already downtown about St. John’s (block parties, black beard festival)
Asst. Rector Report- Bible Study is going well. Mark has wrapped up the video series, it was well received. The J2A group is headed to Baltimore this weekend for the Urban Adventure. They will be taking a tour of the downtown churches, visiting the Church on the Square and participating in an outreach event with them and celebrating Eucharist at Ft. McHenry.
Jr. Warden Report – There was maintenance on the sprinkler system. A new sprinkler company took over for the old one. A sprinkler head had been missed (covered in sheet rock) but that has been repaired. HVAC update-AC was not working. Filters were clogged up. Mark observed and will be able to check on these in the future. The Quinns have the maintenance plan for the HVAC, Doug asked Bettyrene to get it. The maintenance plan that was to be developed and overseen by Q-Design has not started yet. Endowment was going to pay for it and now there is a question if they will or not. The Endowment Board has the authority and money to pay for the items. There is an annual contract for a maintenance schedule for the HVAC system (changing filters is not part of this). It is believed that vestry already approved the $3000 contract for maintenance. (Ann will check minutes to confirm).
Sr. Warden Report Finance Committee- Stephen Rous has agreed to serve on the Finance Committee. Stewardship- Really wants to put together a committee, in the past it has been run by individuals. Vestry needs to brainstorm on people to serve on the committee (8-10 people). Rose and Bill agreed to serve on it. In order to keep Mark the members need to increase their stewardship dramatically. St. John’s has gotten away from any every member canvas. Every member of the stewardship committee is assigned a parishioner and they ask them what their pledge is this year. Since it is sensitive what members donate be kept private; it was discussed to have a committee member make a call alerting them to a letter they will be receiving, have the letter sent by pledge keeper or treasure with past pledged amount and suggested amount, and then have committee member follow-up with a phone call. We have been passive in past years, maybe need to get more aggressive. Frances Caldwell is a consultant on stewardship campaigns; it was discussed if we should use her services. Samantha discussed the yearlong stewardship campaign that has been successful in other parishes.
The meeting was closed with prayer by David and we adjourned at 8:25 pm.
Submitted by Ann Templeman, registrar