Dan Clark, Junior Warden, called the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, to order on March 17, 2015 at 6:36pm. Present were members Bettyrene Pope, Treasurer Linda Curtis, Youth Representatives Jess and Thomas Miller, George Cornwell, Doug Miller, David Edmonson, Ann Templeman, The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander, and Jr. Warden Dan Clark. Absent from the meeting were Val Bowen, Mary Pat Croft, and Kevin Eley. Samantha opened the meeting with a psalm reading. Minutes from the March 3rd meeting were reviewed and a few corrections were made. The minutes were approved as corrected. Motion to approve by David Edmonson seconded by Linda Curtis. Vestry Elections Registrar, Samantha nominated Ann Templeman, Doug seconded, Ann was voted on and approved by the vestry. (Ann was concerned she couldn’t make Executive Committee meetings-it was decided the registrar did not have to be present, it was only necessary that the committee have the minutes from the last vestry meeting). Treasurer, Ann nominated Linda Curtis, David seconded, Linda was voted on and approved by the vestry. Jr. Warden, Doug nominated Bettyrene Pope, Ann seconded, Bettyrene was voted on and approved by the vestry. Sr.Warden, Ann nominated Doug Miller, Bettyrene seconded; Doug was voted on and approved by the vestry. Treasurer’s Report Linda reviewed the February reports. February was not a great month for income but this is not unusual. Expenses were less than budgeted. Linda passed around a graph that shows trends in revenue and expenses and they are not tracking unusually from last year. Workman’s Comp has been paid in full and the 1st quarter payment from Endowment has been received. Only one rent payment was made in February from the Hoffman House but one of the tenants made their February payment in March along with their March payment. One of the tenants is behind and they will be vacating in April. The tenant is not sure if they are leaving April 1st of 15th and Bettyrene reminded us that no matter when they leave they are will owe us for the month of April. Bob Harper Photography would like to expand into the vacating tenants’ space. A new member for the Finance Committee is being sought to replace Bob Harper who is cycling off the committee. Several names were discussed and Ann agreed to make inquiries to see if there is any interested. Based on what Ann discovers, the vestry may hold a vote via email to elect the new member. Endowment Board Their next meeting with be April 9, 2015 at 4:30. Don Haufler’s term will expire so a new member will be voted on at the Board’s next meeting and presented to the vestry at the April meeting. Vestry Committee Discussion and Reports Since the vestry had just met March 3rd, Samantha said there was no reason to break into groups however a few items needed to be addressed. The new vestry members were added to each committee. Bettyrene was added to the Administrative Committee, David and Thomas were added to the Spiritual Life Committee, and Mary Pat and Jess were added to the Connection to Others Committee. Administrative-Samantha asked if the vestry had by-laws. No one was aware of any and Samantha had looked and asked several people and no one knew of any. Bettyrene said she would search to see if she could find any. Samantha said she had the by-laws from Ascension and she would email those to the Administrative Committee and they could be adapted for St. John’s. Connection to Others-Doug said he had not had a chance to ask their candidate since the last meeting but would do so.
Worship- They will meet this Saturday (March 21st) at 11 am to review everything for upcoming Holy Week. Samantha has made some tweaks to the Palm Sunday Service. The processional will be a more upbeat, fun processional. Palm Crosses will not be made this year, they were too complicated. Rector’s Report Vestry Retreat- dates were discussed and August 28/29 was proposed. Samantha is going to check to see if Chanco is available. Cemetery- Jim Tormey has approached Samantha about a fundraising campaign for the Cemetery Fund. It had been frowned upon in the past because of concerns of it would interfere with funding for the church. Samantha will get with Jim and ask the Trustees of the Cemetery to draft a couple of letters: one to people who have family buried there and one to the congregation. The fund presently has $1 million dollars. There are only 20 plots available and since more people are getting cremated, 5 cremains can go into one plot. The trustees have reviewed and the maintenance and determined that the fund would need $2 million total in order to sustain it. George suggested that the relationship between the church and the cemetery be explained in the letter to the congregation and explain why there is a need. There has always been the assumption that they had plenty of money. The letter should not be sent out on church letterhead. Doug asked that the vestry review the letter before it is sent. Sr. Warden/Jr. Warden Report Pews have been removed and relocated. Walls need to be painted and floor repaired. ET Lawson is coming out this week to look at the pipes to remove and cap them. The piano needs to be delivered as soon as possible, Samantha would like it in before Easter. Sidewalk repair will be put to a vote by email to the Endowment Board by Dan
HVAC – Dan gave an update on the situation. It has been very frustrating to get all parties together. Dan is going to contact the manufacturer in Oklahoma directly to get a site visit set. Doug stressed that Virtexco still needs to be involved since St. John’s had the contract with them. George explained that the fault may lay with more than one entity. If a resolution is not reached, legal counsel will be sought.
Old Business- Q Design proposal will be presented the April 9th Endowment Board meeting. New Business-David prepared and presented a written summary of the vestry training he, Bettyrene and Mary Pat attended on March 7th in Norfolk. David asked if St John’s had a vestry covenant. It was discussed that we would prepare a covenant after the by-laws were tackled.
David brought to the vestry’s attention that up-to-date minutes were not on the bulletin board. Ann said she would check on that and Linda said she would see that the monthly financial reports were on there as well.
It was decided there would be no commissioning of new vestry members, it is not a requirement. Night’s Welcome was discussed and Bettyrene is considering being the coordinator for it next year. Times were discussed and based on Bettyrene’ s availability and the Easter holiday we agreed we liked hosting during Lent. Bettyrene has the list of volunteers from this year and will be using that to coordinate next year’s event.
Dan sent around a sign-up sheet for the vestry meeting psalm/prayer. Please review the list. For those who were not in attendance at this meeting, you were assigned a month.
Ann closed the meeting with a prayer and we were adjourned at 8:10 pm. Submitted by Ann Templeman, registrar Addendum: On April 20, 2015, Ann Templeman emailed the vestry nominating Bill Kirkland to serve on the Finance Committee. It was approved unanimously by email by the vestry.