Doug Miller, Senior Warden, called the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, to order on October 20, 2015 at 6:35pm. Present were members Doug Miller, David Edmonson, Ann Templeman, The Reverend Samantha Vincent-Alexander, Val Bowen, Mary Pat Croft, Thomas Miller, Bettyrene Pope, The Reverend Mark Riley, and Linda Curtis. Absent from the meeting was Dan Clark, George Cornwell, Kevin Eley and Youth representative Jess Miller.
Bettyrene began the meeting with a psalm reading.
Val will do the psalm reading for the November meeting.
Minutes from the September meeting was reviewed. The minutes were approved. Motion to approve by David Edmonson seconded by Val Bowen.
Treasurer’s Report
Linda reported that we were around $35,000 short on pledged income. Income to expenses is good because expenses are down. Linda will follow-up with Betsy Bouchard on the pledges. The pledge to the diocese has been paid for 2015. The $4000 credit from the property insurance has been received for the installation of the sprinkler system. Samantha’s pension has been miscalculated and it has been overpaid.
A new operating budget was presented reflecting Mark’s salary. Doug made the motion to approve the new budget and Ann seconded it and it was approved.
Rector’s Report
Stewardship
The ministry fair went well. Many ministries had new volunteers sign up for their programs. Flower delivers are still needed and new ways to run that program were discussed. The next few weeks there will be stewardship snippets but the goal is to make it a yearlong comprehensive program. Thoughts are a financial budgeting workshop offered to the community in January, environmental stewardship in the spring, etc.
Website
The new website is up and working. It is still not complete, there is a lot more that can be done. Doug wondered if the add contact worked. Doug wanted Thomas Miller to add his contact information with email address to see if it works.
Assistant Rector Housing
Samantha sent out an email on September 24th, asking for the vestry to approve the housing allowance for Mark Riley. The housing allowance is part of his salary but is untaxed. Mark has asked that $12,300 be set aside for housing. Doug made the motion to approve, Val seconded it and it was passed.
Outreach
Joanne Mahoney has resigned from Outreach. Samantha, Mark, Jan, Carol Winarski and Greta Harrison met to get Outreach going again. There is someone interested in being the chair. There is still $10,000 that hasn’t been spent from the Nickerson Trust.
Repentance and Reconciliation Service
The service will be held at St. John’s in conjunction with 3 other area churches on November 8th. All four choirs will sing together, Michael Spear Jones will preach and there will be a reception afterwards hosted by the Young Adult Group.
Covenant Conversation
The discussions from the small groups were reviewed. Samantha will prepare something for us to act on at the next meeting but she wants to hear from the Bishop first on what to do. She needs some clarity.
Executive Session
We moved to Executive Session to discuss a staffing issue.
Junior Warden Report
Light bulbs have been replaced, a lock was installed on the craft guild cabinet, a new coffee pot warmer has been ordered. The front door needs to be refinished properly; it will run $1100.00 plus $300 a year to re-varnish it. Bettyrene made a motion to ask the Mary Williams Trust to pay to refinish the door, Doug seconded it and it was approved. Bettyrene will send the proposal to Doug.
Senior Warden Report
We have received a request from the Diocese for our pledge in 2016. They have requested $33,199 but it is only a guide. In 2015, we pledged $25,000. Doug suggested that we pledge $27,500. Doug made a motion that we pledge $27,500 to the Diocese and add it into our 2016 operating budget. David seconded the motion and the motion was approved.
Rick Bagley is officially on the Endowment Board and they are pulling together a meeting.
Bettyrene reminded everyone to let her know if something needs to be fixed.
The meeting was closed with prayer and we adjourned at 8:07 pm.
Submitted by
Ann Templeman, registrar