The vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elizabeth City Parish, to order on July 19, 2016 at 6:40pm. 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, Duncan Garnett, Youth Rep Will Olson and Treasurer Linda Curtis. Absent from the meeting was Val Bowen and Rose Hobart.
Minutes from the June meeting were reviewed. Mary Pat made a motion to approve the minutes as amended, David seconded the motion and it was approved.
Treasurer’s Report Linda discussed having the Audit Committee convene. The consensus was to do so. The members of the Committee are Rick Bagley, Jim Shoemaker and Frank Edgar Jr.
Linda reviewed the financials from June. The check from the Endowment Fund was not received until the end of June so it was not deposited until July. Pledges, non-pledge and plate remain significantly below. Medical insurance is up due to Samantha moving to the family plan. Linda is watching the Perpetual Honor Fund and will take money out of that if she can in July. The Easter Offering was put into the operating budget.
Mark continued the meeting with a Bible reading.
Rector’s Report – Vestry Retreat- Everyone was reminded of the Vestry Retreat on August 26/27. Mary Pat will send out a meal/food sign-up sheet.
St. John’s 500- is a committee put together to insure St. John’s is still a viable parish on the 500th anniversary not a museum. It is modeled after what the church in New Hampshire used where there is a high percentage of non-Christians. It focuses on outreach, growth and evangelism. Members of the committee are Jesse Woods, Betsy Clark, Laura Riley, Bob Harper, Cindy Bagley and Phyllis Henry.
Stewardship- The pledge campaign will begin earlier so we know if we can keep Mark. He needs to be provided assurance by October 1 so we need to know the pledge numbers by mid-September. Pledge cards will be sent to the Vestry earlier than the remaining congregation so the congregational letter on the stewardship campaign can state that the vestry has already made their 2017 pledge and hopefully state as well that the vestry pledges increased 6% (what the congregation is being asked to increase their pledge by). The letter is going out to the congregation on August 17th.
- Rose Hobart and Bill Brown will co-chair the stewardship committee. Ken Kline, Greg Brauer and Pat Dennehey will also serve on the committee.
- Confirm the same gift from the Endowment Board that was given in 2016 ($65,000)
- Review how much money can be used from the Hoffman House. The balance in the account now is presently $46,014.26.
- Twelve callers have been recruited to call every pledger and consistent giver. There are 115 pledgers and 14 consistent givers. They will each call 10 members August 1 – 12. During the week of August 12-17, the vestry will call the callers to confirm all calls have been made. The letter and pledge card will go out August 17. The letter will provide a table showing what a 6% increase would look like.
- Pledge cards will be asked to be turned in no later than September 11 (kick-off Sunday). The Vestry will call on people who have not turned in their pledge card starting September 19th. Stewardship Sunday will be the same as Kick-off Sunday this year.
- A date will be set in October for the Ministry Fair. Ann will coordinate this again. (dates to be reviewed)
Asst. Rector Report- Mark gave a summary of his work. He has narrowed the HVAC process. It is a moving target but it works. Bible Study is going well and new people have been attending. The Urban Adventure needed to be rescheduled. They are looking at holding it the end of August. He has been plugging into the community more and learning the people and places better and how best to engage people.
Jr. Warden Report – Bettyrene has a notebook with the maintenance agreements in there that have been updated. The alarm system continued to go off. It was because of the transmitters on the gutters to keep people from stealing the copper.
The transmitters have been taken off the gutters and there hasn’t been a problem. The security system was discussed and Doug would like to see if we had resources to pay a company to monitor the security operations.
Bettyrene is contacting the man who painted the church signs to see what can be done to make them look better.
Sr. Warden Report
- Doug discussed allocating the Easter and Christmas offerings to the operating budget. Bill Brown made the motion to allocate the offering to the operating budget, Doug seconded it and it was approved.
- It was discussed how much money should be maintained in the Hoffman House account. There is presently $46,014 in there. It was decided to leave $25,000 in the account and putting $21,000 in the next year’s operating budget. The Hoffman House generates around $15,000 a year so maintaining $25,000 should be fine. Bill Brown made the motion to allocate the funds from the Hoffman House to the 2017 operating fund, Mary Pat seconded it and the motion passed.
- Membership activities were discussed. A productive meeting was held and Will Andrews will be the chair. They are working on training ushers and greeters and working on a welcoming packet.
- There was a consensus that we wouldn’t hold an August meeting due to the vestry retreat.
The meeting was closed with prayer by Mark and we adjourned at 7:55 pm.
Submitted by Ann Templeman, registrar