SAINT JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
VESTRY MEETING MINUTES
September 19, 2006

Present: David Cameron, David Hall, Trish Morck, Steve Cox, Ross Speer, Mark Agard, Jennifer Schley, Michele Collins, Jacquelyn Ross, Susan Harris, Peter Merrell
Absent:  

Visitors: Laurie Rofinot, Tom tufts

Worship: Mark Agard

Minutes:  August minutes accepted with small corrections.  David moved,
David seconded, passed.

Commission Focus - Stewardship:  Tom Tufts
Update
Thank you letters sent to all pledgers acknowledging amt. of pledge.  
They will place notices in Sunday news each week asking people to keep up with pledges.  New pledges have come in for 2006.  Tom met Sunday with the committee.  They will continue to do living epistles on topic of stewardship during Sunday services.  Several are already planned.  Third Sunday’s are slated for living epistles.  Susan to get out pledge statements Sept. 30, 2006 to pledgers.  Plan to have article in Bell with pie chart indicating state of finances for church.  Stewardship notices will continue to be put in Sunday News.  Tom plans to continue after church, during coffee hour signing people up for pledges.  Tom plans to start sending out a letter to each person who pledges, immediately acknowledging his or her pledge.  This is new.
Tom would like to use the website more to inform others of pledge situation.  We would like a more holistic year round view of stewardship.  The Goal is to achieve 65% giving from parish list.  Goal is also ongoing education and information sharing regarding the necessity for giving and the spiritual aspects of giving.  Tom does not anticipate more than 65% giving due to transient and student members of congregation.
Suggestions
Laurie Rofinot- new stewardship address on website?
David Cameron-printed material available for anyone regarding stewardship and giving.
Tom Tufts- Clergy give approx. 17% of all pledges.  This is a good example of stewardship as a way of being.
Peter- Will year round stewardship lessen sense of “push”.  Can we look at calendar year and give some highlights to it?
Ross Spear – Are there those who just stop pledging?  Tom says no, that most of them have just left the church altogether.  Tom went around the room and asked each member if they know whether their
pledges are up to date and if they will get them up to date by Oct. 1, 2006. He also asked will you have your pledge ready by Oct. 7 and use the percentage method.  Tom did this so that he can use the vestry as a good example to the congregation.  We went around and each person answered.


Proposal of marriage blessing – Laurie Rofinot.
People from San Antonio have asked Laurie to bless a same sex marriage.  
They have residence here in MA.  Bishop has asked Episcopal churches not to hold a legal wedding in the church.  These are not Saint James members.  Susan Harris says that people who are not members can marry here.  Usually they knew the clergy member.  There was a general discussion of possible impact on the church congregation.  There was general support of this request.  Recommendation made to Laurie to speak with Shariya Molegoda regarding this.  Blessing scheduled for December 31, 2006.  Peter inquired if a Blessing ceremony is preceeded by the conventional pre-marital counseling.  Laurie has arranged for pre-marital counseling to happen in San Antonio for them.

Old Business:
Vestry and Allocation of Funds.  Jennifer has written a history and
explanation of Missions.  Please see attached.  Jennifer clarified that the August requests had gone outside of the process established for missions requests.  Vestry agreed that it was best to follow established protocols in regards to funding requests.  These are established to go through the Missions Committee.  Peter comments that the Mission's budget is a committed expense.  When we experience a drop in pledge income, there are few areas in the overall Annual Budget to reduce expenses.  The recent increase in dollars to the Mission's budget should be considered in the context of the overall Budget and a general analysis of the Budget should be conducted to identify which commissions have flexibility in their budgets to accommodate reductions.

Warden’s Report
Sept. 30 Bishop wants to meet with vestry in the morning at 9:30 am before service. Shariya Molegoda will be present at this service, and he will introduce her.  He will meet with different groups throughout the day.

Search Committee – David Cameron.  
There is now a critical mass of 14 people who have agreed to serve.  See attached.  List reviewed by all.  Peter made motion to accept this list, Sylvia seconded this and it was passed.  Next stage is for Sylvia and David to send a letter to these people and ask them to meet and get started.  Vestry should indicate to them a few block dates with some goals for the next months.  David Hall has offered his assistance with completing the church profile.  The committee has deadlines to meet.  The timeline is quite prescribed and all vestry members have a copy of the book that holds this information.  There are 2 people who have been on the search committee in prior years  Steve will convene this committee for their first meeting as soon as possible.  Sylvia will announce at church that the committee is formed.  Sylvia will distribute a list of the names and phone numbers of the search committee members.

Commission Reports
Worship – nothing to report
Fellowship- nothing to report
Finance – David Hall will be representative to vestry now instead of David Cameron.  He will report to vestry on finance committee.  Application to Wainwright bank is ongoing.  They are following up on some details for the application for a line of credit account. We need this soon because we have to pay the contractor in the next few weeks.



Property –Peter and Ross met with committee.  They have plans for small
improvements inside the building.  There is an article coming out in The Bell regarding the capital campaign and other property issues.  We are considering changing our insurance coverage and Peter is in the process of comparing rates.
Ross is in process of negotiating costs with oil company.  Rates are
volatile.  Will give report next meeting.  They are also investigating to replace the boilers.  Ross is in process of getting advice on over all heat and what kind to use and if we should switch to gas.  Kesher is interested in the second floor space.  Also wants to negotiate a
long term rent and they would like to make some improvements. The Committee is reviewing rents and lease agreements.  We have not raised rents in 5 years.
Planning – Vestry retreat.  Mardi looking for another date, as many were not available to come on suggested weekend.  Mardi looking at another site also.
Administration – Mark Agard suggests looking at our long distance carrier.  Spoke with Aletha from the Bell.  She suggested that a calendar be submitted with upcoming monthly events submitted by the 15th of the month.  Trish Morck noting that The Bell not being delivered on time,  Sylvia to check with the Post Office.  Tim requesting images to place on the website.  Mark to contact Laurie Rofinot to get photos for site.  Trish and Chris would like to create a Blog for their work in Ecuador.  Trish Morck announces that Karen Meredith can no longer be the parish representative on the Deanery in the Diocese due to her doctoral work.  The nominating committee will be informed.

New Business
Interim Rector – Susan Harris makes a motion that the interim priest’s
package will be 46 thousand for salary and 24 thousand dollars for housing.  Sylvia seconds  It passes.  David Hall suggests some kind of celebration for whole church focusing on celebrating our new pastor and inviting out of touch parishioners.  Goal is to build congregation.  He will discuss this with Jacqui Ross.  Jennifer acknowledges Trish Morck’s contribution to the vestry and wishes her well and says good by and so does everyone else.

Next Meeting
October 17, 2006