Vestry Minutes & Reports

October 2022

Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd

Vestry Minutes

October 17, 2022    

Call to Order: 6:06 pm

Establish a Quorum: Yes

Attendance:

Alethea Eason, Kris Heck, Max Higgs, Mary Ihlefeld, Win Taylor, Paul Sherrell

Zoom: Frances Vasquez, Karen Whitlock

Not in attendance: Parson Linda, Deacon Tom Bates

Devotion: Forward Day by Day for October 17th, Fulfilling Commitments

Approve the Agenda: Mary moved to approve. Max seconded. All approved.

Approve the Consent Agenda: Mary moved to approve. Alethea seconded. All approved.

● Accept the September Minutes

● Reports received

Finance and Treasurer’s report:  Frances Vasquez

Pledges are far exceeding revenue. Bottom line of $70,000 is misleading as we have not paid Parson Linda since June. Mary reported that Parson Linda received a letter of agreement to proof in August. She has not yet agreed to the letter. Win suggested that we send Parson Linda a check. Frances said she did give her a W-4, but not an automatic deposit form. Karen asked if she accepted the check and cashed it if that would mean she had accepted the letter. Max and Mary said no. Win will let Canon Lee know that we have done our part and are waiting.

Fraud of $125 dollars on debit card: Frances has sent needed documentation to an organization that works with the bank that will process this and determine if we get a refund. New debit card is activated.

We have received $8,000 dollars from the foundation for buildings and grounds.

We are getting steady donations to Dormir es Poder. Tom Bates continues to oversee scholarships for Alas de Amor.

Utilities are still higher than what we budgeted. We have made the last payment for property insurance.

Jennifer Cook has taken a new job. Our new bookkeeper at Marones is Alyssa Cleary.  Win said that the diocese suggested in our 2020 audit that we use the diocese’s payroll accounting firm instead of the firm that Marones uses.

Building and Grounds:

● Progress of screen doors, sanitizer, cracked wall, pointing bricks

Paul reported that the church received the new dishwasher this afternoon. He will meet with Lauren Moore (Fix-All). He will try to get the old one pulled out and have the new one installed by the Bazaar.

He has given the locksmith the hardware for the two new doors and he asked to have the cylinder of the inside door to Henderson changed. We would then only need one key for both doors going into the hall.

Tom Hester has put a coat of paint for woodwork for copper doors.

The Brotherhood of St. Andrews did a lot of yard work this last weekend.

● Cleaning services contract

Win refreshed our memories about concerns about 5 Stars Cleaning Service. Paul said that he will ask 5 Stars to begin to clean downstairs once again. As far as we know, things are ok with their services. Win reminded us that there is a list on the bulletin board of to dos. We need to tell the congregation to mention concerns to her or to Paul.

Max asked if spraying has been changed from Saturday to Monday.

Administration/office:

● Update The Call, website, Facebook – opinions, suggestions

Celeste has worked on the website. Win suggests we go to the office and ask Celese to show it to us. We need to provide suggestions. Celeste can’t make it live until Vestry approves it.

The Call is now published monthly. We need to have suggestions for copy. We can send an eblast, Word From the Herd, whenever we need to send out extra information. People should send info to both Celeste and to Win, and Celese will send out the eblast.

Jill Olsen has sent out an eblast to Celeste regarding the Bazaar. Eblasts should be sent out the day received with Win’s approval.

Parson Linda needs to approve the Facebook page so that we can put it up.

● Family Directory – Realm photos

Celese has many photos transferred from Jill and Mary’s phones. She is working on the final draft.

● Bylaws

Karen gave us a copy of the old bylaws and a new edited version. She pointed out that she discovered that we worked with a copy of 2008, not 2013, but there were no real changes from one to the other. We changed “the Rector’s Warden” and “People’s W Warden” to Senior and Junior Wardens throughout the document. We made it clear that the Rector does not have a vote on Vestry.

In Article III, Section E: Treasurer shall keep all financial records. Win clarified that the church insurance bonds the treasurer, but says she will double check to be sure.

In Article 111, Section G: We need to revise job descriptions. This will not be part of bylaws but own documents. We added that the job descriptions will be updated annually, but realize this may not be practical.

In Article 4, Section B: Do we want to amend how vacancies are filled in Vestry? Do we want to leave this with vestry or have a vote with the parish?

In Article 5, Section A, Number 5, we created a new item to address concerns about formal employees being on Vestry or Junior/Senior Warden. Vestry will consider and discuss at the next meeting..

In Article 7, if there is an emergency Vestry meeting and we don’t have the ability to give a three day notice, we added a suggestion that the Vestry will make a good faith effort to announce the meeting via eblast.  Do we need this?

In Article 8, finance committee: Do we need one? Do we need to put job descriptions of money counters (etc.) along with the treasurer’s?If so, we need to put in a new article to discuss finance committees and what it does.

Last page:  What is permissible to be done electronically? We need to make provisions to allow voting over Zoom.

Max asked for a Zoom meeting with Karen and Alethea to discuss an issue.

Max asked if to delete “Protestant” from The Protestant Episocopal Church throughout the document.

Win says other documents , such as the charter, need to be changed if we do this.

Various typos were pointed out.

Vestry needs to finalize By Laws to present to the annual meeting.

● Debit card vs. credit card for General Operating

We will continue to use the debit card.

● Lectionary Book, lectionary inserts, HP printer – to be ordered

Parson Linda will be asked to order. If she can’t, Win will do this.

● Rental Property management

The Real Estate office has given the billing responsibilities to another company. Deacon Tom had issues about the appearance of property: mowing, gravel. He said that he would talk to Georgia Bearup. It seemed to take a long time to get tenants’ complaints taken care of. We will check with Deacon Tom to see if he has talked to Georgia before making any decisions next month.

● Stewardship:

We will ask Canon Lee to address stewardship next week.

Ingathering: Sunday, November 20th

Win will rewrite the Stewardship letter.

Stuffing envelopes/stamps/mail. We will work together.

● Letter of Agreement – Pr. Linda  (see discussion above)

Discussion –

FYI – Betty Himes plans to place an ad in the newspaper similar to the Methodist Church. She will pay for this.

Action Items:

Mary will talk to Tom about connecting with Georgia Bearup regarding the property.

Karen will ask Canon Lee to address stewardship next Sunday.

Win will rewrite the stewardship letter.

Win will talk to Canon Lee about the letter of agreement and what we should do.

Next meeting:

Next meeting will be scheduled at a later date. Paul suggested Thursday, the 17th (the week before Thanksgiving) at 5:30.

Closing Prayer: Alethea

Adjournment: 7:46 pm