October 15, 2020

Holy Trinity Council Meeting

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Held online via ZOOM

Present: Tim Krick, Cristina Dolcino, Judy Evans, Linda Edwards, Rebecca Schrumm, Paul Karl, Julie Moore, Krissy Thistleford, Dave Smith.

We Gather in God’s Name Opening Prayer

1. Blessings
2. Thank You Cards
3. Meeting minutes September 10, 2020 and October 5, 2020 – approved online

We Celebrate and Give Thanks for the Past

1. Secretary Report
  • Some electrical work related to the lightning strike this spring is scheduled for Oct 23.
  • Dave M. expects property spending will be over budget in the three cost centers where he has control (grounds, maintenance, equipment), primarily due to costs for crack sealing the parking lot. To keep spending within ~$600 of budget in these categories, planned spending for lawn mower maintenance will be deferred until spring. Depending upon cost for Oct through the end of the year for heating, utilities, and snow removal, the overall property spending could end up under budget. These projections do not reflect the cost for the dead tree removal or new electrical panel (total about $2300), which are previously approved additions.
    1. Treasurer Report
  • See attached report.
  • Motion/Second/Approved: To change the signator for the Mission Endowment Fund from Helen Goransson to Linda Edwards as Treasurer, and if possible Barry Philbrick as Assistant Treasurer.
  • Motion/Second/Approved: To begin to withdraw interest and dividends from the Mission Endowment Fund to support Social Ministry.
    1. Pastor’s Report
  • See attached report.
    1. Ministry Team Reports
      a. Serve the Lord – Paul
  • Caring Connections: Cheryl had a Zoom celebration for the life of her Mom this past week, and is taking this week off. She is almost done with the list of people who might want the Tidings mailed out to them.
  • Social Ministry: Jessica Feeley has been working to figure out how Thanksgiving baskets might work this year. b. Grow in Faith – Julie
  • Last night was the final “Pastor O goes to Concord” conversation. The whole series has been well-received.
  • Dot Kasik will be leading two Adult Forum presentations in the coming weeks, one on her work with immigration and the other on the book The Elephant Whisperer.
  • Faith has not received any feedback from the newsletter yet, but is tracking the analytics of which pieces of it people are engaging with, so will be able to report more back in future.
  • One student is up for Confirmation this fall. Pastor will film it in advance, and the video will be shown during the Reformation Sunday service on October 25th. c. Come Together – Rebecca
  • See below discussion of item #2.

We Seek God’s Direction for our Church

1. Mission Endowment Fund
  • See Treasurer report above.
    1. Expected November 1st return to in-church service plans and safety guidelines
  • Discussion of safety guidelines.
  • Capacity of the Sanctuary is technically 250, so 50% would be 125. However, not all of that space is available for seating (altar, instruments, etc.). Given those considerations, and the knowledge that Pastor, Mark, and musicians need to be included in the numbers, Pastor has approximated 50 people as our maximum capacity for service attendees.
    1. Sanctuary video-audio upgrade – update
  • See attached update from Dick Topping.
  • Mark is working on upgrading our internet. Dick is reaching out to companies to ask if we can do a trial run, using the equipment we are looking to purchase to stream a service before deciding whether to buy.
  • Motion/Second/Approved: Conditional on approval from certain memorial fund donors, to give the AV Team approval to spend up to $10,000 to move forward with Phase 1 of the proposed plan.
    1. Reconciling in Christ Committee’s statement and vote recommendation for timeline/process
  • The stewardship packet and Tidings today detailed the reintroduction of this process, and gave the proposed timeline.
  • Discussion of proposed process for voting.
    1. How are things going after 7 months into COVID-19?
  • Tabled due to time.

We Look to the Future

1. Forward Leadership – visionary process initiative/community meeting - NE Synod
  • Thus far, there are three people who have agreed to go on retreats, and two others have agreed to be part of the “sounding board” team for when they return. We hope to have ~4 people on each team total.
    1. Council Recruiting Committee formation
  • 3 Council members are coming to the end of their first 2-year term, so will let Council President know this month if they would like to continue for another term or not. Other Council members will nominate congregation members to be asked to be on the recruiting committee, if needed.
    1. Set date of semi-annual meeting
  • January 24th, snow date January 31st.
    1. Upcoming calendar review (next two months) a. Council meetings: Nov. 12, Dec. 8 or 10

Closing Prayer