Vestry minutes february 2016

STANDING MEMBERS: x

Fr Jeff Hammond

x

Fred Grimes

x

David Spencer

x

Vickie Luckenbach, Sr. Warden

x

Johnny Gorden

x

Pris Williams

x

Julie Alvarez, Sec.

x

Frances Money

x

Jack Oates Jr Warden, ex officio

x

Jimmy Davis

x

John Sumners

x

Ric McCormick, Treas.

GUESTS: x

Guest: Tom Taylor

TOPIC

Guest

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS

Guest

ACTION(S) RESPONSIBLE EVAL/STATUS PERSON

Call to Order

Vickie Luckenbach, Sr. Warden, at 5:15pm

Completed

Devotional/ Prayer

Jimmy Davis

Completed

Approval of Minutes

Electronic approval of the January minutes

Completed

Introduction Vickie introduced Tom Taylor who had sought permission to address the board tonight on behalf of the Outreach Committee. Tom’s request was the first item of business for the meeting. See “Any Other Business” in these minutes for details about Tom’s request.

Senior Warden

Sub Committee Reports Administration Old Business Vickie stated that Vestry needed to approve Ric as Treasurer and Vickie as Sr. Warden. David Spencer so moved.

Jimmy seconded the motion. All voted in favor.

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Vickie

Completed

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Old Business

January 2016 Financials

Ric

Closed

Balance Sheet: There was an increase of about $21K. The following is the breakdown by area: • Monthly Operations +$13.7K (explained below) • Moms Morning Off +$8.5K (explained below) • Funds -$8K ($5.1K of the decrease was due to losses from our investment accounts for the endowment (3.2K ) and columbarium (-1.9K ) funds) • Prepaid Pledges +$7K Significant activity from funds were as follows: Copier Fund (-$1,042), Dugat MMO Scholarship Fund (-$1,158), Outreach Fund (+$417), Building Fund (-$1,019).

Monthly Operations: There were a number of large donations made in January that that contributed to our income being $10.2K over budget. Expenses were under budget by $4.6K. Almost all of the under budget was in personnel. We compute our monthly budget numbers by taking our annual budget and dividing by 12. This is simple, but when we have a situation like our new assistant who won’t start until May it will seems we are under budget in Jan-Apr and a little over budget the remaining months.

MMO: MMO had a surplus of $$8.5K for the month. Tuition income was higher because a number of families paid their December fees (late) and prepaid future tuition. Enrollment is at 34 children with 10 teachers, this means everything is running at full capacity.

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(con’t)

Ric presented financial reports and asked for questions. He reminded members that at the end of the year there was a surplus of about 50K. 15K of that surplus has been set aside to offset this year’s projected deficit, but there is still 35K that will need to be allocated somewhere else. There were no questions for Ric.

Ric

Closed

Vickie went through items from the audit still to be completed: there needs to be an article written to solicit new members (Ric said two people have offered to help); there is still a need for more people to help with the audit, especially with next year’s audit. The 2015 audit happens this year.

Vickie

Pending

Completed

We need to take video footage of campus assets. David is doing this for this year. Need someone to do this next year.

Pending

The auditors commented about the fixed asset account balance and Ric said that as treasurer, he manages the fixed asset account balance.

Vickie asked if Vestry should put money into a building fund. Ric said they made a conscious decision not to this year.

An annual review of insurance is suggested to make sure our property is sufficiently covered. There was some discussion about whether this is necessary to do every year. Vickie suggested looking at the by-laws and perhaps changing this stipulation if it is not necessary to do this each year.

Vestry Minutes

Completed Pending

Vestry minutes were taken care of as per the audit. Review of Parish practices, by-laws and cannons will be done when Bur arrives. This is something he can help with.

Completed

Lockbox is taken care of. Voucher approval done by Ric.

Completed

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Job descriptions. Vickie talked to Rachel and she’ll be able to complete this once Bur arrives. Rachel and Carol have spent time already defining each other’s roles and responsibilities. Jeff added that as Parish Administrator, Rachel has the ultimate responsibility of clarifying job descriptions and conducting regular reviews. Jeff conducts Rachel’s and Sue’s review and this works well.

New Business

Vestry Minutes

Pending

Vickie explained that Vestry is organized into three committees and members serve on one of the three areas: Administration, Ministry and Property. In the past these committees meet at 5:00pm, before the Vestry meeting begins. She asked if this model was working and if it is necessary that these committees meet each month? Jeff explained that Richard Mickelson had devised the model based on research and how to best manage the responsibilities of Vestry.

Committee communication is necessary but maybe not every month. Jimmy suggested that if it is necessary to meet, the cmte head would set a meeting at 5pm prior to the Vestry; otherwise, the committees do not have to meet every meeting. Jeff added that the groupings are useful and help give some continuity in reporting. Vickie also reminded members that Vestry set goals in each of these areas. Going forward, it is up to the committee heads as to when and how often they will meet. Committees are as follows: Ministry: Jimmy (lead), Pris, David, Frances; Property: Jack (lead), Johnny, John; Administration: Vickie (lead), Ric, Fred and Julie.

Vickie

Completed

It was clarified that our two Parish Representatives for the Diocesan Mission will be David Spencer and Johnny Gordon.

Vickie

Completed

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Jimmy asked that new member information cards be put in his box. Pris mentioned that sometimes the bench pews do not have prayer request cards nor visitor information cards. Jimmy suggested we get a reserve of those cards to keep on hand so that ushers can replenish bench pews between services.

There was some talk about who oversees this. Morey? The ushers? The office (printing of materials)? Jeff is going to talk to Morey about this.

Discussion continued about how new members could request more information easily, as well as how we can make the regular St. Barnabas emails more widely publicized. Julie suggested that it might be helpful to have a link on the web site visitors could fill out after having visiting our church. Also a link on the web site for prayer requests would be helpful. Julie also suggested that we advertise more regularly (web site and Encourager) about how to receive emails from St. Barnabas and get on the email list at St. Barnabas.

Vickie

Vickie/Jeff

Pending

Pending

Ministry Old Business

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New Business

Jimmy shared that when he and his wife first came to St. Barnabas, they knew little about the Episcopal traditions. So to help newcomers integrate more easily, he complied a little pamphlet entitled, “Understanding the Liturgy in the Episcopal Church — Why we Do What We Do”. The pamphlet is awaiting approval and how exactly it will be used is to be determined but Jeff likes it and wants Bur to take a look at it.

Jeff thinks it’s a great piece of information for a newcomer and goes along with part of our bigger mission which is to reach out to others. Some discussion followed about how to use it, where to distribute, the dangers of it too; in other words, a pamphlet like this cannot be interpreted as “the word” on these practices. We want to respect individual piety practices but what the pamphlet could do is help newcomers integrate more easily and that is a good thing. Jimmy gave each member a copy to peruse. Vickie asked that each member read it, digest it and give Jimmy feedback on it.

Jimmy

Pending

Property

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Old Business Jack reported the following:

Expenses: General Maintenance: Water leak – Parish Hall kitchen $1,019.03 Office Revision: Opaque film on office windows - $240.00 Water leak - Restroom $198.52 Blinds for office windows $572.12 Total: $2,029.67

Jack

Closed

Work Not Yet Invoiced: Itz Electric – Investigate electrical failures Itz Electric – Install outside flood lights (two trips) Itz Electric – Re-vamped Sanctuary lights Itz Electric – Relocate conference room outlets Hill Country Refrigeration – Fire ants in kitchen A/C Hill Country Refrigeration – Reset refrigerator seals Hill Country Refrigeration – Leaking valve on kitchen A/C Routine work: Reeh Plumbing replaced the vacuum breaker on a toilet in the women’s restroom in the parish Hall.

Itz Electric installed a floodlight at the east end of the Parish Hall, over the kitchen door.

Thad Ziegler adjusted the door closers on three Parish Hall doors.

All of the round tables in the Parish hall have now been repaired.

The lock on the cash box in the Sacristy has been replaced.

Hill Country Refrigeration replaced a leaking valve on one of the Parish Hall kitchen air conditioning unit.

This unit had been leaking refrigerant for some time.

Office Revisions: A bid was obtained from an alternate contractor to install a new doorway into the current conference room.

This bid was above the $3,000 amount approved at the previous Vestry meeting by $1,960 and the project will be represented at the February meeting. If approved, the delivery date for the new door frame is two to three weeks; Vestry Minutes

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then a week for the installation.

Several of the windows into the existing office area were coated with opaque film and blinds ordered for the others.

Electrical outlets on the wall where the new doorway is to be installed were removed and an outlet for the copier installed in that room.

The problem of sound transmission from the Priest’s office to the Reception area still has to be addressed.

Balcony Rail: An engineering review of the balcony rail has determined that nothing can be done to strengthen the existing connection sufficiently. This leaves the replacement as the only option. As soon as the final design is received, bids will be received for the work and the project will be submitted to the Vestry.

The final appearance of the revised rail will not be any different from the present except that there will be a metal rail (painted a dark bronze color) across the top.

Columbarium: The final design on the expanded Columbarium was approved by the committees (Columbarium and Columbarium Expansion). The expansion will consist of five new sections along both the southeast and southwest walls and will provide 160 additional niches. A final price has been requested from manufacturer of the components and a request for quotation sent out to three local masonry contractors for the installation. A preliminary estimate of the cost is $45,000 to $50,000.

This project will be submitted at the March Vestry meeting.

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New Business

Jack noted that he would like a motion to increase the expense of the doorway from 3 to 4K. David Spencer so moved.

Pris seconded the motion. All voted in favor of the motion.

Jack

There also was some discussion about cleaning bird droppings off the rock walls but Jeff said he learned of another deterrent for keeping birds away. Ric reminded everyone that it is a seasonal problem and would go away. Jack is going to get all of his prices together, present to he Columbarium committees then bring before Vestry again.

Pris mentioned that the stand for the Book of Remembrance is in and we should be thinking about where to place the book, as well as how to request from others things that were given in someone’s name would need to be included.

STANDING AGENDA

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS

Incomplete

Incomplete

Pris

Pending

ACTION(S) RESPONSIBLE EVAL/STATUS PERSON

Rector Report

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ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Vestry Minutes

Jeff commented that though the “job” Informati of Vestry is to fulfill a lot of prescribed on tasks and that as a result we can get immersed in the minutia of lots of things to do, Jeff encouraged Vestry to keep our shared vision for the future in our minds, because it is important. It’s just the way the church is set up — building and grounds need to be kept up, bills need to be paid, finances need managed, etc. but we want to do more.

Jeff just returned from Council and was overwhelmed with gratitude for St. Barnabas and our community. St. Barnabas is a great place. He said we are so fortunate, we have a good spirit at our church. In other small towns, many churches are closing doors, dying—even, he said. We are in one of the fastest growing areas in the US. We have an incredible deal here, he said. Jeff came away from Council wanting our church to be a resource church—a go-to place for our community, to provide things that go beyond our doors. He sees ourselves as a resource to our community. “Our cup spilleth over,” Jeff said. Jeff shared some numbers to give us an idea about how lucky we are. He said of all those small towns in our dioceses about 47% of the churches have less than 50 people show up on Sundays.

We have over 200 each Sunday. Jeff feels grateful on every level and reiterated his excitement about this year!

Jeff

Closed

Regarding Council, Vickie is writing an article about their experience for the Encourager. She shared that it was a great experience and an exciting time for us. Jeff encouraged Vestry members to go to Council. “It is really impressive, uplifting, lots of young people. booths, ministries.” Good stuff!

Vickie

Closed

RESPONSIBLE PERSON

EVALUATION /STATUS

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

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ACTIONS

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Vickie introduced guest Tom Taylor as the first item of business. Tom asked for permission to come before Vestry and seek approval for the disbursement of funds ($10,000) by the Outreach Cmte to the Texas Water Ministry for a well in Honduras. Johnny Gordon moved to approve Tom’s request; Jimmy seconded. All voted in favor of approving the allocation of funds from the Outreach Cmte to the Texas Water Ministry.

Tom Taylor

Completed

Jimmy Davis

Closed

Jimmy Davis

Closed

Jeff added that the original purpose of the Outreach Cmte is to reach out and go do their work, but we never set a threshold on spending. Tom suggested that we consider establishing a spending threshold for the Outreach Cmte. Vickie suggested a threshold of 2K and Ric agreed. Tom also suggested that someone from the Outreach Cmte should periodically attend a Vestry meeting in order for the Vestry to be apprised of what they are doing. Part of the charge of the Outreach Cmte is to be completely noncontroversial. Jeff added that on occasion the cmte could get approval via email if it was necessary, and that it is important to keep communication strong between the cmte and Vestry. Pris moves to set for the Outreach Cmte a spending threshold of $2,000 or less be acceptable without Vestry approval. Above that amount requires Vestry approval. Johnny seconded the motion. All voted in favor of the spending threshold.

It was mentioned that the 10K distribution was publicly announced in the last Encourager publication. Tom Taylor thanked Vestry and left the meeting.

Jimmy Davis will collect offerings and cover deposits for month of March.

Closing Prayer

Jimmy Davis closed the meeting in prayer.

ADJOURNMENT

Vickie adjourned meeting.

NEXT MEETING

March 21. Fred Grimes will conduct opening and closing prayers.

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â‚Ź

Respectfully submitted _______________________________ Vickie Luckenbach, Sr. Warden

______________________________ Julie Alvarez, Secretary of the Vestry

St Barnabas Episcopal Church Vestry Minutes

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