Church Council

(These are un-official minutes!! Minutes in draft form; not yet approved.)

Call to order—President Tom Kopperud at 6:59 P.M.

Devotions—Tom Kopperud

Present—Tom Kopperud, Vicki Nelson, June Vitse, Dean Hatlevig, John Munter, Mike Messenger, Shari Michel

Absent—Letitia Kopperud and Tony Heiden

Staff present—Jean Krambeer (Business Office Coordinator) and Pastor Steve Chellew

Prayer concerns—Donna Boyum and Marion Evenson—both are now home

Adoption of the agenda—Motion to approve the agenda by June and seconded by John. MA

Secretary’s report—Motion to approve the report by Shari and seconded by Dean. MA

Treasurer’s report—Due to weather issues, attendance has been low, but the contributions are still maintaining, thanks to automatic contributions.  Contributions are above average.  Motion to approve the treasurer’s report by June and seconded by John. MA

Pastor’s report—In February, Pastor Steve made eleven hospital visits and twenty-two homebound visits.  Motion to approve the report by Mike and seconded by June. MA

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

1. Youth Director—HR looked over the description, and they were curious about stating the position is to work with high school and young adults and not middle school students. Pastor Steve commented that the goal is to focus on high school and young adults and see how it goes and then move to younger kids.  Christine already does a lot of volunteer work with the younger-aged group.  Everything else on the description looked good.  This would be advertised through word of mouth since it has been in the Augustana site for a long time.  It will be put in the bulletin and talked about to see if that brings about inquiries for the position.  Motion was made to accept the document since the money has been budgeted but hold off on looking for the someone in this position until after July 1.  Motion was made by John and seconded by June.
2. Update on the Purchase of Property—According to our bylaws, Tom can sign this as president and no one else is needed; however, he could have a second officer sign as well. The closing is on Friday, March 15.  A discussion took place to decide how to pay for this property.  Motion was made to accept the recommendation from the finance committee to 70%/30% option which is to take $27,000 out of savings and the remainder out of the endowment fund which will be reimbursed from the monthly rent of $650, plus utilities.  Motion was made by Mike and seconded by Dean. MA.  John and Pastor Steve as well as the executive committee will work on the rental.  Tom will work on the application to the endowment committee.
3. Personnel Policy Manual—HR looked over the recommendations from the council and took out section 8 and the word “Constitution” and just have bylaws. The corrections were made in this final draft.  Motion was made by Vicki to accept this as the Rushford-Lutheran Church Policy Manual.  It was seconded by Mike. MA.
4. Short-term goals and long-term goals from each committee—Not all of the committees have met to come up with these goals, so the motion was made by Mike and seconded by June to wait until all committees have met. MA.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Bylaws—These were handed out just so all old and new members now have a copy.
2. Email—Apparently, AcenTek is going to be changing their domain. We can change it to rushfordlutheranchurch and not have acegroup.cc.  We are paying for a domain already that is the staff member’s [email protected]  We are going to wait until AcenTek does change this.  Jean mentioned she will investigate it be shortened to rlc when the change does take place.
3. Endowment Committee Request to Business Office Coordinator—According to the August Endowment Bylaws were changed so a large sum of money that is given to the church is to be split. Also, Bylaws as it is now written is that any amount of money not tagged or designated for a particular area but just given to the church as a general memorial, the endowment committee gets 15 percent of it.  On page 27-28 from the RLC annual report lists all memories received for the past year and what those monies were designated to be used.  Motion was made by Mike and seconded by John to write a check to the endowment fund for $392.02 to cover the 15 percent and scholarship and endowment line items. MA.
4. Snow removal—This has been an interesting year with all of the snow, but we might need to look into a different service that will do a better job of clearing away the snow and ice and getting down to the actual sidewalk to prevent people from slipping and falling. The service needs to use sand as well.  We will need to find someone who can do this, and we will finalize the cost and budget for this.  On this note, Jean is going to check into see if Sam Kingsley will continue to do the mowing this summer as well since this snow will eventually go away. J
5. Jerome Project—Tom presented a list of repairs that need to be done on the church as discussed at the annual meeting. They were labeled A-G with various examples under each letter of what each repair would include. There were three of these six categories that should be done sooner than later and take precedence over the others, and none of these were dealing with the stained-glassed windows.  These need to be done before the stained-glass repairs. The discussion included how much money we already have to put towards this project, how to pay for it, and how much to do this year and how much has to be done, and the best way to do this based on the recommendations from Tom. The recommendation is to focus on “Option B”—North Elevation—main gable wall 1.  Wall capping-coping metal re-production/installation and 2. 100 percent tuck-pointing-to-grade and “Option D”—North Elevation—Sacristy Gable 1. Wall capping-coping metal reproduction/installation, which would cost $65, 000, but we already have $20,000, so we could fundraise for the remaining $45,000.  Motion by John to go with plan B 1. and 2. and D 1., which would equal $65,000 utilizing the $20,000 that is already saved for this and fundraising the project by the congregation for this year. It was seconded by Dean. MA.
6. Clarification–John then asked for clarification about the endowment committee and what it does and the money it raises and how much it brings in and takes out. They have a quarterly report that is due after March that will help explain this, but it might be nice to just look over the last three years just to see how it works.
7. Church Finances Overview—Pastor Steve had some information on the overall church income and expenses since 2009. He talked a little about the endowment committee’s responsibilities and discussed projects and costs over the past ten years to show how the church has been financially over the past ten years.

Motion to accept committee reports was made by Vicki and seconded by June. MA.

Motion was made to adjourn the meeting by Shari and seconded by June. MA.

Closed with the Lord’s Prayer at 8:22 P.M.

Submitted by Shari –fill-in secretary for the night 🙂

Balance brought forward 2/1/2019   $ 19,366.07

TOTAL RECEIPTS                                 $ 30,175.09

DISBURSEMENTS                                $ 42,401.95

TOTAL ON HAND 2/28/2019               $   7,139.21