ASLC COUNCIL MEETING
January 21, 2021
7:20pm – 9:35pm
Attendees: Bob Blankenship, Beverly Byers, Pastor Baker, Mary Rosas, D J Schoneweis, Kenny Lee, Richard Giltner
Absentees: none
Guests: Mara McGee, Karolyn Havener, Bonnie Fleming
Roll Call: Bob – Quorum
Opening Prayer: Bob
Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the November council meeting were presented for approval. Beverly made a motion to accept the minutes with corrections. D J seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Devotion: “The Peacemaker” through Chapter 1
Bob led the discussion. Points of discussion were The 4 G’s (Glorify God, Get the Log Out of Your Own Eye, Gently Restore, Go and be Reconciled), “Empty me of me and fill me with thee”, and getting more out of it when reading the second time.
D J wrote out a prayer as suggested at the end of the chapter. It will be used to close the meeting.
Next time – Chapter 2.
REPORTS
Youth Ministry: Mara
. Spaghetti Dinner: The dinner is to be held February 14 as a drive-through. Arrangements for the dessert auction and other items to be auctioned are yet to be made. Homemade items will be so marked.
. Eggstravaganza: Planning is in progress.
. Vacation Bible School: Materials have been ordered.
. Mission Trip: The trip is currently on. Six confirmed to attend so far, five more are tentative. Mara has a list of others who are deciding. Location this year will be Lake Charles, LA, at the end of July.
CLC: Karolyn
. Staffing: Staffing is the biggest problem. Three staff members have left for personal reasons. One who requires monitoring has been added to the toddler staff. One has now returned from quarantine. Since Ashley is more involved in the classroom, Karolyn is taking on more work. Karolyn asks for prayer for more staff, for ‘perfect people’.
. COVID: A single electrostatic cleaning costs $1,300 so, per authorization, Karolyn purchased a machine with cleaning solution product for $500. This solution product reduces to salt when dry so that it is safe for staff and children.
.Enrollment: Summer enrollment has started. If there are not enough registered to warrant opening, CLC will not open for summer session. CLC typically does not financially break even for summer sessions and cannot continue to do that. Fall enrollment will begin February 1.
. Tuition: Tuition rates have been increased slightly as has been done every two years or so.
. Trustee Positions: Karolyn serves as CLC Director. There are three additional positions required for state licensing: Controlling Person, Personal Designee, and Governing Body CEO / Chair. Pastor John held these three positions while he was here and since then, as Council President, Libby Lindstrom has been filling in on an interim basis. Since she is no longer President, those positions will now be filled by our interim pastor, Pastor Baker. If there is a break between his tenure and that of the new pastor, Bob as Council President will fill in for the short term. Karolyn will email the Pastor a list of position responsibilities.
. Newsletter: Karolyn has distributed copies of the CLC newsletter to boxes in the office. She will also have a digital (PDF) version available for distribution.
Pastor’s Report: Pastor Baker
. Arrival Adjustments: Pastor Baker is meeting with various functioning groups to get oriented. Background checks have been completed. Paperwork, like residency, etc. is getting done. Getting the car registered is in progress. Pastor likes the apartment arrangements.
. Directory Project: He has an old list of members and the latest membership list (May 2018). The goal is to create an up to date directory. He would like name, address, picture, email, and phone information from council members as well.
.Worship: Pastor is working on arrangements for a joint Lenten service with the Spanish speaking congregation and is looking at having evening services together, with the Spanish pastor also presiding.
. Ministry: Pastor is available most of the time for consultation to meet and pray, and he intends to attend most meetings.
. Other Business: Annual reports to NALC are due. Julia will work on this.
Treasurer’s Report: Beverly
. Financials: A copy of the current draft has been emailed to council. There will be small additional changes, then a final draft will be sent. That version will be made available to the congregation.
. Administration: The problem of incorrect meeting invitations is being fixed. In the mean time we may receive some invitations with cancellations in council emails.
. Status: Cash on hand was $930,000 at year end with $30,000 moved over from RBC to Affiliated Bank, for this year only, to cover the COVID shut down. Current law states that if staff is quarantined due to COVID-19 then they must be paid. If quarantine is voluntary, we have the option to pay salaries and receive a tax credit against payroll taxes.
. Payments: Beverly pays for Bonnie’s accounting services so that she does not pay herself. Beverly does vetting for any major CLC expenses after discussions with Karolyn, but does not sign any checks herself. All CLC property-related expenses are routed through Mary on the property team. Beverly will present a list of annual payment approvals at the February meeting.
. Credit Cards: The church credit card account is set for auto-pay. Pastor Baker shredded a credit card that was sent to him.
. PPP Loan: Beverly suggested that an additional PPP loan could cover unforeseen quarantine expenses mentioned above.
MOTION: Bob moved that the council agree to have Beverly apply for a second PPP loan for $120,000 (2 ½ times average payroll). Mary seconded. Motion passed.
.Income: Bonnie has generated Income statements with entries compared to budget. “-” or “( )” indicate items under budget. Statements are by areas and by months, showing actual amounts.
. Liabilities: Liabilities include restricted funds as listed in the report sent to the budget committee.
The year-end deficit for 2020 was -$257,000 without the $120,000 PPP loan, which may be forgiven.
. Other items: We should be in prayer about how best to allocate church funds. Pastor John has been paid through February. Next year’s budget (2021) will be included in the report for the February meeting.
Ministry / Trustee Team Reports:
Mission Monday: D J
. Current Projects: Current projects are the Community Garden, linens for the cottage at Oaks Indian Outreach (Oklahoma), Water to Thrive Water Wells, and Souper Bowl of Caring which Mara will announce during the Sunday service.
Property Report: Mary
. The report has been submitted in writing to council. Not in the report is the problem that CLC flooring that was replaced after the flooding is now coming up. Rocky is working on that.
OLD BUSINESS
Online Motions: Richard
. There were no online motions since the last council meeting. Richard will monitor until the Secretary- Elect position is filled. That position normally monitors online motions.
COVID: Pastor Baker
. We are following the current rules which run through February 28.
. The Pastor’s meeting next Thursday will discuss COVID issues. Attendees are to be checked in through the CLC desk.
Constitution: Pastor Baker
. Revision: Pastor has done a comparison between our constitution and the NALC denomination recommended constitution for congregations (2015) and recommends the denomination recommended constitution (NALC) for its various safeguards and for its provisions that prevent the pastor or council members from being on either the nominating committee or the audit committee. Such safeguards and provisions should be included in any constitution this congregation approves. It needs to be written so that the Pastor can have influence but not power.
. Online/Proxy Voting: NALC has set a precedent that online voting is permitted, but not proxy voting by one person on behalf of another.
. Discussion: It was decided that with so much still to be done on the constitution, the congregational meeting for Sunday is postponed. The Connection, online and printed, will inform the congregation. Ways to effectively communicate such matters to the congregation were also discussed.
Signage: Beverly
. Proposed Design: Currently there are two basic proposed designs. In deciding which designs to present to the congregation for approval, Council is in agreement that signage should include LUTHERAN in the church name and NALC and ALL SAINTS logos in opposite corners with fonts altered to allow it.
. Issues: Karolyn indicated that the proposed sign designs eliminated 20 or more character spaces on the ‘zip tracks’ which hold the letters announcing events. It was determined that three full zip tracks are needed.
. Next Actions: Beverly will submit these change ideas to the sign designer to generate two new proofs. Before the congregational meeting to decide on the design, large blowups of each will be placed in the atrium and posted in Survey Monkey for voting purposes. Information will also be disseminated via Mission Monday, Praise Team, Connection, etc.
Board Policies and Procedures: Item tabled.
Roof: Mary
. Bids: Council currently has three bids received last year. After the council reviewed each and concluded that the Eagle bid would best meet our needs, a motion was made.
MOTION: Beverly moved that the council accept the Eagle bid with not more than a 5% increase. Mary seconded the motion.
. Discussion: Kenny did not receive copies of the bids prior to the meeting so the motion has been tabled to give everyone more time to evaluate the bids.
Parking Lot: Topic tabled.
Copier Contract: Beverly
. Recommendation: The finance team recommends we keep the current provider – Kiocera. Karolyn, Beverly, and Pastor Baker indicated that they are satisfied with the service and price under the current contract.
MOTION: Mary moved that we keep the current provider as recommended by the finance team.
D. J. seconded. Motion passed.
Communion: Pastor Baker
. First Communion: Classes will be offered to parents of eligible children. The minimum age level for children in the classes will be reduced to first grade. Since communion is a gift of grace, like baptism, any age decision is left up to the parents. Mara will give a list of parents of eligible children to the Pastor. First communion will take place on Maundy Thursday.
. Online Communion: Pastor suggested that offering online communion is a compassion decision. It unites us as Christians and as a congregation. The Bishop has stated that element blessing may be offered over video. We could begin online communion on the first Sunday of Lent. Arrangements would have to be made for acquiring packets and arranging delivery.
MOTION: Mary moved that we provide communion to our online members as part of our worship celebration as proposed by the pastor. Richard seconded. Motion passed.
* Guests Mara, Bonnie, and Karolyn have concluded their portions so they left the meeting.
Matching Mission Funds: Beverly
. San Miguel Church: The San Miguel congregation is indebted to ELCA for $80,000 under an incremental repayment plan. Peace Lutheran Church (Oklahoma) has started a fund to help them repay the debt to prevent losing their building and property and are asking other churches to contribute. All Saints has funds and could match up to $250 this year.
MOTION: Richard moved that we allocate $250 from the Matching Mission Fund to the San Miguel payment fund this year. Mary seconded. Motion passed.
. Water to Thrive: This organization builds wells in remote areas that have no other source of clean water. Wells cost $5,000 to build. Rod and Lynn Parks have devoted a great deal of work to the project and will place an informative display in the atrium. We could allocate $250 in matching funds to this project.
MOTION: Mary moved that we allocate $250 from the Matching Mission Fund to the Water to Thrive project this year. D J seconded. Motion passed.
Executive Session:
MOTION: Mary moved that we go into executive session. Beverly seconded. Motion passed.
MOTION: Beverly moved that we come out of executive session. Mary seconded. Motion passed.
MOTION: Beverly moved that we pay Karolyn the budgeted pay increase due her for her excellent work, retroactive to January 1, 2021. Mary seconded. Motion Passed.
Closing prayer: D J
Meeting adjourned: Bob
Respectfully submitted,
Richard Giltner
Council Secretary