April 2020 Minutes

April 28, 2020
In Attendance:  Chair Savannah Jewell, Kenny Jones, Frank Cederquist, Eric Danz, Allegra Smith, Claudia Alenduff, Steven Flowers, Lisa Nielsen, Susie Riley, Ryan Wynkoop, Kay Franscoviak, Mary Jo Risk, and Pastor Tracey Leslie.

Savannah opened in prayer.
Previous month’s minutes (Savannah)
-AA has gone to online so they are no longer meeting in person
-CR has been following our guidelines for social distancing and cleaning and they have been very thankful for us allowing them to continue
​→ Savannah motioned, Kay seconded, board approved

Center for Congregations Connect Grant (Tracey)
-They pay 90%, church pays 10%, Morris picked out a sound system that was better and less expensive
-The $60 that the church would have to pay - taken from program endowment (Eric), or from worship budget (Steven) but annual operating budget is always at a deficit
→ Lisa moved to have the application approved for submission with the $60+ from the program endowment, Kay seconded → board approved
Living Stones Update (Tracey)
-Amber was working on the pathway project and everything related to the lawn. We need to progress with it because we received design work for the lawn from the city and we need to work to get that project together.
-What is needed is a leader to call and organize bids to get that project moving. Steven volunteered to take that leadership position on. (Thanks Steven!!)
-Living Stones is also in need of a leader to get it doing things and receiving grants in order to help it survive and get off of the ground.
-Lisa recommended that Living Stones’ board consider hiring a nonprofit consultant to help them come up with a strategy for how to get the organization together since there is little direction or documentation for the organization currently.
-Susie brought up how “Friends of Downtown” is handling the finances through it’s 501(c) but Living Stones is not its own 501(c) which presents a need for Living Stones to get down the roles of the board members and a direction for the organization. It is not ideal for Living Stones to be running off of the “Friends of Downtown” 501(c) forever.
-Tracey said that we as a governance board need to decide if we want to keep Living Stones or not. If we stop supporting Living Stones then we risk not getting sufficient future facility funds for Trinity.
-Susie said that  if we cannot get a leader to step up, then these efforts will not be worthwhile.
-Steven said that nonprofits may not be the answer for solving the funding problem but it is still good to evaluate if Living Stones is really the solution we need to get funding for Trinity’s facilities.
-Steven is willing to help put things together for this leadership role for 4-6 months. (Thanks again Steven!!)
-Tracey advocated for a broader financial strategy for the church, including Living Stones since the church and Lisa agreed that major considerations need to be given for making Living Stones centered around its financial goals/grant writing.
-Tracey asked the board to take a look at articles/resources about church finances and to report back next time about what they learned to help us consider what to do about Living Stones and an overall church financial strategy.
Communications Intern (Allegra)
-Bee Overly put together a communications plan for Trinity that we would like an intern to carry out
-Allegra has investigated a Purdue intern through getting the position posted at Purdue
-She also is looking into intern goals/requirements from various CLA programs and she has information from another department
-A major aspect of the role would be press releases, graphics, social media, and forming layouts for messaging.
-The intern would help put together processes for how we do various procedures of communication.
-Number of hours and cost: $15/hour for undergrad intern, 10 hours/week, full academic year maybe start in summer continue into fall with “possibility into spring” to evaluate 
Funds from Virginia Miller’s “dream fund” of $10,000 will be used, will cap it not to exceed $5,000 which would cover a two semester time for the intern: ---> Eric motioned, Kay seconded it, board approved
Voting to bring an intern on board: Savannah motioned → Steven seconneded, board approved

Allegra and Tracey will work on the intern posting.

Facilities (Frank)
Bills to be paid out of building endowment:
Peyton’s cleaning service: $1,315.00 for Stripping/Waxing Fellowship Hall and the Friendship Room (Character Restoration contributed $150)
Link management: $672.00 for monthly property management fee
Pay the bills from building endowment: Frank motioned, Claudia seconded → board approved

Other bills also from Building Endowment:
Advance tech - service parsonage furnace ($164.00), investigate boiler leak ($92.00), repair boiler leak ($300.60)
Renewing elevator license - reimburse Frank for $131.98  

Link project management to be paid from the Brick Fund $1,100 for the brick work project management.  (no approval needed)  The brick job is almost done.

→ The parsonage yard is needing work due to holes that have been an ongoing issue due to erosion, Susie says it could be the sprinkler system which started a few years ago and seepage could be occurring
-Frank said that Lawn and Shrub said they couldn’t help, but he will ask Link Management to take a look at it and make suggestions. Frank is looking for a map of the irrigation system to. Tracey says the system is no longer functional because pipes have ruptured.


Finances (Eric)
-March: 27% above budget, but we will see where we are after the Pandemic
-Susie: the bus fundraising is not included in that percentage, but we are ahead on our operating budget because one donor gave their money in February which makes our funds look better than they actually are and we should actually be more like 30-40% above budget this time of year with only three months accounted for this year.
-Eric will make a trendline to see what this year is like in funding and expenses compared to last year.
-Tracey asked Susie to put together quarterly reports of balances in designated funds so we can better plan how much money can fund various categories for ministry.
-Tracey would like Susie to take a look at how much was spent on the parsonage over the last ten years because it may be over $300k
-Conversations about the parsonage are important because a housing allowance may be far less than that and in the future it may be worthwhile to save money to switch up the system.


Payroll Protection Plan (Ryan)
-Regions Bank is underwriting the application.
-Trinity is waiting in line to hear back from Regions, problems with the second round of funding


Trinity Church Service Re-Opening (Tracey)
-May 24th current target date - governor and mayor are currently approving of that
-Coffee cart will be suspended for the time being and guidelines on social distancing given in a letter to all members
-Question of asking people to wear facemasks: Savannah suggests to leave it to the individuals to decide
-Tracey says online small groups will continue for a while even after the church opens so that will be an option
-Allegra says that singing is a mode of transmission and most of the congregation doesn’t like singing so suspend congregational singing for a while.
-Savannah recommends cording-off every other pew.


Next meeting: May 26th, church service will start again on May 24th


Lisa closed in prayer.