June 2021 Minutes

TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Governing Board Meeting
June 22, 2021
 
In Attendance: Chair Savannah Jewell, Frank Cederquist, Steven Flowers, Lisa Nielsen, Pastor Suzanne Clemenz, Pastor Monica McDougal, Pastor Mack Owings, Ryan Wynkoop, Kathy Young, and Pastor Tracey Leslie.
 
Call to Order and Opening Prayer  

• Savannah opened in prayer. 

 
Approval of previous minutes   

• Savannah motioned to approve last month’s minutes → Ryan seconded → Board Approved

“What We Believe” Update (6:34 pm) - Pastor Monica

• Pastoral team has been working on a “What we Believe” statement and other churches often post something like that on their webpage. 
• Potential visitors often look at that sort of statement and it would help Trinity get word out about our beliefs. 
• The Governance Board folder has the list of the full statements that are planned to be posted onto the website. 
• The Trinity UMC belief statement is based off of the basic UMC message with details added in with input from the pastoral team with phrasing taken from similar statements. 
• The sections on Humanity and Sin have very specific wording because we want to make sure that our church expresses that we accept LGBTQ individuals. 
• The LGBTQ Ministry, the Caring Ministry, and our concern for children are also highlighted on the Beliefs page. 
• Communion instructions were also added to a separate page on the website to let potential visitors know our communion beliefs and practices.
• Information on Trinity Connect was also added to the website. 
• Steven Motioned to approve the Beliefs statement → Kathy seconded → Board Approved
• Frank voted “no” indicating he felt it demonstrated a congregational “shift.” 

 
Updates on Caring & Visitation Ministries - Pastor Suzanne

• Suzanne would like to provide an overview every quarter for the board and for the congregation. 
• For this quarter so far (April, May, June), the ministry has served 20 people total, with transportation to food pantries, rental assistance, help with connecting folks to resources, and compassionate listening and more. (see full report in newsletter)
• The visitation group has visited approximately 30 Trinity members who are homebound or needing special care. The visitation group consists of volunteers who visit them and provide compassionate care. 

 
New Member Welcome - Pastor Tracey

• This coming Sunday eight new members will join the church! 
• It will be a wonderful celebration! Tracey is considering picking up a vegetable platter and would like to have a coffee cart volunteer for a brief reception after service. Ryan kindly volunteered to set out the platters and run the coffee cart. 

 
Family Promise commitment discussion - Savannah/Pastor Tracey

• Kay Franscoviak (our Family Promise main volunteer) has informed Tracey that Family Promise will resume having volunteers be physically present at the shelter. 
• Trinity will need a volunteer to be a volunteer coordinator to manage Trinity’s ministry for that area. 
• We will need to recruit someone to be the coordinator if we want to continue serving that ministry. 
• Our congregation would “host” for 3 - 4 weeks out of the year by providing meals on Monday, Wednesday, Friday evening and to stay there from 5 - 9 pm (it can be a different person who stays instead of providing meals). The volunteer is around in case of an emergency but not actively kept busy. There is also a Sunday morning time to be at the house in case of emergency. 
• We have had challenges recruiting people in the past to provide meals and with much more challenges for people to go over to the house. Therefore, common consensus is that Trinity will not be continuing with the Family Promise ministry. 

 
Modified Governing Board Meetings - Savannah/Pastor Tracey

• There are some bigger aspects that the board needs to address that cannot be fit into our regular 90 minute board meetings. Such topics include staffing, financial stewardship, and property. 
• We will have a board meeting that starts at 5:30 (with a potluck) and then have an initial discussion on a deep topic for an hour prior to starting our regular agenda 3-4 times per year.
• The August board meeting would be a good time to start at 5:30 and meet in person. 
• We will receive information prior to the meetings to go over prior to the meeting to help us better prepare for the meetings - board members should email Savannah and Tracey to help generate the big important topics. 

 
Committee Reports 

1. Trustees - Frank
   1. Bills: 
      1. Link Management: $672.00, Monthly Property Management Fee
      2. All Star Electronics and Security Systems: $809.50 Annual Routine Inspection
      3. Seat cushion for bus driver: reimbursement to Frank, $32.09
      4. Snuffy’s Plumbing: $302.46, clearing drains & Replace Pop Up Assembly in water softener-Parsonage
      5. Anderson Heating and Cooling: $198.00, 
      6. Clear AC Drain-South Storage Room-2nd Floor Church

Frank motioned for these bills to be paid from the Building Endowment Fund → Kathy seconded → Board Approved 

1. Parish excavation: 
   1. Holes in the yard persist after years of involvement with the irrigation system and from the sewage and water lines. No rodents have been found, and the mystery of the source of the holes remains, which has prompted excavation work. $190/hour for 2+ hours quote given from Krause. JL Excavating: $1,000 total but after he excavates there may be more expenses based on what he finds. 
   2. What direction should we head in for conducting the excavation? After the excavation, and finding the source of the holes and solving the problem, then the holes will need to be filled.
      Kathy recommended JL Excavating and this was approved.
      
      

1. Endowments - Ryan 
   1. Motion to spend Program Endowment funds
      1. Ryan Moved to spend $500 from program endowment to fund the June 6 event → Ryan motioned → Kathy seconded → Board Approved
2. Finance - Ryan 
   • Update: August is historically, a very low giving month. Online giving is growing and it is nearly one-third of all giving. There is low pledging due to people moving away or passing away: only 46 pledges were made this year. See Ryan’s full Finance Report.
   
   
3. Staff Parish - Steven
   • Music Director
     Steven shared an updated position description for Director of Music and Worship Arts. This new position is the current position description for Director of Music with some additional duties, including focusing on visual arts.
     The position description was approved for posting and dissemination.  Savannah motioned to dissolve the current Director of Music position and create Director of Music and Worship Arts. Kathy seconded. Motion approved.

 
Closing Prayer 
 
Next Meeting (Location - at the church) – AUGUST 24, 2021 @ 5:30pm to initiate discussion of big topics prior to the regular topics - bring potluck dishes