March 2021 Minutes

TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Governing Board Meeting
March 23, 2021
 
In Attendance: Chair Savannah Jewell, Frank Cederquist, Allegra Smith, Claudia Alenduff, Steven Flowers, Lisa Nielsen, Mary Jo Risk, Pastor Suzanne Clemenz, Pastor Monica McDougal, Kathy Young, and Pastor Tracey Leslie.
 
Opening prayer from Tracey. 
 
Previous minutes from January: Savannah motions → Mary Jo seconded → Board Approved
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Confidentiality agreement update (Savannah): 

• Turn it in to Savannah if you haven’t already. The form is in the January folder. 

 
Caring Ministry update (Suzanne): 

• Pastor Suzanne has formed a team to help with the Caring Ministry with Steven Flowers and Kay Franscoviak. They will provide support and advice for the management of the funds and the ministry. 

 
Senior Spring Luncheon (Suzanne): 

• The Friendly Visitors group met in March and decided to wait to hold the Senior Luncheon this year due to COVID, and the idea will be revisited this summer to see if this fall may be a good time. 
• Today Marty Moll passed away - please keep her daughters Cynthia and Lisa in your prayers. 

 
Trustees (Frank): 

• Bills for approval from the Building Endowment: 
  • Monthly Management Fee: $672.00 to Link Management 
  • Basement Door and locks: $2329.10 to Haley’s Lock, Safe, and Key
  • Winter Preventative Maintenance: $1,975.00 to Anderson Heating and Cooling
• Just plow it from the parking lot fund: $850.00 for snow removal 
• Frank motioned to pay all of these bills → Allegra seconded → Board Approved 
• The old bus will be put up for sale online. Frank is looking for help from someone who is experienced with Facebook marketplace or a similar online platform. We may be able to get $1,500 from the sale. Monica can post what Frank writes up as a summary of the description of the bus and Allegra will help with the selling platforms. Offers should go to info@TrinityLafayette.org for each message on each platform. 
• Thanks Frank for all of your work with the basement security! 

 
Endowments (Tracey): 

• The Everett Endowment has been gathering income 
• Once annually, on July 1, $5,000 of the Everett Endowment funds will be moved into the Operating Budget to help contribute to the music director salary. 
• Allegra moves to make the Everett endowment disbursement of $5,000 once annually to toward the Operating Budget for the purpose of Music Director compensation → Savannah seconded → Board Approved 
• Additionally, since part of the Program Endowment compensation will contribute to Monica’s salary, and it would be helpful to organize the Program Endowment such that we have a better idea of the budget projection. To help think ahead with Program Endowment costs, we will start asking for budget proposals from various ministry areas prior to approving the annual budget. Under the proposal system, up to $1,000 would be made available from the Everett Endowment for music-related expenses. Program Endowment proposals would be for spending requests for events and resources. In the fall each year, we will review the proposals and decide what is funded based on the finance chair’s recommendation and the budget requests. 
• October is estimated to be a good time to review the proposals. 
• The fall stewardship campaign will help the congregation understand what the mission/ vision is for the year, which aligns well with the fall proposals timing. 
• The Program Endowment proposals could be for both big and small requests from committees, staff and groups within Trinity. 
• Savannah motioned to approve the proposal → Kathy seconded → Board Approved.
• Extra endowment money currently generates a nice interest through INUMF; it is much greater than the interest in the Regions Bank. If Ryan could leave disbursements in INUMF until they are needed, that would help generate more interest. 
• Lisa motioned to approve to give Ryan consent to communicate with individuals/groups to move unneeded funds from Regions to INUMF → Savannah seconded → Board Approved

 
Nominations Team (Tracey):

• Since Allegra will be moving this summer, Tracey will gather the Nominations Committee to nominate an individual for the Staff Relations chair. 
• If anyone has ideas, share them with Tracey and Savannah. 
• We will also need a Finance chair because Eric and Isabel are moving down to Texas next month. 
• These two positions can be challenging to fill. 

 
Salary for Pastor of Young Adult Outreach (Tracey):

• We will utilize the Dream Funds first and then, secondly, the Program Endowment Funds. 

 
Discipleship (Lisa): 

• A Hans Christian Andersen Discussion Group will be led by Lisa for six weeks starting on Monday, April 12th for the next five Mondays at 7:30 pm via zoom. This group will help encourage people who may not prefer traditional Bible studies to get engaged with Trinity’s discipleship events. 
• A survey will go out online and in paper for non-online members to evaluate what members want for discipleship events. 

 
Missions (Mary Jo): 

• Mission Huku (https://www.inumc.org/districts/northwest-district-lp/mission-huku/): The Northwest District is raising funds for the pastors in Zimbabwe to help them be self-sufficient in their ministry. We can provide $366 for a pastor to receive 100 chicks and 10 bags of feed to contribute to the District’s goal to support 15 pastors in Zimbabwe. 
• The Easter offering will go towards helping at-risk children through supporting three local ministries: Family Promise, Indiana UM Children's Home (INUMCH - Lebanon) for helping youth and children who have been neglected, and the LUM summer camp. Churches will designate a day of prayer for children. A combination of the three organizations, split by third’s, is thought to help bring in offerings. 
• Mary Jo motioned to designate $366 for Mission Huku out of the designated Mission Funds → seconded by Allegra → board approved.

 
When you come on Palm Sunday and Easter, please sit towards the front, balcony and center of pews to allow a socially distanced environment for visitors who like to sit in the back. 
 
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 20 at 6:30 pm. 
 
Savannah closed in prayer.
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