October 2020 Minutes

​TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Governing Board Meeting
October 27, 2020
 
In Attendance: Chair Savannah Jewell, Frank Cederquist, Eric Danz, Allegra Smith, Claudia Alenduff, Ryan Wynkoop, Steven Flowers, Lisa Nielsen, Susie Riley, Kay Franscoviak, Mary Jo Risk, Pastor Suzanne Clemenz, Morris DuBose, Melissa Kramer, Kathy Young, Dinah Dalder, and Pastor Tracey Leslie.
 
Savannah opened in prayer. 

​Young Adult Recruitment Questions (Tracey): Moris, Cathy, and Dinah 

• What is or should be the motivation for young adult outreach in our community? 
  • Morris: young adults have a need for connecting to their community because they are locked into cliques and friend groups that often do not expand beyond the people they knew in college/high school. 
  • Kathy: They need role models. Also, young professionals may need a space to hang out outside of their homes (similar to how undergrads have the Wesley Foundation to hang out on campus).
  • Dinah: New people in the community have difficulties meeting new people outside of their work environment. 
  • Allegra: Making friends and forming a network is important. 
• What are we hoping the result would be? 
  • Kathy: Membership at the church, more people coming to service, spreading information that our church is here for people and open for people to come
  • Allegra: More participation and giving to the church 
  • Savannah: More younger members would likely cause the church to increase contemporary relevance for our church.  
  • Morris: More people who come here want to be connected to this location because several people come here and end up staying longer but find that they are not plugged in to the community or local environment. 
  • Steven: We could use our church space more than primarily for weekend service and activities - could increase the usage during the week. 
• How would we measure success? 
  • Kathy: engagement of young adults in our activities, number of young adults at service and events
  • Morris: Tracking frequency of who comes how often and which events they tend to participate in, additional points of contact with the church 
  • Savannah: usage of the church - is the church being used more? 
  • Steven: increased financial giving 
  • Allegra: Social media engagement and communications engagement with young adults 
• What are the non-negotiables for who or what Trinity will be in the future? 
  • Tracey: new people can help change things, but what do we not want to change even as our mission expands? 
  • Kathy and Allegra: our status as a reconciling congregation 
  • Dinah: community engagement 
  • Lisa: overall intergenerationality of the involvement of people at Trinity 
  • Morris: Outreach directly to the community each week, like what Morris did for Fusion when he built that program years ago 
• Demographics for our community: Second to Ninth street to South Street to Cincinnati
  • Number one demographic: “The Striving Single” group 

 
[At this point Melissa, Morris, Kathy and Dinah were dismissed from the meeting]
 
Savannah motioned to approve the board minutes from September →  Steven seconded → Board Approved
 
Caring Ministry and Outreach Update (Pastor Suzanne): 

• The Caring Ministry has grown in the last month with eight people being served and ministered to on an ongoing basis. Church members have helped make that happen with Suzanne’s guidance! 
• In Suzanne’s community involvement, she has informed other groups and boards for community groups that she is the Associate Pastor at Trinity.  She is happy to share information on her role! (And we have a new attendee based on Suzanne’s work - awesome!) 

 
Confidentiality Agreement and Board Agreement Update (Tracey): 

• New items added for 2021 year for the board: 
  • The “Striving Singles” group demographic expects people to highlight opportunities for them to grow and serve as well as people who can answer their questions easily. The board should help answer questions because otherwise the individual may leave without asking further out of concern for the church’s lack of vision. 
  • The board should be able to explain: who is on staff, child safety policy, social media pages, membership commitment, and church finances. 
  • It is important for board members to attend at least one Fusion meeting a year so that we can tell people what Fusion is like. 
  • The board members should commit to increase their giving each year (outside of extenuating circumstances). 
  • Allegra mentioned that she is happy to be the go-to person for any questions about the church’s social media. 
  • Savannah moved to approve the new additions to the board agreement → Kay seconded → board approved

 

• Reminders of confidentiality items: 
  • Keep confidentiality, only share if given direct permission from the individual themselves 
  • We build a trusting community when we keep confidentiality. 
  • Church members are entitled to know everything decided by the board outside of Staffing business, but members are not entitled to know everything discussed due to confidentiality and avoiding indirect communication among board members. 
  • Maintain building security: refer people to the office if you are asked to provide someone with access codes or keys

 
Thankfulness November (Savannah): 

• Savannah has organized to have the four individuals we mentioned last month recognized and they are all available all Sundays in November. 
• Savannah will recruit board members via email to announce the recognitions of these individuals during Sundays in November (excluding All Saints Sunday). Lisa is willing to do that one Sunday, just needs to check her schedule. Board members should watch for that email! 

 
Next Board meeting (Savannah): 

• To avoid meeting the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Savannah motioned to have our next board meeting on Tuesday, December 1st at 6:30 pm (via Zoom) → Allegra seconded → Board Approved. 

 
Ryan (Endowments): 

• Funds available from Mary Smith’s endowment: “The Trinity Education Endowment will provide scholarships for the professional staff and active members or congregants of Trinity United Methodist Church to pursue continuing education and professional development for the betterment of Trinity” - can be discussed once a year if the $500 for the teaching scholarship isn’t requested, how that $500 can be used for Trinity staff who are working on education that will benefit their roles at Trinity. 
• In the future if Trinity funds could not sustain funding professional expense from the operating budget, these funds could be taped into for staff continuing ed. 
• Steven says it is good to carry over the name of the donor, Mary Smith Education Fund, even if the fund is used for Trinity staff. 
• Ryan motioned to make these changes → Allegra seconded → Board Approved

 
Remote Services (Savannah): 

• Our county is not having a huge increase in COVID cases but it is difficult to predict if our COVID numbers will change drastically during winter. 
• If our county gets flagged by the state, then we may want to consider going back to online services only. 
• We will follow state guidance and if our county gets flagged for increases in cases, then we will transition to online services only. We will also work with the country health department. 
• Tracey will have connection cards in service for people to fill out not only for us to better know who was there for welcoming and tracking, but also to know who to contact if someone at service tests positive and we need to notify people. 

 
Insurance Changes (Frank): 

• Savings of $1,400 a year if we switch to the Mennonite Mutual insurance (currently Brotherhood Mutual) but no one new to the church for less than 6 months could not be involved in youth or children’s ministry (regardless of background check or working with another person). Windows must be in each children’s classroom/meeting place (which we already have, except for the youth room because it is not a see-through window, but could replace that glass with the glass from an unimportant window in a closet/supply room), and follow safe sanctuary. Also any registered sex offender must be accompanied by another adult while they are on the premises.  We are obligated to run background checks on all people who volunteer to work with youth and children. 
• Tracey says that we have had people who are newer to the church working with kids but they have never been alone with kids or youth. 
• Savannah asked about costs of background checks to make sure that the background checks would not potentially end up costing more than the cost savings: Steven says those can range from $0 to $40, Suzanne says $15-20 on average, but Frank says that it is important to check background from all states. Suzanne also says that it may be possible to have volunteers who have a background check from a local school cleared by the insurance company as having a successful background check. 
• The change in insurance companies can happen anytime. 
• Steven motioned to approve a change in policy providers → Ryan seconded → Board Approved 
• New policies that reflect the requirements of the new insurance policy will be discussed at the December meeting. 

 
Building Endowment (Frank): 

• $294.35 for Bus titling, Frank got it licensed for 2021 already, to be paid from Bus fund
• From building endowment: 
  • Link Management: $672.00 for monthly property management
  • Snuffy’s Plumbing: $210.98 for dishwasher riser repair
  • Anderson Heating and Cooling: $220.00 for service pump
  • Anderson Heating and Cooling: $533.00 for preventative maintenance service 
  • Reimbursement to Frank for gas for the bus: $61.99
• Frank motioned to pay the bills above from the Building Endowment → Ryan seconded → Board Approved 
• Next week the bus will receive some preventative maintenance for the lettering and the preventative maintenance 
  • Lettering will come from bus fund (Tracey) 
  • Preventative maintenance costs for now will also come from the Bus fund (Tracey) 

 
Finances (Eric): 

• We are 43% over on our target income, 8% under expenses, but over on expenses for office supplies due to new computers for the office, and 13% under overall for expenses.
• We are positive $72,000 overall for September. 
• The last disbursement of the Virginia Miller estate: $13,900 dollars 
• Eric recommends to put the last disbursement into the operating fund. 
• The Program Endowment will be $12,600 for this next year, not sure of carry-over, so the question remains if we could afford to hire the new part-time worker if the $13,900 wasn’t added. 
• Tracey proposed to put half of the $13,900 in the program endowment and the other half in the dream fund. 
• Allegra motioned to split the funds between the dream fund and the operating budget → Savannah seconded → Board Approved 

 
Conference Apportionments (Steven): 

• We are currently withholding the conference apportionments. However, we should consider how long we want to withhold that and place the money in a CD that matches that time period. The interest gained from the CD could be donated to Reconciling Ministries. 
• Tracey says that one year would be appropriate given the time needed for the General Conference to get a new session together/create an open denomination, etc.  
• Steven proposed to continue withholding apportionments for the next 12 months → Kay seconded → Board Approved
• Steven proposed to have Susie calculate the current total and then donate the current interest to Reconciling Ministries → Savannah seconded → board approved. 
• Steven proposed to have the apportionment money moved to a CD in accordance with the financial directors → Eric seconded → Board Approved 

 
December 1 is the next meeting.  Allegra closed in prayer.