MINUTES

Board and Council

October 1, 2011

St. John’s Church

2351 Pleasant Grove Blvd.

Roseville 95747

Present:

Members of the Board:

The Rt. Rev. Barry Beisner, Rebecca Freie, The Rev. Cliff Haggenjos, Lynn Hill, Suzanne Phinney, Jim Sargent, Lynn Zender, Charles Mack (Chancellor)

Members of the Council:

Carlton Allen, Robert Hall, George Henry, The Rev. Lucretia Jevne, The Rev. Susan Plucker, The Rev. Jeff Frost (Dean), Charlie Chapman, Margaret Dunning, The Rev. John Mangels, The Rev. Deacon Cindy Long, The Rev. Phil Reinheimer,

Staff:

Cassie Bangerter, Jenifer Campo, The Rev. Canon Britt Olson, Canon Bobbi Yeo

Absent:

Members of the Board:

The Rev. Deacon Dave Ferrell, Stephen Lawrence, Tom Ewart (Treasurer)

Members of the Council:

The Rev. Canon Christopher Seal,The Rev. Ron Griffin (Dean), The Rev. Jeanne Forte (Dean), The Rev. Craig Kuehn (Dean)

  1. Call to Order+BLB
  1. Opening Prayer+BLB
  1. Minutes:
  2. June 18, 2011 Board/Council

Haiti campaign will roll out during Convention and conclude during Epiphany

Delete Julian’s Rest bullet

(Sargent, Phinney) approve as corrected

  1. July 30, 2011 Council

(Allen Jevne) approve as written

  1. August 17, 2011 Board

(Sargent, Zender) approve as written

  1. August 31, 2011 Board/Council

Correct title to Board and Council

(Haggenjos, Zender) approve as corrected

  1. Bishop’s Report+BLB
  • The Bishop offered thanks for the card celebrating his fifth year of episcopate. Bishop thanked and recognized Canon Britt Olson and Canon Bobbi Yeo for their extraordinary contributions to those five years, and also recognized the accomplishments of the Board and Council. He recalled the shift in culture that we have undergone while still staying together.
  • Structure – TEC is considering a proposal for restructuring proposed by Bp. Stacy Sauls, the new COO. Bp. Beisner may raise a resolution at the Diocesan Convention related to this idea.
  • Future Site Committee has begun to meet. We need a business office with connectivity and technology for distance meetings; we do not need a meeting center. We also need to be near a major airport and major transportation arteries. The goal is to finalize a plan by this time next year.
  • Recent natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and floods point up the need for disaster planning.
  1. Canon to the OrdinaryB. Olson+
  • A program called Start Up, Start Over for small churches (less than 75 ASA) is holding a conference in Williamsburg, VA in December, and we have scholarship funds available for those who wish to attend. Board and Council members are encouraged to promote this conference. Requirements: there must be a team from a congregation, a focus issue to be addressed, and a summary report must be written afterward.
  • Bishop Beisner is working with Holy Cow Consulting on a survey to be sent to all leadership in the diocese, to provide data from which we can evaluate the direction of the Diocese in relation to our strategic priorities. It will be launched at Convention and the results will be available in January. Congregational Vitalization is soliciting input on the survey questions from Board and Council members.
  • GotoMeeting was very successful as a meeting tool at St. John’s, Petaluma when planning for the survey process.
  • Rocklin has called a new Vicar which will be announced tomorrow. Ft. Bragg is looking at finalists for half-time Priest in Charge. Vacaville is finalizing a three-quarter Interim Rector. Tyler Strand is retiring from Healdsburg at the end of this year.
  1. Canon for Administration and FinanceB. Yeo/C. Bangerter
  • Financials – fire accounting was finalized in July in preparation for the audit which is currently underway. All revenue and expenses from the fire, even those experienced this year, are attributed to October of 2010.
  • Budget to Actual – apportionment shows a 5% decrease from the prior year. Earnings on the corpus and other investments have yielded returns better than expectations. However, in August and September they have suffered due to market losses.
  • AR and notes receivable – all churches qualified for the 2009 portion of Jubilee forgiveness, have successfully complied with requirements and the remaining 50% of 2009 apportionment has been converted into notes. Questions remain about the Paradise loans, and Jim Sargent will follow up with Steve Huffman of the EMT. Quincy is up to date on apportionment and began making payments on the Missionary Advance Fund loan since the August meeting.
  • Audit – field work commenced this week on the 2010 audit. It went well, and next year’s audit will occur on time during the first quarter of next year. Results will be available at the December Board and Council meeting.
  • Congregation Range Sheet – Employee Practices and Benefits does not recommend a COLA. The range sheet was approved (Zender, Hall MSC.)
  • Redway loan – this is a diocesan (mortgate) loan, not an endowment loan. The borrowers should have been paying principle and interest as of January 1, 2011. Due to disruption from the fire, that fact was not discovered until June. Accounting’s proposal is for the borrowers to begin to pay amortized principle and interest as of Jan. 1, 2012. Approved (Zender, Mack MSC)
  1. Foundation FundingJ. Sargent/B. Yeo

The question for this discussion is whether to restore full funding to the Foundation. The trust document that governs the Trust gives authority give half the earnings to 1) the corpus, 2) purchase of property for mission foundation, or 3) to fund the Foundation, In 1991 it added the words “until the Foundation becomes self-supporting” which they are not. It was felt that a grant back from the Foundation was the best way to work toward being self-sufficient. The feeling now is that Foundations are not by nature self-supporting, and they would like to continue to be partially funded by half of the proceeds of the trust. They have revised their budget, dispensing with the position of Executive Director and proposing a half-time position to build and maintain a database for fund-raising purposes. They have also put together an expanded menu of services that they propose to offer to the diocese. Their performance would need to be evaluated, perhaps on a quarterly basis. It was resolved to create a committee from the Board and Council that will meet quarterly with the President and at least one additional member of the Foundation Board to evaluate their performance. Committee members will be named in December. (Mack, Mangels MSC)

  1. Diocesan BudgetB. Yeo
  • Emergent ministries – request a grant of $30 K from the earnings of the Burnett Fund for this item.
  • Half-time ministry development coordinator is funded.
  • Reserves for employee incentive increase are included.
  • Decrease from $12K to $4K for Province VIII support, at the request of the Bishop.
  • Communications was increased by just under $6K in order to add 5 hours/week to the Communications Director part-time position from 20 to 25 hours.
  • $20K was netted out of apportionment to account for next year’s 2% Jubilee rebate to congregations which qualify.
  • We will no longer see a grant back from the Foundation.
  • Las Cascadas has been turned over to the Julian’s Rest consortium and costs associated with it are removed. A pending offer on Maidu Meadow, if it succeeds, will further reduce expenses by $14K.
  • Bottom line of the budget is less than $1,000 from balanced
  • Margaret Dunning has requested an additional $600 for disaster planning, to cover travel throughout the deaneries to coordinate representatives This would bring the deficit up to just below $1500.
  • A merit increase for Canons Olson and Yeo is under consideration. The Board and Council determined not to provide merit increases at this time. Rather, an increase for the Bishop would be at the discretion of the Standing Committee. Merit increases for other staff would be at the request of the Bishop, following performance evaluations and subject to the availability of funds within the constraints of a balanced budget. A motion was made by Freie, second Mangels to direct the Budget Committee to reduce expenses on items in the 2012 budget to provide an appropriate fund for merit increases for the Office of the Bishop staff. The motion carried. It was requested that this review be concluded by the December Board meeting with a recommendation at that time for an amount to be added to the budget for staff merit increases.
  • The Jubilee reserve, which is an estimate, will be lowered by $1500 in order to balance the budget, and with that adjustment it was resolved to pass the budget as written (Hall, Mangels MSC.)
  • Canon Yeo requests that part of the funds set aside in this year’s budget to pay for Quickbooks training can be used to engage Gilbert & Associates to simplify our audit procedures as regards congregations.
  1. Committee Reports since 8/17/2011As written
  1. Camp Noel Porter Quiet TitleL. Zender

The Diocese has received an offer of pro bono legal services from Jennifer Schaller to obtain quiet title to a stretch of property that is owned by the railroad and runs through Camp Noel Porter. A motion was made and approved to accept the offer and provide funding for needed expenses. (Hill, Phinney MSC)

  1. Fuel tank in YrekaL. Zender

A bid from Lawrence & Associates asks for $14,244 to clean up the area of the fuel tank by Dec. 30, 2011. These funds will come from the net proceeds of the sale of Weed House and closure of St. Mark’s. A motion to approve the contract with Lawrence & Associates to undertake this work carried (Mack, Hill MSC.)

  1. Haiti AppealC. Haggenjos+

The collection taken at the consecration of St. John’s, Roseville totaled over $1800 and was graciously allocated by the Bishop to the Rebuilding in Haiti fund.Cliff Haggenjos, Paul Frazee, Jerry Harner, Laura Delany andLucretia Jevne are committee members. We are looking for a couple more to join. The fundraising will be kicked off at Diocesan Convention, and will take place at the parish level,running for 12 weeks concluding during Epiphany.

  1. Motion for Closed CongregationsC. Haggenjos+

A motion was put forward suggesting that when a congregation closes, the remaining funds should be used for emerging ministries. (Haggenjos, Freie) Lynn Zender would rather see any such funds reserved to offset the costs involved in closing other congregations. Bobbi Yeo suggested the endowment fund as another option for investing such funds. No action was taken, but it was suggested that a smaller group discuss this further and come back with a recommendation.

  1. Rohnert Park propertyB. Olson+

A motion was made (Zender, Hill) to replace the roof at a cost not to exceed $40K, which will come from Grants and Contingencies in the current operating budget plus additional reserves.

It was moved and accepted (Haggenjos, ) to table the decision until further questions are answered.

Further questions were called for:

What does a realtor familiar with that area recommend?

Whether or not we can take over the rental income from the property?

  1. St. John’s SchoolLoan RestructureJ. Sargent

The school has three options for leases, the most attractive being located on the Hewlett Packard campus, but that option has become too risky. The other two buildings are in Rocklin. No lease yet for the next academic year. The issue was tabled until the December meeting (Sargent, Haggenjos MSC)

XVa.Bishop Beisner marked the departure from the Board of Jim Sargent, Lynn Zender, and Rebecca Freie and from the Council of Carlton Allen, Charlie Chapman, John Mangels, and Christopher Seal. Remarks were shared from the departing members.

  1. Closing Prayer+BLB

Next meeting: Saturday, Dec. 3 at Trinity Cathedral