St. Michael Church
Pastoral Council Minutes 11/17/2015
Unofficial
Members Present: Fr. Joe, Porter Nash (Chair), Richard Book (Vice-Chair), Bob Book, Mark Petrik, Michelle Dean, Nadine Kaelin (Service), Mike Shireman (Spiritual Life), Roger Harbeson (Finance), John Jacobi (Formation)
Members Absent: Mike Beyerle
Guests: Karen Harbeson, Will Bishop, and Allison Milliner
Porter Nash introduced Karen Harbeson who represented the Core Group heading up the Connected in the Spirit process. Karen gave an overview of the process and gave a timeline of how the process will unfold in our parish. Karen also gave an overview of how we will communicate the process to the parish and how we will ask them to keep the process in their prayers. The Core Group then introduced themselves to the council.
Mark Petrik brought up the idea of updating our parish census and suggested that we do this at the same time some of the Connected in the Spirit work is done. Mark passed out a possible questionnaire to help with this. John asked Mark to send him a digital copy of the questionnaire. Fr. Joe will review the questionnaire and see how we might use it.
Minutes from July were reviewed. Mark Petrik moved that minutes be approved. Bob Book seconded the motion and the minutes were approved as submitted.
Reports:
Faith Formation – John passed out a report. We started Faith Formation Classes on August 16th at St. Michael and St. Bernard. We currently have 139 children and youth in Grades Pre-School – Grade 12 at St. Michael.
RCIA classes began on September 3rd. We have a Candidate and Catechumen from St. Michael and aCandidate from St. Bernard attending classes. We also have three children who are Catechumens. We held Sacramental Prep meeting on September 20thfor parents who have children preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation. We have 26 youth from St. Michael, 7 youth from St. Bernard, and 4 youth from St. Joseph preparing for the sacrament. We held Sacramental Prep meetings for parents who have children preparing for First Reconciliation and First Communion on October 2nd. We have 12 children preparing for these sacraments. We viewed the movie, “Do You Believe” on September 19th. We viewed the movie, “Second Chance” on October 24th. Our 4th Grade Faith Formation class painted pumpkins and offered baked goods to the parish for a donation. They raised $530.70 which was donated to a family in the parish. This was part of their study of the Corporal Works of Mercy. I did an evening on the Vatican II document Guadium et spes for the Deanery Theology on Tap gathering on October 29th. We had three men attend the Indiana Men’s Conference in Indianapolis on October 31st. We had Trunk or Treat on October 31st in the Parish Center. We estimated that we had over 200 children pass through our building. The basketball goals were worked on November 2nd and were fixed. We have a Cub Scout group that will be meeting at St. Michael and will be formed as a St. Michael Scout group. Upcoming events: Advent Family Gathering – November 29th, First Reconciliation – December 1st.
Youth Ministry Activities:Our Sr. High Kings Island Trip was on July 22nd. Our 5K Race was held on July 25th. The Jr. High Back to School Bash was on August 2nd. Our group attending the National Catholic Youth Conference began to prepare for the pilgrimage by meeting and discussing the theme and what a pilgrimage is over four meetings. The conference will be November 19-22. We have 11 youth and four adults attending. We had seven youth attend the St. Maria Goretti relics trip on October 20th. Our basketball team is practicing and will play in the Deanery league beginning in December. Upcoming Events: NCYC – November 19-22, Jr. High Ice Skating Trip – December 5th
Service Ministry – Nadine Kaelin reported for Debbie Goldman. Over 500 pounds of groceries were donated in the October Food for the Poor Collection. This was donated to Harrison County Communities Services. There will be another donation on December 5th & 6th which will go to the Women’s Shelter in Salem. The service group has obtained 30 Salvation Army Angels and all of them have been taken. Gifts are due back the weekend of November 21st and 22nd. The Share the Warmth collection will be for coats, gloves, scarves, hats, and blankets and are due back December 5th and 6th. Articles will be taken to Harrison County Community Services for distribution.
The Spaghetti Supper was held on November 14th and had a profit between $1,700 and $1,800 (some bills were still outstanding). They are considering moving the supper to a Sunday since so many other churches have events on the same day.
They have a balance of $8,355.97. Their next meeting will be December 1st. They are planning for the card party in April. Rita will take care of getting the raffle license for this event.
Spiritual Life – They have a meeting coming up on November 24th.
Finance Commission – Roger reported that the Finance Commission met on November 10th. Financials are still in the works. Roger reported that the Parish Picnic had a profit of $83,507.00. The picnic committee is looking at the various booths to see how profitable they were and how viable they are to continue them. Fr. Joe passed out the picnic report and discussion ensued. Fr. Joe also passed out a listing of the last parish collections for the last 19 weeks.
Mark asked about the possibility of direct deposit for parishioners. Roger mentioned that the Finance Commission has looked into this. The topic was discussed. Roger will follow up with this.
Roger reported that he is talking with a local company for a donation for a raffle to be held in December.
Buildings and Grounds: John submitted the bids for the natural gas conversion. We obtained three bids: Book Heating and Cooling - $25,000.00, JW Waters $25,000.00, and Cobb Heating and Cooling - $8,315.00. John reported that the big difference in the bids is that the two more expensive bids call for replacing gas piping and the smaller bid calls for installing regulators at each furnace. John reported that at the Finance commission Dennis Ernst requested that we contact Mike Schroeder to make sure this was acceptable. After discussion it was decided that we would accept the bid from Cobb Heating and Cooling.
New Business:
Porter brought up the idea of a scoreboard for the gym in the Parish Center. A few members of the council looked up table top models on their smart phones. John was charged with looking at a few options and bring them to Fr. Joe for approval.
Porter asked Fr. Joe about parish staffing. Fr. Joe said that he might like to hire someone to clean buildings in the future. Much discussion ensued around this issue. It was decided to outsource this to a cleaning company. Roger volunteered to help Fr. Joe to find a company to do this.
Mark suggested that we need to re-vitalize the building committee to be in charge of fixing small projects around the parish, i.e. change light bulbs, fix kneelers, etc.
There will be a joint Pastoral Council and Finance Commission Meeting on December 10th at 6:00 p.m.
Our next Finance Commission Meeting will be on Tuesday, January 19th at 7:00 p.m.
Our next Pastoral Council Meeting will be on Tuesday, January 26th at 7:00 p.m.
Bob Book will lead prayer at the next Pastoral Council Meeting
Humbly submitted by John Jacobi