Parish Pastoral Council Meeting – August 22, 2017

Council Members present: Father Tony VanderLoop, Tim Davis, Dick Frie, Mike Moran, Linda O’Donnell, Pat Ray, Bill Renner, Renee Berens, Carl Brakob, Paul Dehmer, Dean Flicker, Tim Pauly.

Parish Trustee: Les Wilmot

Members absent: Nancy Maas and Jan Zaruba.

1)  Opening prayer - led by Father Tony.

2)  Presentation – None this evening.

3)  Minutes – approved and on the website.

4)  Open Forum – Question as to why the minutes of the Council meetings are not always put on the Website. Father will talk with Dan about this.

Question if there could be small Holy Water fonts put at the back of the church. There is always a bottleneck of people waiting to take Holy Water when they leave Mass. Father stated there is one collective experience of leaving and dipping into the Holy Water, this is the way the church was built. Dean stated people coming into church isn’t an issue, just leaving. Father will further check with people who were here when the church was built.

An observation from a St. Cloud parish festival – all the stands take cash. Could that be a consideration here so we wouldn’t have to walk so far to get tickets? Father stated many people handling cash is the issue. Catholic Mutual recommends tickets. Tim Pauly stated we used to pay with cash, and some years ago it was changed. There are some booths that still have things paid in cash, the Country Store, Silent Auction, 50/50 raffles.

5)  Old Business – Question if the Hispanic community had been contacted about someone serving on Council. Father said he asked if they would be “Friends of the Council” this year, coming to Council meetings a few times and get a taste of what Council is about. Maybe they would feel more comfortable with someone from their community being on Council.

6)  New Business:

  1. Welcome New Members – introductions were made by everyone. Parish Council manuals were handed out to the new members; contact list was passed around for members to update; Hispanic directory was passed out. Father went over the manuals with the members. Some manuals need to be updated.
  2. New Officers for 2017-2018 – Father read in the Constitution the duties of Chair and Vice-Chair. Tim Davis was nominated and seconded as Chair – unanimously approved. Bill Renner, Tim Pauly and Mike Moran declined as Vice-Chair. Dean Flicker nominated Linda O’Donnell for Vice Chair. Linda accepted the nomination, it was seconded and passed unanimously.
  3. Liaisons to Committee Groups – Father went over the 6 groups of Parish Life that were set up under GROW, and explained that at each Parish Council meeting, there is a presentation or 2 from a committee or ministry. Liaisons can remain the same as last year, or Council members can switch to another group as a liaison. Discussion followed on what liaisons do. It is helpful to attend some of the committee or ministry meetings as often as you want. Liaisons encourage ministries to prepare a report for Council, offer to help that committee/ministry and bring the reports back to Council meetings. Dean suggested veteran members pick first so new members can then join a veteran and learn from them. The list of Committee Chairs needs to be updated and some of the ministries need to be changed on the Committee grouping list.

Parish Council members then picked the committees they would like to be liaisons to:

Communication, Parish Life, Stewardship: Tim Davis and Paul Dehmer

Faith Formation and Evangelization: Bill Renner and Dean Flicker

Sacraments and Worship: Pat Ray and Renee Berens

Charity, Pastoral Care and Justice: Linda O’Donnell and Mike Moran

Hispanic Ministry and Collaboration: Father Tony, Carl Brakob and Nancy Maas

Maintenance Board (Building and Grounds): Dick Frie and Tim Pauly

  1. Stewardship Renewal: Father handed out the proposed Stewardship Renewal Plan 2017 and asked for feedback. The 1st mailing will include the Parish financial report; the 2nd mailing will be a letter of invitation to stewardship and to pledging. There will be one Sunday of Stewardship Witnesses, a 5 minute In-pew financial report given by our Business Administrator and then followed by the In-pew pledging. Father would like to add maintenance pledging. The goal is to maintain Sunday giving, fulfill Capital Campaign contributions and begin a maintenance fund. The ministries will set up tables in September to display what they are about and hopefully gain interest from parishioners. Commitment Sunday will be October 29.

Since July, the contribution envelope has included a line for Maintenance giving. More discussion was held on the Maintenance giving. Question if we should have a lock-box in the Gathering for envelopes. Some thought an envelope by itself for maintenance would be better, the line on the current one gets lost with the other giving information. How does it work if one is giving their regular contribution by electronic giving? It will take some months for people to get used to the “maintenance week” of giving. A couple suggestions on increasing the giving – Father could speak on it, suggest that volunteering with a project is a good way of giving.

  1. Review Pastoral Planning: Tabled until a later meeting.

7)  Tabernacle – Father reported the “New Tabernacle” is back, take a look at it. Pat stated she was glad it was the original tabernacle, with enhancement.

8)  Liaison Reports:

a)  Communication, Parish Life and Stewardship – Tim Davis reported on Fall Fest – they have been working very hard. The Chairs will come and do a wrap-up at our next meeting in September. He stated that volunteers are hard to come by for helping.

b)  Faith Formation and Evangelization - There is a need for teachers in many areas.

c)  Sacraments and Worship – Liturgy Committee will meet in September.

d)  Charity, Pastoral Care and Justice – No report

e)  Hispanic Ministry – No report, they will be part of the festival.

f)  Maintenance Board (Building and Grounds – Dick met with Dan to get an update. There was a walk-through of the outside of the building in July to see what needed to be fixed. There are two inspections, one inside, one outside each year. 23 volunteers finished a window project a few weeks ago. There needs to be a striping of sidewalks as another project for volunteers.

Father reported they are thinking of having Liaison reports given at the beginning of Council meetings.

9)  Next meeting will be September 19th at 7:15 PM.

10)  Next presentation – Fall Fest Wrap

11)  Closing prayer led by Tim Davis.

Respectfully submitted,

Dorothy Schillewaert