St Peter's Church PCC Meeting
22/10/13 7.00-9:10pm
Minutes
Present: Sue Abbott, Barbara Agar, Charlotte Bonini, Nick Ferris, David Fisher, Mark Hattersley, Bernadette Hegarty, Stuart Holland, Tim Hurren, Christine Jack, Emma Mackay, Nigel McClea, Hilary Paxton, Tony Shepherd, Kerry Simpson, Helen Stalker, Wendy Wright,
Apologies: Jo Bagley, Hannah Beck, Trevor Dixon, Pete Hallam, Michael Hunter, Jason Knowles, Neil McNabb, Kerry Morley, Sue Pearce, Dennis Richards, Frances Roxby-Proud, Gillian Taylor, Linda Ware, Judith Yeats and Carole Raw
1. Welcome and Opening Prayer
The meeting opened at 7pm with opening prayers.
6. Report by Helen Ball on our Mission Action Plan
Helen introduced herself as the former Mission Action Planning facilitator for three churches in the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway. She then tabled a document “An Introduction to Mission Action Planning” and ran through it in detail. In her experience mission action planning does work and many Dioceses who have been using MAP for 10-20 years are on their 3rd or 4th MAP. St Peter’s is at Stage 1 of MAP ie the reviewing and audit stage by asking the congregation for their views. Helen asked for prayer and for people to set aside time in meetings to discuss our MAP. There is a meeting at 6.30pm this Thursday and everyone is welcome.
Action: Helen will email a link to Kerry Simpson with examples of MAPs of other churches and Kerry will forward to the PCC.
Tony thanked Helen for her very enthusiastic and helpful report and at 7.20pm Helen left the meeting.
2. Apologies
Apologies were given on behalf of those absent and noted.
3. Acceptance of Minutes
The minutes of September’s meeting were unanimously approved.
4. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
5. Approval of Minutes of Sub-groups
The minutes tabled were unanimously approved. The following points were highlighted:-
SALT – Tim pointed out that although the minutes referred to there being no mention of Alpha on the church website, Alpha had of course been on the website for a number of years.
7. Report on Le Tour de France 2014
Tony reported that YTV and Hempsons would like to use the tower for hospitality so it was better for Hannah to ring the bells during the carnival rather than at the end of the race. We would like to do hospitality for all the people attending but we need to think it through as the crowds will be huge. He reported that he is waiting to hear from Sky to see if they will provide a bike for display in our foyer but, if not, Boneshakers have agreed to provide a top quality display.
Tim reported that he had been to the churches meeting on Le Tour where there had been 200/250 people present. Harrogate will be hit twice by the Tour which is very unusual. There will be an 8 mile procession as well as the cyclists and people camp out on average 6 hours to get their viewing position so Harrogate will be chaotic. KYROS will give churches any help they need to cater for all the extra people and any events put on during this time.
Hilary reported that towns are being encouraged to plant yellow flowers and it was agreed we would be part of that if Harrogate in Bloom was doing it.
Christine suggested purchasing some Tour bunting from the official website to decorate the church for that weekend.
Nick reported that he is in contact with Chloe Green from Jamie’s. They are hoping to coincide the opening of the new restaurant with Le Tour and we are trying to get Jamie in to the church to cook breakfast for the homeless. It is too early yet to book anything but it was agreed we should try for this whether it coincides with the Tour or not.
8. Report on the Greater Churches Meeting
Bernadette reported that there are 41 Greater Churches in England and the Greater Churches Network (GCN) was founded in 1991 to provide help and support for the running of cathedral-like churches. A Greater Church is dependent on the size of the building, the number of visitors, a ministry that is wider than that of a normal parish (eg being town centre), the presence of paid staff and being open all day. We have been invited to become a Greater Church. We are probably the smallest church in the GWN but we can learn a lot from them as to how to draw people in to give them an opportunity to glimpse God and then deepen the relationship and develop confidence in God. There is an overlap between this and our MAP which we should use. There is also a GCN logo which we could add to our letterhead.
After a short coffee break at 8.05pm the meeting reconvened at 8.15pm
9. Youth Summer Camp
Kerry reported that she clarified with the Frontier Centre that we could defer to 2014 at an admin cost of £225 and the booking be treated as if it were a new booking cancellable on the same terms. In other words if we were unable to find enough children to go we could cancel with only the loss of the £900 deposit and the £225 fee. It was agreed that this would be the best way forward and that a small group should be set up to plan how to market this properly.
10. PCC Secretary
Tony reported that Kerry Simpson was to step down as PCC Secretary as she was doing a French degree and needed to spend more time on that. He thanked her for her work. He had identified Rachel Fell as a replacement as she was a solicitor and she had indicated she would be keen to do it. It was unanimously agreed that Rachel could be appointed as the new PCC Secretary
11. Notices Leaflet
Tony tabled a draft new Notices leaflet which he had produced and explained that there was insufficient room on one A4 sheet to fit all notices so this was a way of communicating not just the service information but all relevant information on a weekly basis. The colour copy would be 25p instead of 1p for black and white but we could cut our frequent colour fliers and the bi-monthly newssheet so it should be relatively cost-neutral. There was a lengthy discussion about using an e-bulletin and using the website to promote the notice sheets. It was agreed to trial the new Notices sheet for the moment and then get it into an email format once we have a produced an email database.
12. Finances
David reported that there had been no change in our financial position since our last PCC meeting. There was still a deficit of £80,000 which needed to be addressed. There was no interest charged on that and we would address it by raising money from our shares in the mission fund if necessary. There was lots of fundraising underway but there was still a long way to go.
13. Building Development
Stuart reported that the steps are being rebuilt but there is a delay as the stone laid by Anelays, which should have been 60mm, was only 30mm and had broken when it was removed. They had also found an electricity cable which should have been buried that had been cut and rejoined with duct tape, which was illegal. It is hoped the new stone will be laid next Tuesday. We have replaced 40 out of 80 halogen bulbs with LED which will save electricity and replacements. The hoist is now connected in the toilet so there have been general improvements. However, the roof is still leaking and there is a problem with the heating being wrongly wired. We still retain £40-45,000 of the contractors money and £20-25,000 of the architect’s money which we are using to put these problems right. Tony thanked Stuart for all his hard work on the building development.
14. Any Other Business
14.1 Bishop John’s retirement – Bishop John is retiring at the end of January 2014 and we have been asked to make a donation to a farewell present. It was agreed we should give £100.
14.2 Sri Lanka – Christine reported that we have a core group of 5 people going to Sri Lanka but asked if anyone else would like to go. She was hoping for a core group of 8/9 people.
14.3 Electronic Calendar – Barbara asked if we could put in place an electronic calendar to prevent double-booking of rooms eg the Christmas Fair this year. This was agreed.
14.4 IT Class - Stuart asked for £100 from the mission fund to buy more computers as the IT class was really successful. This was agreed.
The meeting concluded at 9.10pm following closing prayers.