July 28, 2021

Hello Members-

We have a meeting this Sunday night at 5:30 pm, with a lengthy agenda of items worthy of your time and input. Please plan to join us! Following the meeting we will enjoy some ice cream together. Today’s blog is a mailbag of questions that I hope you find informative.

Dave Kaynor

Admin Pastor

I think the quarterly report packet is overwhelming but I want to be informed. What should I do?

We have just the thing for you! A simple, revised, SUMMARY sheet is available at Guest Services. It lists our giving in each fund along with line items for each ministry. On the back you can find all of the motions. For those who want the whole shebang, grab a yellow copy of the 2nd quarter reports on Sunday.

Will there be a Q&A before the meeting on Sunday?

Yes, please plan to join members of the Elder Board & Finance team for Q&A at 5:00 pm. Drop in to the café area and ask whoever you would like about whatever meeting topic you would like.

Will the meeting be live-streamed?

As you know, we have been gradually dialing back our COVID safety precautions. This meeting will be our first that is live-stream free. 

And speaking of COVID, we have now shrunk the masked section to the last five pews of the lower bowl.

Just before the last Members’ Meeting, a motion for spending $32,000 was retracted. What happened to that money?

The simple answer is that the money has been split into two parts and can be found in Motions #2 & #3. $20,000 would help fund a variety of items that have a connection to helping within our community, such as counseling, narcotics prevention, restaurant worker support, and hospitality/food/appreciation for medical workers and CBC visitors. All of these are within the spirit of what at least some of our members have requested. We recognize that not everyone agrees with each/all of these recommendations.

As for the remaining $12,000, several needs have come up in the last three months—so the Elder Board and Finance Team are recommending that it be diverted to those items: completing the fire panel, lighting projects, and allocation/motion overages. Combining that remaining $12,000 with $14,000 from the General Reserves will allow us to complete these projects. 

If you’d like to see the last two paragraphs visually, check out the diagram here.

What is FAN?

I should have included the description of FAN when I sent out the member-wide email a couple weeks ago. Though it seems obvious now, it didn’t occur to me then. However, we did include a video that described what FAN is and what they do in our community. Unfortunately, at last count the video had only been viewed 24 times. Eeek!

FAN stands for Families Against Narcotics. You can visit their website at https://www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org/. FAN is not a Christian organization but they value many of the things that we do. Roy Schnepper has been involved with FAN for years. You can hear his comments and explanation about FAN in the video near the 1:00 mark.

Video Link Here

Are you getting rid of Alexandra?

If you haven’t read Motion #4, this paraphrase of a question we have received from multiple people may seem strange to you! The answer is, we are not getting rid of her. Alexandra Christenson was hired to be our new part-time receptionist and she is doing a great job! She works at the church in a paid position. Mary King, our former receptionist, was also a volunteer Church Clerk, just as Wayne Ackerman serves as our Church Treasurer and Sue Hatfield serves as our Receivables Treasurer. (If you want more info on any of our volunteer deacon/deaconess positions, click the link to the church constitution and see page 16-20.)

All that to say, since Mary has moved away, we needed to replace not only her paid position (which Alexandra has filled) but also her volunteer position. The constitution says that our Church Clerk must have been a member for at least one year before serving in that role, which Alexandra has not.

Motion #1 is about redirecting some money to church buildings in Rwanda. Due to COVID, we have more money in the budget that we can’t spend in the way that we planned, so why not spend that too?

We would like to do that. In fact, if our Missions Team continues to think the same way they are now, they will probably be recommending a similar motion in November or January. Some of the money we would like to send to Rwanda we anticipate receiving later in the year, so we want to wait on that.

Will we be voting on the motions by ballot?

Yes, there will be a ballot available for Motions #1-4. There will be no ballot for our quarterly reports or membership changes. You can pick up your ballot on the way into the meeting.

What kind of ice cream are we having after the meeting?

I don’t know, but I know Ruth Klein is in charge and she and her crew always do a great job of taking care of these things. If you really want to know, you’ll just have to come to the meeting!