Board of Trustees/Church Council Retreat

August 28, 2004

Preliminary Minutes

 

 

Board Officers

Johnson, Bruce L.  President Present              Wetzel, Ed  Treasurer  Present

Atwater, Richard  Vice-President  Absent                  Middleton, Mike Secretary  Present

 

Board Members

Murphy, Jane      Exp. 2005  Present               Miller, Babette      Exp. 2006   Present

Rempel, John       Exp. 2005  Present               Bartley, Brian         Exp. 2007  Present

Murphy, John      Exp. 2005  Present               Evans, Sarah          Exp. 2007  Present

Boland, Katie      Exp. 2006  Present               Stanis, Suzanne     Exp. 2007   Present

Byer, Greg           Exp. 2006  Present               Wiesinger, Eric    Exp. 2007     Present

DeRocker, Joy    Exp. 2006  Present

 

Council Members Present

Basson, Joan                Memorial Garden/Grounds

Basson, Rodney           Memorial Garden/Grounds

Burns, Linda               Flower Committee/PDO

Cantrell, Doris Membership

Catellier, Jim               Property Management

Cummings, Norma       BookShop

Dwyer, Helen               Council Secretary/Touchstone

Granger, Meredith       Sunday Services

Griffith, Debi               Council Member-at-Large

Kern, Ken                    FSJ, Summer Services, Denominational Affairs

Kieper, Ron                 Fine Arts

Killingbeck, Don          Council Member-at-Large

Mendonca, John           Fundraising

Read Reiberg, Sandy   Flower Committee

Rempel, Victoria             Vice-Chair

Sands, Elsa                  Membership

Vinicor, Susan Dinner Discussion

Yumibe, Jenny            Choir President

 

Others

Clear, Bruce                 Minister

Renner Clear, Nancy    D.R.E.

Craig, Bonnie               Office Administrator

 

The meeting was called to order at 9:16 a.m.

 

I.  Canvass- Tom Miller is going to lead the canvass.  See “Campaign Calendar (2004)” blue sheet and “Prospective Canvass Leaders-2004” cream sheet.  The canvass leaders will contact the pledging units who have not pledged.

            The Congregational Meeting has been moved to November from October so there’s time to complete the canvass and set the budget before voting on it.

 

II.  Budget shortfall awareness and fundraising ideas; fundraising is need for about $25,000 for FY 2004.

A.                              Air conditioning unit in office was replaced.  This won’t be something that is affected by the capital campaign.  It needed to be done now since the actual start date of work resulting from the capital campaign isn’t known.  The decision was made to pass the hat, similar to what was done when the copier went out and Fred Morris was president of the congregation.  This will be done by Bruce Johnson after the church year begins.

B.                               Fundraising ideas:

1.       Charge NE Coop. more for rent.  (Jim Catellier) [Subsequently a comparison of rents already put together by Jean Miller showed what other preschools in the city are paying.  Shockingly, All Souls doesn’t seem to be undercharging much more than any other church.]

2.       Grocery certificates and/or Great Lakes Scrip program—members and friends purchase gift certificates for grocery stores, restaurants, retailers, gas stations, etc. from the church.  The church receives a certain percentage from the sale of the certificates.  Ed Wetzel’s sister administers the program for Heritage Christian School.  It is very successful, but she believes that you need a computer program to manage it.  There will be some money invested in the program before it begins to make a profit for the church.  Debi Griffith and Ed Wetzel volunteered to work on this project.  [A meeting with Debi Griffith, Ed Wetzel, Jane Murphy, and Bonnie Craig has been set up to work on this idea on Tuesday, September 7 at 4:30 at the church office.  Bonnie has gotten information about O’Malia/Marsh, Kroger, and Wild Oats grocery certificates.  Ed has discussed this program with his sister and gotten advice and suggestions for implementing the program successfully.]

3.       eBay project—Members would donate an item to the church which would then be sold by the church on eBay.  The entire winning bid (minus operational, shipping, administrative expenses) would go to the church.  Red flags concerning this project: Does this put the not-for-profit status of the church at risk?  John Mendonca has contacted the UUA, and other congregations have done this successfully.  Victoria Rempel believes that those who bid need to be from the same state as the church.  If they aren’t, the church would have to register as a not-for-profit in every state.  Victoria says there is risk involved, but it hasn’t been challenged by the IRS yet.  Ken Kern says the only question is whether the buyer had to pay sales tax; there are no other tax issues at this time.  The issue that matters is how money is distributed, not how it is generated.  Tom Miller said that the worst thing that could happen is that the government would charge us tax over the percentage of the operating fund that we raised through eBay (and other business practices).

Bruce Johnson explained that there would be two times a year when the congregation would ask for items.  Then the items would be sold throughout the year.  Items inappropriate for eBay would go to the rummage sale or the auction.  Storage is a problem that will need to be considered.  The Board/Council members attending agreed that it would be best to conduct a trial run of the project, say, through December 2004, and that they would furnish items to be sold (rather than solicit items from the entire congregation at this time).  The project will also require the ability to accept credit cards via PayPal, and the ability to ship items to the winning bidders.  Bruce Johnson will handle both of these during the trial run (through 2004).  Jim Schrementi, Mary Gosling, Sarah Evans, John Mendonca, Bruce Johnson, and Greg Byer are committee members of this project.  They will act as a subcommittee of the Board-appointed Fundraising Committee.  The yellow form that was handed out serves as a donation sheet for eBay donations.  Right now, the committee asks that the donations are no bigger than a bread box to help address the storage problem.

4.       Rental income—Frank Basile or Richard Melton might advise the church on how to increase rental income.  Ed Wetzel will contact them.  Joan Basson mentioned that her neighborhood association might need a place to hold their meeting.  The congregation could pitch-in food to feed them and charge the attendees $10 each.  Donna Moose, chair of Social Activities, is the person for Joan to contact regarding that idea.

5.       Joan also suggested an ongoing garage sale.  Members could leave items with prices to be purchased during the Social Hour with the proceeds going to the church.

6.       Fish Fry—Ken Kern mentioned that fish fries seem to do extremely well in the Indianapolis area.  Old Bethel Methodist Church owns fish fry equipment that could be lent/rented to All Souls.  Could that be added to the carnival?  Booths at festivals also seem very popular for church fundraising.  Nancy Renner Clear said that the idea of a fish fry had been discussed by the carnival committee, and they hoped to work up to that.

7.       John Murphy suggested running concession stands at Pacers/Colts/etc. games.  Babette Miller will contact the Colts.  Bonnie Craig will contact Russ Eberhart, who has been involved with the Lawrence North Band at Pacers games. 

8.       Bruce Johnson is part of a listserve that discusses UU churches and money.  He’s keeping his eyes open for additional ideas.

9.       Susan Vinicor suggested having member open their homes (in a Bed and Breakfast fashion) to out-of-town guests during major events such as races, World Swimming Championships, etc.  The money made would be donated to the church.  This idea should be handled by the Hospitality Committee (which unfortunately has no chair at the moment.)

10.   Jane Perry suggested having a dinner dance in the Social Hall.  She volunteered her services as the deejay.  It could perhaps be held on New Year’s Eve.  Jane can work with Social Activities on this idea.

 

III.  Capital Campaign- Tom Sibert and Martha Easter-Wells

            Five or six years ago the idea of a capital campaign was brought up.  It was thought that it should coordinate with All Souls’ centennial, so the 5 C’s committee was developed and worked really, really hard through the Searching for the Future program.  The current capital campaign builds on the information collected throughout the past several years.  The feasibility study completed in June 2003 said that the congregation was prepared to have a capital campaign.  The formation of a capital campaign committee was approved by the Board in January 2004.

            According to the feasibility study, there’s a good chance that the church can raise $850,000 to $1,000,000 in this campaign.  The campaign itself will take a short time.  Leadership (read: large) donors will be obtained first.  After that, there will be Capital Campaign kick-off event handled by Victoria Rempel.  After that, contact will be made with each member individually (or as a family).

            Payments will be made over a 3 year time period for the capital campaign pledges.

            There are three subcommittees of the Capital Campaign Committee:

a.       Leadership Gift team- led by Ray Dunkin, focuses on getting major donors (donors of $10,000+)  This committee will also set the monetary goal for the entire capital campaign.

b.      General Gift team- led by Carol Hansen, works with teams to visit all members

c.       Building Identification team- led by Don Killingbeck, discusses what the project will actually look like, gives information to congregation about what can be done with x amount of money.  By the end of October, this committee will have a better list of what can be done.  They’ve been getting some estimates.  They’re going to work very hard to maintain the unique features and structure of the building, and they’re also going to use high-quality materials.  The church was originally built using very high-quality materials.

The capital campaign in general needs to be kept quiet right now so it doesn’t detract

from the canvass.  The kick-off event will be held in mid-March, and the leadership group will be working a couple weeks before that.  The kick-off event is a time of social celebration, not a time to ask for money.  It will have food and entertainment.

            The campaign needs someone to help produce the brochure.  The brochure is a 12-16 page publication, similar to a prospectus.  Mary Branson might help with artwork, Tracy Lee is very computer-oriented, Greg Byer does marketing material for his company, and Allan Schoff worked on the canvass brochure two years ago (nonmember, paid consultant).

            The Board and Council need to be willing to communicate with the congregation to generate excitement about the capital campaign.

            Suzanne Stanis said that some not-for-profits set up “Friend” groups that are able to receive grants from organizations that do not give directly to churches.

 

IV.  Don Killingbeck has developed a flyer promoting the Carnival weekend.  He would like members and friends to distribute it and work to bring friends to the events (carnival and church service) that weekend.  They will be available in the Social Hall for members and friends to pick up.  This could be a “Bring a Friend” weekend.

 

V.  Sunday Services

            (Bruce Clear believe he will entitle his first sermon “Fish Fry.”)

            Elsa Sands went to Sign-a-Rama with a mock-up of a bumper sticker advertising the church.

            There was much discussion about signage on  56th Street.  The sign needs to have the website address and “Where Reason and Religion Meet”.  There needs to be signs with the church’s name well before the church property on both the east and the west.  Could there be a banner across 56th Street for the Carnival?  Jim Catellier will check on permits needed for signs. 

Susan Vinicor suggested the trees and shrubs be removed between the church building and 56th Street.  Suzanne Stanis said this topic was discussed repeated at Council meetings, and it is a very volatile subject.  Joan Basson said that John Burns has been cutting down shrubs, so there is very little left between the church and 56th Street that can be cut down.

Bruce Clear said that UUA has a subscription service called the Wayside Pulpit that would provide giant posters that could be placed on a large sign near the road.

There was quite a long discussion about the atmosphere of the church along with the suggestions that the church be more warm and friendly.  Suggestions were made to include Joys and Concerns (possibly with a roving microphone and/or a microphone at the front of the sanctuary) and a time to shake hands with neighbors during the service.  A suggestion was to have people write out their joys and concerns and put them in the Sunday announcements box to be read.  [Blessed be the introverts for they will not take up half an hour describing their joy or concern.]  The Joys and Concerns idea was only encouraged by about half the attendees, so it will need to be discussed with the congregation.  Meredith Granger is chair of the Sunday Services committee; that committee will meet on 2 October and will discuss the inclusion of “Joys and Concerns” in the service.

We need to train congregants to be more open.  They’re not unfriendly; they just seem to have a hard time reaching out to new people.

Ken Kern suggested that every member see him/herself as a member of the Membership Committee and that Bruce Clear needs to preach a sermon about the responsibilities of the members to be more welcoming, etc.  Bruce will add a “meet and greet” time to the service—shaking hands with the person next to him/her.

Babette Miller says the Helping Hands sheet needs to delete the line about volunteering even if they’re not called.

            Elsa Sands gave a brief overview of what the Membership Committee was doing—writing notes to each new visitor, setting up new members with a mentor member, giving tours of the church on Sunday, following up to see if members/visitors have gotten involved with committees.

            Ken Kern noted that the floor of the vestibule desperately needs to be replaced.

 

Advertising

            Suzanne Stanis noted that the church could put an ad in the Forest Glen directory.  The entire group was encouraged to look for inexpensive advertising possibilities for the church.

            John Rempel suggested that members fill out cards with information (such as occupation) so people will be aware of connections they have with other members.

            Meredith Granger suggested looking into advertising on WICR (much cheaper than WFYI) on the years when the church isn’t advertising on WFYI.  Meredith will have the development director of WICR contact Bruce Johnson about this.

 

V.  Fencing-Jim Catellier

            It will cost approximately $3,500 total to install black vinyl fence on the front of the fenced-in area around the playground as well as the donated 6’ industrial fencing along the back of the area.  The enclosed area will be approximately 1 acre.  The discussion regarding the fence was unanimously voted to be tabled.  Debi Griffith made the motion; Jane Perry seconded.  It was suggested that NE help pay some of the costs if they felt strongly that the area should be fenced.

 

VI.  Lee Rand has resigned from the Board because he’s spending quite a bit of time in Florida.

            Bruce Johnson will get with Scott Bell to try to fill the remaining chair positions before the beginning of the church year.

            Nancy Renner Clear asked if the Helping Hands survey should be sent out in November or December instead of later in the Spring.  Everyone agreed that was a good idea.  The new committees would still not take effect until June, but people could get involved with committees whenever they chose.

 

The remaining portion of the meeting began at 2:10 p.m. and focused on personnel matters.  Specific issues will be discussed with the individuals involved.  The discussion of personnel issues led to a discussion of the canvass and hopes that it will do well.

 

The Retreat adjourned at 3:00 p.m.