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Minutes of Parish Council Meeting Joe Zolecki, the Council chairperson, called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Present: Father Bob Betz, Father Steve Varghese, Joe Amrhein, Tracey Borzick, Joe Dulka, Gary Hamilton, Larry Haskin, Dennis Irwin, Dean Kick, Chris Kujawa, Sean Nuyda, Steve Raflik, Elaine Tessmer and Joe Zolecki
Excused: John Bordak and Rich Lussier
Guests: Gregory Meka and Marilyn Stewart
Opening Prayer: Elaine Tessmer distributed a prepared written prayer and all members read it aloud.
Welcome/Review Agenda:
Joe Zolecki welcomed all the council members to this meeting and briefly reviewed the agenda. He mentioned that the Special Report by representatives of committees and/or subcommittees would be eliminated today because of an anticipated lengthy discussion regarding the Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign.
Open Forum/Welcome of Guests/Visitors:
The guests were welcomed to the meeting by Joe Zolecki. They identified themselves by name and neither presented any comments.
Approval of Minutes of the September 2007 Meeting:
There being no additions, corrections or deletions to the proposed minutes, upon motion duly made and seconded, the minutes of the meeting of September 20, 2007, were approved by the Council as prepared.
Pastors’ Reports:
Father Bob’s initial remarks concerned the generosity of our parishioners; the recent collection for the Propagation of the Faith which benefited Father Steve’s community and the missions in India resulted in donations of over $8,000. In addition, our parish went over its goal of $100,000 for this year’s Stewardship Appeal, and the parishioners must be commended for their generosity. He said he was very impressed with the recent retreat for the council members and the spirit shown by all.
Father Bob reported that the sale of the hall and lot on 13th Avenue is in limbo at this time. When the original offer of $100,000 fell through, and then a land contract offer was about to be accepted, a different party offered to purchase the property for cash. There is now a question of whether an oil tank actually exists in the ground near the back of the hall and who is going to pay for an environmental study; that is normally a buyer’s responsibility; a different type of test will be done to determine whether an oil tank is buried there. It is hoped that the parish will be able to dispose of that property soon.
Father Bob also said he has noted the wonderful spirit of the parishioners as they worship and sing since the single weekend worship site was implemented. He said work is presently being done on the sound system at Marquette and will be completed by either this weekend or next. Responding to a council member’s question, he said a head count is done twice a year for weekend Masses, and our average attendance is about 2600. This weekend a tape about the capital campaign from the archbishop to the parishioners will be played; our goal over a three-year period will be $1.2 million; of that amount we will be able to retain 60%; we will be able to keep 80% of any contributions over and above our goal. Father Bob encouraged everyone to attend and/or work at the Fall Fest this weekend; we were behind in our profits from the Fun Fest, and it is important to make up some of that loss.
Father Steve stated he was very appreciative of the contributions for the recent collection for the missions in India and for his community; he said he has noticed that people here are very positive and generous for any cause put forward. He mentioned the coming Mission Sunday and again said he knows the people here are very willing to help others. Father Steve also mentioned that he and some other council members attended a session last week on the Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign and details about that will be talked about later in this meeting.
Contemplative Break:
The question of the week appearing in the bulletin was: “Jesus said, ‘Ten were cleansed, were there not? Where are the other nine?’ How do you express Thanksgiving to God?” The discussion immediately following the question was conducted by Elaine Tessmer.
Committee Reports/Updates:
Copies of minutes of the following committees were made available to council members prior to this meeting: Building & Grounds Committee dated 9/12/07 (date possibly should have been in October 2007); Human Concerns Committee dated 10/4/07; note that Lifelong Faith Formation Committee did not meet on 10/4/07; Parish Life Committee of 10/4/07; Prayer & Worship Committee dated 10/4/07; and School Committee datedf 10/4/07.
Joe Dulka of the Finance Committee asked if the Council was ready to approve the parish’s new Policy and Procedures referring to Capital Expense Purchases that had been discussed at the previous meeting. At that meeting it was recommended that the second procedure listed should include the word suggested and thus read “All Capital Expense Improvements and Purchases suggested to have three competitive bids prior to committing a purchase.” By consensus, the Council approved the foregoing Policy and Procedures Capital Expense Purchases as amended.
Joe Dulka also said that four times per year we will receive comparisons of contributions, by week, and included in those comparisons will be amounts for weekly envelopes, loose collections, and energy envelopes. He said at the end of September we were $13,000 behind last year, but “we are in good shape.” In contrast to September, July was a good month. Expenses are a little below budget.
Elaine Tessmer on behalf of the Prayer and Worship Committee reported that at the beginning of the all committee meetings, at the suggestion of Father Bob, a little more time will be spent in prayer. Elaine said there is a need for more readers at Mass. She also informed the committee members that if they had any questions for the Council, she would relay them.
Joe Amrhein on behalf of the Human Concerns Committee stated that a Hunger Walk would take place this coming Sunday, October 21st. Noreen and Bill Klopp will be going to Africa for fourteen months to work among the people with AIDS. There may be a Share Sunday collection for that benefit; Father Steve said perhaps a Mass with special prayers could also be offered for them before they leave
Sean Nuyda on behalf of the Parish Life Committee said Marty Traynor who had been the chairperson of the committee will be moving to Omaha, Nebraska, and the parish thanks him for all he has done in the past. The committee members nominated Jackie Wainio, in her absence, to be chairperson.
Tracey Borzick on behalf of the Building & Grounds Committee said they are going to be doing cleanup work this Saturday at the TOTs building at 9 a.m.
Gary Hamilton on behalf of the Long Term Planning Committee said they had a meeting the previous evening, and he distributed minutes from that meeting to all council members. Synopsizing from the second page of those minutes, Gary said the committee had extensive discussion on how to proceed with plans for the worship site and other activities, and that at this time it does not recommend that a new church be built but that we continue to use the Marquette site as the primary worship site, and further that the extent of the remodeling of Marquette will be based on available finances. Gary said they wait for one piece of information at a time, and he will try to get the committee to work on different scenarios at one time; he is still concerned about its leadership, it needs to be more active, said there is a lot more work to be done by it, and believes some direction is needed. He will attempt to put together a plan for their next meeting.
Referring to direction, Father Bob said different scenarios must be looked at. Many of the previous suggestions from Siegel-Gallagher have changed because of the merger. Scenarios to be looked into now are the remodeling of the church, the possible return of St. John’s Manor for use as an office building (the lady who runs that home is interested in getting the 13th Avenue rectory), and the feasibility of a sale or other disposal of 13th Avenue property. A question arose regarding the 16th Avenue property, and Father Bob said the religious educational program conducted there is a great success, more than originally anticipated, and that changed the scenario of many things. To centralize would run between $12 million and $15 million, and that’s why the committee recommended that we remodel the Marquette church.
Further comments made were that when the capital campaign is being held, parishioners will want to know where we are going with our plans, and we will have those plans. A firm is already working on estimated costs for centralization and costs for remodeling. One other member suggested that the parishioners be advised why plans are changing even though we previously had studies done by a professional firm. Since we cannot consolidate at a single site because we cannot afford that, we must figure out how we can consolidate. A suggestion was made to move the children into 16th Avenue and sell the College Avenue property because of its marketability. The Council’s recommendation to the long term planning committee is to review the Siegel-Gallagher report and its recommendations.
OLD BUSINESS:
Parish Council Retreat Joe Zolecki stated that he personally felt that the retreat was very rewarding with a time to get to know each other on a more personal basis, and that makes it easier for all to work together. He thanked Tracey Borzick and Gary Hamilton for their work in planning and arranging the retreat. Answering Gary’s question, everyone thought the facilitator was very good.
Parish Council Member Nametags. Joe Zolecki said follow-through on obtaining nametags for the newest members of the council had not been done but hopefully the nametags will be received by the November meeting.
Installation of New Priest Team. All council members received a letter from Chris Sepersky with an attached procession order and the rite of installation by the bishop. The order of procession and the steps for the installation were gone over. Everyone was encouraged to participate as outlined in the attachments at the 4 p.m. Mass on Saturday, October 27th.
Fall Festival. Joe Zolecki reported that Rich Lussier, who was excused from this meeting because he is presently working on the set-up for the dinner and festival on Sunday, October 21st at 16th Avenue, is still in need of volunteers to cut vegetables on Saturday morning and can also use volunteers to help out on Sunday. Tracey mentioned that one of the items of the silent auction is a Packers tailgate party hosted by Father Bob and Father Steve.
NEW BUSINESS:
Faith in Our Future Capital Campaign. Gary Hamilton distributed further printed information he had received when he, Father Steve and Steve Raflik attended a recent session. He began by referring to the seven steps listed on the first page entitled What Do I Do Next? At this point, names of parishioners to comprise the leadership committee for preparation of the campaign should be on a planning list. The fourth step listed is considering a Case which will be presented to the parish to indicate what we will be doing with the money raised during the stewardship campaign, and the fifth step refers to a prayer team for the campaign. We will begin our campaign in January 2008. After that, following the campaign timeline, comes the awareness period of informing parishioners of the needs, then the inspiration period which includes the goals in homilies and other communications, then the commitment period when commitments are received from parishioners, and then the follow-up.
The leadership committee will include the two pastors, Cathy Wendt, one or two tong term planning committee members, and two council members. In discussing the long term planning committee, it was agreed that that committee is completely separate from the capital campaign. Replying to a council member’s question, Steve Raflik said when the RSI consultant comes in November we should have a good idea of who we want on the leadership committee and what our Case will be. Father Steve commented that a smaller group be enlisted for the committee, the smaller the better, small and efficient. Father Bob said that with 3300 or 3400 households in the parish, we will need a good number of people to make the required telephone calls, and all those people will have to have some training. It was suggested that someone from religious ed or the schools be included to take care of the children’s activities. Again referring to the leadership committee, Steve said at the time of the meeting with the consultant we need to have an idea of who we would want on the team. The core group for the campaign will consist of the two pastors, Gary Hamilton, Steve Raflik and Joe Zolecki, and we should have our Case ready by then. Father Bob suggests that the Case component should be to raise funds for the remodeling of our present church site which amounts to – and we would have an estimated cost by that time. The campaign Case is a marketing tool, and we have to convince the people that this is going to benefit our parish. One council member stated that the intent of the campaign was supposed to be for tuition for Catholic education and faith formation in the archdiocese; however, Father Bob replied that the intent has been broadened since so many priests were not in favor of this program because of their problems balancing their budgets and huge debts to pay off. Gary will call Howard Craig, the consultant, to arrange a meeting. The core group will meet, will prepare a proposed Case, will meet with the consultant and then report again at the next council meeting.
OTHER NEWS, NOTES, COMMENTS AND/OR ANNOUNCEMENTS:
A sign-up sheet for presentation of the Council’s report to be given at all Masses the first weekend in November was circulated before and during the meeting.
The committee meetings are still set for November 1st, All Saints Day, although some committees have already scheduled their meetings for a different day; that is up to each individual committee to decide.
We Give Thanks.
Closing Prayer: Elaine Tessmer presented the closing prayer.
Adjournment: This rather heated meeting, at times, adjourned at 8:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Marcy Gramza, Recording SecretaryNovember 10, 2007 |
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