Saint Timothy Parish Council Minutes
February 15, 2005

Attendance: Sarah Hoeben, Larry Lense, Mark Dornoff, Jerry Grefer, Mark Anderson, Mary Brzinski ,Fr. Gamm

Guest: Ted Lewis

Service Pillar
Ted Lewis made his presentation on the progress of the Service Pillar over the past year. His remarks included such successes as:

1. The creation of a framework for the different ministries under the umbrella of Service or Outreach. (Organization Chart)

2. Completion of the binders facilitated smooth transitions when one leader
of a ministry left and others stepped right in. Example given: Elizabeth Ministry – Jennifer Rose left and others were able to continue on
with no major problems.

3. Gauging of successes in various ministries – included in each notebook were success reports noting the items that they deemed successful for that particular ministry i.e. # of people helped, amount of grant money provided etc…

4. We are also seeing success by the media outside of the parish picking up stories of St. Tim’s outreach – various articles were provided from other sources – newsclippings one discussing Madonna House Spring Project, one discussing St. Tim’s Grants.

5. Growth in participation of parishioners. The e-mail contact list has grown since the stewardship drive.

6. Various other successes include start up of youth outreach program called “Over and Above” for high school students. Participation is growing in this area. There is concern and a need to increase this area for youth participation as a transition after confirmation.

7. Making connections with various organizations has aided in parishioner participation in outreach on their own. Connections with City Heights has led many parishioners to volunteer weekly to aid Sr. Ellen with various things around her center like sorting clothes, handing out food. There are also others who help on an as needed basis, delivering furniture, bookkeeping. Various parish connections have benefited Sr. Ellen’s mission by way of Club Chef donating food, volunteers picking up the food from Club Chef and delivery of this food.

8. HONK participation has increased – we are now dedicated to one weekend per month to bring a group of volunteers to work on homes.

9. Gallatin County has offered many opportunities with the Christmas Gift drive (we could possibly buy gifts for 30 more families next year). The need is great in Gallatin County – possibly tap into specialty areas of the parish – ie teachers volunteer weekly to tutor students

10. Hosea House is continuing to be a successful outreach program with this being our latest grant recipient. We are dedicated to one Sunday per month. Extra opportunities this month with the grant award – Nurses to do blood pressure screening, and others to just stand in line and receive a meal and interact with the needy.

Questions were asked by parish council members:

What are the goals for Outreach for 2005?
1. Increase witness testimonies – tell their story to entice others to want to participate in outreach.
2. Increase in youth participation.

Is there a way to let the parish know quantitatively how many lives are touched directly or indirectly by any single project or all projects?

Ted’s response was that we could by the success reports in each ministry try to figure out how many lives were touched directly.

The only real way to let the parish know is through “pulpit time”. This seems to be the best form of communication of late. It touches people enough to volunteer right after mass.

We could put something down as far as where we started – 2003, Where we are 2004, Where we are going 2005.


DPAA (Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal)
St. Timothy’s mandatory contribution is $105,000+. Our goal is $255,000. This will cover the $105,000 plus the cost of the land at $150,000. (the 15 acres that we have signed to purchase from the diocese for future use).

It is the wish of the Finance Committee at the request of Fr. Witte (per a December memo), that we target 1,000 families and try to get $250 per family. Anything over and above the $105,000 goes directly to St. Timothy Parish. It was then suggested that to have a better chance of meeting our goal that we target 500 families for $500 per family.

The appeal weekend is April 23rd & 24th when the Bishop’s videotaped message is played to the congregation.

Since this is a mini-capital campaign, it was suggested that a committee be formed of people to build up to this weekend. The makeup of this committee would likely be the following:
2 committee members from each group as follows:
Communication Committee
Parish Council
Finance Committee
Stewardship Committee
Jerry Glen and Michelle Alley
Mark Anderson has volunteered to be a member of this committee as a Parish Council Representative.

This committees goals are to come up with:
1. A Message
2. A Purpose
3. A Process

Booster Club for St. Timothy Fire
Maybe start planting seeds for this during the mini capital campaign/DPAA so parishioners can see that there is a future use for the land – sporting teams, etc…

It was suggested that maybe this should fall under the advisement/guidance of Jennifer Fedders and have her use this to re-energize region concept (social activities).

The meeting was over by 8:40pm.

Respectfully Submitted by:

Mary Brzinski