St. Timothy Pastoral Council Minutes
February 4, 2009

Present: Fr. Rick Bolte, Dave Shefchik, Jerry Beatrice, Al Kovacic, Rick Harvey, Karen Riegler, Kathleen Thompson, Jim Lockhart, and Randy Herbert.

Absent: Fr. Jacob Varghese, Jim Sholar, and Steve Lemberg.

Randy Herbert offered the opening prayer, and the January minutes were approved.
Pillar Reports
1. Jim Lockhart gave the report from the latest Finance Council meeting. Because of the difficult economic times, contributions are approximately $137K under budget. The parish will economize where able.
2. The Worship Committee meeting was cancelled due to the bad weather, so there was no report for this month.
3. Randy Herbert gave the Outreach report (see attached). The Thanksgiving collection was a great success with 229 boxes of food and 226 items of clothing distributed. The Youth Room was used for sorting, and proved inadequate. The Outreach Committee hopes that when the time comes to expand, their need for space will be considered also.
4. Kathleen Thompson gave the Faith Formation report (see attached). Fr. Carl Arico will arrive on March 21 for the parish mission. He will be preaching at all the weekend Masses, and is planning to have one-on-one sessions with parishioners who request them. The mission presentations will be given in two morning and three evening sessions on March 22-24. Please come and support the parish. Instead of small Lenten groups, Deacon Mike will conduct a bible study each Tuesday evening beginning March 3. Bishop Foys confirmed 88 students this year. Congratulations to the confirmadi, their instructors and their families. The March for Life trip to Washington DC was a great success until the bus broke down on the way home. Still, it was important, and it has become more critical than ever to let our government know our position on life issues.
5. Rick Harvey gave the Community report. The chicken dinner grossed $4300. The crowd was huge, and the cookers couldn’t keep up, but the food was worth the wait. Donations for the Dinner Dance auction are down, but it will still be a fun time. How much James Bond trivia do you know?
Steve Lemberg was absent, but sent Jerry the Welcoming report. Five new families registered during January, four of whom were present on welcoming Sunday. The next one is scheduled for February 22 after the 9:30 Mass. The final figure for 2008 was 108 new families at the parish.
Dave Shefchik advised us that the new sign should be painted once the weather gets warmer. Nothing more definite is known.
Pastor’s Report.
1. The facilities construction committee will meet again at the end of February, and that will probably be the last meeting until sufficient funds are raised to begin more concrete plans.
2. The Boone County Task Force is finished with their meetings, and they have submitted their report to the bishop. No details will be available until he publishes them.
3. Preschool registration was held in late January, and once again the school had a strong response. The kindergarten registration begins February 5.
4. Fr. Bolte reports that another Eagle Scout has joined the project to improve the meditation trail around the pond.
5. The DPAA begins in April, and the parish goal this year is $150K. Once again we are hoping for an excess in the pledges, which will be applied to a parish project or wish list. The PC is gathering some information on a few possibilities to present to the parishioners. We will then take a survey to determine the majority preference. Look for that to happen in the next month.
The next PC meeting will be March 4. Jerry Beatrice volunteered to offer the opening prayer, and Al Kovacic the closing prayer.
Kathleen Thompson offered the closing prayer, and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Randy Herbert
Pastoral Council Secretary

Finance Council Report

Worship Report

No meeting

Formation Report

ADULT FAITH FORMATION MEETING: Jan.13, 2009

Present: Phil Aller, Ric Berndsen, Faye Gosney, Deacon Mike Keller, Joan Klahr, Pat Rigney, Stephanie Schenk, Pat Tenbrink,
Guest-Jeanette Bolin (St. Timothy Communications)

Faye opened the meeting with a prayer.

Mission 2009

Mike reported that he had talked with Fr. Carl Arico who would be arriving on Saturday morning, March 22. Mike is going to pick him up at the airport. Fr. Arico will be staying in the Rectory with Fr. Rick and Fr. Jacob. Fr. Arico will be preaching at all weekend masses. During the day on Saturday, Fr. Arico will meet with the music people. There will be two morning sessions and three evening sessions, with the final one ending with a Mass. Coffee and other refreshments will be provided during the morning sessions. This requires further discussion as to what type of refreshments and who will provide them.

We discussed the pot luck dinner and all agreed that Sunday, March 23 at 5:30 would be the best time. We will have the Church provide B-B-Q and hot dogs and those coming will bring a side dish, salad, or dessert. Pat R will get in touch with Jennifer Fedders.

On Saturday, March 22, there will be a welcome reception in Brodnick Hall after the 4:30 pm Mass. We will have hors d'oeuvres with liquid refreshment. We discussed whether we would do any table decorations, and it was unanimously decided that we would not. We have colorful table cloths that will suffice.

In the information packet we received from Fr. Arico, he indicated that he would like to meet with individuals, on-on-one, for conferences or reconciliation. Mike said that we would need sign-up sheets so we could block out 15-minute time slots for these conferences. These will be scheduled on Monday and Tuesday afternoons between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm with nothing scheduled between noon and 1:00. Pat T. will prepare the sign-up sheets.

There was no prayer for the Mission included in the information packet sent by Fr. Arico. Faye asked if we could use the same one as we did for the last mission. The only suggestion was to change the graphic from a mission building to the dove.

There is a six-week follow-up to this Mission offered by Fr. Arico. Pat T. will also prepare sign-up sheets for those who might be interested in this six-week follow-up.

Mike reported that Father Rick said we could have our Lenten Communal Penance service on the last night, but as yet, nothing definite has been decided.

For the Mass on the last night of the Mission, we will need Lector(s), Eucharistic Ministers, Servers, and a Mass Assistant. Someone suggested a volunteer sign-up sheet as is done on Advent and Easter. Further discussion was tabled on this until our next meeting.

If anyone needs a ride or babysitting, it will be suggested for them to call the Parish Office. During the last Mission (2007) Katy Sullivan was very helpful in providing us with sitters.

Publicity – We will have flyers distributed after Masses. In the packet sent by Fr. Arico, he had included suggested bulletin inserts. Faye had retyped all of these. We will begin using them the weekend of February 14-15 continuing each weekend until the weekend of the Mission. Each one is different. Faye and Jeanette will work together in getting information out to the public via area Church bulletins, the Cincinnati Enquirer and local papers (i.e. Boone County Recorder), Constant Contact, kiosk in Gathering Space, The Messenger, Companion, e-mails to various groups (CRHP, Seniors, Prayer Groups). Stephanie shared that the Mission had been publicized in the monthly newsletter for the Contemplative Outreach community. The Nuns at St. Anne Convent in Melbourne, Ky., will also be notifying the local Contemplative Outreach groups about the Mission. It was suggested that we could place flyers on the tables during the Lenten Fish Fry’s each week. Jeanette suggested that these be one-half a sheet. We hope to be able to attach small posters to the doors leading into the Church about two weeks prior to the Mission.

Future Tapping into Theology Programs

Mike reported that Fr. Bolte has suggested a presentation on internet porn. Mike said we would contact the sheriff’s department for this. At our last meeting we had discussed having someone come in and talk about abortion. Phil suggested a woman named Pam Stenzel. Her mother was raped and instead of having an abortion she chose life. Pam has traveled worldwide, speaking in person to over 500,000 young people each year about issues of sexuality and the importance of abstinence - her videos are viewed by millions worldwide. She also holds seminars with parents and educators regarding issues of teen sex and how vital character building is in a child’s upbringing. Her web site is pamstenzel.com.

Dr. Hill is confirmed for April 13. He will be speaking of the life of St. Paul.

Bible Study

Pat Rigney presented a synopsis of the evaluations received on the completed Bible Study. The majority were very favorable. Mike said that one of the changes he would make would be to assign a “table facilitator” to keep the discussion on track. He would also have a leader lecture on the background of the books being studied.

Stations of the Crib

Stephanie did an excellent with the youth and adults on the presentation of “The Stations of the Crib.” Those in the back of the Church were able to hear what was being said. This presentation was recorded.

Joan Klahr and Pat Rigney did a wonderful job on the table decorations. We had a fairly good turnout for the dinner. Colleen Hegge and her family helped set up and also did the majority of the cleaning up afterward. She also offered to help out during the Mission.

Lenten Bible Study

Mike said there will not be any small Lenten groups this year instead there will be one large group that will meet every Tuesday beginning March 3 through April 7. It will begin with Mass at 7 pm.

Meetings
Pat T has agreed to help out with taking notes and typing up the minutes. Faye said that she would share what she knows about Constant Contact with anyone who was interested in learning.

OUR NEXT MEETING IS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2009 AT 7:00 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,
Faye Gosney

Outreach Report

Outreach Meeting: January 8, 2009

Attendance: Charlene & Paul Melihercik, Sue & Mark Helmer, Kim Sholar, Bob Holzwarth, Vicki Degenhardt, Lois Lambers, Sharon Ryan, Faye Gosney, Carol Harvey, Barb Fowler, Korri Iracondo, Lesley Duggan

Meeting opened with prayer led by Lesley.

Thanksgiving Collection

Recap report was shared and discussed. While the layout and sorting process made the best of the limited space available for the collection in the youth room, the limited space was not adequate for the collection.

Decisions made from discussion:

Ask for volunteers to help during Mass time rather than after since the sorting is complete before Mass is over.
Continue using the brown paper bags with the shopping tag attached as the bag serves as a good reminder.
Stronger garbage bags needed for clothing or bags should be doubled to avoid splitting.
Use visual pictures or actual food labels on the sorting table in addition to product names.
Utilize a volunteer as a “packer police” for packer, quality control which is vital to tallying the donations.
Ask parishioners to check expiration dates when cleaning pantry for the collection.
Use some signage in the gathering space directing people where to take donations in the event of bad weather preventing them from leaving the donations at their car.

Adequate food was delivered to each recipient. This year we provided 6 coats to Ockerman Middle Schools resource center.

Giving Tree Collection
Recap report shared. The space of the youth room proved to be more adequate for this collection. Security concerns using the youth room are in the recap report.

Decisions made from discussion:

Gift cards will be dropped in collection baskets rather than being left in the gathering space on tables.
Some gift tags became separated during drop-off or sorting. Ask parishioners to secure tag to the gift and not the bag.
Rather than trying to separate, list and distribute to other agencies the extra gifts often bought in addition to the requested gifts, simply give the extras to the intended families leaving it to the parents to monitor.
Sorting was discussed. It was decided that the process went very well and nothing should be changed.

Lenten Outreach Activities/Opportunities
For this year’s Spring Cleaning collection, Lesley suggested that shopping lists be created (with no more than 6 items) and handed out at the beginning of Lent with a shopping bag. Families will be asked fill the bag with the listed items throughout Lent and return the bag on the designated collection weekend with the list attached. Each list would be color-coded for each of our recipient organizations and include only items requested by the agency. The advantage would be a simplified sorting process as the bags would only need to be sorted by the colored lists rather than having to empty the bags contents, sort according to item, count items then divide them according to agencies, only to bag them up again. In addition to the collection items, the list can also include outreach opportunity suggestions that can be done during Lent. Concerns discussed:

Parishioners may not hold on to the bag for the full six weeks
Donations will be brought in before collection date – where to put them?
Because of the lateness of the meeting, Lesley asked that everyone brainstorm outreach opportunities for individuals, families, and small groups that can be offered during Lent. Discussion will continue at the February meeting.

Other Business

Lesley will plan a field trip to the Boone County CAC for the committee to learn of its work in our county, its needs and how St. Timothy may be able to assist.
2009 Grant Recipients and Projects were shared. Members were asked to read over each grant recipient’s application before the February meeting. Discussion will continue about project ideas.
Lesley shared a parishioner’s need brought to her attention by Deb Thomas, preschool director. An elderly parishioner who has custody of his three grandchildren would like to enroll one of them in the preschool. He is in need of someone to pick him up and drive him to the registration. Deb said if we could get someone to be here for him that might be better since it will be an early morning with a long wait. Suggestions given: See about getting another mom who will already be at the registration to register the child for him or maybe one of the CRHP ladies will be willing to do it for him since it takes place CRHP weekend. Suggestions will be shared with Deb.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Next meeting: Thursday, February 12

Minutes taken by Charlene and Sue.
Submitted by Lesley

Community Report