St. Timothy Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes
November 21, 2006

Present: Fr. Rick Bolte, Jerry Beatrice, Jim Sholar, Marin Smith, Jerry Grefer, Larry Lense, Mark Dornoff, Mary Brzinski

Minutes for the prior meeting were approved by Mark Dornoff and seconded by Jerry Beatrice.

Mark Dornoff offered the opening prayer.
 
Pillar Updates:
 
Finance Committee (see attachment)
Rick Hoban was absent, however we had received the minutes (see attachment)  and questions were answered by Fr. Rick regarding them.  In prior minutes, signage and easements were discussed.  The delay in pouring the foundations for the signage is due to the diocese’s discovery that we should be receiving compensation for the permanent and temporary easements we are allowing the builder across the street on the opposite side of Frogtown Road.  The foundations cannot be poured until the lawyers have completed their negotiation/settlement phase of this issue.  Carla Venhoff from Deters, Benzinger & LaVelle is representing St. Tim’s in this matter.
 
Roof repairs were also discussed.  There seemed to be a constant leak in the gathering space and the roof repairs noted in the minutes seems to have alleviated the problem.
 
Upcoming needs for the parish:
-  Upgrade the computer server to accommodate updated software – they are looking into ways to save money on this.
-  Repair the side entry door to the parish center that is leaking at the bottom.
 
Worship 
We had two months worth of committee minutes reported (see attachments)
Much discussion ensued regarding the clutter in the gathering space and how much is allowed on any given weekend.  The bin for City Heights needs was moved to the opposite side of the gathering space to give the appearance of less clutter.  It was decided that we would wait to see how it is through the holidays.  No action was taken.
 
Outreach
Jerry Beatrice reported on this committee (see attachment)
Benton Farms – City Heights Pumpkin Patch Party was a huge success – 154 kids attended. 
The region ministers are in place for the Christmas Giving trees.
 
The Hosea House Casseroles were brought into question.  They are not going over well for various reasons.  Lesley is willing to try different menu ideas.  She and Karen Yates (Director of Hosea House) are working on simple recipes that are nutritious and filling.
 
The Thanksgiving drive went extremely well.  262 cases of food were collected and divided among the St. Bernard Parish Pantry, City Heights and Gallatin County.
 
Faith Formation
Marin Smith reported on this pillar (see attachment)
Infant/Toddler/Preschool - The nursery is going great.  Terrific twos has a waiting list and the Sunday morning Preschool is going well.
 
PSR – There are a lot of children who need to catch up on their sacraments.  Lots of the older Catholic school kids are misbehaving during the PSR classes on Monday nights.  The teachers have requested that another adult’s presence in the classroom is necessary due to behavior problems.
 
STYM – Growing and growing. Mission trip is still on track – kids will speak on 12/3 & 4.
 
Adult Faith Formation – Theology on Tap went well.  DVD’s are available on Fr. Hater’s talk through the parish office.  Advent retreat upcoming on 12/9.
 
Community  
Upcoming events include breakfast with Santa 12/2, Lighting of the Christmas trees 12/2, Parish Ski Day 12/27, Wine Tasting 1/23, Men’s group Chicken Dinner 2/3/07, Dinner Dance 2/17/07 and the Fish Frys begin on 2/23/07.  Brodnick Hall Kitchen use guide will be posted clearly for all who use Brodnick Hall.  This is to help keep up with cleanliness and food freshness in the refrigerators.
 
Ad Hoc Committee for the Survey:       
The final survey was presented to the pastoral council and one change was made – to include demographic information for both spouses. The survey is in the programmer’s hands and is expected to be completed by 12/3 for mailing the following week.  It is expected that a two week time period will be given to parishioners to either take the survey online OR complete and return the survey by mail/collection basket.
 
Ad Hoc Committee for Welcoming
Jim Sholar has been meeting with different people regarding the issues of reinstituting the region concept, improving welcoming of new parishioners and improving communications.  He brought the idea to the council of a monthly registration after the 11am mass to help foster friendships between new parishioners who register together as well as having representatives from each of the pillars to assist with answering questions new parishioners may have about volunteering for any of them.
 
Pastors Report
Fr. Rick stated that he is still waiting for the Indian Priest – 11/27 is his meeting for a visa.  He doesn’t expect him before Christmas. 
Dottie Due has taken on a position at St. Elizabeth Hospital and is reducing her hours at St. Tim’s.  It is unclear at this point how the redistribution of her duties will be taken over. 
He also brought up some ideas looking to the future for the 2007 DPAA drive and possible incentives for the parish.  One of the ideas was Stained Glass windows for the sanctuary.  Mark Dornoff has agreed to look into the cost and different depictions (bible stories) to display in stained glass.
 
Items brought to Executive Committee: 
Daily or Sunday missals and a sign to post page numbers of songs in the hymnals was brought to one of the Exec. Comm. Members.  Mary brought this up before the council and it was suggested that we offer the missals for an offering.  Something like the Magnificat (a monthly periodical) would be on the order of what would be offered.  If you are hard of hearing and truly have difficulty, please see Fr. Rick and St. Tim’s will provide you with this option.  Regarding the Placard to display page numbers of songs, no real conclusion was made. 

Jerry Beatrice has volunteered to do the prayer for the next Pastoral Council meeting which will be held on January 16, 2007.  (There will be no December Meeting)
 
The Executive Committee meeting will be held on January 2, 2007 if all members can be present.
 
Respectfully Submitted,
Mary Brzinski

PILLAR ATTACHMENTS

FINANCE COUNCIL REPORT
11/8/06

In attendance were: Fr, Rick Bolte, Dan Bultman, Richard Field, Kyle Lawler, Rick Hoban Steve Logan, Steve Senvisky

Meeting started as Dan took us through the meeting notes for November. Of concern is that total contributions did not meet budget for the 2nd time in the first 4 months of this fiscal year. There were questions about attendance and parish membership growth. Actual expenses are under budget. We are on still on budget as a total statement.

Loan payments are up-to-date through October and we will be paying the Diocesan assessment in November as well as the 2nd quarterly payment for the secondary school assessment.

There was discussion on the income statements and balance sheets on certain line items. We agreed that there is a need to simplify the budgets moving forward into next year. Also agreed that we need to add a column for “last year to date” totals on the specific line item entries as reference.

Dan also followed up on some maintenance issues that were mentioned at the previous meeting.
• Holland roofing did some repairs to the church roof at a cost of $340.
• The door to the Parish Center that is leaking at the bottom still needs to be looked at.
• New maintenance item - We were advised that our server may need more memory and larger disk space to keep up with updated software. We will need to find a partner that can help us find an inexpensive way to upgrade. Maybe someone in the parish?

Dan and Fr. Bolte discussed with us the developments on how we may charge for the use of easements on our property when Frogtown construction begins. Contractor will still install bases for entrance signs as previously reported. Signs may be up before Christmas.

Fr. Bolte confirmed that the crucifix and statue of Saint Joseph should be here by Christmas.

Fr. Bolte indicated that the small construction project in the rectory would be done within the next month and would be done at a small cost already in the budget.

As reported in the bulletin on Sunday our new priest will be interviewing for his visa soon but it appears that he will not be arriving from India until after the beginning of the year.

Survey for a potential school will be out before Christmas and will be voted on through the website. There may actually be a computer setup at church for parishioners to vote. There will be one vote per family.

Last discussion was from Rick Hoban and his meeting notes from the St. Paul Finance Council meeting that he recently attended. They will begin a capital campaign in hopes of raising $1 million over the next 3-5 years to address several needs on their property (expand gathering space, stained glass windows, have all pews redone, enhance lighting/sound in church, replace gym floor, and new storage building). They will also begin an endowment program in the spring of 2007 in hopes of raising $100K per year.

The meeting ended at 9:35pm with a prayer by Fr. Bolte.

The next finance council meeting will be on Wednesday December 13 at 8pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Logan for
Steve Alley
Finance Council Secretary

WORSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT

10/18/06 Meeting
Thanksgiving day Mass will be at 10 am. Sign up sheet for Liturgical ministers will be placed in the Sacristy.

New Breaking Bread Hymnals are in and will be placed in the covers on Nov.30 after the morning Mass. Father will be reminded to announce at the morning Mass on the 29th to solicit help in putting in the new Hymnals. The Advent inserts will be inserted in the front of the cover at the same time.

Advent penance service will be Tuesday, December 12th at 7 pm. The “O Emmanuel Come” programs will be used for this service.

Mike Keller is going to be the M.C. for all special Masses. He will train the servers before the Masses and oversee them at Mass.

Kelly Stuckenschneider and Becky Herbert have taken over the Art and Environment ministry. It was decided to keep our Advent décor the same as in the past. The 4 candles will be placed at the corners of the Sanctuary. They are looking into ways to hang a banner from the ceiling for the seasons behind the new Crucifix. They are also going to put the Stations of the Cross up and leave them up permanently.

Discussed the need for Liturgical Ministers. We need E.M.’s, Mass Assistants, Greeter families and Ushers. Father will ask for more help in the bulletin before sigh-ups and ask them to commit for one year.

Sunday, November 26th, for the feast of Christ the King we will have a brass quartet for the 9 and 11 Masses. There are also baptisms scheduled during Masses that weekend.

11/15/06 Meeting
An Ecumenical Service was discussed for Thanksgiving with other churches in the Union area. We had done some in the past but not for several years. We will look at this next year to see if there is an interest in reviving this.

The Gathering Space is getting too cluttered and looking messy. It was suggested that the bin for City Heights be moved into the Sacristy with a possible sign advising where it has been placed. It was recommended that this be brought up before the Pastoral Council who can form a sub-committee to come up with a policy for use of the Gathering Space.

The song sheets that are used at the Baptism service are left and not many families are participating in the singing. It was suggested that the Elizabeth Ministry representatives at the Service should take a more active role at this service in leading by example and using the sheets and signing. At times there are not enough song sheets, particularly when we have 5 baptisms, so the Ministry should make sure they have sufficient copies. Many people keep them as mementos. It was suggested that a basket be placed at the door so the song sheets can be placed there on leaving the church. Since some do keep the song sheets is was suggested that possibly making the song sheets like the funeral program. Helen Baltz will contact the Elizabeth Ministry to see what they want to do.

In lighting the Advent Candles this year we are going to use the Greeter Family. It was decided that Michelle will send a letter to each of the 12 Greeter Families scheduled for those Sundays to look for instructions near the sign in sheets in the Sacristy. Michelle will place the instructions in the Sacristy each week. She will also send a letter to all Mass Assistants scheduled for these Sundays so if a family does not show a substitute family will be obtained to perform the lighting.

We would like to do a Saturday morning retreat for all Liturgical Ministers, new and old. No time will be ideal for everyone but invite everyone and the people who can come will be there. We will have a Mass, a light breakfast, a speaker and the commissioning ceremony. There could be training afterwards for the new Liturgical Ministers. We would invite the lead servers but not the other servers. Our goal is to have this in January and Father will check his calendar for possible dates.

OUTREACH COMMITTEE REPORT
November, 2006

IHN – November Grant Recipient – Service project: Giftwrapping @ Florence mall Saturday, December 2. Currently 42 people have signed up to help.

Next IHN commitment – Tuesday, December 5. Overnight host jobs are filled. Still in need of 2-3 evening hosts. In an attempt to avoid miscommunication, once again, with host church, Lesley has corresponded with host church’s director via email. There is still a need for a St. Tim’s IHN coordinator.

HOSEA HOUSE – It was brought to Lesley’s attention that the casseroles we have been serving at Hosea House are not going over well for various reasons: They are drying out while attempt to heat multiple casseroles at high temps. Some are burnt on the bottom. Any that are not served cannot be reused because they have been heated twice over. Casseroles are considered “fancy” meaning too many ingredients. We are the only church using casseroles. People avoid eating the day the “casserole” church is there. It was agreed that we want to provide meals that are liked. Committee tossed around ideas to revamp Hosea House. Decision made: After Lesley speaks with Karen Yates, Hosea House director, about food guidelines, parishioners will be asked to submit recipes according to guidelines – meals that are simple, filling and nutritious – to create a recipe file that region leaders can go through to select the meal for the month. Once decided, the ingredients for the menu will be published in the bulletin and website so that parishioners can donate ingredients. The region leader will have the choice of how it will be prepared i.e. at volunteer homes or at Hosea House. Our goal is to start the new year with new recipes.

THANKSGIVING DRIVE - All went extremely well. We did not lack volunteers for any aspect of the collection. The boy scouts were WONDERFUL and worked very hard to gather all bags from the parking lot and helped sort, too. Deliveries made: 30 cases to City Heights, 54 cases to St. Bernard Parish Pantry in Dayton, KY, and 178 cases to Gallatin Co. for a total of 262 cases of food. Clothing: 3 large bags of children’s and adult coats, 2 large bags of sweat pants/shirts, 3 boxes of hats/gloves, and several bags of miscellaneous clothing items.

Christmas Gift-Giving Trees – organized by regions. Region maps are in the gathering space to help people associate their region # with their region tree. We are adopting 35 families from Gallatin Co. CAC. Region trees will be in gathering space Dec. 2-3 and 9-10. Collection weekend will be Dec. 16-17. Delivery will be made to Gallatin Co. CAC on Monday, Dec. 18.

Pumpkinfest: John Benton reported on this event. 2 buses brought 154 people to Benton Farms. Again, we did not lack volunteers. Despite the frigid weather, all went very well. Ideas for next year: Because of the growing numbers, split the group into three groups working on a rotation i.e. Group 1 eats, Group 2 visits farm animals, while Group 3 picks pumpkins. Have photographer on hand to take Fall Family Pictures for the guests.

Next meeting January 19.

FAITH FORMATION REPORT
November 2006

Sunday Morning Youth
Nursery is going great. Due to our new Terrific Two’s program, numbers in the nursery are down and all is calm, all is bright.
Terrific Two’s is also running very well. Biggest problem is we still have a waiting list of VERY anxious parents who are hoping to get their child into the program. We had to cap the numbers for safety and sanity concerns.
SPS is running smoothly. Only the occasional glitch. Had the most recent Pray and Play a week ago. Children, parents and teachers love these events.

PSR
All running well for the most part. Biggest issue is the increasing number of children needing to “catch up with” sacraments. Also some difficulty with communication, particularly with parents of children in Catholic schools. Some problems on Monday night with the Catholic school children acting up. Catechists on Monday have indicated to Charlotte the need for another adult present in the classroom of Catholic school students, due to behavior problems. This is being addressed using our standard rules of behavior as stated in the handbook. I may sit in on a class to observe, if needed. Parents will be called if in-house corrections fail.
Reconciliation Retreat was great. Sponsor night was great. Sacramental prep is going well.

STYM
Growing and growing. There will be a mission trip this summer to help rebuild areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. Much effort is going into getting whole parish support for this. Kids will speak at mass on the weekend of 12/3 and 4.

Adult Faith Formation
Theology on Tap went well this month. There are DVD’s of Father Hater’s talk available through my office. Approximately 35 people attended. Better than the number present for Sr. Pat, the month before. It is very important to publicize these events and encourage people to attend, even if Father Bolte is not the presenter.
Yahweh Café is this week. While it is a required parent night for our PSR, it is also a parish event and all parishioners are invited. Advent Retreat is December 9. Advent Book Fair will be that weekend also.