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By Pat Leicher, Church President
The Board of Trustees held its May meeting the evening of May 8 in the Chapel.
Senior Pastor Steve Schibsted opened the meeting by telling the group that over the last year, more than 70 new people (including children) have been attending church regularly, participating in various activities and, in some cases, joining the church. He also shared some numbers. Michael Barber has collected data that demonstrates the number of people participating in Sunday services in person and online shows marked growth over the two in-person services pre pandemic. Christmas Eve attendance was 873 and Easter attendance was 565. Regular Sunday attendance shows consistent increases of 20-35% since summer 2021. When most churches are reporting decreases of 30-40%, our church’s growth is all the more remarkable.
Dani Montague, Stewardship Chair, reported that after a successful campaign in 2023, the committee is already brainstorming a theme for next year’s campaign. Although the church is definitely still in transition, the committee wants to find a new way to characterize special gifts above and beyond 'regular' commitments next year. We do want to communicate to the congregation that while endowment gifts are always gratefully received, the endowment is severely restricted. Gifts to our Special Projects Fund, which is not used for general operating expenses but other one-time expenses, are more valuable to the church. This year, we tapped the Special Projects Fund to do an assessment of our entire plant and what maintenance and upgrades are going to be needed over the next few years. In the next fiscal year, we will use Special Project Funds to do an entire revamp of our website.
James Haverkamp presented the Buildings & Grounds report. The repairs to Don’s office at the manse, needed as a result of flooding, are beginning. Power washing of church walkways will happen in the next few weeks. We are getting bids to repair the leak in the Narthex entry near the lectern and leaks in the irrigation system. The committee is working with the facility assessment to determine a timetable for needed repairs. It is very likely we will need a capital campaign in the next three to five years to complete all the needed work.
Personnel Chair, Kara Basinger, confirmed that Kerry Persichitte is on board and integrating into the staff. She will be working from the NextGen hub in the CE building but will also be moving all around campus. The operations sub-committee is finalizing its recommendations about what other positions will be needed to support the entire organization. The new medical and dental plans are being introduced to staff by our broker and under the lead of Christy Guidici. The new plans save approximately $25,000 per year.
Scott Kail announced that Mexico ’23 was a huge success as was the new approach of gathering the participants and their families on Friday night. Over 300 people attended. The Sunday service still included reports from two students but was less Mexico-focused than previously. The future of the Treasure Sale is being evaluated. The group of people who have made the sale happen for decades are ready to step aside, and it is not clear that we have new volunteers to step in. Middle and high school parents potluck dinners and discussions are proving very popular. Scott will be taking study leave July 25-30 at the Holy Cross Monastery in New York.
The Finance Committee, working with the staff and other church boards and committees, has developed a proposed budget for the upcoming 23/24 fiscal year. The budget is approximately 20% higher than the 22/23 budget for two reasons. First, the Board has approved investing for growth most importantly in the area of NextGen ministries. Second, we are trying to do a much better job of anticipating expenses and including them in the budget. As a result, there have been lots of unbudgeted expenses that have had to be funded by transfers from reserve funds For the upcoming year, we are budgeting a substantial increase in non-pledged contributions, 7% distributions from restricted funds rather than the 5% we have taken historically (note: this has been approved by legal counsel) and $200,000 in additional fundraising. The Board approved having a special campaign in the fall to raise this money for NextGen expenses (staff, curriculum, events, CE building upgrades and safety procedures, etc.) This concept will be presented to the congregation in more detail at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, June 11 at 11am. If this special, short-term campaign falls short, we will draw on unrestricted reserves. The Board also approved obtaining a $250,000 home equity line of credit (HELOC) on the manse to cover necessary repairs and maintenance on the manse. Over the last few years, there have been substantial unanticipated costs associated with the manse. This has caused serious budget problems. A limited HELOC, which will only be used as needed, seems like a good approach to cover these expenses. The interest-only cost to the church should be minimal. The congregation will be asked to vote on this at the Annual Meeting.
We revisited the report submitted last month by the Mission Task Force. There are three recommendations in the report that the Board would like to see modified. These concern participation of members of the various boards and committees participating in community service projects, representation of the Mission Committee on the BOT and designation of funds for mission giving. A change in the church by-laws will be presented at the Annual Meeting to increase the size of the Board to include an ex-officio representative of the Mission Committee, which will no longer be under the auspices of the Deacons.
The Nominating Committee is hard at work identifying new members for the Trustees, Deacons, Altar Guild and Nominating Committee. The CE Board is going to be re-envisioned to incorporate the ideas and new thinking of Kerry, Steve, Scott and Leslie. So, nominees for the CE Board will probably not be presented to the congregation at the Annual Meeting, but later in the year.
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