The meeting was called to order by Richard at 7:35 p.m.

Stephen began with a prayer, after which a motion was made to approve the June Minutes, which passed.

Assignment of Duties:

Stephen mentioned he plans to take vacation in October. We asked him to check to see if Streeter would be available to preach on 10/14, otherwise we could ask T’shala and Pam to fill in on 10/7 and 10/14 while Stephen is away. We then proceeded to assign next month’s duties as follows:

Sunday (Pulpit)Liturgist Assignments:

8/12: (Stephen) Julie

8/19: (Stephen) David

8/26: (Stephen) Richard

9/1: (Stephen) T’Shala

Bread & Juice: Jennifer

Servers: Jennifer, Larry, David, Julie

Member/Community Issues/Concerns

We had a brief discussion about deaths in the community. Considering how much the community appreciated the services for Justin Denicola, it was suggested that prayers for those in the community and separate services should be offered when requested.

Stephen mentioned that Patricia Woods was going to her In-Care Interview on the 17th, and while it was not a “flaming hoop” to jump through on her way to becoming a minister, it was a “hoop” worth noting. We agreed he should announce it at the next service, with congratulations from all of us.

New Member Sunday

Since Stephen will be on vacation during early October, and late September was too close to Harvest Festival, we rescheduled New Member Sunday for October 28th, with Orientation the previous Sunday October 21st. Julie said she didn’t think she could make it to orientation so the discussion on Church Community would need to be reassigned to someone else.

Other Business:

Stephen mentioned that the Marina UCC congregation near Fort Ord was in the process of becoming a UCC church and could use a mentor. A mentoring church makes themselves available to consult with the congregation on any number of issues involving church organization and operation. The deacons thought it would be a good idea, and approved a motion to bring up becoming the Marina congregation’s mentoring church to the Council for approval, after which we should then check with the other churches in Santa Cruz to see if they wanted to join with us as co-mentors. Stephen agreed to ask the other churches after we got Council approval.

We continued our discussion about the membership policy including suggestions to: have a place for our literature during the run and harvest festival; how positive our website has been viewed and how it could be used even more as a recruiting tool; and perhaps to assign specific individuals to new visitors/members to help in their orientation. Again, as in the past, we noted that the church has an insulated family atmosphere, which is an attraction for some and a deterrent to others

Following a prayer led by Stephen, the meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.

The next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 4th at 7:30pm.

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