Council Meeting Minutes

Monday, June 12, 2006, 8P.M. to 10 P.M. -

Larry and Nancy Jo Lopp's House

Next meeting, TBD, in September - Congregational budget meeting, Sunday,

July 09, 2008

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Agenda (from Larry Lopp email June 12)

Skyland Church Council meeting

Monday June 12th 8:00pm

Lopp's 24985 Soquel San Jose RD

353-4257

1. The Financial plan for 2006 2007.

Results of Committee latest budget work.

1st results from The "Budget Crisis" project.

2. Discussions and Motions to send Financial plan to the congregation.

Lessons learned, Issues raise during the "Crisis"

Lets deal with it.

And moving on from the money view.

Thoughtful review of Church Priorities

Material from last November and a thoughtful review

Program priorities from 11/2005.

The Summer programs;

Kitchen Status Report

Upcoming thorough Analysis of Kitchen project. Larry & Fern.

Harvest Festival

Terry needs a big brother and sister?

What is our core tenant that we use to define ourselves as a church?

Have a great summer.

Larry Lopp

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Stephen opened the meeting with a prayer.

Gerry read the email listing results of Sunday's plea for pledge increases,

12 @ 20%, 1 at 43%, 1 at 12.5%, 1 at 10%, and an additional increase came

in just today that hasn't yet been added. Excellent results for 1 day and

with as few in church as there were.

Larry presented slides (see slides and updated budget figures)

1. Income increase according to the new pledges

2. Disbursement reductions, including some severe program cuts

3. Summary = $416 in the "black"

Discussions on what our next steps will be -

Larry Cooke: Wait until we see the results of the current pledge increase

campaign

Other comment: then adjust the severe program cuts accordingly.

Jan Swayne: The offerings projections may be inflated or too high because

some of the new pledges were regular attendees who gave but hadn't pledged

before. So, their giving would move from the "offerings" column to the

"pledges" column.

Come up with a list (at the end of the month) of concerns from both

disbursements and income, i.e. items that need adjustment up or down.

Larry Lopp: based on the current plan, we should present the 06/07 to the

congregation.

Larry Cooke: suggested Trustees track and record new pledges, then adjust

disbursements and budget accordingly.

Maire: commented that we should be adding to our actions a plan to grow the

congregation.

Further discussion about how to grow the congregation.

MOTION: Larry Cooke moved to set the budget meeting for Sunday July 9. In

the meantime, the Trustees will update the budget with new pledges and

adjust the most critical disbursements/programs to present a balanced budget.

Don Law seconded, voted and approved.

Discussion of how to present the budget challenge this coming Sunday. It

was agreed to thank those who increased their pledges, we are making

progress. But we need more in order to avoid program cuts.

Gerry asked whether salary checks may be issued with planned increased

prior to congregational budget approval.

MOTION: Larry Cooke moved we pay according to the current (new) budget.

Mary Ellen seconded.

Larry Lopp wanted to discuss whether Stephen would accept less pay in

exchange for more time off. Larry Cooke said that Pastoral Relations has

already discussed this and they don't want less of Stephen's time, thus

approve the cost-of-living increase. Stephen is eager to work with us on

ideas for growing the churchl

Voted and approved.

Larry Lopp brought forward two items for focus.

1. We need more members - grow our congregation.

2. We need to work on some plans with our pastor.

Larry Cooke - Pastoral Relations and Decons will work together to create a

strategy to grow the church.

Regarding Skyland Run (growth plan): Don Law suggested a display for the

run that shows where the sponsor and runner monies go.

Maire: asked about the Welcome Packet the Trustees and Deacons are working on.

Should welcome packets or some church related literature be available at

the run?

Discussion of ways to spread the word:

Ad in MNN

Flyer in MNN

Flyer to Realtors with church information about all of the churches in the

mountains, including Skyland.

How can we be this closed and close family and still bring in new people?

While usually the best way is just to invite your friends, since we are in

such a remote location, it is hard to meet people up here who would find

the church convenient.

MOTION: Don Law moved that Deacons and Pastoral Relations take

responsibility for creating a strategy to recruit new members AND work wih

Stephen to create a plan for how he operates in support of that strategy.

Jackie seconded, voted and approved.

Jackie brought up that the 10K run is coming up quickly - it was agreed to

get together with Paula and her team to come up with promotions for that event.

KITCHEN REMODEL

Larry Lopp and Fern will put all the current bills on a spreadsheet in

order to track carefully and clearly understand costs.

Member labor will help keep costs down. Next work day is Saturday, June 17

at 9am.

Joan is meeting with the cabinet maker for a cupboards bid and will notify

Fern of the anticipated costs.

Fern is doing an amazing job!

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Larry Lopp suggested that the Council select someone to mentor Terry Leary

through the Harvest Festival process. Larry Cooke offered to do so.

Some suggestions:

Bring back clothes

Call advertisers in MNN (Tahoe and Maui condos) to see if they would like

to donate weeks or weekends to the silent auction in order to get a tax

write-off.

Put a flyer in the MNN (deadline for September issue is August 10). This

would be well worth the $500.

Discussion of Skyland Church Program Priorities

November 6th 2005 Congregational meeting

1. Spiritual Practice and Education – Deacons and Religious Education

2. Outreach Calendar - Missions

3. Day-to-Day Operations - Moderator

4. Collaboration with Local Groups - Church Council, with consultation of Leslie Meehan

5. Interfaith Interaction - Stephen

6. Education about Conflict Resolution Options - Del Mahrle and Mary Ellen McTamany

7. New Road Signs and Regular Articles in “Mountain Network News� - Church Council

We then discussed our progress. Will revist and evaluate our progress on these in September Council meeting.

Finally - The budget will now be distributed to the congregation in its

summary or simplified version that includes Receipts and Disbursements

only. Details upon request.

Stephen led us in prayer and the meeting ended at approximately 10 PM

Respectfully submitted:

Holly Reed

(for Terry Clark)

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