St. Mary Church

Pastoral Council –  Jan 19, 2010

Attendees: Julie King, Mike Tauke, Ted Scheidel, Steve Phyfe, Jeff Heineman, Darlene Pint, Angie Beck, Pat Deike, Bob Bauman, Ron Cruise, Barb Anderson. Also attending: Dixie Jacobs.

Faith Sharing/Minutes: Fr Mike led faith sharing with the question of the week. The minutes were approved as written.

Finance & Building Update: See above

Parish Renewal: Bill Heubsch will be here Jan 23-25.

Decision Item – Office Assistant: The council extended its appreciation for Linda Deutsch’s dedicated service for many years in this position. A reception in her honor will be held Jan 31 after the Masses. The council reviewed the job description and advertisements for a part-time office assistant. The position will be 25 hrs/wk, M-F mornings. Darlene Pint made a motion to accept the job description and advertisement as written; and approve the hiring process for a staff member. Pat Deike seconded the motion, the motion passed unanimously.

Meeting Adjourned.

Finance Council  - Feb 8, 2010:

Attendees: Jim O’Donnell, Loras Jaeger, Barb Anderson, Phil Paladino, Emily Pawlak, Dixie Jacobs.

Opened meeting with “Our Father.” Minutes were accepted as written.

Monthly Financials: January’s offertory was $51,334, significantly above expectations. It did have 5 weekends and we received some large 2009 donations in January. Offertory year to date is about $7,000 above budget. Our savings interest is about half what we budgeted mainly due to lower interest rates. Our utilities continue to be far below budget. Our new facility has proven to be very energy efficient. We paid the second half of taxa and our property insurance this month. Our property insurance is about $6,000, which is three times last year’s rate. The archdiocese is self-insured, with Catholic Mutual covering claims over one million. The 2008 flood damaged several parishes and the rates reflect the increase necessary to recover from those pay outs.

Building Update: Most of our building projects are completed. Our punch list has been reduced a couple small exterior items that will be repaired this spring, the kitchen being too cold, and our leaky roof. Young’s Plumbing is installing a heating unit in the stove venting system to heat the air exchange. They will also install a furnace in the storage area, which will supply heat to the kitchen. Currently the kitchen shares a furnace unit and thermostat with the hall. The roof will be evaluated by Cardinal and the company that installed the shingles. The building committee will meet with Cardinal after the roof has been re-evaluated. The cause of the leaks appear to be from moisture in the underlayment material, then the shingles being laid before the material dried out. The moisture evaporated, buckling the tar paper and raising up the shingles.

DrexlerCenter: The Bremer Co. Supervisors was approved to use the Drexler Center at the City of Waverly council meeting. We expect to close on Drexler Feb 15. We should clear about $100.000, which can be applied to our loan.

Building & Grounds Committee Report: We need to purchase a cab for the tractor $3200, furnace and A/C for pastor’s residence $4527, heating units for parish kitchen $7240, replace oak trees along south drive for $5500 (to fulfill restricted gifts for memorials), seeding for “winter kill” and some minor repairs to equipment for $1750. The general maintenance account for next year will need to allow at least $1,300 for annual checks/maintenance of heating and cooling systems. The Parish Life and KC’s want to purchase a larger fish fryer. Space in the existing shed is available to store this unit. Parish Life would like to purchase additional rectangle tables and a small utility shed for storage of the tables and other items. The building and grounds committee does not want a shed, and recommended renting rectangle tables when needed.

Budget 2010/11: A rough draft was included in the council’s financial reports. The council reviewed the items including a 3% increase in parish staff salaries. The draft budget is about $10,000 in the “red.” The council reviewed two options or a combination of the two: 1) A withdrawal from the religious education endowment to offset the deficit. An $8,000 withdrawal was made this year, which was the first in many years. The endowment includes almost $60,000 in growth available for parish use. 2) Lowering the monthly loan payments. This fiscal year, we are paying $8,500/month toward our loan. We could lower it up to $1,000/month and still pay the loan off within its term based on interest rates and principal balance at this time. The only capital budget (building and grounds) items for the next fiscal year is some seeding and possibly some erosion control projects. The finance council will review the budget next month. We expect to submit a budget to the Pastoral Council at their April meeting.

Meeting adjourned.

Building & Grounds Meeting, Jan 27, 2010

Chairman Ron Leibold called the meeting to order at 7 P.M. Members present were Steve Faga, Julie Nordman,   Joe Kobliska and guest Jeff Heineman. Prayer was given by Ron.

The Building & Grounds Committee welcomed new member Ron Rand. Although Ron was unable to attend the meeting due to an injury, his views and knowledge will be appreciated during his term. He replaced Mark Conklin. Marks past work on the Committee were greatly appreciated. Ron's term will run through 2012 as will Duane Schwickrath and Dolores Ungs. We thank Duane and Dolores for renewing their terms on the committee. Ron Leibold was chosen to chair the committee for 2010.

OLD BUSINESS:

Minutes from the 9 Sep 2009 were approved.

Steve updated us on the projects to be completed. To do items include the tuck-pointing at 2 to 3 areas at the pastor's house, painting window frames on the upper level at the pastor's house. Also the vinyl fence along the east side of the north A/C units needs to be completed. It was decided to hold off on placing a vinyl fence around the trash dumpster at this time, wondering on the need for it. If at a later dated it is decided to install, we can always add. The lighting of the north parking lot is complete. The 2009/2010 budget looks good and we should be below budget estimate for year 2009-2010.

With the help of Duane Schwickrath, Steve has been completing a Preventive Maintenance schedule for the entire area of St. Mary. This should be a valuable asset in the future.

Septic Tank Cleaning: It was decided to try cleaning the tanks once a year. When we next pump the tanks, we will access the amount in storage and determine if yearly is adequate.

NEW BUSINESS:

Budget for 2010/11 Items:

A.   Seeding for winter kill & erosion areas:            $6200.00

B.   Patio blocks outside north kitchen door for grills to set:   $500.00

TOTAL BUDGET REQUEST:  $6,700.00

Memorial gift ideas: It was asked of committee members to inform the administrative office of any ideas they might have for future memorial gifts that might be in the future. One idea at the meeting was trees. Please inform the office if you think or hear of a good memorial gift idea.

Parish Life & The Knights of Columbus are wanting storage for a fryer and 6 rectangle tables. If there is not room to store theses items in the shed or hall storage they would like to purchase a small shed. The committee decided that there would be room to store the fryer in the shed. The dimension of the fryer is 16 inches wide, 30 inches long and 34 inches tall. The cooking would have to done outside as insurance will not allow the fryer to be used inside. The committee's decision on tables would be to rent them the one or two times a year they would be used as storage is limited. The issue of a shed for storage was discussed and at this time feel we do not want little buildings setting on the property as if we start this another group will want there own shed too.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 P.M. The next meeting will be Mon, Apr 19 at 5pm starting at the pastor's house.

Pastor, Fr. Mike Tauke – Jan. 2010

The most important event was our Renewal Days with Bill Huebsch.  Thanks to those who came. It was good to have a nationally known figure lead our parish in its development for the next two years. It has set in motion a plan on where our parish needs to go next. Eight people (one a teen) will be writing a strategic plan which they will present to this council, the parish staff and Bill Huebsch.

 We had one funeral and a couple baptisms.

 We are preparing for Lent with many events.  Our Lenten giving will be go to the Woman's Shelter and Haiti.

 We are consistently receiving more and more requests for aid. I would like us to add a health fair similar to our Involvement fair.  The people are seeing us as a caring community.

 Since we will soon be under a million dollars on our debt, I really would love it if we could be debt free before my move.  It would be great to be part of the "burning of the mortgage."

Pastoral Minister, Theresa Buss – Jan. 2010

Throughout the month I visited with 48 individuals in their homes or in care centers.  With many of those visits, I was able to bring leftover soup from the Community Meals and bread provided by one of our parishioners.  They love it!

We continue with the mass at Bartels which includes a short social time for those attending.

I attended the Parish Mission sessions.

I was not able to attend our January North Star visit, because of being out for a couple of days following carpal tunnel surgery.  However, we did have some of the North Star staff come to see our facility with hopes that they will consider using St Mary as the site for their Christmas party in December.

We held the quarterly mass at the Care Center in Clarksville  Several folks from the community came, giving us total of twelve who attended.  Coffee & cookies were served following.

As of today, we have two of our people on Hospice. 

I am beginning to put together gifts for our shut-ins to be delivered during the Easter season.

Liturgist / Youth Minister, Jennifer Hulme – Jan. 2010

Continue to play at Masses and practice with groups and cantors. Preparing the musicians for Lent. I am working with a 6^th grader to play his tuba during Mass on the 14th. I am in contact with the WSR and Denver music teachers to get students to play their instruments during the Easter season. My goal is to have students play music during the preparation of gifts each weekend during the Easter season.

Continue to train new liturgical ministers. A Lenten reflection will be held in March, which will include a training for new ministers and an update for current ministers.

Worship Committee meets on Feb 16^th to decorate for Lent and will also discuss the Easter environment.  We have 3 new people on the committee.

Lenten activities are being planned – including the Simple Suppers which start with Mass. This year we are adding Stations of the Cross at 6:30. I am preparing reflections for the Chapel of Reservation, for people to come, sit quietly and reflect. I am hoping to arrange some small faith sharing groups for women this Lenten season. Ministers are being lined up for Ash Wednesday. I am working on the reflection for the Word/Ash Service at noon. 

I prepared Lenten materials for children, youth and adults and have set those out.

Confirmation preparation continues. All 22 candidates were at the Rite of Enrollment which was held at all Masses the weekend of Jan 23/24. Classes continue. Two more trips to the Catholic Worker House will be made in the new month.

37 students (6-8^th grade) attended the Luau Style Lock-In on Feb 5/6. 33 of the 37 were parishioners.

Continue to attend WAYM (Waterloo Area Youth Ministers) and YMAC (Youth Ministry Advisory Council for the Archdiocese) and the Youth Rally Planning team meetings.

Planning a girls only retreat (for moms and daughters) on Feb 26/27 with St. Paul’s, Redeemer and a Denver Church. We will host this event.

Arranged child care for the renewal and “Ten Great Date” nights

Set up and cleaned up for the renewal. Helped Fr. Mike organize and lead the 3^rd night.

16 young people collected money for the “Souper Bowl Sunday” collection. $2067.82 was collected.

Meeting with a Wartburg student to help her with a class assignment.

Set up for Baptism class.

Faith Formation Director, Eric Stromberg – Jan. 2010

Helped plan and facilitate DIOCORE catechist in-service February 10, 2010, at St. Edward Parish.  We had approximately sixty area catechists who were given an instrument to measure spiritual gifts. 

Preparing for March sessions on the 6^th and 9^th commandments.  Knights of Columbus helped lead our sessions in February on the 5^th Commandment. 

Have proposed and the Board of Faith Formation agreed to promoting a parish-wide re-education on the concepts of inter-generational catechesis and life-long faith formation for late summer and early fall.  We have been doing GOF for almost seven years and it will be a good time to remind people why we do what we do and better explain why we do what we do to the families that have joined the parish in the interim.  This will involve new pamphlets and the production of a DVD on the Generations experience at St. Mary to distribute to the parish this fall.

First Eucharist preparation is underway.  Families have received their textbooks and coaching tips on how to pass on the Catholic faith about the Eucharist at a parents meeting on January 17.  There is another parents meeting with more opportunity for coaching on February 28^th. 

One new candidate has joined our RCIA process last month and I have been meeting with him and his sponsor to prepare him in addition to attending regular meetings with our RCIA coordinator Linda Schnabel. 

I have already received our starter kit to build on last year’s successful VBS program, Crocodile Dock.  The new VBS this year is called “High Seas Adventure.”  Look for promotional material to be out in March.

Bill Huebsch led an excellent (though unfortunately shortened) parish renewal.  The focus was on strengthening our existing processes.  With respect to faith formation this means a renewed focus on coaching parents to share the faith with their children and providing opportunities for conversion.  Will be conducting focus groups this spring to see how best to incorporate these concepts into the GOF process.