April 2024

Pastoral Council Minutes, April 16, 2024 @ 7:00 p.m.
The mission of St. Mary Parish is to make Christ real in our Communities by  living the Gospel, worshiping together and serving others.
Present: Leo Beschorner, Michell Even (ZOOM), Nathan Heitz, Val King, Mary Jo Stromberg (ZOOM), Phil Paladino, Fr. Doug Wathier, Joe Barber (ZOOM)
Call to order:  Nathan Heitz at 7:05 p.m.
Prayer: Fr. Doug
We reviewed and approved the Pastoral Council minutes from February 20, 2024 and March 19, 2024 as submitted. We also reviewed and accepted the minutes from the March Finance Council and Building and Grounds Committee, the April Peace and Justice Committee meeting, and the March Parish Life Committee.
Finance Council

• Joe Barber reported that we are making gains on the shortage in this year’s budget with increased offertory and decrease in snow removal costs this winter. We will cover any shortage at fiscal year end with withdrawal from unrestricted savings.
  
• A final review of the budget for next fiscal year has been completed. The Finance Council recommended a 3% increase for salaries and benefits in the amount of $9200. An estimated  shortage of $48,500 will be covered through withdrawal from unrestricted savings. A motion was made and seconded to accept the proposed budget for FY2025. Motion passed.

Phase 2

• Repair of the parking lot to include patching and stabilization will be done instead of replacing the lot. This will be done over time with financing out of the operation budget and from other sources. This will not be included in the Capital Campaign.
• Capital Campaign: plan to move forward. We will hand out packets to parishioners in June. Five different letters have been created depending on the past response from the parishioner. For example: New in parish? Hasn’t given in past. Has already given. (Only about a dozen responses received from December request.)  A motion was made and seconded to move ahead with the Capital Campaign. Motion passed.

Other  Dixie will place notice in bulletin about open position on Pastoral Council. In the meantime, members of council may seek out individuals and ask them if they may be interested in being on Pastoral Council.
As there were no further items for discussion, we adjourned at 7:30.
The next meeting is Tuesday, May 21, 2024. - Minutes prepared by Val King

Finance Council  –  April 16, 2024
Present: Kelly Flege, Becky David, Joe Barber, Katie Crouse, Scott Danner, Fr Doug Wathier. Also present: Deacon Phil Paladino, Dixie Jacobs.
Monthly Financials:  The spring offertory has been strong and has shrunk the budget deficit to $4,000. No extraordinary expenses to report. The spring budgeted withdrawal from the religious endowment for $16,069 was instead withdrawn from unrestricted as approved at the March meeting. This is due to the endowment generating more interest/growth than savings. Scott made a motion to accept the financials as presented; Katie seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Raffle: The Archdiocese Risk Manager was consulted with more details on the potential car raffle. He had serious liability concerns with a used car. Even with private insurance, the parish and Archdiocese could be held responsible for damages and injuries in excess of the private insurance coverage. The finance council discussed these liability issues and potentially not raising enough ticket sales to cover the car purchase, the financial council reached a consensus they are unable to support a parish car raffle. However, they open to other raffle and fundraising ideas.
Website Redesign: Through discussions with staff, committees, and parishioners, the staff realized much of the site need information updated. Some was not just old but no longer reflected the ministries accurately. Collaboration with the committees/staff for their pages is going well, but will take a few months to complete. The potential professional redesign of the site will not be cost effective until the updates are complete. The council tabled this until fall.
Building & Grounds Committee – Parking Lot: Will Kurtt and the Building & Grounds Committee are researching ways to patch and stabilize the parking lot to extend its usefulness to about 10yrs for about $100,000. This would allow the Building Mini-Campaign fundraiser to proceed without adding $500,000+ to the campaign. Will be present a proposal at the May meeting.
Building Update:  With the information on our parking lot, the campaign committee meeting will be cancelled tomorrow. They will reschedule after the information on the lot is sent out to members for review.
Capital Campaign: The campaign will not include a parking lot replacement, but will state if excess funds are raised they will be applied to a future lot replacement. The committee is meeting tomorrow, and campaign launch will be May-June. It will start with mailings of information, then a Mass talk and townhall (parishioner) meetings. Packets will not be delivered to households, instead parishioners will pick them up at church with unclaimed ones mailed. The campaign will take 30-60 days to complete; ending in the fall.
Budget 2024/25: The council reached a consensus to not increase the offertory budget for 2024/25. The Archdiocesan priest salary package was included, utilities adjusted, 3% increase in lay staff salaries, and a withdrawal from unrestricted savings to cover the budget shortfall.  Beck D. made a motion to recommend to the pastoral council the 2024/25 budget as presented including a 3% salary increase for lay staff; Kelly seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
May Meeting: Mini-Capital Campaign update, parking lot update, monthly finances, suggestions for possible finance members.