Council Minutes - June 2020

Due to "shutdown," the council did not meet Mar-May 2020.
 June 9, 2020 Pastoral Council Meeting:
Present: Father Dave Ambrosy, Kris Dunkin, Kelly Flege, Jeff Keen, Phil Paladino, Ruth Schluter in person. Trent Lockard, Jennifer Siech, and Wayne Green via Zoom. Ruth called meeting to order at 7:00. Father Dave started with prayer.
 February 18th minutes were reviewed. Motion was made by Kris to approve, seconded by Wayne, and approved by Council.
 Discussion on Mass resuming and the Archdiocesan suggestions. Comments were shared on the last few Masses at St. Mary including procedures being practiced and attendance. Also discussed local church openings. Starting Mass on Saturday is being planned for July. 
 First Communion taking place at various Masses this month. Limit of 10 people in attendance per child.
 Review of mission statement in lieu of COVID-19. It was decided to leave it as is.
 Review the various parish ministries
               Long term planning may start back up in August
               Women’s group meeting via Zoom
               Men’s group met a couple of months using Zoom, but plan on meeting in person on June 12th
               Saints Café is waiting for a vaccine
               Funerals and Weddings are practicing social distancing. Discussions on live-streaming
               Fall Dinner still up in the air
 There were number of items purchased by the parish to facilitate the broadcast of Mass.
 Discussion on communication to parish. Email and text were talked about. Also discussion on out-reach to parishioners.
 Fr. Dave informed the Pastoral Council he made multiple staff changes due to potential
COVID-19 budgetary issues.  He eliminated the Youth ministry position and cut Coordinator of Liturgy and Music hours in half. Coordinator of Faith Formation is a 10 month position. Office assistant position will be reduced from 28 to 20 hours/week. Emails from a parishioner questioning the changes were shared. Concerns of the future of Youth Ministry were discussed as well as the transparency of the decisions and the communication of the changes to the parish. Fr. Dave stated that these decisions have been made and he will take full responsibility.  He indicated a Faith Formation plan is being worked on.
 New Pastoral Council member is needed to replace Gerri Dix, who joined the parish staff. Father Dave is working on this.
 It was mentioned that Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at St. Patrick has been cancelled for now. It was suggested to wait on a decision for St. Mary.
 Motion was made by Kelly to adjoin, seconded by Jeff, and approved by Council.

Finance Council Meeting – June 16, 2020 (no meeting July)
Attendees: Kelly Willis, Becky Willson, Joe Barber, Steve Phyfe, Scott Danner, Becky David, Fr Dave Ambrosy. Also present: Deacon Phil Paladino, Dixie Jacobs.
Monthly Financials: Parishioners have been mailing offertory and using the online giving option during the weeks we were not having Mass due to the coronavirus. We are grateful for the continued support of our parish family. However, we have continued to fall short of the monthly budget during that time. We were $50,000 above offertory budget mid-March, but our surplus is now $12,300 the end of May. Expenses have been underbudget due to a mild winter and a staff opening this year. The only large expenditure outstanding is the second half of our property/liability insurance, which will be paid this month. Steve made a motion to accept the financials as presented; Joe seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Personnel: Fr Dave presented he has eliminated the youth ministry staff position and reduced hours for two staff positions. This was in response to the reduced income and that it is unlikely the faith formation programs will be able to be held in their “normal” form until a vaccine is available.
Budget 2020/21: After a discussion of the challenges next year until the parish can return to normal operations, the finance council agreed on a proposed budget that included a 10% decrease in budgeted offertory ($51,500). The parish will not be doing a COLA raise for staff. They included the building and grounds projects for parking lot crack repair $3800, weed control $800, and leveling a section of the sidewalk $650. Scott made a motion to send the proposed budget to the pastoral council for approval; Joe seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Fr Doug Walthier will be assigned to St Mary on July 14, 2020. He will assume the administrative duties including signatory of Waverly Ministerial, St Mary Church, and St Mary Cemetery Association checking accounts at First National Bank, Waverly. Fr David Ambrosy will be removed from these accounts.
Next meeting Aug 18. Meeting adjourned.
 
St Mary Building & Grounds Meeting Minutes – Jun 23rd @ 6pm
Next Meeting:  Sept 29th @6pm
Prayer
Membership: Steve Swinton will be finishing John Rapp’s term. Sandy Schutz will be replacing Laurie Masters. Tim Dreesman’s position is still open and would like to be filled with someone with construction knowledge
Review old minutes
FINANCE COMMITTEE:
Crack filling has been approved - $3800 for next year budget
Weed control next year approved - $800
Sidewalk void approved $650 – going to use the expanding foam
Erosion Control – culverts under driveways are experiencing erosion.  Will need to fill with rock/gravel to help with that erosion.  Drainage by large maple tree by highway has some washout issues.  Will also need rock/gravel moved in to help with the washout.  Duane will take care of finding the material and will use volunteers to complete these projects.
Mechanical Room (across from men’s restroom) – sump pump discharge tube is experiencing backflow of water back into the room.  There is either a blockage somewhere or a caulking issue. Crystal Heating and Plumbing is going to dig down and take a peak to figure out what the issue is. 
Prairie – It has been planted!  It will need to be mowed soon before the big weeds seed out.  Will help with erosion control, house wildlife and be beautiful with flowers (Iowa native flowers)
Budget: Orange tractor and equipment work has been completed – within budgeted amount
Mower deck fixed – within budgeted amount.  Tractor broke down – Fixed for $660
 
 
Saints Café – June 25, 2020
An update on Saints Café’s opening at this time.
At this point we have decided not to reopen Saints Café for fear of spreading the Covid 19 virus among our volunteers. We arrived at this decision after talking to St Paul and St Mary leadership and several e-mails from others on the advisory group. We plan to revisit this decision in September as we may know more after school opens and our knowledge about the virus grows.
Many of you may have seen the Bremer County/Waverly Foundation grant of $3,700 awarded to Saints Café. In addition we have received $500 from St. Paul Missionary Board and $1,000 from Women’s group at St. Mary Church. The $3,700 was to be divided with $2,350 to be used for supplies and $1,350 to be used for food purchased from the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. We plan to hold these moneys which will be used for Saints Café when we do reopen.
May each of you continue to be safe and may God Bless you.