Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at ~7:15 p.m. by Sharon Gidumal.
Reflection: Anita provided a reflection on thanksgiving, that we may always be grateful for God’s gifts, and share with others. She then read Matthew 14, about the feeding of the crowd with loaves and fishes, and led the council in a litany with the response, “Lord of abundance, we thank you.”
Members Present: Mary Louise Chesley-Cora, Mary Beth Coté, Anita Delaney, Sharon Gidumal, Father Bill Graney, JoAnn Hedrick, Mike Mitchell, Maritza Poza-Grise, Joe Quinn, Jack Sanders, Dick Schwer.
Guests: Ruth Sanders.
Members Absent: Deacon John Falkowski, Rich Mayes, Al Mercatante, Susan Sheahan, Kathy Swain.
Minutes Not Approved: We did not have enough people present to make a motion to approve October’s minutes.
Old Business:
Update on Financial Audit: Maritza thanked Ed Collins and Leo McDermott for the thorough job they did. There was no evidence of concerns, but they identified ways to tighten controls (such as when money is being transferred) to avoid any possibility of concern. They also identified an opportunity for the church’s funds to be invested to gain a little more interest. Dick added that one recommendation is that procedures should be put in place more formally about getting multiple bids for the planning and approval of projects. Maritza mentioned that ideas were put forward about simplification of certain procedures, to save time and expense. For instance, reimbursement of small, periodic expenses could be done monthly rather than for every individual expense. Sharon asked if the Finance Council had seen Ed’s and Leo’s report- Maritza answered that the council had not yet seen it. Dick commented that the next step would be for the report to be shared with the Finance and Pastoral Councils. He also added that an audit has been recently done by the diocese as well, and that their report would be forthcoming. Maritza also thanked Mike Reis and Tina Donald for all their work on the parish’s finances!
Update on Parish 50
th Anniversary Celebration: Ruth noted that the committee has been making progress on a number of items, and that an update would be provided in December.
The objective/goal committees were then asked to give updates.
Pastoral Administrator Search Team: It was brought up that the parish was no longer hiring a pastoral administrator, so that this committee would be dissolved. It was noted that its members could be redistributed to other committees.
Attracting New Parishioners: Ruth shared Susan’s picture from the Family Resource Fair on November 3
rd at Dickinson High School. Jean Bernhardt helped design bookmarks for Resurrection Parish’s table, and ~50 of these were handed out to interested parties. The bookmarks included the church’s address and the address of the website. It was noted that a lot of people asked after Father Graney. Ruth added that Susan and Nancy were present to people at the fair, which led to the event being a successful one for Resurrection Parish. Sharon and others said, “Good job!”
Improve Pastoral Council: Mary Louise noted that she put together seven suggestions concerning the improvement of Pastoral Council. She had also, before the meeting, sent out the Bylaws of another parish as a potential model to work from. Dick said that he will join this committee.
Improve Parish Communications: Joe listed the following as key objectives of the committee: developing an FAQ document; collaborating with the webmaster/staff; and rolling out Flocknote if the parish decides to move forward with it. Rolling out would include getting staff on board and executing a Signup Weekend for parishioners. Mary Beth commented that right now, she only had a PDF with parishioners and their contact information, and that converting this PDF to an Excel spreadsheet was problematic. (A spreadsheet with contact information could be imported into Flocknote.) Maritza let Mary Beth know that she may be able to help with exporting the PDF to Excel. Father Graney added that we could probably get an Excel spreadsheet with the needed information from the records related to the Annual Catholic Appeal. Ruth asked if we want to change a system that already works for people, to go to Flocknote, and that we need to answer this question before moving forward. Mary Beth added that everyone’s buy-in is needed before switching. Maritza noted that one advantage of Flocknote is that it’s real-time and interactive, and that the decision merits a deeper conversation than the 5 minutes allotted in the November meeting.
Mary Beth mentioned that for the next Welcoming Weekend at the parish, that she would like people to have a piece of paper letting them know who their steward is. This handout could be a separate piece of paper or could also be in the bulletin.
Grow Social Concerns: Sharon reported that she’s trying to set up a meeting with Sandy and other committee members soon. The key activities are: to determine how to manage Social Concerns with Sandy gone; and deciding what we should be doing that’s important to the congregation. Father Graney noted that Sandy liked having a chair for each of the five areas covered by Social Concerns. Sharon noted that she would talk more with Father Graney.
Recommendations for filling PC vacancies: Joe asked Cheryl Christiansen, but she was not interested. Jack noted that David Davies was interested, and that his wife might also be interested in the position. Maritza asked Luis Murillo- he was interested, but this wasn’t a good time for him. JoAnn noted that she asked someone if they were interested, but that they said “no.” Mike noted that another e-mail was sent to the alternates that hadn’t already said “no”, but that no one responded. Mary Louise suggested that Donald Drane and Maria Hunt would be good candidates for Pastoral Council. Anita asked if we could advertise in the bulletin, to see if parishioners would be interested in filling the vacancy. Father Graney noted that at Mary Magdalene Parish, that participants in Renew groups tended to show willingness to serve on Council. Dick noted that we also need a Parish Appointee, in addition to a Parish Steward. Father Graney agreed, and added that the Appointee position would be filled from the same pool of candidates as the Steward position.
Comments on Bylaws Revisions: Mary Louise sent revisions out to the Council. She indicated she would be sending out more suggested revisions. Mary Louise also stated that before looking at specific revisions to the current Bylaws, that we need to look at the core initiatives of the parish, which takes time with the staff; folks from Adult Faith Formation and Social Concerns; and Pastoral Council meeting together. Once these initiatives have been drafted, we can then decide on what goes into our new Bylaws. She also commented that we should look at the bylaws of St. Andrew by the Bay.
Ruth suggested that we also look at diocesan guidelines for the Bylaws of Pastoral Councils. Maritza asked if we could recruit Pat Debski or someone with her experience for the meeting to go over core initiatives and Bylaws. Mary Beth suggested that this meeting should be a special meeting, outside of the standard Pastoral Council meeting. Maritza, Dick, and others agreed. Ruth suggested that appreciative inquiry might be a good model to use in approaching the Bylaws. In part, appreciative inquiry involves figuring out where we are, and what we envision the future to look like.
Pastor’s Comments and Advice: Father Graney talked about the history of the Pastoral Administrator position. When Father Corrigan had retired in July 2017 and the business director resigned, the opportunity arose for looking at how the parish would handle administrative needs. From this arose the evaluation of different parish models. Appointing of a Parish Life Coordinator/Director didn’t have diocesan backing, and there wasn’t great success in finding candidates to fill this roll, either. Plans then shifted toward hiring a Pastoral Administrator instead- some confusion arose over the change in hiring plans.
After Father Corrigan came back to the parish to help out during Father Graney’s recovery, the diocese then asked him to continue in his prior role as pastoral associate, with Father Graney back as pastor. This arrangement allows Fathers Graney and Corrigan to divide the administrative duties more carefully, using their strengths and the strengths of the parish staff to meet the parish’s needs. With this arrangement, there was no longer a need for a Pastoral Administrator position. All of this needs to be communicated clearly to the parish. Sharon asked how and when communication with the parish would be handled, and suggested an announcement in the weekly parish e-mail. Ruth, Maritza, and Father Graney agreed that the announcement should be made as soon as possible. Maritza suggested using multiple modes of communication for the announcement, and Jack suggested using the monitor in the Gathering Space area for one of those.
Father Graney mentioned that key priorities right now include: pastoral care; components of administration; Social Concerns; Property and Grounds; and new security measures. Looking at the audit report and rectifying any gaps in procedures will be important, as well as firming up the procedure for handling Property and Grounds projects, with getting multiple bids for large projects. Filling Sandy’s role of Social Concerns Coordinator is key as well.
Dick asked if we could recruit and train more volunteers to help with parish responsibilities, to ease the burden on Fathers Graney and Corrigan. Jack stated that he believes Social Concerns is the key to engaging and keeping young adult parishioners.