- Holy Trinity Vestry Meeting –

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Church Hall

Vestry Members Present: Cheryl Twiss (CT), Deb Pallasch (DP), Larry Gadsby (LG), Mike Brogan (MB), Ed Adamowski (EA), Alan Locke (AL), Mark Gustafson (MG), Mike Zmich (MZ).

Vestry Members Absent: Steve Horridge (SH), Bill Lopes (BL)

Others Present: Rev. Alan Gates

Opening Prayer. Rev. Alan Gates

Meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm

*******Core Business*********

Previous Vestry Meeting Minutes. MB. The July 11, 2007 special vestry meeting minutes were distributed, reviewed, and by motion (LG/EA) approved.

Finances. LG reviewed the 07-31-2007 (misdated 05-31-07) cash flow report. He pointed out that the mortgage payment amount would change with the October payment, as the contract with the Diocese will be expiring and revised to reflect new interest rates. The ’pros and cons’ of paying the mortgage off were discussed, but no direction taken. We will wait until the new interest rate is known. A motion was made (DB/MB) and approved to accept the cash flow report.

Building and Grounds. BL was not available for this meeting, but did provide the Buildings and Grounds report for the month of July (at the end of these minutes).

******* Discussion Items and New Business********

Building Security – Safety Issues. A general review of concerns and issues was discussed for AG’s benefit. In the end it was determined that he and AL (whose business is security) will have a session, review the issues and propose a solution or action plan.

Paid Staff Discussions, Expectations, Job Descriptions. All paid staff report to the Rector. They are, in addition to Alan Gates, Cindy Cwalina (Secretary), Joyce Figerie (Cleaning), Ray Gallant (Sexton), and Carolyn Howell (Music). We need to establish clear job expectations and job descriptions so that everyone is on the same page. AG will initiate this process by separately interviewing each paid staff member and establishing a clear understanding of expectations.

IRS Payroll Tax Situation Update. Final clearing of this situation still unresolved. LG will facilitate a meeting with Roger Griswold, who has been working on this, and EA.

Sunday Collection and Counting Procedures Required to be Audit Capable. EA has provided counting procedures that DP has reviewed and agreed upon. DP will set up a ‘counters meeting’ to review the procedures, and EA will do the training. We will have Cindy schedule the counters as she does other functions once the final list is confirmed.

Software Programs. AG is familiar with some software programs that are church specific for such things as membership recording, pledge tracking, etc. He also expressed the need to get broadband service to HTC. In as much as he appears to know a lot about what HTC and he needs to function in this audit environment, he will pursue getting broadband to the church office and the applicable software discussed. The vestry authorized him to proceed.

Review and assignment of task list for 2nd half of 2007 (Priorities). CT passed out a list that we should individually review. We agreed to complete task assignment via email.

Youth Education. There is a dire need to get more participation from adult members to welcome, teach and/or help in this rapidly expanding Sunday ministry. We agreed that it is tough to get people to commit for a whole year and it might be advantageous to work out a plan where classroom leaders can rotate on some determined frequency. Carolyn Duby Swift will be contacted about identifying potential candidates, first from among the parents of the children.

Adult Education. AG advised that he intends to continue with the past practice of an Adult Education forum between the services starting in mid-September. He welcomes thoughts from any and all parishioners, and would eventually like to hold a regular mid-week service.

Worship Service Scheduling. HTC will resume with two Sunday services, at 8am and 10am, beginning 9/9/2007.

Social Gathering. AG suggested that on Sunday 9/16/07 we hold a dual function social gathering and school registration. In addition to traditional coffee hour fare of coffee and donuts following the 8:00 am service, have a hamburger/hot dog bar-b-queue in celebration of the return to the fall schedule. After some discussion about increasing the social functions, and the current cooking handicaps, we concluded that an investment in a good gas grill would be wise. A motion was made (MB/AL) to authorize LG to search for and purchase a nice gas grill for HTC at a cost not to exceed $1000. CT volunteered to coordinate this function.

This meeting was adjourned with a closing prayer at 9:15 pm.

The next scheduled HTC vestry meeting will be:

THURSDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2007, 7:00 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Brogan

July 2007 Building and Grounds Report

Rectory. The exterior of the Rectory was found in somewhat worse condition than originally expected. Rotting windowsills, trim boards, and front and side door trim need particular attention. Prep for painting will take longer than expected, and delay painting until September. The highlights of the last few weeks activity includes:

1) Met with three painting contractors- one bid of $3800 includes power wash, mildew/mold treatment, full two coat exterior painting including siding, trim and two doors and shutters- scraping and sanding of peeled paint and calking as needed. We will use Sherwin Williams Super paint (25 year guarantee).

2) Selected Fagan Door to replace our aging garage door- new door will be insulated steel door (lifetime warrantee) with baked on white finish with top panel colonial style windows and hardware with installation-includes complete disposal of old door and parts. Approx cost $1,000.

3) Met with Carpenter on repair of rotted windowsills, trim, door trim and garage door trim, and replacement of the garage side door. We are expecting a bid shortly, and will be looking at other potential carpenters.

4) Buckley Oil installed a new bladder type expansion tank for the Rectory furnace. The old expansion tank required periodic manual draining and was not suitable for non-mechanical tenants. The new system is totally automatic.

5) The cesspool for the Rectory was pumped and inspected. Condition was deemed good and with yearly maintenance should serve us for many years; we purchased a one-year supply of enzyme additive to be flushed down the system every 2-3 months. Wind River Environmental was our service provider

6) Tentative schedule for Rectory exterior work-

a) Carpentry Repair- mid August

b) Garage Door replacement- end of August

c) Exterior painting- mid to late September

Other Activities:

Selected Architectural Preservation Group (APG) to replace rear exterior window on the Church with new clear Lexan panes. We will use the existing frame and cost will be $3150. (APG did our front window last year).

Purchased and assembled three (3) free standing fans for the Parish Hall and Church. (Two 20” dia. Fans and one 30“dia. fan) - cost $325

Ordered a replacement solar panel and pump assembly for the Patio water fountain-cost $60

Oil furnace burners were serviced for both the Church and the Rectory. Earlier this year the burners for the Parish Hall were serviced, so now we are complete on our annual boiler tune-ups.