Board Meeting Minutes: June 4, 2022
Attendees: Jo Ella Coles, Greg Fisher, Adam Goforth, Matt Hoostal, Rosalie Karunas, Alex McCauslin, Melanie Odom-Groh
Start time: 9:45am
1. Ministry Report - West Willow
Joshua McCallister spoke to the board and described the work he’s doing. He is a West Willow resident who is trying to bring food into West Willow, because there are no good places to buy food in the area. He founded a non-profit to do farmers markets in the area. His organization is working together with Growing Hope.
Over the next 3 months West Willow students and senior citizens will be receiving training and running farmers markets in West Willow and nearby.
The New West Willow Neighborhood Association received a $100,000 grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, due to grantwriting from Journey of Faith and two University of Michigan professors. This money will be used to bring health services to West Willow and also for research done at University of Michigan.
Since the church participated in writing the grant proposal, the church’s name is on the grant, so it may have some reporting responsibilities regarding the results of the programs funded by the grant.
Jo Ella suggested that the board should write letters of gratitude to the United Way and other organizations that have funded the West Willow Health Initiative in the past, since their support led to where the project is now.
2. Opening devotional – Melanie Odom-Groh
3. Reports
Pastor – Alex McCauslin
Alex is currently pregnant and expecting a child in December. She will have a proposal for the details of her maternity leave for the board by September.
Susana has finished the program that was keeping her at home and Alex will meet with her next week to discuss her next steps.
The church is receiving a United Way Community Impact Grant which will supply $12,500 per year for the next 3 years.
Finance – Matt Hoostal
According to the local PNC branch manager, all of the church’s accounts at PNC except the credit card are still under the name Memorial Christian Church. They recommend that the church open a new account under the name “Journey of Faith Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)” and transfer everything to that account, but they need some additional documentation before that can be done.
Alex McCauslin believes we do have an account under the Journey of Faith name, so we should double check that this specific account really is under the Memorial Christian Church name.
Greg Fisher moved that we augment the November board meeting minutes with two additional pieces of information with regards to the decision to rename the church’s accounts at PNC:
The board intends to change the church’s name with PNC to “Journey of Faith Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)”.
The positions of Melanie Odom-Groh and Matt Hoostal on the board are as follows:
Melanie Odom-Groh: Chairperson/President
Matthew Hoostal: Treasurer
This motion was adopted by consensus with no dissent voiced.
Copies of a financial report generated by Jitasa were passed out to the board members. This report will be the basis for forming 2022 budget.
Action Item: Board members should read the report and email the whole board with any questions.
Action Item: the Quickbooks account needs to be transferred from Jo Ella Coles to Matt Hoostal, and payment for the account changed from Jo Ella’s credit card to the church credit card.
The transfer of funds from the Van Wagoner fund to the JoF account that was approved last month is in process.
Action item: Alex McCauslin will reach out to Craig, the former treasurer, about transfering control of the inaccessible PayPal account to current church board members.
Update on automatic payments for the church credit card: automatic minimum payments have been enabled. The full balance of the credit card will still be paid off manually.
Update on transfering the Russia with Love funds: there has been no progress. This is on Alex’s todo list.
Update on purchasing checks with the Journey of Faith name on them: the church already had checks with this name and has been using them for a while, so there doesn’t appear to be anything to do.
Update on the recent IRS letter having the name “Journey of Faith” on it instead of “Journey of Faith Christian Church”: Alex believes there are other letters from the IRS with the full name on it, so we don’t need to pursue it further.
Update on tracking West Willow expenditures: there has been no progress so far.
Action Item: Matt Hoostal will work on creating a process.
Operations – Greg Fisher
We have signed a contract with Otis for elevator service. The service period will start soon, after we supply some documentation of our non-profit status. The contract with Schindler ended in May and it will not be renewed.
There has been some discussion in the building team about adding an additional external security camera, since there isn’t currently coverage of the outdoor picnic table. It would also be good to have a more regular and systematic review of the security camera footage of times when no one is at the church.
Greg has started looking at taxability issues around student interns, but doesn’t have definitive answers yet.
Greg will review the lease of the Tauber Family Foundation, who rents a room at the church for an employee. They have verbally expressed a desire to sign a new year-long lease rather than having a month-to-month agreement as they are now.
Alex said that the developers who will be building the condos next to the church sent us an agreement that the city wants us to sign, concerning the construction. They want the church to allow them to swing their cranes over the church property.
Action item: Alex will send the agreement to Greg to examine and he will follow up with the developers.
Update on the large HVAC bill for which we received no real work: Susana wrote a letter to the company and they have agreed not to charge the church for the work.
Update on developing a formal onboarding process for student interns: no progress has been made.
Update on Greg reviewing the church’s insurance policies: no progress has been made.
Update on the hot water heater at the church: there has been no change and this continues to have low priority.
Homelessness Ministry – Greg Fisher
Greg gave the rest of the board copies of a draft set of rules for people participating in the homelessness ministry.
The ministry intends to start up again in June, though there is a need for more volunteers to make it possible to enforce the rules. The intention is to have at least one volunteer in addition to Rose on site at all times while the building is open.
In addition to the set of rules, a new revision of the Community Agreement will be created. Expectations for people who stay in the church parking lot will also be clarified and there will be improved enforcement of the expectations.
There was some discussion of the two men who have been living in a van in the parking lot for some months. The church is helping them find better housing and the expectation is for them to move to a better housing situation soon.
There was discussion of police visits to the church property, especially after hours, and how the church could potentially work with the police better in the future. There was a suggestion to open up a dialog with the police to improve the relationship and hopefully get better responses when the church does need the help of the police.
Action Item: Alex and Greg will talk to Sheri and figure out who we could talk to in the police department.
Update on Rose and Greg reaching out to former participants in the homelessness ministry about their experiences: those conversations have happened and their feedback is being incorporated in the ministry plans.
Communications – Adam Goforth
No recent progress. There is a meeting scheduled for June 10 between Adam and Larry Odom-Groh.
Update on the web accessibility report about the Journey of Faith website: no progress has been made.
Action Item: Jo Ella will send the report to Adam to review.
4. Other old business
Has the church received more information about the University of Michigan expectations around paying student interns? Jo Ella received an email with the students’ requests, which she forwarded to the rest of the board.
Creation of new church bylaws: no progress has been made.
5. July board meeting date
The next meeting will be on July 16. We’ll tentatively plan on a congregational meeting on August 7, but that will be determined definitively in the July board meeting.
6. Church leadership and upcoming board membership
Each board member shared a value that they see in the church and want to foster going forward.
The board brainstormed the names of people who could become more involved in the church and possibly join the church board.
Each board member agreed to have one-on-one conversations with people in the brainstormed list before the next board meeting. Each board member was assigned 3-4 people to have a conversation with.
7. Debrief and closing prayer
End time: 1:19pm