Board Meeting Minutes: July 16, 2022

Attendees: Jo Ella Coles (Zoom), Greg Fisher, Adam Goforth, Matt Hoostal, Rosalie Karunas (Zoom), Melanie Odom-Groh

Start time: 9:48am

1. Opening

2. Reports

  • Communications

    • Adam and Larry met and discussed church communication. They still need to get feedback on the front page proposal and clarify website maintenance responsibilities.

    • Website accessibility reports

      1. Adam reviewed the report, but it was for an old version of the A Servant's Heart website, so there isn't much we can do with it.

  • Operations

    • The church has re-opened the homelessness ministry and has had two community meetings. There were about 5 or 6 people at the first community meeting.

    • There hasn't been a building team meeting in a while, but there aren't any new wear and tear issues in the building that are known.

    • The church accidentally sent a check to the old elevator service company that we want to discontinue service from, and they claim the payment means we've renewed a 3-year contract with them, even though we've previously told them we want to cancel our service. We're going to investigate that further and attempt to get out of the contract. The status of our relationship with the new elevator service company is unknown.

      • Action item: Greg will meet with Susana and clarify the relationship with both companies.

    • Interns: Greg and Jo Ella were working on a more formalized onboarding process for new interns

      • This is in-process, but has low priority for now.

    • Review of the church's insurance policies

      • There has been no progress.

    • Construction agreement from the condo developers.

      • Alex sent the agreement to Greg for review.

      • The developers want a temporary easement to swing materials over the church's property with a crane. They propose that they should have these swing space rights for $1 and the indemnity clause only covers their negligent actions. They also propose they can trim and cut down trees as they see fit without replacing them. Greg will be going back to them with a counter-proposal that demands insurance coverage on their side, strict liability indemnity, and monthly payments.

  • Finance

    • Matt distributed a treasurer's report and gave a verbal overview of the contents.

    • Peace House has requested a financial accounting of their funds, so we'll need to provide that. Concerns were also raised that some grant funds have been inadvertently included in the church donations reporting.

    • There was discussion of a $20k grant and whether it was deposited. It is believed that those funds were deposited last November or December.

    • Signers on new bank account: Melanie Odom-Groh and Adam Goforth should be added as signers. Currently Matt Hoostal is the only signer.

    • Matt Hoostal moved for the board to approve this statement: "Adam Goforth, Journey of Faith Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Board Historian and Melanie Odom-Groh, Journey of Faith Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Board Chairperson/President, are authorized to be signers on the Journey of Faith Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) PNC Bank checking account ending in 4818 and may make deposits, withdrawals, and transfers as necessary."

      • This motion was adopted unanimously with no opposition voiced.

    • There was some discussion of how to handle payroll, which currently comes out of a Memorial Christian Church account.

      • Action item: Matt will discuss with Alex which account she thinks the payroll funds should be drawn from.

    • Jo Ella Coles proposed that we take $2,500 from the Generations Fund, which was created to serve seniors, and donate it to Grace Fellowship Church to be used for their food pantry for older adults. The church has made similar donations in the 2 previous years.

      • Melanie asked each board member individually to vote on this proposal, and all voted yes. The proposal was adopted with unanimous agreement.

    • Jo Ella Coles proposed that we commit to funding the West Willow Farmers Market at a level of $6,000 per year in years 2 and 3 of the initial program. The board had previously agreed to provide a $6,000 donation in the first year and the proposal was to extend this for 2 additional years. The intention is to receive grants to cover the funding.

      • Question: what happens if we don't commit to this until after we have gotten the grants?

      • Answer: the Farmers Market organization can use the JoF commitment to raise more funds and gain new partners, because it shows sustainability. It will be harder for them to gain new partners without the commitment.

      • Adam Goforth moved to commit to fund the farmers market at $6,000 per year in 2023 and 2024. Additionally, the church would earmark $12,000 in the Generations Fund to be used to fund the farmers market in the case that grants were not able to be secured to cover the donations, holding that money in reserve until either the donations were paid out or the grant funds were received.

        • The motion was unanimously adopted, with no opposition voiced.

      • The Art on a Journey Gallery's bank account was closed due to inactivity, so Rose no longer can use the account's debit card to buy supplies.

        • In the medium term, the art gallery will be a separate legal entity with its own bank accounts, so this won't be a problem.

        • Until then, Rose will request funds from Matt Hoostal and he will write her a check from the church's account to cover the costs of supplies.

      • PNC bank accounts

        • A new bank account was opened at PNC Bank under the name "Journey of Faith (Disciples of Christ)" and $25k was transferred from the Memorial Christian Church account to the new account.

        • There was some discussion of what to do with the old Memorial Christian Church account and whether we should close it, keep it open (but draw down the funds and stop using it), or use it for some purpose. There was a suggestion that we could use it for grant funds, as a way to keep grant funds separate from general Journey of Faith funds, but concerns were raised over using an account with the wrong name on it. There was also discussion about how the new A Servant's Heart organization and its finances would affect the church's finances and accounts.

        • Most of the church's bills that are on autopay have been changed to draw from the new bank account under the Journey of Faith name.

      • Funds transfer from the Van Wagoner fund

        • The funds transfer was completed in the first week of July.

      • Russia With Love funds

        • Alex intended to start the process of transferring the funds elsewhere, but she wasn't at the meeting, so there was no update on this.

      • Inaccessible money in PayPal account

        • That money was transferred to the main Memorial Christian Church checking account in June.

      • Creating a process for integrating West Willow expenditures into the rest of the church's financial management process and software

        • There has been no progress on this, so expenditures continue to be tracked outside of the rest of our financial systems.

      • Quickbooks Account

        • 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.

        • No progress has been made on this.

3. Church bylaws creation

  • No progress has been made

4. Congregational meeting date

  • It was determined that holding the congregational meeting on August 7 as previously planned isn't feasible, so instead we will make board leadership decisions at the board meeting in August, and schedule a congregational meeting for September.

5. Debrief and Closing Prayer

End time: 11:59am