Board Meeting Minutes: November 6, 2022
Attendees: Tenia Dewolf, Greg Fisher, Adam Goforth, Raphael Guillen, Matt Hoostal, Sarah Khan, Alex McCauslin, Melanie Odom-Groh, Anna Wysocki
Start time: 1:01pm
Opening - Melanie Odom-Groh
Items for action
Pastor Alex's transition
Originally Alex planned to end her employment after her maternity leave ended. She has since offered to resign before her maternity leave. This would save the church from having to pay her salary through her leave. The denomination offers a $2,500 stipend to help with the costs of parental leave, but it would only cover a portion of her salary during her leave.
Melanie has proposed to accept her resignation at the beginning of December and raise a "love gift" from the congregation to give to Alex in lieu of her salary.
Adam asked if it would be possible to have Alex finish at the end of December, giving her 1 month of maternity leave and still receiving the $2,500 of support from the denomination. Since Alex's monthly salary is $3,900, this would cost the church $1,400. It's unclear if this would be doable, in particular if we would receive the full $2,500 grant from the denomination in this scenario.
Melanie will investigate under which conditions we can receive the parental leave grant from the denomination. She will write up the details of a 1-month parental leave policy and send it to the board via email.
There will be a goodbye reception for Alex on November 27th.
Communications Team
Adam, Alex, and Larry Odom-Groh had previously met and divided up church communication responsibilities:
Adam will maintain the website.
Larry will post to Facebook on a regular basis.
The new office administrator will send the Wednesday newsletter, but it's still unclear exactly what the process will be for gathering content for the newsletter. Once we have hired an office administrator, we will discuss potential processes with them.
Request from Anna: could we make Peace House and the church's relationship with them more prominent on the Journey of Faith website?
Suggestion from Anna: we could promote the church's (already existing) Amazon Smile account for people who shop on Amazon.
Raphael suggested we could have a physical bulletin board in the church where announcements and other information could be posted. We already have a bulletin board near the office downstairs that could be moved up to the common space on the top floor. Alex pointed out that not having too many bulletin boards around is probably a plus for renters, so we might want something movable that we can put away when renters are in the space.
Missions Team
Anna needs some support in finding contacts for some of the church's ministries.
Matt and Anna suggest putting out flyers in the neighborhood for the God's Crazy Love event. Maybe the Huron Valley DSA or Washtenaw General Defense Committee groups have graphic design resources we could tap into to create a flyer.
The church now has a Venmo account that can be used for donations to the church. Anna suggested we could use it when asking for donations from groups that use the church building.
The United Way's Equity Challenge is happening again this winter. This is a reading and discussion group to learn about racial equity. The church may want to promote this to the congregation.
Worship Team
Raphael and Melanie are meeting this week to plan worship for December and January.
Operation Team
The job listing for the office administrator has been posted and a number of resumes have already been received.
The building team is now meeting monthly again.
There has been progress on the A Servant's Heart non-profit creation, but there are still some open questions, so the paperwork hasn't been submitted yet.
There was a fire alarm caused by someone cooking in the kitchen a few weeks ago and the fire department came to the church. This will result in the fire department charging a fee to the church, since it was a false alarm.
Rose Mogg is currently looking for a new place to live. This may affect her transportation situation. She doesn't want to be paid much more than we currently pay her due to the income limits on her social security disability, but would like it if the church would help with her transportation costs. Perhaps the church could give her an Uber gift card on a regular basis that would cover most of her ride sharing costs.
Dewey and James, the father and son camping in the van in the parking lot, have received a housing voucher, but are still looking for a place to live where they can use it.
Alex raised the question of who the liaison between the church and the Daytime Warming Center should be. This would be the contact person for Sheri Wander for when problems occur, or issues arise, or extra arrangements need to be made (e.g. for rentals). In the past Alex and Susana Adame have been the contacts, but neither of them will be working for the church by the time the warming center starts. Alex suggested that someone from the congregation (and maybe the office administrator if we have one by December 5th) should be found to be the contact(s) for Sheri. Greg volunteered to be this contact, and Melanie volunteered to be a backup contact.
Finance Team
All of the Van Wagoner fund has been transferred to the church's bank account. The fund still exists, but it is empty.
We now have a Venmo account.
Matt is working to figure out the restrictions on the other existing funds. Rosalie Karunas and Tenia are looking for information on that.
The Generations Fund has some money earmarked for the West Willow project, but they are also pursuing grants to cover those costs, so the Generations Fund may not need to be used for them.
There was a meeting between the finance team and Jitasa where accounts going back to 2020 were discussed. Some missing information was identified and Jitasa will follow up on it.
Matt, Adam, and Melanie met with Brock McKracken from the Disciples Church Extension Fund, where the church has its mortgages. The November mortgage payment has been pushed back to the end of the month. Additionally, the mortgage payment will be reduced to just over $800/mo for the next 12 months, which saves the church about $1,800 per month. Brock will be visiting the church on November 10th and he will continue to advise us on ways we can improve our financial situation. Brock has suggested they might be able to provide financing for capital improvements to the church building.
Request from Tenia: provide the amounts of the balances of the church's loans to the board.
Some grant applications require a financial audit or report. This can be time-consuming and expensive to create, so we have started talking to NEW. They have agreed to be our financial sponsor if we need an audit or report.
There are 2 used clothes washers available for purchase from the Habitat ReStore. Matt will go look at them and see if one of them is a) high capacity and b) can do a load in 45-60 minutes. Adam proposed that the board authorize Matt to purchase one of the machines if they meet the above criteria. The board approved the proposal by consensus, with no opposition raised.
Staffing updates
Office administrator
Some applications have been received and candidates will be contacted ASAP. There will be an attempt to do interviews by the end of this week.
Pastoral leadership
Melanie and Larry Odom-Groh have been in contact with the region about hiring an interim minister. The hope is that we will have someone in place early in 2023.
Other business
Adam raised the topic of what the church's strategy will be if it runs out of money and can't pay the bills anymore.
Tenia asked for information about what our financial obligations are right now and suggested that there be a separate meeting to discuss those details.
Alex will provide payroll reports to Tenia.
Action item: Matt will send out the latest financial report from Jitasa to the board.
The board plans to discuss this topic at the next board meeting.
Next meeting: November 20th, in person at the church, after God's Crazy Love. The board will discuss church finances, including salaries.
Pastor's report
Alex shared a written pastor's report with the board and gave a verbal overview of it.
In summary: she is starting to hand over information and responsibilities to others as she begins the transition out of her role. She is sad to be leaving the church, but is hopeful about the church's future.
Debriefing & Closing - Alex McCauslin
End time: 3:11pm