Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
Governing Board Minutes

January 14, 2003

President Steve Kammeyer called the meeting to order at 6:40 PM. Those in attendance were Dale Readinger, Dave Sengpiel, Faith Spark, Deb Kesse, Steve Kammeyer, Craig Braget, Norm Rinderknecht, Dan Snyder, Pastor Burcham, DeAnn McCue, and Charlotte Nutter. Brent Handel was present as a guest.

Dave Sengpiel made a motion to approve the December 2002 Governing Board minutes as amended. Deb Kesse seconded the motion. Motion carried.

DeAnn went over the highlights of the Children's Ministry for the previous month.

The Treasurer's Report was presented. Craig reported that $20,000 was transferred to our Lutheran Church Extension Fund account in December and $50,000 was transferred in January. Just over $21,000 was put into a separate restricted account with Lutheran Church Extension Fund. That represents the current memorials. The interest from the restricted account will be added to the Hoyer Scholarship Fund.

Craig said the net income for December was positive. The staff has done a good job of keeping expenses down. Craig wants each ministry area to receive a detailed expense report each month and sign off on it. Charlotte said she had passed out the detailed expense reports to the staff and lay ministry leaders January 14th. Norm Rinderknecht made a motion to approve the Treasurer's Report. Faith Spark seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Pastor Burcham presented worship attendance statistics from 2000, 2001, and 2002. We continue to grow in average attendance with last year's average Sunday attendance at 767. He will talk with the elders about the schedule for Midweek and Lent Worship. He has a proposal worked out with the staff for the schedule. Each Wednesday during Lent there will be a theme with special children's groups, Weekly Word articles, and web articles. Some music rehearsals will have to be moved to accommodate the new schedule.

There was a record attendance of 1,153 on Christmas Eve. He and the elders will look at what to do next year to accommodate all of the worshippers.

There will be a ministry staff retreat January 27-28, 2003, to plan the themes for the rest of 2003.

Pastor Burcham's last mentor weekend for PLI will be February 7-11th in Aurora, Illinois. Pastor Mark Baldwin will be on call while he is gone and will preach at the three services on Sunday.

Dan Snyder has agreed to chair the Easter Task Force. They will have their first meeting January 16th. Steve Kohtz is already working on the music. There will be special music at both the service here at Gloria Dei and the service at 7 Flags.

Pastor Burcham will talk with Merlin Siefken regarding a follow-up letter for the stewardship campaign. Offering envelopes that weren't picked up were mailed last Wednesday.

Charlotte Nutter reported on pledges for 2003. As January, 230 families pledged $510,962. We received over $95,000 in offerings and the proceeds from the sale of donated stock in the last two weeks of December.

Charlotte reported that she attended the Iowa District West Pastor and Treasurer's Workshop January 11th. It was an excellent workshop, and she learned from it. Charlotte met with Larry and went over the Employee Handbook with him.

Charlotte proposed hiring a temporary part-time desktop publisher for at least 24 hours a week, with the possibility of increasing to 32 hours a week. The person in this position will produce the Weekly Word, update information on the website and produce publications for the church and the ministry staff. Norm Rinderknecht moved that we approve the proposal to hire a part-time temporary desktop publisher. Dave Sengpiel seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Charlotte reported a good response to the Advent email devotions. Web usage has more than doubled since this time last year. Sue Wilson is writing Digging Deeper observations for each day of the Today's Light Bible Reading for the next two years. So far 66 people have signed up to receive that daily email.

Committee Reports:
Deb Kesse reported that they completed Pastor Burcham's review. Norm Rinderknecht reported that he and Charlotte had visited with Larry and he accepted the job description approved by the Governing Board.

Deb presented the job descriptions for the Assistant to the Director of Children's Ministry and the Director of ChristCare Ministry. They are position related not people related. Pastor Burcham mentioned that the congregational care has greatly increased with the Prayer Ministry. People are communicating their needs through the prayer cards in the pews.

Faith Spark made a motion to approve the job descriptions for Assistant to the Director of Children's Ministry and Director of ChristCare Ministry. Craig Braget seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Dave Sengpiel reported that they have worked on disbursement guidelines for the Hoyer Scholarship. A letter to Mark Hoyer requesting feedback on disbursement guidelines will be mailed tomorrow. The Governing Board thanked Dave and Marilyn Kollmorgen for their work on this project.

Old Business
Steve Kammeyer discussed the issues that President Sieveking said need to be addressed regarding the current constitution of Gloria Dei. There is no mention of separation or division of property, there is no mention of officers, the call process is not addressed, there is no provision for amending the bylaws, and there is a plural and genders issue. Most of these issues were corrected before the congregation approved the final version. Steve will work with President Sieveking to make the changes that need to be made so that the constitution can be approved at the June Voters' Assembly.

Faith Spark reported that the freezer and refrigerator were ordered from Sysco with the help of Matt Miller. Due to the cost of the required sprinkling system and additional duct for the commercial stove, they will purchase 2 stoves that are not commercial.

New Business
Pastor Burcham was excused from the meeting so the Governing Board could begin the process of naming a Call Committee. Steve Kammeyer passed out a Congregational Profile that the church needs to complete. The staff will participate in completing the profile as much as they can. The call committee will also have the responsibility for completing this form.

Steve explained the composition of the Call Committee. It is to include: 2 members of the Governing Board, 2 Elders, 5 members-at-large from the congregation. Pastor Sieveking will approve the names on the Committee. By a closed written ballot Marilyn Kollmorgen and David Sengpiel were selected to represent the Governing Board. If Marilyn Kollmorgen cannot serve on the Call Committee Dale Readinger will replace her. The Board of Elders has elected two members of their Board to serve on this committee as well - David Graaf and Shawn Woolman.

The names of everyone submitted by the congregation for the 5 at-large positions on the Call Committee were posted. Each Governing Board member voted for 10 people on the list.

Based on the voting, there were three members who received at least 75% (6 of 8) of the votes. Those four members (Merlin Siefken, Doug Pals, Ken Wunsch and Jackie Van Ahn) were selected to be on the call committee. There were three members who received 5 votes. After a short discussion another vote was held with those three members and Jane Meythaler was selected as the fifth member of the committee. The final committee (subject to District approval) is composed of 3 females, 6 males, 5 people who were members before 1990 and 4 who became members since 1990.

Steve Kammeyer explained that the Committee would select their chairperson. Steve will contact each person to be sure they are willing to serve on the Committee.

Dale Readinger moved that the meeting be adjourned. Craig Braget seconded the motion. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned with the Lord's Prayer at 9:15 PM.