Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
Governing Board Minutes

Minutes of Gloria Dei Lutheran Governing Board for March 9, 2006

President Deb Kesse opened the meeting with a prayer

President Deb Kesse called the meeting to order at 6:35. Those in attendance were Deb Kesse, Doug Pals, Ken Wunsch, Laurie Peterson, Lorrie Graaf, Shawn Woolman, Charles Jackson and Scott Snyder. There were no visitors.

Pastor Ron Burcham was absent from the meeting on a mission trip to Uganda .

The Board discussed a current effort by the Strategic Ministry Action Team to draft a document which outlines the pathways that were discussed during meetings with past church leadership and the congregations during Town Hall type meetings over the past five months. The Strategic Ministry Action Team will present the document to the Governing Board during the April 2006 meeting and ask that their recommendations be reviewed and approved by the Governing Board and that the Board approve of a letter to be sent to the congregation with their recommendations.

The Stewardship Campaign was discussed. Pledges continue to come in for Stewardship. The point was made that any dollars above the pledged amount by the congregation will go to the budget. We budget by giving, not by the amount pledged Generally, giving is 25% higher than pledged amounts.

The annual budgeting process was discussed including how the budgeting process fits into the Strategic Plan. Can the Strategic Ministry Action Team present what they plan and how it fits into our budget? Would previous year trends would be considered and would projections of the meaningful outcomes of the current ministries be discussed to determine whether to continue the specific programs or not?

The budget will be discussed during the May meeting to prepare for the Congregational Budget Meeting on Sunday June 11, 2006.

Next the Governing Board reviewed the services calendar for Easter week.

Minutes for the February Governing Board meeting were presented for approval. Ken Wunsch motioned for approval, Doug Pals seconded and the motion passed.

A brief Financial report for the month of March was presented. The only comment, “Even with the startup cost of the Saturday Northwind service fully paid for from the budget, we still have a surplus and revenues are trending ahead of budgeting.” President Deb Kesse asked for a motion to approve the Financial Report. Charles Jackson moved for approval, Shawn Woolman seconded the motion and the motion passed.

President Deb Kesse mentioned that the Tiny Treasures playground equipment was on the way. A down payment of $1,700 had been made and another $21,000 would be paid when the equipment arrived sometime during the summer.

Next, the Nominating Committee report was presented. There are three nominees in place. Many of potential nominees who were contacted were interested but could not begin serving this year. Presentation of the nominees to the congregation would be made through several types of media. The nominees and their biographies would be posted on a board in the Narthex for three weeks in June and July.

There would also be articles in the Weekly Word for at least three weeks; the nominees would be presented on the Audio-Visual screens in the Sanctuary for two weeks. Pastor Burcham would announce the election of new Board members from the pulpit at least once prior to the Congregational Meeting in July.

The board next discussed reviewing the Policies of the Church. This annual review would take each policy and discuss refinements, modifications, and purposes over the next nine months. This effort would be broken into several monthly segments and subcommittees would be formed to review between three and four policies each. The Policies were sent to the board and three were highlighted for consideration of review at the next Governing Board meeting.

In defining “What does “review” mean?” It was determined to test the policies by

developing questions on things such as

•  How to break policy

•  How does it apply

•  Should it be changed

•  Has the policy been applied in the last six months, in the last year?

•  Does it still have application in our church”

The first group of three policies will be reviewed by Shawn, Ken and Lou at the July Governing Board meeting.

Doug Pals motioned for adjournment of the meeting, Laurie Peterson seconded, the motion carried and the meeting was adjourned

Submitted by Charles Jackson April 6, 2006.