St. Edward’s Parish Council Meeting

January 2, 2007

Minutes

Attendees: Fr. Bill Foley, Teresa Brice, Pam Buzzerd, Angie Cipolla, Tim Curtis, Maureen Curtis,  Chris Garner, Bernadette Pressel, Dave Snellings, Kelly Stratchko, Barb Thieman, Marco Venida  

The meeting was opened by Fr. Bill Foley with a prayer at 8:08 PM.

All members present were provided with a list of phone numbers and e-mail addresses for Council members. Changes and corrections were made and outgoing Council Chairman, Tim Curtis agreed to provide a corrected list to members.

 I.  The first order of business was to choose new officers for the Council. Tim Curtis announced that Bernadette Pressel volunteered to be Council Secretary and Teresa Brice volunteered to be the Vice Chairperson.  Pam Buzzard was asked to be the Chairperson and agreed to take the position. The Council unanimously agreed to and welcomed all the new officers.

II. The second item on the agenda was the Volunteer Dinner on February 3, 2007 to be held at the Boswell K of C Hall on Saturday, February 3^rd after the 5:30 Mass.

·         Council Members were given phone lists for the Committees in order to contact all members and to compile a complete list of all volunteers. Contacts for the various committees would be made as follows:

            Marco Venida – Liturgy and Worship Committee

            Dave Snellings – Faith Formation Committee

            Pam Buzzerd and Barbara Thieman – Justice and Service Committee

            Theresa Brice and Kelly Stratchko – Community Building Committee

            Angie Cipolla – Building & Maintenance Committee

            It was also suggested that New Building Committee members were not on the list and should be contacted. Council members were asked to get the names of volunteers to Jackie quickly so that invitations could be mailed on a timely basis. 

·         Tim Curtis, Barb Theiman and Kelly Stratchko volunteered to work on the Volunteer Dinner. Luther Holly is coordinating the meal preparation.  Chicken was to be served. However, after some discussion, it was agreed that a request should be made to change the dinner to spaghetti. 

·         Due to the limited budget, the Council discussed and agreed to the following:

1.      to provide dessert (should be dropped off at the back door at the Hall in the morning)

2.      to help set up on Saturday morning – time to be announced

3.      to recruit the Youth Group to help with serving, clean up and dish washing – Dave Snellings agreed to address the Youth group at their Sunday meeting

4.      to either have Kevin C. work in the coat room or possibility the Youth Group would want to staff the coat room. No final decision was made.

5.      to have a cash bar rather than an open bar

·         Luther Holly secured Michael Barroga as the D.J. 

Committee Reports:

Liturgy and Worship Committee:

• Father Foley requested that Marco Venida remind the Liturgy and Worship Committee of the upcoming Workshop on February 24^th after the 9:00 am Mass including a keynote speaker, at 9:30 followed by workshops and a light lunch.  Father Foley also announced that EMHC Ministers will have a workshop on January 20^th to spend more time on issues pertinent to the Eucharist. It was recommended that instead of e-mails, Father Foley should send a letter followed by a reminder telephone call. 

• Father stated that he would like to institute a new procedure for new members wishing to perform liturgical services.  The new procedure may include an interview and some type of formal commissioning. This would better recognize the special role that these positions hold.

• The Council discussed the challenges of evangelization. There is a need to consider new ways to reach out to alienated members.  It was suggested that we might try an approach similar to Sacred Heart’s Return to Christ campaign in which all parishioners are provided with a folder, brochure’s and a letter and asked to contact one person or family and encourage them to return to church. A copy of the materials used by Scrared Heart will be provided and the Council will further consider this approach.

• Father Foley said that the Archdiocese is requesting that all churches have a priest available to hear confessions every Wednesday evening between 7:00-8:30 PM.

New Building Committee: 

·         Father Foley announced that the New Building Committee will meet on January 3^rd with the Civil Engineers. There would also be a meeting on Thursday with the Finance Committee to discuss the challenges with the budget. There is currently only 28% envelope use. 

Building Committee:

·         Angie Cipolla stated that she had two proposals for fixing the leaks in the roof. However, no decisions had been made at this time.

Justice and Service Committee:

·         Attended a Legislative Network meeting regarding the housing initiative for the Archdiocese.  The meeting was very informative.

·         It was recommended that the committee could use more members to deal with the many important programs and services under their auspices.

·         It was suggested that the activities of the Church in the Justice and Service arena would be powerful tools for evangelization as most people are not aware of the extensive work of the Catholic Church in these areas.

Other Business:

·         Parish Pictorial Directory:   The directory will not be out for another two months. There was difficulty putting together the pictorial collage. Angie Cipolla will contact Anne Kearney to get an update.

·         Their will be photos taken of the new Council members at the February 6^th meeting.  

Closing Prayer was offered by Chris Garner.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

 Bernadette Pressel  

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