August 2011 Vestry Minutes
September 21, 2011 by katielinney
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of August’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, August 22, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff called the meeting to order and Linda Sawyer opened with prayer.
In attendance:
Tom Cheatham, Gene Demonet, Lynn Hall, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Katie Linney, Michelle Moody, Drucye Robinson, Linda Sawyer, Mike Sawyer, Anne Simpson, Nancy Snoots, Mal Underwood
July 2011 Vestry Minutes
August 24, 2011 by katielinney
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of July’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, July 25, 2011 6:30 pm
In attendance: Connie Blackmon, Gene Demonet, Sheila Dixon, Lynn Hall, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Katie Linney, Larry Nordin, Drucye Robinson
Formation:
Vestry Process: Since not everyone was present, Jeff said he would rather wait on that discussion for the Vestry Process. Sheila spoke about ‘Where Do You See God’ and said through Caroline; Matthew 18. This lesson will be our formation for this evening.
Information: The June minutes were approved. Sheila made motion. Seconded by Drucye.
Strong for Life!: New member, Lynn Norris, does strength training classes for senior citizens and wants to offer Strong for Life on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9:30 starting August 2. No cost. Location still undecided, maybe the Sunday School room. Long-term plan is to hold it at the rec center.
Parish Picnic: August 7, signup sheet is up. St Nicholas will buy the ham, everyone else will bring sides. Remind people to bring a chair. Jeff will email it out.
Choir starts back August 10: Sam and Jeff talked about doing service out at the picnic, we’ll try to do it instrumentally with Jeff and Kenny Townsend and Mark.
Regular Sunday School schedule returns Aug 14 with Nancy doing Adult Formation and Nature Walk with John Brent August 28.
Mens’ Group went very well last week, Dave is hosting at Chef Lee’s on Aug 16th. Dave says 8-12 men have been coming and it’s a good fellowship. The men talked about taking on a project or two.
Youth retreat August 26-28 at Camp Mikell. So far, 7-8 kids have signed up.
Blessing of the Backpacks is this coming Sunday.
Newcomers: Robert and Holly Queener- daughter Caroline. The Barr family were members at St. Peter’s in Savannah. There was also a family at VBS - The Barnes.
Lobsterfest: Dave- Each Sunday we should stand up and encourage people to purchase Lobsterfest tickets and raffle tickets. We really need to make an effort on the raffle tickets. Linda sent Lobsterfest info- 48 reservations. Can count on 50 raffle tickets sold at this point, feels confident on the number of volunteers signed up for serving. We don’t plan on a “to-go” option.
Discussion:
Strategic Planning Committee Recommendation: we interviewed 4 and ended up coming down to who will make the best master plan for us at this point. One architect did beautiful work but we didn’t go with him because we needed someone to take us through a process of creating a master site plan, including how we get feedback from the congregation, how we balance our finances, balance the needs of the congregation. We chose Houser Walker architects out of Atlanta, it’s a small firm with maybe 5-6 people.. Hank Houser is the architect. His work is really good, he’s on the diocesan architectural committee, and he’s Episcopalian. The next step, after we hire him, he’ll meet with the committee again and design the process; probably will do that in the next month. At next vestry meeting we will present what that process will be. It’ll cost $6,000-$8,000.
First project that will be more immediate is building the sign, either concurrently or right after master site plan is done. This will require serious time with the vestry and possibly other group meetings. His proposal is rather specific; he’s benchmarked about 20 episcopal churches.
This recommendation does require Vestry approval. Larry made motion to approve, Seconded by Lynn. All approved.
Mutual Ministry Review- Dave- at last Vestry, we left this hanging. Dave contacted Rick Callaway to get feedback and obtain info on other episcopal churches have done, he was very helpful. We’ve had planning sessions where we look ahead 1-3 years, The Review is looking backward and we’d have to develop an agenda and see what questions/issues/subjects we want to talk about. Other churches have used questions like: “how have we been doing”, “have we lost sight of our mission”, “what kind of relationship has developed between vestry”, “is each vestry member meeting their mission/responsibility”, “are we fulfilling our mission with the community”, “how are we doing with developing leaders”, etc. We have to get together and talk through an agenda, build an agenda around some of those subjects, and fit the agenda to our church. I suggest we retain a facilitator, have someone from the outside do this, suggested Doug Hahn, priest of St Thomas. We should have one day full meeting to make it happen, then get together to review what we came up with to make it worthwhile. Many churches do this every year, could probably do it in 2-3 weeks, start to finish.
Concern- we are launching master plan and we have to be seriously involved in it. Do we have time to do both? If we do a vestry retreat, we could spend time on this-maybe next years’ retreat. We could include orientation part for new members as well as developing planning, goal setting, etc. and get a facilitator like Doug. Goal Setting is more important than doing this process (Mutual Ministry Review). We can move forward as part of our Vestry Retreat. The Review that the Vestry did on Jeff is a perfect example of this. It’s about finding our strengths, it isn’t to find fault or embarrass anyone; it’s thinking how things have gone and how we can do things better. Suggestion- Jeff and Dave will talk more about vestry retreat idea, how that would work, look at locations.
Vestry Preparations for 2012: Jeff- I want us to start thinking about who our next vestry members will be. Michelle, Drucye and Chris are leaving. One thing we did at St Peter’s was have a nominating committee (outgoing vestry members, heads of all major committees) and they would make suggestions. I was wondering if we could make a committee where we would brainstorm and make the recommendation. Michelle and Drucye agreed to be on it as well as Connie and Jeff.
Steward of the Month: Andy Butzon; Sheila made motion and Dave Seconded.
Treasurer Report: Gene passed out reports. Pledges $93,000. Includes prepaid $25,778. Donations $6,853. Loose offering ahead. Contributions is behind. Revenue is fine. Total expense YTD $94,902. “Big Ticket” items in the 2nd half, Audit $3,500. Teresa Young is auditor. Site Plan $7-10,000. Will separate Lobsterfest from Parish Events and re-budget it as a separate item. Michelle said she’ll transfer funds from Ed to Communications. Gene would rather leave them where they are. First half results will go in next bulletin. Budgets for next year-Stewardship will put together a draft budget in August for vestry to look at, use as a target.
Suggestion- want to come up with guideline for budgets and have draft budget for next vestry meeting.
Other thoughts/concerns: Potential Big Ticket item: Bill Caudill wants to paint the church fairly soon. Larry suggested the men’s group could take it on, but Bill wants to hire someone professionally. Also, review the termite protection contract.
Dave wants to stand up and speak to congregation about the budget report this Sunday.
Jeff got a request today, we have a convocational chapter of Integrity- the group that is committed to support and inclusion of LGBT-and they’re doing a movie night at St Thomas. Feedback about sending out a request/information about it– It was agreed to include it in our bulletin.
Katie’s office hours will be 9-1 Mon-Fri. She will work in the afternoons this week because of VBS. Her church email address is KatieLinney@stnicholashamilton.org
Remember what Bishop said, the Episcopal Church has brought in more members with Adult Education. Need more leaders, be thinking about those and send them to Lynn.
Jeff closed with a Prayer at 8:05.
June 2011 Vestry Minutes
July 27, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of June’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, June 27, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff called the meeting to order and opened with prayer.
In attendance:
Connie Blackmon, Scott Crowley, Gene Demonet, Sheila Dixon, Lynn Hall, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Larry Nordin, Linda Sawyer, Anne Simpson, Nancy Snoots
Read more
May 2011 Vestry Minutes
June 28, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of May’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, May 23, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff called the meeting to order and Connie Blackmon opened with prayer.
In attendance:
Connie Blackmon, Gene Demonet, Sheila Dixon, Lynn Hall, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Michelle Moody, Drucye Robinson, Linda Sawyer, Anne Simpson Read more
April 2011 Vestry Minutes
May 23, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of April’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, April 25, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff called the meeting to order and Linda Sawyer opened with prayer.
In attendance:
Connie Blackmon, Gene Demonet, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Michelle Moody, Drucye Robinson, Linda Sawyer, Anne Simpson, Nancy Snoots Read more
March 2011 Vestry Minutes
April 27, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of March’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, March 28, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff called the meeting to order and Connie Blackmon opened with prayer.
In attendance:
Connie Blackmon, Gene Demonet, Sheila Dixon, Lynn Hall, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Drucye Robinson, Anne Simpson, Nancy Snoots
Formation:
Jeff presented the question: “Is St. Nicholas a Five-Star church?” He listed eight areas in which we each rated St. Nicholas and then we discussed our responses. Overall, the responses indicated that we feel favorably about our church, but we feel we have areas in which St. Nicholas can improve.
We discussed that the people whom we serve include the community at large, our missions, and people of all ages. Dave made the point we are responsible for how children who attend St. Nicholas form their idea of what it means to be a church member. Read more
Vestry Minutes for February
March 28, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
Below are the approved minutes of February’s Vestry meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting-Monday, February 28, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff called the meeting to order and Michelle Moody opened with a prayer.
In attendance:
Connie Blackmon, Chris Butzon, Gene Demonet, Sheila Dixon, Lynn Hall, Dave Halmrast, Jeff Jackson, Michelle Moody, Linda Sawyer, Anne Simpson, Nancy Snoots Read more
Your Week at St. Nick 27 March - 2 April 2011
March 24, 2011 by Drucye
Filed under News & Events
Sunday, 27 March 2011 - The Third Sunday in Lent
8:30am Holy Eucharist
9:15am Breakfast/Fellowship
9:45am Christian Formation Classes
11:00am Holy Eucharist
12:00pm Youth Group
| Sunday - March 27 | 8:30am | 11:00am |
| Usher/Greeter | Bobo & BarbaraMorgan | John & CharlotteWinsness |
| Adult Reader | Larry Nordin | Diane Hinnant |
| Altar Guild | Nordin/Hinnant | |
| LEM | Julie Nordin | Diane Hinnant |
| Flower Guild | Bert Tomlin | |
| Acolyte | Madison, Sam, Abbey C. | |
| Acolyte-Jr. Acolyte | Libby | |
| Acolyte-Youth Reader | Abbey C. | |
| Lemonade /Cider | Sheila Dixon | |
| Christian Education 9:45am | Marci Horne |
Monday, 28 March
6:30pm Vestry Meeting
Tuesday, 29 March
6:30pm Lenten Series Supper
7:15pm Lenten Series Speakers
Dr. Thornton Jordan, Retired Professor CSU, Linda Franklin (Hammered Dulcimer) and music friends. Traditions of Southern Church Music including Shape Note.
Wednesday, 30 March
6:30pm Choir Rehearsal
Happy Birthday!
March
3/24 Beth Brown
3/27 Dave Halmrast
3/31 Peggy Martin
April
4/3 Donna Armstrong
4/3 Lynn Hall
4/6 Sharon Cheatham
4/12 David Sanchez
4/16 Bill Bradley
4/17 Mike Sawyer
4/21 Kristy Hubbard
4/25 Kin Brown
4/26 Brittany Vargas
4/27 Barbara Morgan
4/27 Steve Turley
Happy Anniversary!
April
4/25 Ben & Virginia Brooks
4/26 Steve & Sheila Turley
January Vestry Minutes
March 2, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
Below are the minutes from the January meeting of the Vestry, which were approved at the February meeting. If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact any of our Vestry members.
Vestry Meeting
Monday, January 31, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Father Jeff opened the meeting at 6:30 with a prayer.
In attendance: Dave Halmrast, Lynn Hall, Sheila Dixon, Gene Demonet, Drucye Robinson, Michelle Moody, Anne Simpson, Linda Sawyer, Jeff Jackson
Absent: Chris Butzon, Connie Blackmon, Nancy Snoots
Nancy Snoots was not able to attend so Jeff asked for volunteer to take minutes.
Linda Sawyer volunteered.
Formation
Jeff did a power point presentation of “Thinking Like a Leader”.
Part of the discussion was “if you were to leave your position today, would you leave a plan including specific tasks and people? Also suggested was that we write thank you notes to the people who serve to show them their service matters.
Information:
December minutes from the vestry meeting were read and approved.
Lynn Hall said the “Out and About “ trip on Feb. 5 will be postponed until Feb. 26 due to weather.
Michelle said we have planned a super Bowl Party for youth, Feb. 6. Valentine’s party and nursing home visit Feb. 13.
Sheila Dixon said she would have an Oyster Roast at her home instead of the Mardi-gras Party we had at church last year. She will also plan the menu for the Lenten dinners. Lenten Series March, 15, 22, 29, April 5,12.
Linda Sawyer plans a cleanup day for church and grounds on Sat. Feb. 19.
Jeff will not be in attendance at the Diocesan Ministry Fair on Mar. 12 as he doesn’t want to be so far from home so close to Molly’s due date. He did encourage us to go online and register.
Adult formation in March on Grief is postponed until May.
No Christian Formation April 17, 24
Discussion:
Retreat evaluation. Most vestry members approved of the one-day session. Some members were not happy we didn’t have a planning day.
Everyone agreed the vestry retreat was a great location, food and getting to know one another. Thanks were extended to Dave and Sue Halmrast for hosting it in their home.
Jeff said we would probably do a planning day later.
Rector’s Compensation. Dave went over a performance review the vestry participated in on Jeff.
To facilitate Pastoral Communication, Jeff has pulled together a group to address parish needs. The first meeting will be Wednesday at 4:00. Committee to include Peggy Martin, Katherine Johnson, Kristy Hubbard. Among other things they will write notes and make calls to the sick.
Other discussion ensured about Jeff’s need for a secretary. He spends a lot of time copying pages, etc. when his time could be spent in better ways.The lack of funds was discussed and Jeff emphasized that that person should come from outside the St. Nicholas parish.
Decision:
Dave presented the 2011 Housing Resolution. This following resolution was adopted:
Whereas The Rev. Jeff Jackson is employed as a minister of the Gospel by St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Hamilton, Georgia, which does not provide a residence for him, the Vestry resolves that of the total compensation of $102,136 to be paid the Rev. Jeff Jackson during 2011 that $32,000 be designated a housing allowance within the meaning of that term as used in Section 107 of the RRS Code of 1986.
The recommendation from Nick Simpson, head of the Strategic Planning Committee that we approve a site topographical survey to begin the process of getting a master site/campus plan was put before the vestry.
After discussion Dave Halmrast moved that we approve expenditure for up to but not more than $5,200. for this survey. This figure was from a previous estimate. This was seconded and approved by the vestry.
A motion was made to remove Peggy Martin and approve Dave Halmrast to sign checks on behalf of the church. Seconded and approved.
Jeff moved that we place any further nominations on the floor for Jr. Warden. None being received, Michelle Moody, was elected as Jr. Warden for 2011.
Gene Demonet presented the treasurers report as of Jan. 24, 2011.
Jeff led a prayer for dismissal.
Total time 1 hr. 40 minutes.
Vestry had agreed to go beyond the target time of 1 hr. 30 minutes because of the full agenda.
St. Nicholas Annual Parish Report 2010
January 8, 2011 by fatherjeff
Filed under News & Events
