March 9, 2010
Wy'east Board minutes for March 9th, 2010 --
Present were Elizabeth, Alex, Mark, Susan, and Tode
The minutes from our February 23rd meeting were accepted as corrected.
There was no finance report today, as Karl was not present.
We've chosen Wy'east members to be on the Task Force to hire a new quarter-time minister. They are Katy, Carol, and Dan, along with Karl and Mark from the Board.
Since we are hiring rather than "calling" a new minister (defined as being at least three-quarter time), this current process will be different than that provided for in the by-laws. Here, the Board is appointing the members of the Task Force, rather than them being voted on at a congregational meeting.
Consequently, Alex will be sending out an email to the Wy'east list notifying everyone that there will be no congregational meeting as originally scheduled for March 14th after the service, and no vote will be taken on the members of the Task Force. Instead, they will be announced by Tode at this Sunday's service.
Tode suggested that some of the work up ahead of us is re-assessing the needs of the congregation. And some of the work of the Task Force will be in assessing what are the needs of the congregation in terms of what people are looking for in a new minister.
Tode will be emailing Mark a copy of the ministerial "packet" about Wy'east that was put together the last time we went through this process four years ago. Mark will be sharing that with other members of the Task Force.
In terms of who will be on the next Board beginning July 1st, Alex, Tode, and Karl will be staying, and Elizabeth will not. Mark offered to stay on one more year if necessary, until other members having at least some committee experience at Wy'east can be appointed.
Tode pointed out that in the end, having people be on the new Board will be the job of the Nominating Committee, and he will be contacting them regarding this.
Those scheduled to be at the New Member Ceremony on March 14th are Carol, Brooke, Marie, Katy, and Ardis.
We talked about several of us on the board hosting Canvass dinners at our homes. Mark will be checking with Debra about this.
We also spoke about the need to create some sort of Wy'east experience of community beyond Sunday mornings, including the possibilities of having mid-week groups, or the Canvass dinner gatherings become ongoing. Monthly potlucks and Covenant Groups were also mentioned.
Susan gave a minister's report, including some of the pastoral care work she has doing. Susan may be doing some Sunday morning preaching in McMinnville this coming year, but it would be as a guest speaker only. She will be out of town from March 24th to April 7th.
There was a thought that a different member of the Task Force might be present at each of the Canvass dinners, to get a feel for the direction of the congregation.
There are two questions we're needing to get a present feel for -- Who are we at Wy'east, and, What do we want in a minister.
Mark reported on connecting with the Multicultural Community Services, an arm of the Lutheran Community Services NW that places refugees. We discussed if we might be able to assist this organization in some way, and whether refugees might be a focus of our Special Collections this coming church year.
The idea was put forth that Wy'east could use a needs register, so that we could link up what specific assignments need being done with people willing and able to do them.
We discussed the idea of donating the money in the collection boxes each week, not just the once a month Special Collection.
Our next Board meeting will be on Tuesday, March 23rd, at 6:30 PM, at Tode's.
minutes by Mark --