Minutes of Stewardship Committee

July 10, 2006

 

Chuck Bartush presided.  Jerry Walterscheid, Imelda Rohmer, Juanita Bright, John Bartush, and Barbara Rohmer were present.

 

Barbara Rohmer led the opening prayer with reading Sunday's gospel and inviting people to share their reflections on the questions of the week.

 

We discussed following up with those who have not turned in a commitment form with a phone call.  That would be about 500 parishioners.  Juanita pointed out that often people would get involved and volunteer if they are invited to do so.  Chuck suggested that we wait until we have new members on the Stewardship Committee to help with the calling and we agreed.

 

Chuck invited us to come up with ideas for the quarterly report to the parish on the success of the stewardship process.  Barbara suggested that since we highlighted youth ministry last year that this year we highlight the success of the Outreach Committee, especially in regard to fixing up the houses that had fires this spring.  Barbara will ask Kathy Vogel to gather some facts about the number of people volunteering compared to last year and their accomplishments.  The report will also say that slightly more commitment forms were returned this spring and that the amount of donations pledged had increased from the year before.  Juanita suggested that we highlight the three areas of stewardship:  showing how people have given of their time and talent to work on the houses. And then we also want to mention the increase in commitment forms and the monetary amount pledged for the coming fiscal year.  We want to end the presentation by inviting people to participate in outreach or in some other way and to try giving  toward the parish, even $5 a week.  Chuck will do a draft of a 2 to 3 minute presentation and send it out by email to everyone before the next meeting on August 14 so we can make suggestions.   We hoped that Kathy Vogel would give one of the presentations at a weekend Mass; Chuck and John Bartush also volunteered to give a presentation at Mass.  Juanita volunteered but realized that she will be out of town the weekend of August 19th and 20th when we planned to give the presentations.

 

We moved on to the next agenda item - inviting new members to be a part of the Stewardship Committee.  We went through the list we developed in May and indicated which ones each of us would contact by phone.  Barbara will contact Wallace Inglish, Jim Gehrig, and Russell Griffith.  Juanita will contact Art Oppermann, Dyan Hess, and Carol Ann Hess.  John will call Scott Green, Ken Hesse, and Paulette Swirczynski.  Jerry Walterscheid will contact Jerry Fleitman, Jason Sicking, and Bret and Kim Walterscheid.  Imelda will contact Doris Koesler and Gil and Joyce Nebgen.  Chuck will call Denis Moody, Jack and Linda Flusche, and Tom and July Flusche.  Chuck suggested that if there is anyone else who we think would be good, we should go ahead and contact them.  Chuck suggested that we contact those assigned to us by Monday, July 24, and email the rest of the committee whether or not the person was interested.  Jerry Walterscheid will call Barbara with his results and she'll make sure it gets emailed to the rest of the committee.  Give them a copy of the calendar so they will know what kind of commitment it involves.  You might also mention that we would like to have them go through the series Disciple as Steward that John Honaman would kick off.

 

Chuck reported that the Strategic Planning Committee has some things in the works.  They, along with the Pastoral Council, Building and Maintenance, and the Finance Committee, have come up with some future goals for the parish.  Later the Strategic Planning and Planned Giving Committee will contact benefactors both within and outside the parish and invite them to give toward a particular goal.  This committee will be a subcommittee of the Stewardship Committee. 

 

Barbara asked if Kathy had done the lists of those who signed up on the commitment forms. For example, she would like the list of those who signed up to help with religious ed classes.  Chuck looked in the papers and found the lists.  All that is needed now is for the lists to get to those in charge of the various ministries so those who signed up will be contacted.

 

Chuck concluded the meeting with prayer.  Our next meeting is Monday, August 14, at 7 pm.