Minutes of Stewardship Meeting - September 11, 2006

 

Chuck Bartush began the meeting with prayer.  Those present were Coy Eddleman, Imelda Rohmer, Willie Fisher, Chuck Bartush, Kathy Vogel, Kathy Bauer, Lisa Schilling, John Bartush, Juanita Bright and Barbara Rohmer.

 

There were several corrections to the minutes.  “Angel Hair” should be “Angel Food” and Mark Hess should be Mark Hesse.  Mark and John D.Bartush are not interested in being on the Stewardship Committee but are interested in going through the “Disciples as Stewards” program.

 

Juanita said that Art Oppermann said he couldn’t be on the Stewardship Committee but would be happy to help when we need.  Chuck said Jason Sicking decided not to be on our committee because he and Debra are expecting twins.

 

Chuck asked if we had received feedback on the quarterly report we did at the Masses on stewardship.  He said that he had not gotten much feedback but what he got was positive.

Juanita said she had gotten positive feedback. 

 

Kathy Vogel said that since the last meeting she sent a letter to the head of each ministry and gave them a list of those who signed up on the commitment forms for that particular ministry.  She asked that they at least contact every person on the list and acknowledge that they had received their name even if they didn’t have anything for them to do presently.  She also asked them if the contact person or information such as email address had changed for the ministry booklet that will be revised.

 

Kathy also read the questions that related to stewardship and were not addressed at the town hall meeting.  She then read the responses that will be given in an insert in the bulletin this following weekend.  Chuck asked if a question and answer could be put in each weekend bulletin and she said that they needed to get all the questions and answers in the bulletin soon to dispel some rumors that were going around.  She read the questions and answers to us which led to some lively discussion.  However, we agreed that her answers were good.

 

We discussed the new members - Willie Fisher, Lisa Schilling, Dyann Hess, and Jerry Walterscheid - meeting with John Honamon from the diocese and going through the process called “The Disciple as Steward.”  We agreed to invite John Honamon  to our next meeting on Monday, October 9, and have a brief business meeting to get started on revising the ministry booklet and then let him continue with the new members to help them get started with “The Disciple as Steward” program.  After that they can decided where and when they can meet to go through all the sessions.

 

We discussed getting stewardship manuals back from former members or getting them from John Honamon’s office.  Coy volunteered to take a manual to Kinko’s and get four or five more made for the new members and future new members.  He will take the bill to the Business Office to get reimbursed for it from the Stewardship budget.

 

John Bartush asked about the children’s envelopes.  Barbara said that when she checked on them, Stacie said that we had boxes of children’s envelopes that we need to use before we order some with numbers.  It was agreed that we would make sure that children’s envelopes would be put with the parent envelopes and that the children would be encouraged to use them.  Barbara said that when she did some study on children’s giving that it was suggested that they write down what they had given as far as time and talent as well as money.  Then, occasionally, there would be an insert in the bulletin listing the things the children wrote down.  It was agreed that this would be a good idea.

 

Kathy Vogel said that the plan is to have the pastoral council see that the envelopes for building and maintenance, cemetery, trust fund, etc. would be taken out of the boxes before they were given out.  The boxes of envelopes are already here and it would save ordering more.  Willie Fisher asked how much the church envelopes cost and why we used envelopes instead of just putting in a check or cash.  Barbara said it is a lot easier for the office staff to enter the number on the envelope and the amount in order to keep records.  Someone also suggested that the bulletin state how much money came in for building and maintenance, trust fund, etc. each week as well as the collection.  We seemed to agree that that was a good idea.

 

Kathy Bauer suggested that the ushers give the collection basket to be passed from person to person to remind each one of their responsibility to give.  After some discussion, it was decided that Imelda, who is over the ushers, and Willie Fisher would talk to the ushers about making this change.

 

Barbara Rohmer ended the meeting with prayer in remembrance of the fifth anniversary 9/11.