St Joseph Parish Council

March 19, 2006

Members Present:  Susan Gearhart, Todd Story, Rosemary Risse, Dana Moody, Jim Atmiller, John Benca, John Timmons, Maxine Guerrera, Pete Konenkamp, Evelyn Tejada

Excused: Marty Ledenham

Absent: Marguerita Tejada

Pete opened the meeting with the Our Father.

The February minutes were reviewed and approved.

Committee Reports:

Nominations for Parish Council: We have received ten nominations and four of those ten have submitted biographies.  The names submitted are: CT Holmes, Karena LaRosa, Hank Wright, Lynn Renna, Julia Nasworthy, Charles Dolan, Sige Burden, Terry Trotachaud, Monica Kucher, and Melanie Stark.  Dana moved to accept ten nominations as the final ballot instead of bylaws which required reducing final to eight via a preliminary election.  Council agreed to this motion to reduce confusion of two elections with only two nominees being eliminated.  Poster will be up by April 7 as well as a bulletin insert.  Election will be April 22, 23. Dana submitted a revision to the bylaw Article IV section B 1.  Bylaw read for first time.

Planning- Steering:  John T reported we have not been able to secure the additional 10 acre or the 5 acre parcels. The obstacles are price.  We will not be able to submit a proposal to the planning commission in April as hoped.  We are looking at a one month extension with the current contract holders.  There is also a possibility that we will need to build a bridge across to Kohl’s property for egress from the church.  The Capital Campaign cannot start until we know how many acres we will have in order to do brochures, literature, etc. There will be another steering committee meeting on March 27, 2006.

Architect:  Many styles are being considered at this point.  There will be some form of input from the parish regarding architecture but the format and method of feedback has not been determined.

Capital Campaign:  No change from last month.

Communications:  They are looking at methods to gather feedback on design – possibly an open house with the architectural committee. A logo has been chosen for the capital campaign when we are ready for printed literature.

Maintenance:  No change from last month.

Finance:  Total contributions to the church are increasing.  There are times when offertory, RE or improvement fluctuate but overall increasing.  Father McGuiness shared the financial assessment for 2006-2007 from the Archdiocese.

Liturgy: Committee is proposing to have an Elijah Cup (a chalice).  It can be taken home weekly by a parish family and pray for vocations in the church. This idea has been used by the Sierra Club.  There will be a Penance Service on April 3.  Rosemary shared a thank you note to the council for the gift of the jasmine plant.

Latinos:  Evelyn will e-mail current issues as she had to leave.  There are still some issues we are working through with having all masses in English, not Spanish and integrating the children.

School:  No change from last month.

Old Business:  Knights of Columbus will do April and October for second Sunday social.  Dana asked all members to encourage other groups as no one else has volunteered.  Mary Beth Casso has agreed to be our social director.

New Business: None

Announcements: There is an advertisement in the Athens Banner Herald for a part time bookkeeper for the office.

Father McGuiness closed the meeting with the Our Father.

Next meeting April 9 at 7:30.  Brief meeting April 23 at 7:00 to count election results.