Board Minutes: February 17, 2020
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
February 17, 2020 5:30 p.m.
Compadre’s – Middleton
Attending: ☐ Andrew Seaborg (President) ☐ Wade Huseth (Treas.) ☐ Sara McCormack ☐ Pr. Chris Enstad (Staff) ☐ Kimberly King ☐ Bob Beggs ☐ Tyler Gold ☐ Betsy Johnson ☐ David Vogt
Not Attending: ☐ Stephanie Barth
The meeting began at 6:17 p.m. after we ordered dinner.
Everyone raised their glasses and said thank you to Retiring Board Members Gerry Born, Ellen Franzone and Tom Golden.
Approval of Jan. 20, 2020 Minutes
Andrew then asked for the Approval of Jan. 20, 2020 Minutes.
Wade moved, Betsy seconded approval of the minutes. Motion Approved.
Financials
Diane has finished the Financial Report (For January). We are hiring someone to create an app that automatically turn data from Quick Books Online into our financial summary for Fund Accounting. But that hasn’t been done yet. Wade said there was nothing alarming in the January statements. The Finance Committee did not meet this month. Sara asked whether we needed to encourage people to give earlier, and Pr. Chris said not at this time.
Sara moves approval of the Financial Report. Kimberly seconds. Motion approved.
Pr. Chris’s Report
Estate Gift – Pr. Chris says a member came to him before he preached a couple weeks ago at the Deep and said the church should expect to see a major estate gift from her family sometime this year. However, efforts to confirm this with the estate lawyer were unsuccessful. This process will have to play out, and we’re not sure when this might happen. But we have gotten paperwork saying that we are in the estate of former member Barb Dewey.
Verona Music Director – Pr. Chris said we are looking at numbers dropping in Verona, and there doesn’t seem to be a good excuse why. Pr. Chris gave the history on looking at the Verona Music Director. He explained that when Ben was Music Director, they tried to start moving the bands around and faced a rebellion.
So, instead, Jared and Andrew started to develop relationships with Cynthia, and tried to figure out what needed to happen. They realized she was just hanging on to try and help out the church. So, she has decided to step down at the end of May.
That forces us the church to do something. Jared can be music director, but he can’t be two places at once. Pr. Chris said he wants to bring a music director in to shepherd music in Verona. What’s it going to look like? At this point, he doesn’t know. He says we need to come up with a job description, and work with the Worship and Music Committee. It’s a process and it’s going to take some time.
We have to determine what Lutheran contemporary worship looks like. We have a candidate we’d like to include in the process, but that doesn’t mean that person is the person for the job.
If you take a look at the staff we’ve hired in the past three years, we’ve often written the job description after we got the right person in house.
Andrew mentioned Pr. Chris, Rick and he were at the Foundation meeting, and he mentioned he has talked to some of the Foundation board members about the need to fund the Verona Music Director. And he thinks they’re serious about helping, because they deferred some spending because they’re waiting to see what’s going to happen with this position.
Andrew also mentioned that Tyler (along with his wife Emily) are hoping to step up and play point on directing the Verona renewal process, with the addition of a music director playing a key role.
Budget 2020/BEYOND –
Rick gave a short update on the budget. He says with the budget passing Sunday, everything will remain pretty stable for funding in the short term. As for Beyond, there have been more than $680,000 in contributions so far, with $458,880 sent to Thrivent for debt reduction. It was asked how we will pay Thrivent Beyond dollars going forward, and Wade strongly suggested we do it monthly, so we can show the congregation their dollars are making a difference.
President’s report
2020 Meeting Schedule
Andrew said that he’s planning for the board to meet every other month like the past 2 years. Andrew says he wants to be more intentional about committee reports. He would expect members not on the executive committee to be attending committee meetings in the months they are not attending board meetings. (A proposed schedule was attached to the board materials for February.)
ON-Board-ing
Sara asked new members to go through the on-boarding materials and watch the PowerPoint. Sara asks that you be involved, engaged and participate in the board and the committees where you are board representatives.
Rick asked whether we wanted to set a date for on-boarding? We looked at dates. It was decided that we would do it on Sunday, March 15 in Verona. Installation at 10:30 a.m. service, and 11:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. training.
Sara mentioned that we should assign mentors to the new board members. Andrew will take it under advisement and figure it out.
Carenet
The Social Action Committee recommends allowing CareNet to operate out of the parking lot of the Madison campus. (Motion attached) Pr. Chris says this is shared leadership in action. Carenet came to him through a member to talk about establishing a medical clinic in the parking lot. Kimberly then explained how it worked through the committee. The clinic will do pregnancy and STD testing once a week out of our parking lot. They’re self-contained. Pr. Joe and some committee members visited their facility in Fitchburg. They asked “Why us?” Carenet says we’re in a visible spot and we’ve identified this neighborhood as a place that needs these services. They asked Sheray from the Meadowood Health Partnership whether these services will be beneficial, and Sheray agreed.
Kimberly said it would be a short-term lease (6 months) and can be terminated if things don’t go well.
Wade asked whether there are any consequences that have been written down for Carenet? Kimberly said they didn’t want to, because they weren’t sure what it would be.
Bob says what is the risk? Andrew says if you Google Carenet, they have some very strident anti-abortion messaging nationally. But the group locally says they’re not the same way. Pr. Chris says if someone Googles it, it could lead to some questions being raised.
Pr. Chris says anytime we’re providing health care to a low-income neighborhood, that’s a good thing.
Rick suggested that he thinks the committee should report back to the board within 6 months. Dave mentioned that Social Action is scheduled to report to the board in August and could report back then.
Wade is concerned that something might happen in two months that *might* be problematic, but we might not have anything written to explain whether that is enough to revoke the permit.
Sara asked that someone on the committee (or Pr. Joe) to report back to the board monthly to let how things were going. Pr. Chris agreed.
Sara calls the question. It’s approved.
Sara moves to approve the recommendation from the Committee, Pr. Chris seconds.
The motion passes unanimously.
Committee updates and requests
Rick explained the new set up. He expected members of the Executive Committee to be a board representative for one committee, while the other 5 members would be expected to take 2. There was some discussion on which committees everyone should be on (this was hammered out on Tuesday after talking with Stephanie Barth who was unable to attend the meeting.)
Here are the board liaison committee assignments:
Children, Youth and Family Committee – Board Liaison: Stephanie Barth
Communications Committee – Board Liaison: Sara McCormack
Facilities Committee – Board Rep: David Vogt
Finance Committee – Board Rep.: Wade Huseth wadehuseth23@gmail.com
Generosity (Stewardship) Committee – Board Liaison: Bob Beggs
Hospitality Committee – Board Liaison: Stephanie Barth
Human Resources and Organizational (Personnel) Committee – none
Inreach and Congregational Care Committee – Board Rep.: Kimberly King
Nominating Committee – none
Social Action (Outreach) Committee – Board Rep: Kimberly King
Spiritual Formation (Adult Education) Committee – Board Liaison: Betsy Johnson
Technology and Innovation Committee – Board Liaison: David Vogt
Worship, Music & Arts Committee – Board Liaison: Betsy Johnson
Sara reminded Rick and the board that there should also be a board person assigned to be the head of the Committee on Committees. That role would get all committee chairs together twice a year to talk about collaboration, along with spearhead the connections fair in September. Dave said he would be willing to take on the role.
Budget
Andrew asked whether we needed to pass a motion to allow us to go to a 6-month budget.
He asked that the board ratify the motion that the executive committee approved on Feb. 11 that the congregation approved on February 16, allowing the church to go to a 6-month budget and switch to a fiscal year that goes from July to June.
Sara moves, Pr. Chris seconds. The Motion approves.
Actions Items/Recap
Andrew – needs to assign mentors.
Pr. Chris – needs to find synod delegates.
Rick – follow up with Stephanie about committee assignments.
Kimberly – report back to Social Action that Carenet was approved, but we need a monthly report back to the board.
The meeting was adjourned with the Lord’s Prayer at 7:53.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert Beggs
Secretary
Good Shepherd Mission: (Proposed) In response to God’s love and grace we…Welcome as we have been welcomed, forgive as we have been forgiven, serve as we have been served.
Good Shepherd’s Vision: (Proposed) By the grace of God and the love of Jesus Christ, we will meet each person where they are, and invite them into transformative relationships with God, each other, and the communities in which we live and serve. We will cultivate and empower lay leaders to support this life-changing work at Good Shepherd and beyond.
