2003's Reports
2004's Reports
2005's Reports
2006's Reports
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Preliminary
Parish Pastoral Council
Minutes
November 8,
2004
Prior to our meeting,
the following committees emailed their reports to me.
I collected the reports and distributed them to everyone on council one
week prior to our meeting.
Parish Outreach Committee -submitted by
Frank Blee and Laura Eger
Social Action Committee-submitted by Ed Walls & Mary Graziano
Children's Religious Education-submitted by Joan Parker
These reports can also
be viewed at (click here)
The following
committees did not submit a report for this month:
Building & Grounds
Report
Publicity & Community Events
Family Life
Liturgical Committee
Vocations Committee
Youth Ministry
St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Pastoral Parish Council
MINUTES
November
8, 2004
The
Meeting:
·
Meeting called to order at
7:05 pm
·
Opening prayer Joann Malecki
·
Attending:
Matt Macready
, Kevin Walls,
Bob Senese
, Ray Ring, Carol
Johnson, Frank Blee, Addie Blee, Joann Malecki, Ed Walls, Rev. Mr. Bill Peters,
Pat Bentley, Fr. Bob, Fr. Carlton
·
Also attending:
Guest speaker Herb Cracker of the parish’s finance committee
·
Absent:
Joan Parker, Blair Learn. & Rev. Mr. Joe Becker
·
No correspondence was reported
Last
Month’s Minutes:
Changes:
 | In
reference to the prayer groups and according to Laura’s Parish Outreach
Report:
|
| Laura
no longer meets with last year’s Catholics Returning Home group, and
|
| Nora’s
Charismatic group meets twice a month
|
| In
reference to the council recognizing and rewarding accomplishments
of “individuals”, Kevin noted that the minutes should have stated:
“individuals, groups, or ministries”
|
Once amended, motion to
approve minutes was made by Bill, and Ed seconded
Motion was accepted
& minutes were approved
Committee/Group
Reports:
Prior to our meeting,
the following reports were submitted and distributed to council:
| Parish
Outreach Committee
|
| Children’s
Religious Education
|
| Social
Action Committee
|
The following committees did not submit a report for this month:
| Building
& Grounds Report
|
| Publicity
& Community Events Committee
|
| Family
Life
|
| Liturgical
Committee
|
| Vocations
Committee
|
| Youth
Ministry
|
Discussion
of Committee/Group Reports:
| Parish
Outreach Committee: Frank
mentioned the workshop he attended and the groups plan to start a new prayer
group in January
|
| Building
& Grounds Report:
|
| It’s
official, according to city hall, the new
Parish
Center
was not but must be made handicap
assessable
|
| A
request for signs placement on parish’s buildings will also be presented
to the city
|
| The
gardener has rotated into the garden new
varieties of seasonal flowers
|
Discussions:
- Fund
Raising: Suggestions were made
to meet the dioceses request to have some sort of fund raiser to replace the
funds that would be used on the construction of the new
Parish
Center
. Among
the suggestions were a car raffle (but too expensive), bingo calendar (but
would conflict with the Cyrenean Club), a dance, or a series of additional
Sunday collections. No decisions
were made on the subject
- Appreciation
Dinner is scheduled for
January 29, 2005
. To
avoid conflict, the Youth Ministry’s ski trip was moved to March.
New
Business:
It was noted that after
3 years, our meetings are predictable and repetitious.
Instead of rehashing the same stuff over and over, it was hoped that the
council could evolve to a more visionary level.
Here more important and broader issues such as long term forecasting can
be addressed. With the Assumption
project slated to open by September 2006 the council felt that we should be
examining:
| Shifts
in the parish’s makeup in regards to: ethnicity, age, and wealth
|
| Attendance
at mass
|
| Fluctuation
in Sunday collections
|
| The
threat of consolidating schools and/or parishes
|
| Seton
going to a one priest parish
|
It was felt that the
diocese has probably already asked similar questions and a good starting point
would be to start with where does the diocese think we will be.
Frank stated that diocesan’s answers to these questions would have to
come from more than one person. His
idea was to have each member of council write down a list of questions for the
next meeting. Hopefully then, we can
proceed to get some answers and insight from the diocese.
Open
Forum
Guest
Speaker:
Herb Cracker a member of
our parish’s Finance Committee addressed the council.
Herb made the following points:
| All
parishes in the diocese use a similar accounting system (list of accounts)
to facilitate the compiling of this data
|
| Our
parish is on a fiscal year that ends June 30
|
| Our
revenue (collections) between the last two fiscal years has virtually
remained constant.
|
| Sunday
collections: 2003 were
$612,000 and in 2004 they were $616,000
|
| Similarly,
our second collections have remained constant:
2003 was $43,000 and in 2004 they were $45,000.
|
| Unfortunately,
expenses have increased. One of
the main increases has been our assessment to the Diocese and to Assumption
Schools.
|
| This
assessment is a rate based on our collections.
In 2004, the diocese increased both rates.
This caused a $21,000 increase for the school assessment, and a
$9,000 increase in the diocese’s assessment.
|
| True
our revenue was unchanged between the last 2 fiscal years, but this fiscal
year has showed signs of weakening. Over
the first four months of this year, collections are down $12,500.
|
| This
dim financial picture of increased expenses and decreasing revenues will be
reevaluated again at the end of the calendar year.
By then, Father hopes to have a better handle on the direction that
our finances are going.
|
Parish
Center
It was noted that I have
neglected to mention in my minutes, that the Parish Council is and always has
been in favor of the new
Parish
Center
and garage. Our support
is based partially on the following reasons:
| Our
priests deserve a place to call a home.
As it stands now, the rectory is a business office practically 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
|
| True,
there already are several other buildings & rooms available that could
be used for offices, but the council feels that no building or group of
rooms would sufficiently and efficiently handle the situation.
|
| A
garage would insure that our priests could efficiently respond to any call
for help, especially in regards to administering Last Rites.
|
Other
It was noted that over
the past weekend, the ushers once again took a head count.
According to Fr. Bob, although attendance shifts up and down between who
is attending what mass; the overall attendance at mass has increased.
Summary
of topics discussed:
Those Pending:
| Fund
raiser for
Parish
Center
|
| Questions
for the diocese concerning the affects of the new Assumption Parish on us.
|
Those Closed:
nothing noted
Those Tabled:
nothing noted
Next
meeting
Monday January
10, 2005
Time
7:00 pm
Ray will lead us in prayer
Respectfully submitted by:
Bob Senese
,
Secretary
   
|
