Meeting Minutes - St. Paul Parish Council - 1/08/2007

 

Attending: Jeff Madunich, Sue Madunich, Fr. Romanus, Vince Sciano, Pat Sciano, Paul Anderson, Linda Krowsky. Richard Kuharski, Gerry Burant, Katrin Kempowski, Cheryl Kaminski

 

Minutes:

 

Meeting commenced at 6:30pm.

 

(Item 1): Richard Kuharski led us in the opening prayer.

 

(Item 2): Paul Anderson - Joel Tomski has graciously decided to continue to update the parish sign located on the yard of the brother house on Howard Avenue.

 

At last official count at our parish, church attendance was up 3%.  This is in comparison to 2005.  The Archdiocese would like the parishes to determine ways to increase church membership attendance at weekly Mass by 20%.

 

(Item 3): Paul Anderson led the discussion of how each Committee selected a part of the parish Mission Statement that it believed it would fulfill.  This will then be molded into a Vision Statement for the parish and each Committee.

 

Buildings & Grounds - (Vince Sciano) Meeting on Tuesday (1/9/07) to finalize choices on the church furnishing updates (Altar and furnishings)

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Fr. Romanus - After committee picks, the recommendatioon goes to the Parish council who then forwards it to Fr. Romanus for approval.  He'll then submit the recommendation to the Archdiocese for approval.

 

Vince Sciano - 95% of the Mission statement fits the Buildings & Grounds committee.

 

Finance - (Fr.Romanus) A new direction this year would be to have a budget to submit to the Archdiocese.  Every year the parish assessment to the Archdiocese has gone up without submitting a budget.  Concern that the assessment could actually go higher when we do, but at least it will be accurate.  Due to low membership on this committee it did not review the Mission Statement.

 

Human Concerns - (Jeff Madunich) - this committee fulfills the "We will respond to human need with service and sacrifice" part of the Mission Statement.

 

Current Chair Sue Madunich - Looking for direction on future activities.  Previous ideas were discouraged by the prior parish leadership (i.e.-valet parking for the elderly, etc.)  Committee ran out of ideas beyond the meal program.  The Parish Council will review the mission of this Committee.

 

Fr. Romanus - Diane Knight from Catholic Social Servicces of the Archdiocese would be a good contact for future direction.

 

Sue Madunich - What about taking people to Mass or requuests for rides?

 

Fr Romanus - A note could be put in the bulletin to sseek volunteers.

 

Paul Anderson - Focus of the parish council should be on the committees.

 

Fr. Romanus - He will provide a contact to allow Humann Concerns to see what other similar committees are doing.

 

Prayer & Worship - Pat Sciano - this committee focuses on "becoming a welcoming community in collaboration with our neighbors," with the morning donuts and coffee. And for the invites for the deceased parish member families to an annual memorial Mass.  They are participating in the "pray together" by providing the blue Advent books.

 

Festival - Paul Anderson - The festival committee focuses on becoming a "welcoming community in collaboration with our neighbors" through the festival itself.

 

Christian Formation - Katrin Kempowski - This committee focuses on becoming a "welcoming community in collaboration with our neighbors," and "we will pray together" and "we will study the meaning of our faith for today" through their Baptism preparation classes and the yearly Baptism reunion luncheons.

 

Paul Anderson - Each committee should provide a listing of what they do and how they meet the part of the mission statement.  In addition each liaison should put together a list of each committee's membership.

 

Fr. Romanus - Would like to see Christian Formation deevelop an RCIA group for our parish.

 

(Item 4):  Paul Anderson - Has created a gratitude folder to keep iin the parish house.  He wants a list of all the various committee members and others involved in major happenings at the church.  He would like to continue the "thank-yous” in the bulletin focusing on a specific parishioner.

 

Fr. Romanus - With each individual "thank you&quoot; an effort should be made to tie the groups that the individual is involved with and what each is doing for the parish.  The council agreed that the next thank you would be written by Paul for Sue Madunich, and the following thank you would be written by Sherri Kaminski for Sue Dolkiewicz.

 

Paul Anderson - Everyone should brainstorm a list of those parishioners who are contributing and bring this list to the next meeting. 

 

Fr. Romanus - He would like to have the collection broought up to the altar. He's looking for a basket to carry it in.

 

Jeff Madunich - Let's use the parish festival to showcase our parish.  Can we work on developing new ideas for this year's festival?  The council discussed putting together a welcoming table at the next festival.

 

(Item 5): Reviewed last year's Gathering in the Hall.  Attendance was not great.  The intent is to thank the many people who volunteer to assist the parish and to get more parish involvement on committees.  Parish Council will review and begin planning this event at the next meeting.

 

(Item 7):  Paul acquired the Time and Talent forms from Kay.  Vince will follow up with Claudia Blaszczwnski to determine how this process worked in the past. 

 

Paul Anderson and Fr. Romanus will review how to put together a Parish Directory. 

 

Paul also mentioned that the Council should consider how to address the website.  Linda Krowsky - Let's invite Joel Tomski to the next meeting to see how the website is maintained and what future plans there are for the website layout.

 

Paul Anderson is waiting for a response from the Archdiocese to develop a parish evangelization action plan.

 

Jeff Madunich - With his class schedule and other family commitments, he would like to resign from the committee effective this evening.

 

His resignation was accepted.  The alternate will be invited to the next council meeting to be added as an active member.

 

Cheryl Kaminski brought up the new parish assessment plan proposed for St. Thomas Aquinas Academy and asked for other members of the Council to attend a meeting the following week with the parish and school finance committees to discuss these plans.

 

Fr. Romanus discussed the assessment rules for the cluster parishes that are supporting St. Thomas Aquinas Academy. One proposed alternate assessment rule: 1/3 based on equitable sharing of costs - 1/3 based on based on student enrollment by each member parish - 1/3 based on church family membership.  Another option is to take the "equitable sharing portion" out and assign to the 4 strongest parishes.

 

Cheryl Kaminski - Need to ask the hard questions related to the current staffing requirements for the Academy and the content of the school budget.

           

 

Meeting adjourned at 7:51 pm for Parish Council holiday party.

 

Respectfully submitted; Gerry Burant, council secretary (modified by Paul Anderson, council chair).