ST. PAUL PARISH COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

March 3, 2008 – 6:30 p.m.

 

Present:  Fr. Romanus, Paul Anderson, Sherry Kaminski, Linda Krowsky,
Katrin Kempowski, Sue Dolkiewicz, Dick Kucharski, and Pat Sciano

 

Not Present:  Vince Sciano

 

Guest:  Karen Bushman

 

The meeting began with Katrin leading the opening prayer.

 

The minutes from the February meeting were reviewed, amended, and approved.

 

Paul announced to the Parish Council that Gerry Burant notified him stating he had to remove himself from the Council due to his work schedule.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Building and Grounds:  Although a formal meeting did not take place, Sherry and Mike Bogdonovich discussed several issues:  (1) The "Living Our Faith Banner" needs to be rehung after it blew off the church building during a storm.  (2) Some of the lighting that is out in church has to do with a short in the circuit breaker.  Matt Lewandowski will be looking into the issue.  Matt and Mike will be replacing any bulbs that have actually burned out by way of using a lift.  (3) The two broken windows on the church doors were replaced.
(4) Building & Grounds still needs to go through the garage that houses Holy Name materials to make sure it complies with insurance/fire regulations.  (5) Heaters were purchased for Glowinski Hall; however, it was unsure how much heat is actually being thrown.  It was requested that Vince inquire at the next Building & Grounds meeting if a radiator-type heater with an auto shut off could be purchased, as these were thought to throw better heat.

 

Human Concerns:  Linda reported the prayer shawl ministry is going very well.  Extending the ministry by possibly starting monthly get togethers with the ladies might begin in the future.  This could someday also extend to the cluster parishes.  Room is needed to store the yarn that is donated, so a new more functional wall unit is going to be built in the Usher's Room. 

 

Linda is continuing to gather information about blood pressure screening.  She has been looking into how we can gain the use of blood pressure monitoring equipment, and has been in touch with a nurse from Aurora.  A record keeping system must also be developed in order to keep screening data current. 

 

Festival Committee:  This year's festival will be held the weekend of June 20-22.  Paul and his wife Kerri will again be taking care of the advertising, and Sherry is going to check into printing of the tickets.

 

Christian Formation:  Sue reported that Christian Formation would be holding breakfast with the Easter Bunny on Sunday, March 16.   

 

Home and School:  The "Lead the Way" engineering program, in collaboration with Thomas More High School, is going to be implemented in the next school year. 
Father Romanus did not know if the grant for the program has come through yet.  Sue will check on it. 

 

Religious Education:  Karen Bushman and the Parish Council met in December to discuss the possibility of changing Religious Ed. class times. After that meeting, two recommendations by the Parish Council were presented to her.  She felt that ending class time at 10:00 would not work because there would be a one-half hour wait for Mass to start at St. Veronica's.  She  also didn't think starting class time at 8:50 would have children coming any sooner than 9:00 a.m. 

 

Karen met with Father Romanus to discuss two additional options.  These were:  (1) Holding classes on the first and third Sundays of the month at St. Paul's for the St. Paul children from 9:00 – 11:15 (this would include mandatory attendance at 10:15 Mass with the children attending as a group), and class held the second and fourth Sundays at St. Veronica's for the
St. Veronica children from 9:00 – 11:30 (with mandatory Mass attendance at 10:30 Mass with the children attending as a group). 

 

If this option were chosen, St. Paul's would have some things to consider.  Equipment to hold the classes would need to be purchased.  Katrin volunteered to get some estimates on these items, and she will report back at the April meeting.  The question was then proposed, do we have sufficient space to hold classes?  Would Plasik Hall work?  Even though sound dividers would be used, would they be able to contain the sound from all classes being held there?  Is there enough space to store all of the equipment?  Can we get enough teachers from our parish to teach the classes?   

 

The second option was to hold classes at STAA and have St. Paul parents drive their children to St. Paul's after class for mandatory Mass where the children would attend as a group. 

 

After much discussion, the Council decided to follow one of the options.  Sherry is going to speak with Atlas Academy administrators to see if there is any classroom space we could utilize.  Sue noted the possibility of using the Knights of Columbus room for one of the classes.  If we can make use of classrooms, we would not need to purchase a lot of equipment.  Karen will need to know our final decision in April before registration takes place.                          

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

Some parishioners who share their time and talent with the parish do not want to be publicly acknowledged for their work.  Katrin designed and had note cards printed that the Council is going to send to these parishioners to recognize and thank them for their contributions to the parish.    

 

It's time again to gather nominations for new Parish Council and School Board members.  Ballots will be placed in church the weekend after Easter.   

 

Following the nomination weekend, the Time and Talent forms will be distributed at the Masses

 

Bob Pleva is working with a company to design the name plaques for Plasik Hall and Glowinski Meeting Room.

 

 

UPDATES FROM FATHER ROMANUS

 

Father received a letter from Archbishop Dolan designating a timeline for our parish to begin the "Faith of Our Future" program (we will be in Wave II), which will run from July 2008 through December 2008.  The fundraising aspect of the campaign will take place over a three-year period.

 

Fr. Romanus brought the letter he received from his home parish in Nigeria to the meeting.  St. Benedict's Catholic Parish in Chokoneze wrote a very warm greeting to us as a parish.  It will be framed and hung in the Norwich vestibule.   Paul is going to gather information on how to go about possibly creating a sister parish relationship with St. Benedict's.        

 

Father passed out copies of the proposed budget for the 2008/2009 school year.  A tentative assessment has been drawn up using the same calculation formula as last year.  St. Paul's assessment for the next school year will be $102,068.00, which is the lowest amount the parish has paid so far.     

   

Kay Mather will be retiring in July of this year, so it will become necessary to look for a new parish secretary.

 

The meeting ended at 8:45 p.m.  The next meeting will be Monday, April 7, 2008, with  Linda leading the opening prayer.

 

Respectfully submitted by Pat Sciano, Parish Council Secretary