Meeting Minutes - St. Paul Parish Council - 10/2/2006

Attending: Richard Kuharski, Vince Sciano, Pat Sciano, Jeff Madunich, Cheryl Kaminski, Paul Anderson, Katrin Kempowski, Linda Krowski

Minutes:

Meeting commenced at 6:34pm.

(Item 1): Jeff Madunich led us in the opening prayer.

(Item 2): Reviewed and approved the minutes from the last meeting.

Cheryl K: In review of the previous minutes, she shared three main reasons that some students were dropping out of STAA according to the school board: tuition cost, lack of religious education, and lack of a sports program. 

(Item 3): Reviewed liaison reports from the committees:

Buildings & Grounds: (Vince Sciano) No meeting since last council meeting. Two outstanding projects of this committee: re-carpeting of the church, and re-paving the parking lot. Cheryl: wondered if the altar is repairable due to known disrepair. Meeting next week Monday (10/9).

Christian Formation: (Katrin Kempowski) Have not met yet. Major committee activities are :Baptismal anniversary mass, children's liturgy of the word, religious education, adult formation.

Finance: (Richard Kucharski) no formal meetings for this committee. As issues come up, Rich Kucharski will be notified by Bob Pleva.

Human Concerns: (Jeff Madunich) Need a committee (currently consists only of Jeff and Sue Madunich). No new interest in membership. This committee works with the interfaith soup kitchen. Initial help response for the soup kitchen has been good, but interest is waning. Some people not showing up as signed up.

Linda K: Do we need mass reminders for help on committees?

Jeff M: Could committee attendance be counted as volunteer time for STAA families?

Linda K: Should a minimum be set for hours for each family, especially considering those that have a scholarship?

Fr Romanus: Suggested that a representative from each committee give a brief description of their committee and solicit additional members at the weekly masses. Do one committee presentation each week. Would we get volunteers?

Paul A: Let's start with Human Concerns for the mass presentation.

Fr. Romanus: Should we start with the Easter mass?

Paul A: Let's all review the Time & Talent data at the next council meeting.

Home & School: (Linda Krowski) Teacher's doing a fund raiser to buy new blinds for the school. Other parishes putting pictures up in the back's of churches to show STAA students activities. Next meeting October 11th 7am (Executive meeting), October 12th (parent meeting) 7- 8:30pm

Prayer & Worship: (Pat Sciano) Meeting coming up this Monday. Committee currently consists of five members.

(Item 4): Fr. Romanus passed out copies of the current parish budget and reviewed with the council.

(Item 5): Paul A: After a review of our mission statement with the Archdiocese, they felt that it was well written and sufficient. They suggested that we need to see how we are living out this mission. Paul suggested that we take the mission statement to the committees and determine how they each are acting on the mission. These actions should be reviewed at the next parish council meeting to create a vision statement for the parish.

(Item 6): Paul A: Suggested that we create an action plan to fulfill the Fr. Romanus evangelization goals for the parish. Paul will create a note card for review that could be handed out in the church neighborhood. Sherri will speak to Brother Gerrry about plugging in the sign at the LaSalette house to advertise our parish and activities.

Fr. Romanus: Showed examples of parish handbooks from some of the cluster parishes that include the various church committees and activities. These are used to introduce new members and visitors to the parish.

Paul A: Suggested that we create a handbook for our parish.

(Item 9): Lisa Johnson reviewed status of the Festival committee.

Three things the festival committee needs:
(1) help from parish council to fill major position openings as presented in last meetings update (particuraly the food tent on Saturday and Sunday - Tomski's already manage Thursday and Friday night
(2) get the volunteers back from the last festival
(3) figure out how to keep the festival going if the chairs leave.

Lisa discussed the time commitment needed to run the festival.

Lisa J: Suggested a competition between the masses to get people to donate prizes for the coming festival (i.e., Hot Wheels, crafts, coloring books, etc.) Award the mass that gives the most. Stressed the need for volunteers for advertising and booth sponsors. Pat and Vince Sciano volunteered for the tent sponsor coordination.

Discussed ways we have advertised the festival and how we could for next year.

(Item 7): Paul A: need to pick an area to concentrate on this year from the spectrum of Stewardship. Reviewed a list of areas. He suggested that because Parish Council focused on Hospitality last year this does not need to be the sole focus this year. He suggested we also start to focus on Outreach.

Fr. Romanus: Agreed and suggested that we concentrate on Hospitality and Outreach. Council agreed.

Paul A: For the next meeting, we will review the archdiocesan suggestions on Hospitality and Outreach from our council stewardship assessment and provide them to the Parish Council.

(Item 8): Cheryl K: Suggested at the last School Board meeting to share the outside school activities across the parish campuses. Also suggested that the STAA students should be more visual in the parishes. She suggested that we get the students and parents to do the readings or other activities at the masses. Need a member parish to volunteer for October or November to start these activities.

(Item 11): Fr. Romanus reiterated the need to share STAA activities around the member parishes We have facilities here that could be utilized for some of these activities. We are paying part of the utilities of the school building with Atlas Academy (current tenant) because of our intended usage of the school hall. Let's use it.

Meeting concluded at 8:42pm.

Respectfully submitted by: Gerry Burant, Council Secretary