St. James Pastoral Council Minutes
August 18, 2003

 

 

OPENING PRAYER:  Chris Venditti

 

MEMBERS PRESENT: Jan Agee, John Alvey, Mike Klamm, Chuck Koesterer, Kim Lay, Ken Platt, Larry Stanley, John Talbot, Chris Venditti, Father Ron Will, Youth Representative Chris Oldenburg, and Ken Oyen

 

ABSENT: Ed Barlett, Doris Cadd, and Youth Representative Diana Keck

 

The meeting was conducted by Chairperson Mike Klamm.   The July minutes were approved as written.  There were three additions to the August agenda: Ministry to William Jewell, Day for Councils on October 11th, and Angel Fly-In.   Father Ron introduced the new associate pastor, Father Keith Branson who is moving in today.  Father Branson said he’s happy to be here, and is looking forward to getting involved at St. James.

 

AGENDA: 

 

1)      Update report on choir director and music teacher position

Father Ron informed council that the choir director the parish thought they had hired fell through.  After several phone calls, it was determined he has accepted another position.  Kristi Gibson has been hired as part-time music teacher for the school.  Father Ron said he will be sitting down with Sister Mary Jo and Father Branson soon to get ideas on the choir director position. 

       

     

2)      State of the Parish Report

Father Ron gave council members an overview of the topics he will cover in the State of the Parish Report the weekend of September 27-28, and asked for other ideas.  Suggestions of topics by council members were debt reduction and the need for volunteers for our many ministries.

 

 

3)      Update on 2010 Strategy #1 by Chris and Jan

 

Strategy #1: Strengthen the Parish Community

            Goal A. Reach Out to Parishioners in New and Innovative Ways

 

ACTION

POINT OF CONTACT

DATE

Chris

Action #1. Welcome every new parish family with a meal delivered to their home.

A point of contact is needed.  Will see if Dinners for Eight or Neighborhoods would be interested in helping accomplish this.

 

 

 

____________________________

Sept. 2002

Chris

Action #2.  Rejuvinate the neighborhood communities. Notify neighbors when parishioners move into their neighborhoods.

Could be done by notifying the head of a neighborhood so neighbors can welcome new parishioners.

Jean Byrne

Sept. 2002

 

Action #3.  New family orientations.

Father Ron

On going

Chris

Action #4.  Continue an active greeter ministry by doubling the number of volunteers by October.

Brad & Mary have plenty of greeters scheduled through June, 2004.  Will need a new point of contact at that time.

Brad & Mary Thomas

October 2001

            Goal B. Maximize our Evangelization Efforts

 

ACTION

POINT OF CONTACT

DATE

 

Action #1,2,3,4,5,6,7  (Completed or on-going)

 

In Place

Jan

Action #8. Send an annual, tactful letter to those parishioners we identify as “inactive” with survey questions so we can learn more about our parishioners who may benefit from evangelization.

Jan will ask Jim Gillet to draft a tactful letter to send to inactive parishioners. The Council will review the letter before mailing.

Jim Gillet / Fran Riley

July 2002

            Goal C.  Increase Promotion of Parish Ministries

 

Action #1,3,5  (Completed or on-going)

 

In Place

Chris

Action #2. We will establish a “St. James Access number,” manned 24 hours/day.

Need a point of contact.  Bob Wiese spoke at the May council meeting on ways this can be accomplished.  Father Ron said he thought our voice mail is handling our needs for now, and it was suggested we put this on hold for 12 months.

 

 

___________________________

July 2002

Chris

Action #4. Conduct an all-parish Mass. Repeat yearly. Consider Pentecost.

New point of contact: Sister Mary Jo.

Sister Mary Jo

Dec. 2004

 

 

4)      (a)  Parish Work Day

Saturday, October 18th is the date for the next parish work day.  Mike will contact Roger Holyfield about coordinating the projects and materials needed. 

 

      (b) Ministry at William Jewell

Father Ron said he didn’t want the William Jewell ministry to fall through the cracks now that Father Jim who was in charge of this committee is gone.  It was mentioned St. James will be having a booth there when the new year begins.  It was mentioned that Mike Jones is involved in this ministry.

 

(c) Day for Councils on October 11th

Father Ron said he needs to know how many will be attending the Day for Councils on October 11th  8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. by September 9th.  It will be held here at St. James, and he encouraged everyone to let him know as soon as possible by e-mail.

 

(d) Angel Fly-In

Father Ron distributed flyers for the Angel Fly-In to be held Saturday, September 6th 7 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Clay County Regional Airport in Mosby.  He asked if we are interested in having a booth at the Fly-In?  There will be airplane rides and displays, booths, crafts, entertainment, prizes and raffles.  Council members thought it would be difficult to organize a booth since the date is only a little over two weeks away.  Father will let Fran and Willie know about it to see if they have any ideas.

 

5)  Ministry Reports

Prayer – John Talbot spoke with Mary Weishaar who said a Rosary Rally will be held Tuesday, October 7 at 7 p.m. which is the feast of our Lady of the Rosary. 

 

Youth – Larry Stanley said the youth group and confirmation classes would be starting up again before the next meeting, and he would get information and numbers from Willie for a report next month.  Chris Oldenburg expressed his opinion that he thought perhaps attendance would be better at youth group activities if they were announced at Mass or published in the bulletin. 

 

Communication – Doris Cadd sent a report regarding the school website.  She reported Howard Henry that he is the only one working on the website.  Howard said Susan Woehrman is no longer the PTO president, and the committee needs to get together again, and decide where we go from here.  He said if the school wants to have a separate site with its own domain name then the PTO would need to be approached for the money to host the site which would be around $120 per year. 

 

School – Chuck Koesterer reported that Price Chopper will continue the program for the support of H.O.P.E. for another year.  He said everyone will need to register again, and it was suggested to include registration forms as a bulletin insert for two or three weekends.  There are 320 students enrolled for this year at last count with possibly 325 by the start of school.  There are three new teachers, first and sixth grades and a music teacher.  Chuck said, if space permits, the School Board would like to have a section in the bulletin for things going on in school.  He also said they are researching the talent forms to get volunteers to help with school issues. 

 

Administration & Stewardship – Chuck Koesterer said they recently met with Dave Malanoski, Director of Finance for the diocese.   He said our current parish debt to the diocese is $1,252,000 as of June 29th.  Chuck said he plans to bring a quarterly financial report to the Parish Council.  The Liberty Chamber Orchestra approached St. James to use our worship space for a concert March 20, 2004.  Tickets will be $10 per person, and we will need to sell at least 75 tickets or pay a minimum of $750 for the concert.  He said the Administration Committee approved the concert. 

 

The next meeting will be the Monday, September 8th at 7 p.m. with opening prayer by Chuck. 

 

SEPTEMBER AGENDA:

§         Strategic Planning

§         Update on Ministry Heads

§         Parish Workday

 

Sister Mary Jo Quinn will be invited to attend the September meeting.

 

The meeting closed with a prayer by Father Ron.

§         Day for Pastoral Councils at St. James October 11th at 9:00 a.m.

Meeting notes courtesy of Dorothy Haynes