Walker Church Council
June 25, 2017
Present: Al Hildenbrand, Howard Kranz, David West, Lulu Philips, K C Bretzke, Bonita Blumenauer, Kristine Smith, Jim McCreary, Kent Eklund, Joe Hesla, Ed Ed Mueller, Nancy Larsen.
The minutes were approved as read.
K C gave the financial report. We are covering our day to day expenses, but we have not paid our apportionments. She recommends waiting until the end of the year to pay them. It is open to debate whether to pay them or not. They will have to come out of our reserves. We need ideas of fundraisers – any thoughts?
The Walker Church building has complicated software controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Currently Al is only one who knows how to use this software. It was moved seconded, and passed to train Kristine and Lulu as backup to Al and to schedule utilization of this training on a monthly basis.
It was moved, seconded, and passed to authorize Kristine, Howard, Al and Jim to constitute a working group to develop performance reviews of Walker staff.
There followed a long discussion of the Church Council as it reflects and forms the views of the membership. Joe wants discussions of broad issues within the Walker community as it impacts the decisions of the Church Council. We want to welcome everyone to council meetings. David suggested inviting anyone who disagrees with council decisions to come to a council meeting.
Kristine spoke on the role of volunteers in non-profits from her extensive experience. She noted that by compressing SPRC and the Trustees into the Church Council as we have, means we are involving fewer volunteers in the decision-making process. She suggested getting everyone involved in the debate whether or not to pay our apportionments. This will keep people engaged.
Lulu suggested that we discuss the compressed structure the council at the next meeting. K C asked whether we can designate ad hoc committees for specific tasks. Jim asked, “What is the council and what is it for? Which dreams can we make work?”
Bonita suggested announcing relevant issue in church, quarterly meetings of the whole church, and a suggestion box. Al added that we could have a “Contact us” button on the Walker web site on the committee tab. He will contact Deb Ramage, the web master, to do this.
Lulu will bring a breakdown of where the apportionment money goes to the next council meeting.
We considered whether to get rid of the piano in fellowship hall because of space issues. Jim made the point that the piano in the sanctuary constantly goes out of tune. He stated let’s get rid of that piano. It was deferred to the Building and Grounds Committee to meet and make recommendations to the council.
The meeting was adjourned.
The next meeting is Sunday, September 17 at 12:15 pm (after church)
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Larsen, Walker Church Council Secretary
