SHENANDOAH ASSOCIATION COUNCIL MINUTES

for Thursday, September 20, 2007

at Bethlehem UCC, Broadway, VA

PRESENT: Jim Bundy, Russ Kohrs, Marilyn Heishman, Peggy Kennedy, Willard Lutz, Leslie Nickel, Barbara Rhodes, Richard Vaught.

Jim Bundy opened the meeting with devotions.

The Minutes from the August 20 meeting were approved by consensus as amended.

The Treasurer’s Report was accepted by consensus.

Ware Benefit -- The benefit was a wonderful event, which raised $5,768.55. John Ware was very touched by the memory book.

ACM Report – Centenary (Winchester) submitted a profile and intends to begin a search. Its interim pastor is leaving November 1. Bethlehem is having a congregational meeting on September 23 to discuss the path forward regarding its search. Trinity (Timberville) is engaged in a search. The group in Roanoke has decided not to continue as a new church start.

St. Stephens (Harrisonburg) is undergoing construction. Sojourners (Charlottesville) has begun congregational discussions about its future space and resource needs. Glade (Blacksburg) is launching a capital campaign. At Ministerium, Kelly Sisson reported that Virginia Tech is facing serious challenges, including increased incidents of alcoholism and alcohol abuse. Post traumatic reaction to the shootings is thought to be a significant cause.

Richard advised that St. Stephens would like to use the space currently occupied by the Association’s Resource Center for youth activities. (The Conference does not pay for the use of this space.) It was DECIDED that historical UCC resources and other materials not reasonably available elsewhere would be kept in a place to be determined but that the rest of the materials would be culled and made available to Association members. Marilyn and Russ offered to help Richard cull the materials. Their goal is to finish this year.

CAC Board of Directors – Richard reported that the Board met last weekend. Its retreat is scheduled for November 9-10 at the Holiday Inn near Marshall BWI Airport. The retreat will focus on how we do business as a Conference, including staff workload. The draft strategic plan distributed earlier this year by Chuck Wildman’s task force will be reflected upon. This is an important meeting as current resource levels cannot fund existing staff. The Board has invited each Association to select a Council member who is not otherwise represented on the Board to attend the retreat. Barbara will approach Wes Loomis (Sanctuary), Ellen Markle (St. Paul’s), Meg Trott, Karen Lock (Trinity) and Melinda Lobeck (St. Stephens) about their interest in attending the retreat.

Church and Ministry – In reporting on the existence of several disciplinary actions against clergy in the Conference, the ACM recommended that the Association establish a rapid response protocol to address allegations of abuse should they arise. Richard is reviewing various materials. The CAC Church and Ministry Committee is having a meeting in November on boundary training.

New Church Development – The CAC Board has decided to split its church development and revitalization committee into two committees, New Church Development and Church Revitalization due to concerns over inadequate attention being paid to revitalizing existing churches. The ACM will prepare a short description of each committee for Association churches.

2009 Annual Meeting – The Shenandoah Association is in line to host the Conference’s annual meeting in 2009. At the next meeting, the Council will discuss possible themes and speakers. The ACM will obtain information about the themes and speakers utilized over the past few years.

“Loving Christ, Loving Others” – the Joint Fall Association meeting with the Disciples of Christ will be held at St. Paul’s (Woodstock) on October 21. Churches are invited to prepare a display of their mission work. Willard and Russ indicated that their churches likely will have mission displays. Youth attendees will put together Church World Service school kits. Association staff will send registration and kit list materials to association churches next week. Barbara will talk to St. Paul’s about the registration fee. The goal is to keep the cost of registration plus the meal in the $10-12 range.

Budget – The Committee reviewed the draft 2008 budget. Projected income for 2008 is $7,100: $6,100 from Association dues (paid by member churches at the rate of $3.50 per member); and $1,000 for Association meetings (which is offset by meeting expenses). Changes made to the proposed expenses in the draft budget were as follows: (1) including $1,000 for meeting expenses; (2) including $2,000 for General Synod expenses (which reflects half of the budget for the 2009 Synod – the other half will be included in the 2009 budget); (3) consolidating line items 460 and 465; (4) changing the name of item 450 from “God is Still Speaking (advertising)” to “church advertising. Including the changes noted above, projected expenses come to $25,000. The Association has $13,700 in reserves.

Significant discussion occurred regarding the wisdom of approving a budget in which expenses exceeding income by such a significant amount. The ACM noted (1) that this was an aspirational, growth budget -- spending had never reached the levels planned for, but the goal is to undertake programs such as youth programs, church development and bringing in speakers of interest, which would increase expenses to the levels budgeted; and (2) that existing reserves are available to cover any realistically achievable shortfall. Some Council members asked whether we want to draw down all of our reserves and what a prudent reserve level is. Some members suggested an increase in dues. Other members expressed concern about asking the churches for a dues increase at a time when we have significant reserves and have a history of spending less than budgeted.

A motion to raise the dues from $3.50 to $4 failed.

It was suggested that the Council create a narrative budget to explain the growth rationale to Association members at the fall meeting. Marilyn offered to try to do an initial draft by the October Council meeting.

Next Meeting: Thursday, October 18 at 6 p.m. at Bethlehem UCC. Leslie Nickel will have devotions.

Respectfully submitted,

Leslie Nickel, Secretary