FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

ADMINISTRATION MINISTRY TEAM

12 August 2008

 Present:  Dina Schroeder (Moderator), Mary Kammann, Carl Connor, Winnie Quinzi,

                Mike Bartholomew

 Absent:  Darla Topley (Excused)

Carl opened the meeting with prayer. 

The Minutes of the June meeting were reviewed and approved as written and submitted.

 OLD BUSINESS:  1)  Matt Holt completed his review of the First Presbyterian Church New Mexico Incorporation documents and dropped off the documents needed to request reinstatement of our church foundation incorporation which lapsed and our Domestic Nonprofit Corporation Annual Report for the taxable year ending 12-31-2006.  He also gave us a Public Regulation Commission to formally change our registered agent from Kathy Shannon to a new person.  Dina Schroeder was selected as our new Registered Agent because she is the current Moderator of the Administration Committee.

 2)  We discussed the need for our representative on the Stewardship Committee, Mary Kammann to meet with the new Stewardship Campaign Chairman, Barbara Kewley, and Rev,. Story early this month to lay the foundations necessary for a successful kick-off of this year’s campaign in September.  We suggested that Mary &/or Barbara contact Bobby Rankin to see if he would be available to attend the planning meeting, since he has extensive knowledge about previous Stewardship campaigns and could provide numerous “Lessons Learned” information about previous campaigns.

 3)  All of the applicable mid-year employee reviews were completed.

 4)  We addressed the procedures followed in handling and tracking monies received from pledges, donations, and other sources in the August Lantern and updated our plans for future Lantern topics.  We plan to do a series of articles in upcoming issues of the Lantern on our employees and will start with our two newest employees, Emily Guerra, Administrative Assistant/Financial Secretary in the September issue and Jerry Duran, Janitor/Handyman.  We decided to start with the new employees in order to inform the members of our congregation about who they are and what they do.  Once this series is completed, we will address our plan to update the membership on the status of our Phase I Debt and the procedures to follow when requesting the use of church tables, chairs, and other church property by members.

 5)  We are still looking for a replacement rear end assembly for the older (1994) 15 passenger van but so far we have not been able to locate one.  We are not in any rush to find a replacement van as we are also considering the value of replacing the older van with a newer mini-van that would be used primarily to transport members to & from Church on Sundays, and short shopping trips around town.  We will ask the Deacons involved with the Sunday Member Pick-ups and Deliveries to provide us some insight into their transportation needs.

 NEW BUSINESS:  1)  Correspondence;  Janet McPherson requested she be given the Presbyterian Women (PW) checkbook and files and those documents were turned over to her.  After reviewing the checkbook she found there were several checks written before Kathy Shannon left our employ that were not entered in the checkbook, she could not reconcile the checkbook.  She asked for the originals of all bank statements for 2008 so that she could reconcile the PW bank account.  We made copies of the applicable bank statements for our files prior to giving the originals to Janet.  Since the PW, like all other organizations associated with the First Presbyterian Church, fall under the overall guidance and direction of the Session, we believe that all Church related records, particularly financial records, should be maintained in the church office by our financial secretary.

 2)  Lynn Ames completed his 2007 financial review of the church records and found only one practice that we should change.  A large ($1,792.00) check was written for cash and referenced 4 different budget line items as the sources of this obligation.  Due to the difficulty in tracking down and reconciling the expenditures when several bills are lumped into a single check, and the check is written for cash, Lynn recommended that we cease this practice and issue 1 check for each billed item.  We concurred with his recommendation and have already implemented numerous changes in our bill payment practices.

 3)  We approved the request of Paul and Sarah Vaughan to borrow tables and chairs for the Choir party they plan to host at their home and instructed Linda to advise them to come by the church and fill out the form requesting the use of Church chairs and tables.

 3)  We approved the use of our Sanctuary by the Las Cruces High School Choral Department for their concerts on 23 September 2008 and 8 May 2009.   We subsequently approved the use of our Sanctuary by Mayfield High School Choral Department on 11 November 2008, 15 December 2008 and 12 May 2009; and by Ońate High School on 16 December 2008 and 5 January 2009. All High School Choral department use will require payment of the $75.00 janitorial use. We also concurred with the use of our parking lot by the LCHS Band as part of our ongoing youth outreach ministry activities.

 Dina adjourned the meeting with prayer.

 Next meeting:  9 September at 7:00 PM

 Session Meeting:  19 August at 7:00 PM

 Respectfully submitted by Carl Connor

 Phase I Debt:  Congregational Members:  $110.000.00

 Session Action Items:  NONE