FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

ADMINISTRATION MINISTRY TEAM

9 September 2008

 Present:  Dina Schroeder (Moderator), Mary Kammann, Carl Connor, Darla Topley,

                Mike Bartholomew

 Absent:  Winnie Quinzi (Excused)

Darla opened the meeting with prayer.

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

 OLD BUSINESS:  1)  We submitted the documents and fees provided by Matt Holt that were supposed to bring our Corporate status in compliance with NM Public Regulation Commission (PRC) regulations.  Unfortunately, all the documents and our checks were returned for correction and updating because the PRD issued a Certification of Revocation to us on 4 March 2008 for noncompliance with NM Statutes.  We are currently preparing to submit an Application for Reinstatement and the Annual Reports for Calendar Years 2006 and 2007, along with the applicable fees totaling $55.00 by Friday, 12 September 2008.  The Annual Report for Calendar Years 2007 designated Administration Ministry Team Moderator Dina Schroeder as our new Registered Agent.  Once our Corporation is reinstated we will proceed with review and update of our By Laws.

 2)  The Stewardship Committee met in Reverend Story’s office earlier today and Bobby Rankin provided his insight and “Lessons Learned” about previous campaigns, including their problems and successes.  He told the committee that he had given a packet containing all the relevant information about previous campaigns to Mel Parish.  Dina said that Mel had given her a box of Administration Committee information and she would look through it and see if it contained the information that Bobby had provided.  The Stewardship Committee agreed that it should consist of approximately 7 members and the Stewardship Campaign should be a year round endeavor.  It will start with an article in the Lantern, a letter to each church member, and a minimum of 4 each “Minute for Stewardship” presentations to the congregation at the start of regular church services.  Darla volunteered to be one of the “Minute for Stewardship” presenters.  The next Stewardship Committee meeting will be next Sunday, 9-14-08, after church.

 3)  Mary advised us that she had received the completed questionnaires back from 2 of our employees and had forwarded “Getting to know you” articles on them to Alex Burr for inclusion into upcoming issues of the Lantern as space permits.  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 after the “Getting to know you” series is completed.

 4) After several months of unsuccessfully searching for a replacement rear axle assembly for the older (1994) 15 passenger van and not finding anything that was less expensive than the original repair quote of $1,100, member Steve Loman and his ABC Body Shop foreman decided to revisit the cost of repairing the noisy rear end assembly.  Steve was able to negotiate the replacement of the defective rear end bearings by one of his mechanic services providers for under $600 and the van is back in service.  Although it may be more cost effective to use a mini-van to transport members to & from Church on Sundays, and short shopping trips around town, we are not prepared to incur the cost of purchasing a smaller van at this time.  We will however, ask the Deacons involved with the Sunday Member Pick-ups and Deliveries and the Christian Ed. Director to provide us some insight into their transportation needs and will discuss their thoughts at the October Team meeting.

 NEW BUSINESS:  1)  Sick pay for part-time employees – Questions about eligibility for sick pay raised by one of our part-time employees triggered a discussion about our sick leave policy as stated in our Administration Policy Manual.  We agreed that the established policy of providing sick leave pay to only full time employees is appropriate and should not be revisited.  We also agreed that several areas of the Policy Manual need review and correction or revision.  We will review the Policy Manual individually and discuss it section by section starting in our October meeting.

 2)  We were advised on Monday 9-8 that our Administrative Assistant/Financial Secretary, Emily Guerra is resigning effective Monday, 9-22-08.  Fortunately, our Payroll Clerk, Debbie Roberts, has some free time available to support us while we search for a replacement with demonstrated Quick Books accounting program expertise.  We will provide the Session with a verbal update on our plans to find a replacement for Emily at the regular 16 September meeting.

 3)  We reviewed the available information concerning 3 Building Use Requests and decided to Approve/Disapprove them as follows:

a.       Pan American Roundtable (Sue Ann Hanning) requested the use of Reeves Hall on 17 January 2009.  There is no conflict for use on this date and they have used our facilities in the past. Request Approved.

b.      Family Worship & Praise Center requested the rental of Watkins/Reeves Hall for their Christmas Party for about 150 persons on 12 December from 6 to 10 PM.  Although there is no conflicting use request for this date, the Team was unfamiliar with the requester and did not feel that we were in the business of renting our facilities to any organization in the community who is looking for an inexpensive hall to rent.  The request was denied for this reason.

c.       Donna Boyle requested the rental of Watkins/Reeves hall for the wedding reception of her youngest daughter on 30 May 2009.  Although the Boyle family had been Church members and Darla remembered one of the girls, we were unaware of any other known relationships with the Boyle family.  This, coupled with our belief that we were not in the “Rent-a-Hall” business, led us to disapprove this request.

 NOTE:  After our meeting and disapproval of requests b & c, above; we were advised that there were recent relationships with both requesters that might have changed our decisions on both requests if we had known of them.  We will discuss them at the Session meeting and/or via email and advise everyone if there is any change in our decisions.

 Dina adjourned the meeting with prayer.

 Next meeting:  14 October at 7:00 PM

 Session Meeting:  16 September at 7:00 PM

 Respectfully submitted by Carl Connor

 

Phase I Debt:  Congregational Members:  $110.000.00

 

Session Action Items:  NONE