FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.), LAS CRUCES, NM
STATED SESSION MEETING
TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014
Moderator Reverend Dr. Norm Story convened the meeting at 7:04 PM and
Deacon Steve Johnson of the Buildings & Grounds Ministry Team opened it
with a prayer.
Elders
Present:
Lyn Ames, Lon Anderson, Corina Armendariz, Brad Class, Blaine Goss,
Susan Grandle, Jacqui Jones, Winnie Quinzi, Greg Sherman, Stephen
Taylor, and Dennis Thomas.
.Elders
Excused Absence:
Nancy Johnson, Bill Kuyper, and Stephen Taylor. Elder Roger
Sellers was Absent.
Guests:
Deacon Moderator Steve Johnson, and James Baylor.
Establish
Quorum:
The Clerk of Session established that a quorum was present.
Approval
of Agenda:
The agenda was approved as published.
Pastor’s
Report:
Pastor Dr. Story addressed the restructuring of Session meetings that
was discussed at the Elders Retreat on 1 March; and the changes
recommended at the meeting. The Elders recommended restructuring
our meetings so that we conducted our regular business at the start of
the meeting in approximately 30 minutes. This would leave the
remainder of the meeting to discuss issues and ideas for improving and
strengthening our church family and fellowship; as well as other topics
of interest. This restructuring will require us to develop the
Meeting Agenda with routine items listed together in a “Consent Docket”
that can be reviewed by each member of Session before the meeting; and
then voted on, and approved, as a single Agenda item, without reading
those individual items for the record. The Meeting Agenda
containing all of the items for the Consent Vote will be published on
the Friday before the Session meeting by email to each Elder on Session,
and a paper copy will be available in each Elder’s mail box in the
church office at the same time. Any Elder who wants to discuss an
item on the Consent list can ask for it to be removed from the Consent
list for separate discussion and vote by notifying Pastor Dr. Story or
the Clerk of Session. Pastor Dr. Story asked if anyone objected to
trying this approach to speeding up the routine business of the Session
during tonight’s meeting. Hearing no objections, he said that we
would try it tonight.
He announced that he plans to be on Vacation on June 9th
through June 23rd, which will require using Pulpit Supply to
cover his absence on June 15th and June 22nd.
He will accompany the youth on their June 22nd through 28th
mission trip, which will count as Study Leave; and the pulpit will need
to be filled June 29th. He will be on Study Leave on
August 18th through 24th for a conference in
Dallas, needing the pulpit to be filled on August 24th.
He advised the Session that Parker Temple has been invited to serve as a
Youth Delegate to the PCUSA General Assembly meeting in Detroit, MI on
June 15th through 21st. He asked the Session
for a motion to endorse Parker Temple for Youth Delegate to the PCUSA
General Assembly. The motion was made, seconded, and approved.
Clerk’s
Report:
The Clerk’s Report was as written in the meeting agenda.
a. Rev. Dr. Norm Story ordained and installed new Deacon Brian Otto
during the regular Sunday church service on February 23, 2014.
b. The Clerk was advised in an email request from Katie Grandle (#4673)
that she wanted to be removed from our church rolls. The Clerk
requested the approval of the Session to remove Katie Grandle (#4673)
from our church rolls.
c. The Clerk was advised that Janet Green (#4346), a member since 1992,
was removed from our church rolls in December 2000 without her
knowledge, and joined our church family again in February 2003.
Janet considers herself a member although Session Minutes do not show
that she rejoined us in 2003. The Clerk requested the approval of
the Session to correct our church rolls by recording Janet Green (#4346)
as a member with a membership date of February 2003.
6. Approval of Minutes:
STATED SESSION MEETING, February 18, 2014
ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING, February 23, 2014
ANNUAL CHURCH CORPORATION MEETING, February 23, 2014
Approval
of Minutes:
Utilizing the Consent Docket model for approving routine church business
actions agreed upon in the Pastor’s report; the removal of Katie Grandle
(#4673) from our church rolls, the correction of our church rolls to
record Janet Green (#4346) as a member with a membership date of
February 2003; and the approval of the Minutes of the STATED SESSION
MEETING, February 18, 2014, the Minutes of the ANNUAL CHURCH CORPORATION
MEETING, February 23, 2014 were approved by unanimous consent. The
minutes of the ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING, February 23, 2014 were
approved by unanimous consent, contingent upon the addition of Rev. Dr.
Story’s 4 weeks of vacation and 2 weeks of study leave to his Terms of
Call shown on Attachment 1 to the minutes.
Deacon’s
Report:
Deacon Moderator Steve Johnson reported that he will address changing
the structure of the Deacon’s meetings at their meeting on the 20th,
so that they will also spend less time on routine business and more time
on issues and goals. He will also attempt to build on our current
paper recycling program and develop a church wide comprehensive
recycling program for all recyclable materials.
Committee Reports:
Administration:
Written with one action item. The Moderator announced that their
written Minutes from the March 14th meeting were incorrect;
and Elder Winnie Quinzi was not resigning from the Session, but will
remain on the Session and Lyn Ames will remain as Moderator. He
said that the clean-up and updating of the software on the bookkeeper’s
computer was going along very well, but the business performing the
cleanup found many irregularities that could not be attributed to any
specific individual or individuals. In order to prevent
recurrence of this problem in the future, he recommended approval of a
motion to: LIMIT ALL ACCESS TO THE BOOKKEEPER’S COMPUTER TO
ONLY THE BOOKKEEPER. THIS ACCESS WOULD BE CONTROLLED BY USING A
NEW PASSWORD THAT ONLY SHE WILL HAVE. After a brief discussion
about who else will have access to the password in case of an emergency
or change in bookkeepers, the Session was assured that the
Administration Ministry Team will have access to a sealed envelope
containing the password that will be stored in a safe location.
The motion was seconded and approved.
Buildings and Grounds:
Written with no action items.
Christian Education:
Written with no action items. The team reported that Vacation
Bible School will run from July 7th through July 11th
from 5:30 in the afternoon to 8:30 in the evening. It does not
have a Director, so the various duty assignments to make it successful
will be divided up among the VBS volunteers.
Congregational
Life and Outreach:
Written with no action items. The team reported that the Meet &
Greet International Potluck dinner at 5 PM on Sunday, March 16th
had approximately 70 attendees, but only 3 of them were Elders on
Session. They updated their calendar of events to include the
traditional Easter Sunday Breakfast after the Sunrise Service on April
20th.
Missions:
Written with no action items.
.Music
and Worship:
Written with no action items. The Team announced that the new
Hymnals were now fully paid for and that the old Hymnals will be retired
and the New Hymnals placed in service on Sunday, May 1st.
Elder Greg Sherman ask that anyone interested in organizing a Last
Supper pageant for Easter 2015, to contact him so he can assess
the interest in this project.
Foundation:
No meeting, therefore no report.
Columbarium:
No meeting, therefore no report.
Financial Report
for Feb 1 - Feb 28, 2014
Feb (Actual) Feb (Budgeted)
YTD (Actual) YTD (Budgeted)
Income $29,918.67
$61,786.72
Expense $32,789.37
$59,436.41
The Consent Motion to receive all Committee Reports and accept Financial
Report was approved.
Old Business:
a. The election of our 4th Commissioner to Presbytery was
deferred to the regular April meeting of the Session as we do not need
our 4th Commissioner until the September Presbytery meeting
in Lovington. The Session was asked to continue trying to find a
volunteer.
New Business:
The Session discussed ways we could change the way we process applicants
for membership in our church family. A new process was discussed
and tentatively agreed upon. It is: 1) An applicant
expresses their interest in joining our church by filling out our
Membership Data form and submitting it to the church (i.e., to the
office or to Pastor Dr. Story). 2) Pastor Dr. Story talks to
the applicant, either by phone or in a face-to-face meeting. 3)
A 3 or 4 member team is advised of the new member application and
contact the applicant to set-up an informal meeting at a time & location
that the applicant is comfortable with. The team make-up should be
composed of individual volunteers who have similar demographics and
interests as the applicant. The location should be wherever the
applicant is comfortable; i.e., home, church, coffee shop, etc.
The meeting team should be ready to discuss all of the various groups
available at FPC, and the responsibilities that the applicant is
committing to when they join the church. These obligations are
defined in the Book of Order and include their giving of their money,
time, and talents. The goal of this meeting is to get them
connected to the church and start establishing and growing relationships
within our church family. 4) After the applicant meets with
the team and reaffirms their intent to join the church, the team will
notify Pastor Dr. Story who will direct the Clerk of Session to convene
a commission to meet with the applicant and receive the applicant into
membership.
Elder Susan Grandle volunteered to compile a list of how the
Elders responded to her email about the various obligations of
membership in the Book of Order.
The next Stated Session Meeting will be Tuesday, April 15, 2014
at 7:00 PM. The Christian Education Ministry Team will be responsible
for opening prayer and meditation.
Adjournment: Reverend Story adjourned the meeting with prayer at
8:08 PM.
______________________
______________________
_____________
Carlton Connor
Rev. Dr. Norm Story
Date Approved
Clerk of Session
Moderator
