CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD PPC Meeting
September 8, 2008
PRESENT: Nancy DeRycke, Pastoral Administrator, Brad Buckland, Finance, Sue Eliasz, representative for Service, Brian Gallagher (Vice Chair), Joan Lowell, Catherine Frangenberg (Trustee), Gene Kobos (Trustee), Mike Loftus (Chair), Sam Moskowitz, representative for youth, Ron Jodoin, Stewardship, Tim Runyan, representative for Hospitality, Barb Simmons, representative for Social Ministry, and Wendy Pachla, PPC secretary
Guests: Deb Housel, Diocese of Rochester liaison for PPNM, and Father Chumo
Opening Prayer
Minutes & Agenda Review
Minutes were prepared by Mike Loftus for the August 5, 2008 PPC meeting. It was suggested to add who attended the meeting, make some spelling corrections, and summarize the minutes. We want to post the minutes on our web site; Tim wants to set up a pdf file on the web. Nancy will work with Mike to summarize the August minutes before they are posted.
Motion to approve the minutes pending revisions made by Mike, seconded by Catherine Frangenberg.
What is a PPC? - Deb Housel
- Diocesan Guidelines (Power point presentation and handouts)
With all the changes we have experienced in the last year, Nancy thought it was a good idea to have Deb come and give a brief explanation of what a PPC is. All PPCs function differently. Bishop Clark offers guidelines and expectations. The Council needs to give Nancy the history of what has happened so that she knows where and what Good Shepherd parishioners’ needs are. Nancy is a listener and will take information in. Having a voice on the council is a must. We have an obligation to the people we are representing. Nancy feels that consensus without prayer is not a good system. Deb was very pleased to see that we start our meeting with an opening prayer.
One message of the power point was “Communio” - we are a community with Christ in the community. We are moving in the vision of Christ and Christ is always present at our table. The goal of a PPC is to aim for effective and quality pastoral life for the parish. Deb Housel provided her email address: dhousel@dor.org for anyone to contact her.
Update on Pastoral Planning for our R-H region - Nancy
Nancy distributed an outline for 9/08 Parish Design and Draft/Goals for Good Shepherd from 9/08 - 9/09. She asked that everyone review this material and what Deb Housel presented. There will be discussion at the October PPC meeting concerning both.
Nancy wants everyone to feel free to speak their mind. She wants to know what good things are happening and also any bad things people hear about. Make a mandate to go up to people and get their thoughts about what’s going on in the church. Invite people to join different ministries. Still working on the election and terms of PPC members. Sam offered a suggestion that youth representatives receive some training/mentoring when they join PPC. There is also a learning curve for the PPC chair. The group representatives will continue to be at the PPC meetings until any changes are formalized.
Social Ministry meets the second Monday, Stewardship meets the third Monday and Finance meets the fourth Monday. PPC Meetings will now be the first Monday of each month and are scheduled tentatively as follows for the remainder of 2008 and beginning of 2009:
October 6 March 2
November 3 April 6
December 1 May 4
January 5, 2009 June 1
February 2
Any agenda items to be included for the October meeting: no new issues, but will carry over the agenda items we did not discuss from tonight’s meeting due to time constraints.
Pastoral Administrator Report - Nancy DeRyke
CMA - A letter was prepared and sent to the Diocese about our $79,075 goal. Nancy is confident that David Kelly and the Bishop will be in contact with us. CMA amount stands until we hear differently from the Diocese. Letters go out the last week of September to parishioners. The first weekend in October, Nancy will talk finances (both CMA and parish) at the Masses in a positive way.
Staffing Update: Linda Brunner is currently out on disability. Her position cannot be filled for 12 weeks; office volunteers and other staff members have stepped in to fill the void.
Nancy determined that two full-time maintenance people could no longer be justified. She spoke with Bob and gave him an opportunity to seek other positions in the Diocese. This Friday (9/12) will be his last day at Good Shepherd. The custodian position has been eliminated. The parish is looking into hiring a service to do some basic cleaning of the facilities now leased by Rush-Henrietta schools that needs to be done during the evening hours. Mark will be continuing as Good Shepherd’s Director of Maintenance. Re-adjusting time spent on the parish and now on the school building. The contract with Rush-Henrietta provides that Good Shepherd is responsible for the maintenance of the school facilities. The elimination of the custodian position does help with our deficit.
PPNM - We are beginning to have St. Joseph’s, RIT, Guardian Angels and Good Shepherd all meet to move forward. This will be a major undertaking. Each parish is sending representatives from pastoral planning, parishioners-at-large, the parish administrator and a PPC member to do some census planning at 7:00 PM on September 24. Nancy asked Marie Snell and Sue Reed to join the group from Good Shepherd. She is confident Good Shepherd will be well represented. Mike Loftus offered to be the PPC representative.
Joint Adult Education Program - There will be an article in the bulletin next weekend.
Listening Sessions - report next month.
Comments from parishioners - Heard good things about what a parishioner observed when coming back to Good Shepherd after the summer. Positive comments about Nancy being at the liturgies. Nancy is seeking anyone who would like to work on children’s liturgy. People were surprised about the loss of the custodial position. Nancy is planning to put information in the bulletin about this change. Sam M Moskowitz will write a note on behalf of PPC expressing thanks for Bob’s years of service.
Mike will continue placing copies of the PPC minutes in the communication slots. He has been placing copies for the last two months and approximately 15 copies have been taken in that time period.
The 11:00 AM Sunday Mass has no musicians. The choir will not be singing for the next two months. There is a particular need for both a guitarist and pianist.
Development - Catherine Frangenberg
She has contacted a development person who has agreed to come and speak, but does not feel we are ready at this time to proceed. We will invite this development person to come at a future date. This will be placed as an agenda item for future discussion.
Sub-Committee Reports
Second Collection - Sue Eliasz
Talked about having a second collection with a particular ministry in mind, i.e. CMA, music ministry, Thanksgiving baskets, etc. Whatever ministry is chosen to receive the funds from that weekend’s second collection could be highlighted possibly with a bulletin article or mentioned at the Masses for that weekend.
Targeted collections usually do better than general collections. The second/extra collection for each month would go to the different ministries. This issue needs further discussion and will appear on the October PPC Agenda.
Nancy would like to have this proposal looked at in more depth; need to follow through and not just brainstorm. She does not want to start this when we are also kicking off the CMA.
Bulletin deadline is earlier with the current staffing situation. Nancy wants to be sure that PPC members are willing to be mentioned in the bulletin and Tim can also place information on the web site.
Fund raising - Bingo - Brad Buckland
Brad and other Good Shepherd parishioners work at Bingo at Guardian Angels on a regular basis. They clear approximately one thousand dollars a week after expenses. He has priced equipment and start-up costs - approximately seven thousand dollars. We would need six to eight people to run the game. Brad will e-mail additional information for continued discussion on this at the October PPC meeting.
Renting out of the School Building
We have use of the kitchen; the key to the kitchen has been changed; you need to call Jean Brown ahead of time to sign out the key. Rush-Henrietta Administration is located in the basement and we are still using classrooms after 5:00 PM for any parish/group meetings.
Urban Outreach
Janet McNally - health care; information will be in the bulletin.
Assignments from this Meeting - Mike & Nancy
• We are going to review the materials presented tonight;
• Nancy & Mike will edit the August PPC minutes;
• Sue Eliasz will re-write and e-mail her information about the second collections;
• Development - Catherine Frangenberg - will remain on future Agendas;
• Brad will get more Bingo information and this will be on the Agenda;
• Tim will put the minutes on the web site for public viewing.
Motion to adjourn made by Brian Gallagher, seconded by Brad Buckland. Meeting adjourned at 9:25 PM.
Next PPC Meeting: 7:00 PM on Monday, October 6, 2008.