St. Paul’s Parish Council Minutes Sept. 26., 2006
Council Chair Rich Caffrey called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm. Members present: Rich Caffrey, Father Jerry Funke, Juan Avila, Maureen Coon, Dan Jones, Matt Lara, Diana Larkin, Antonio Napoles, Bob Peterson, Terry Radford, Norma Rodrigues. Members absent: Mo Peterson, Maria Morales.
The opening prayer was led by Bob Peterson and hospitality was provided by Norma Rodrigues.
Minutes for August 22 were approved as written; however later in the meeting Fr. Jerry said he’d been contacted after our last meeting that Our Lady of the Valley parish does NOT provide subsidy to parishioners with students attending other parish schools.
Meeting with Adoration Committee: Pat Dodd, Adoration Coordinator; and Bonnie Garrity, representing division leaders were present to give an overview of the perpetual adoration program. People are still needed to fill and/or substitute during the week. There are bulletin boards near the church doors giving information regarding who to call to sign up as an adorer. Anyone is welcome to make a visit without being signed up for regular hours. The committee also has worked on producing a Guidelines for Adorers pamphlet. There are currently about 125-150 people signed up although a full week would equal 607 people needed for each to have one hour. Fr. Jerry suggested the committee prepare some one-page information sheets and appeals for new people to be kept in the church office to be included occasionally in the bulletins. There was some discussion regarding a parish retreat/information session, and Fr. Jerry also suggested that committee members could speak at the masses, as well as produce another pamphlet listing suggestions as to what one can do in the adoration hour. Bulletin inserts could also carry the above information along with testimonials from adorers recounting the personal benefits they have experienced from being part of the program in order to promote the ministry. Other suggestions included leaflets in the pews, and/or a parish-wide ministry fair. Fr. Jerry challenged the committee to work on making a clearer connection between the prayer-request book at the front of church and the adoration program.
St. Paul’s started its adoration program March 19, 1994 and is the second parish in the state to have this ministry. The first is St. Edward’s in Twin Falls. Currently St. Mark’s in Boise also has one which was started about a year ago.
Old Business
Building report: Dan Jones had a video on Stewardship giving an overview of the program by Monseigneur McCready. There was a stewardship meeting held at St. Paul’s on August 29 to which 2 people showed up. However, there will be a stewardship open house on September 28 to get the stewardship committee going. This event will be held at the home of Mike and Norma Jean Sprouffske from 5:30 to 7 pm.
Currently the building on faith fund has just under $3.2 million. 761 of the approximately 1680 families of St. Paul’s are contributing. All families receive regular mailings from which 50-100 are regularly returned due to there being new addresses. These changes can then be recorded in the office and are used for future mailings.
Dan reported that there are new tax laws coming in the next couple of years and he is currently working on an informational mailing regarding taxable deductions for donations.
Valley Plaza property: Rich Caffrey checked into the status of the old Mercy Hospital building across the street from St. Paul’s present location and found that there is a current offer to purchase on the property. Apparently the interested party has a plan to build condos on the site.
Date for meeting with Diocesan Officials: This meeting is still not set as one of the officials involved is currently unavailable due to family illness.
Diocesan Fall Conference: This event is this coming weekend: Sep 29, 30-Oct 1. St. Paul’s will reimburse registration fees to any council members who attend.
Mision Parroquial: This event is next week. Fr. Arambula will also attend the Fall Conference and then will give St. Paul’s parish retreat including talks and concerts. This event is in Spanish.
Flux: Fr. Jerry reported that there is no new information on this program as the search for a director is still ongoing.
Stewardship Committee: As reported above, there will be an open house Sep 28, 5:30-7 pm at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sprouffske to get the committee going. Fr. Jerry said there had been work done by various committees previously and the council agreed that there needs to be a recap of all such work in order not to end up redoing it again.
Our current problem with stalled movement toward building the new church has to do with the stalling of new pledges and large donations. All the various committees having to do with planning have accomplished everything they were charged to do by experts and others. The monies expected/projected by those advisors simply has not materialized.
The dilemma remains: do we go ahead with building parts of the project and not have what is needed to fully accommodate parish needs OR do we continue to push toward acquiring full funding while prices continue to rise? St. Paul’s currently has no debt at all, and is able to handle it’s basic programs. One suggestion was to use one-page inserts bulletin inserts recapping this information and the current status of the project.
New Business
Parish groups: Mo Peterson was not present so this item is tabled.
Parish Directory: Fr. Jerry suggested that the Stewardship Committee take this on and if they don’t choose to then the item will return to the Council for further consideration.
FY 2005-06 Financial Report: Dan Jones gave out copies of the financial report. Copies will be available after all the masses this coming weekend. Fr. Jerry is doing all the masses in order to speak to the report’s availability. Father has published an annual financial report every year he has been at St. Paul’s This report is the first showing NO DEBT, and St. Paul’s school is also completely debt free. The church also met it’s annual Catholic appeal goal.
New Dean of Western Deanery: As of October 1st, Fr. Jerry begins as the new Dean of the Western Deanery. He will also continue on the Presbyterial Council. He noted that the Diocesan Pastoral Council, which meets for two days three times a year, needs two temporary representatives from the western deanery. October 20, 21 is the first meeting. Matt Lara volunteered, contingent on his being able to trade shifts at works. The second volunteer may come from Payette.
Other items: Due to a request from St. Paul’s school, Fr. Jerry will poll daily mass attendees, especially those attending on Fridays, regarding a Friday morning mass time change from 9 am to 8:30.
Web page update: Matt Lara reported on his progress researching options for St. Paul’s web page design, as well as information regarding how people could make donations online. So far the least expensive providers seem to charge 15 cents per transaction. Pay Pal was discussed and probably will not be used. Dan also said that payments have to be linked through the diocese and that the diocese may also have software available. Matt will continue researching these items.
Decisions program: Matt reported that this new social group, which is still in formation, for 18-24 year olds was started by Pete Espil. The group had a recent BBQ which was very successful. The group is also interested in community involvement, fund raising, charitable works, and has also discussed the topic of tithing.
Hispanic group: Fr. Jerry said that this group is doing 5 tamale sales this year.
KC news: The KCs now have a very large grill that can be rented to various parish groups. The 4th Degree dinner will be October 9 and is open to parishioners.
Next meeting: Tuesday October 24, 7 pm. Maureen Coon will give the prayer and Antonio Napoles will provide hospitality.
Closing: The Building on Faith prayer was said and the meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Diana Larkin
Secretary