Deacon Minutes 

2-27-05 

Those Present:  Jeff Sutton, Sara Pottenger, Mitch Dozier, Duck Rufty, Betty Berghaus, Michael Reich, Carol Cunningham, Barb Vanden Broek, Mickey Herrin, Sally Keener, Rebecca Mattern-Mielcarek, Nancy Safrit, Scott McLeod, Bobby Yurkutat, Barbara Rynerson, Elena Cleary, Dave Calderwood 

Bobby opened with a devotional and prayer.

Concerns:  Bobby's grandfather passed away. Nancy Rozak's brother continues to fight cancer. Bill and Jonathan Burig were in an accident last month; Bill broke his neck and his knee. Dene Reich's mother is recovering from surgery.
 
Celebrations:  Barbara Yurkatat's sister had a baby. Dilwegs had a baby boy. Anne Vann has taken on the job of WPC nursery coordinator. Sally has sent 48 notes of concerns since October.  

Collection boxes and shoe boxes at Christmas: The staff would like a Deacon named responsible for each of these. Betty and Haywood took the shoe boxes and coats from the November collection to Urban Ministries. Sara took some to IHN. The Deacons recommended distributing shoe boxes to only one agency next year, preferably Urban Ministries. Barbara Rynerson will be responsible for emptying the collection boxes each month and delivering items to agencies. Elena Cleary will be responsible for delivery of shoe boxes. 

Bus tour: Michael is planning a bus tour of Housing for New Hope sites. Session has agreed that this should include only Session and Diaconate at first, then expand to congregation. Michael will work with Gail to pick 2-3 dates to send to Diaconate and Session to see how many could attend. A date will then be set. 

Mission Focus: Non-perishable food will be collected in March for DCRC. Elena will let Gail know. 

The Mission Work Day will be May 7. Michael Reich will shadow Elena on this event coordinating. Bobby and Rebecca will be site supervisors at DCRC (shelter and thrift store). Jeff will be site supervisor for WPC site. Rebecca and Sara will gather information about work needed from DCRC and IHN, respectively. 

The Deacons will host a lunch on March 13 with a speaker from DCRC. Rebecca will arrange a kid-friendly program with a chance to sign up to volunteer. She has invited Dina Helderman to give an overview of domestic/sexual violence and the services of DCRC. Elena will hang fliers, ask for a broadcast email to the congregation and arrange catering from Q-Shack or Panera. Set-up will occur on Saturday, March 12, 4:30 with Elena, Mitch, Mickey, Rebecca, and Scott. Rebecca, Mitch, Scott, Elena, Sally will help with serving and clean-up. Betty will help where she can. Barb VdB will do childcare. 

CROP Walk: CROP Walk will take place at 2:30 on March 20. Registration begins at 1:30. A team of Deacons are manning the sign-up table and recruiting lots of walkers. Every Deacon was encouraged to walk. If this is not possible, they were asked to sponsor someone. 

IHN: IHN will be here March 20-27. This is a busy week for the chuch (holy week), and Sara is worried about getting the help needed. Deacons were asked to encourage folks to help. 

New Hope Camp and Conference Center: Michael is on the board and toured the 168 acre site. They are under tight timelines to do some sort of fund raising, however they don't know what yet. There is a great deal of commitment by the board and lots of potential. 

Benevolence/activity updates: The following updates were given re: benevolences/activities from Deacons present. 

Dave: NCCU Campus ministry got a new pastor fall of last year and is progressing well. 

Sara: IHN appreciated the money for the capital campaign. Dave Pottenger is on the board and will roll off. WPC needs another person to put on their board. 

Bill: Duke Campus Ministries was pleased to get more money from us this year. Bill and Bruce Cunningham are on their board. Duke Campus Ministries will lead worship at WPC March 6. 

Sally: Shelter meals has had good participation. However, they recently used $80 of Deacon money to cover a shortfall - then folks brought food later and there was extra food. Go figure. 

Sally also visited Durham Nativity School and was very impressed. Haywood also visited the school.  

Lenten lunch went well, although again, there was too much food. 

Rebecca: DCRC update discussed during Mission Focus part of meeting (see above). 

Bobby: Bobby is in contact with the Food Bank. It was mentioned that Dana Lange is doing an extra (and quite creative) fundraiser for the Food Bank. 

Carol: CROP covered above. Share your Christmas was a big success. 

Elena: Mission Focus covered above. Also note Pres Pt. Campout planning is in the early phases. 

Barbara R: Apartment we furnished at Next Step Housing is complete. They have interviewed potential tenants and are waiting for certificate of occupancy. 

Nancy: Nancy has been very impressed with the Durham Congregations in Action. It is run on a VERY tight budget. 

Mitch: Hispanic ministry had installation of their new minister. 

Betty is looking for a job description for the Deacon nominating committee. Frances Anton provided the Diaconate with a book: Mission Focus Yearbook 2005. 

Emily Collins is moving away. This may create a hole for a Deacon representative on the Stewardship Committee. However, this may not be a problem until summertime. 

Mitch will invite Sam Bryan to come to a future meeting to discuss the WPC web page.

Mitch closed meeting with a prayer 

Minutes Submitted by Elena Cleary