Deacon Minutes 

4-3-05 

Those present: Sara Pottenger, Mitch Dozier, Elena Cleary, Bill Scott, Rebecca Mattern-Milcarek, Bill Scott, Scott McLeod, Sally Keener, Barb VandenBroeck, Carol Cunningham, Michael Reich, Duck Rufty, Jeff Sutton, Bobby Yurkatat, and Gerry Green 

Gerry Green gave a Session update including:

    -  Haywood announced in January that he would not retire yet. He will stay at least one year will reassess each January.

    -  The Session voted NOT to pursue the "Georgia model" of replacing Haywood when he does decide to retire.

    -  A comprehensive church assessment is being conducted led by Brian Nicoll.

    -  An assessment of officer assignments/duties is being conducted - led by Gerry. Elena and Mitch will represent the Deacons on this committee. Mitch/Gerry asked each Deacon to contact churches they used to belong to, to see if they can provide a summary of Elder vs. Deacon duties for comparison. 

Concerns: Betty is sick. Rebecca's sister was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 24. Elena's dad is no longer in remission and is back on chemotherapy.  

Celebrations: The Deacons received written thank you's from Project Graduation and Habitat for Humanity and verbally (via Bill Scott) from Duke Campus Ministries.  

CROP Walk was a success and the money is being collected. 

IHN visit went smoothly with lots of help from the regulars. Part of the Hand-in-Hand classroom is being walled off to make an IHN closet. The room where IHN stuff is currently stored will become a Sunday school room. 

Collection Boxes will continue to be non-perishable foods.  Mexico Mission will use one box soon to collect new or gently used winter coats. Rebecca and Barbara R continue to check/empty boxes. 

The Housing for New Hope bus tour is May 15.  Michael has about 12 people signed up, but hasn't received responses from many officers. Housing for New Hope also recently held a bluegrass festival as a fundraiser. This will likely become an annual event. 

Benevolence review: Benevolence Committee had not received any new requests. 

Mission Work Day planning is on track. Elena is coordinating with help from Michael. Sign-up will begin next Sunday with help from Duck and Scott. 

The Deacon lunch (March 13) was well-attended but had no volunteers sign up at the event (some atttendees already volunteer). The DCRC talk by Dina Helderman was very good for increasing awareness, and lots of Deacons helped pull off the event. The Diaconate discussed having a more detailed DCRC session during the Sunday School hour.  Rebecca will touch base with Nancy Rozak on possibility/logistics. 

Rebecca discussed meeting with Bonnie Derr in the next few weeks regarding the Barnabus grp / time stewardship. Mitch will invite Sam Bryan to come to a future meeting to discuss the website. We may want to assign a Deacon to be in charge of ensuring Deacon items on the website are updated. This will be discussed next meeting. 

Elena suggested more formal committees run by Deacons that would include more church members. Mitch suggested (or reiterated from previous conversations) more formal roles for or communication with Deacon / Elder 'alumni'. We will discuss details of these concepts at the next meeting. Additionally, Mitch will touch base with Sam Bryan about most productive way to update web site. 

Mitch overviewed recent issue with Durham Home for Recovery payments and the proposed new spreadsheet to align benevolence budget with Deacon assignments. The group decided that adding additional columns to indicate other church members who are on boards or heavily involved with each benevolence would be beneficial.  We will work on filling in this info over the next month. A question arose over who decides on the amount in the Howard Williams Fund and how is it distributed. Mitch will look into this. 

The Deacons discussed Barbara Fletcher's request that the Camp New Hope budget be moved from Educational/Other Benevolences to Deacon benevolences since Michael Reich is now on the board.  No decision was made.  Michael will discuss history of funding with Daily Derr and Barbara for discussion at next meeting. 

Bill Scott is working on securing a camp site for Pres Point Weekend.  Elena will do 'marketing'. 

Deacons discussed need for timely minutes to Session and posting on web site.

Mitch will check when Gail mails the minutes of various committees to the Session each month and whether this should be "draft" minutes of the most recent meeting or "approved" minutes from the previous months meeting. 

Deacon's Corner: Elena will ask Gail to add an announcement for the Mission Work Day. 

Michael closed with a prayer. 

Minutes submitted by Elena Cleary. 

4-7-05 Addendum by Mitch Dozier based on e-mail from Betty Berghaus:

The Howard Williams Fund was established in honor of Mildred Williams’ husband many years ago.  The monies collected in this fund go to Presbyterian Urban Ministries strictly to be used to help clients with rent, utilities, medicine, etc. Deacons set the Howard Williams Fund amount each year, but have left it high because that is the only source we have that strictly funds clients at PUM.  It is a fund set up by WPC for that purpose.