September 18, 2007
Vestry Meeting
As Amended and Approved

Call to Order 7:00pm

Present: Bill Gibb, John Frye, Tom Litras, John Aulls, Dunbar Ashbury, Judy Haines, Dan Lajewski, Fr. Tommy, Gary Crump, Jim Cox, Rick Hirschman, Hunt Hendrickson, Jennifer Mariano, Waymon Wright
Absent: Chuck Hedges, Fr. Philip, Chelsea Cox, Michelle Leveque, and Jonathan Weber

Guests: Jack Anderson, Nancy Hennessey

Opening Prayer

Approval of Minutes
The minutes were distributed by email. A motion was made to accept the draft version. The motion was seconded and the minutes were approved.

Search Committee
Jack Anderson reported that the committee has narrowed the slate of candidates to four, each of whom will be visiting Frederick during the month of October. Nancy outlined the robust schedule of activities that each candidate will experience when they are here. The Committee will then present the final slate of candidates to the vestry on November 10th. There were some questions about the exact procedure the vestry will follow after the Search Committee presents their final recommendations in rank order.

Treasurer’s Report
Waymon and Michelle are to make bank deposits for the month.
Dunbar noted that pledge payments are behind by $15,000. Investment Income is doing well and is ahead of budget by about $9000.00. Overall, total income is under budget by about $17000. On the Expense side, most ministry areas are diligently keeping their expenses in check and are under budget as a result. There was concern about the Continuing Education line item that’s over budget by about $5300. This discrepancy led to a discussion about the vestry’s ability to monitor the budget to identify overruns. It was asked if the Search Committee has made the rector candidates aware of the parish financial position as they are interviewed.

Senior Warden’s Report
John Aulls noted that Harry Lawrence as resigned from the Parish Council and Bruce Fleming will be assuming that role. The Council is charged with reviewing the ministry areas and their budgets.

Junior Warden’s Report
Dan summarized the success of Homecoming Sunday and noted that a parish cleanup is scheduled for October 20th. He is also concerned about inclement weather this winter and suggests closing the sidewalk from the Memorial Garden to Church St. during times of heavy snow. This would minimize the cost of snow removal and also eliminate any potential liability for personal injury.

Parish Administrator
Rick reported that the sound system failed in the Nave and was beyond feasible repair, so the system has been replaced. We have been paying sales tax on electricity provided by Allegheny Power, but Rick applied for a refund and the church was reimbursed $5000 in sales tax payments.
We have added a second mailbox dedicated to the 108 W. Church St. address for the rectory in addition to the box for the church address of 106 W. Church.
Rick and Dunbar have been interviewing candidates to replace Denise. Rick reported on the activities of Westborough Church from Kansas that has a bizarre ministry of picketing military funerals and other activities. According to reliable sources, All Saints’ and St. John’s are on the list to be picketed on October 6th from 4:30-5:00. Frederick Police are aware, and since that is the day for In the Street celebration, police presence will probably be heavy in the downtown area anyway. We will only be aware of their presence but will not publicize in any way to attract attention.

Reports/Requests from Committees, Teams, Departments
Stewardship-October 20th is the stewardship event with guest speaker Bill Wrenn. Tom distributed slips of paper and asked each vestry member to write down his/her annual 2007 pledge. He then distributed a second set of slips and the vestry wrote their projected 2008 pledges. Pledge cards were also distributed.
Options-After some confusion over the location of original surveys of the church property, Loiderman and Associates will conduct the new survey of the rectory grounds prior to presenting the results to the City of Frederick.
Personnel- Judy distributed a proposed policy change stating “any lay employee who works more than 1000 hours+ per year is eligible to participate in the church pension effective in the month following the first anniversary of the employment date”. Following brief discussion, a motion was made to accept the change. The motion was seconded and approved.

New Business
Fr. Tommy noted that action has recently come up on the status of St. Barnabas Church has recently come up again following a discussion between he and Ann Weatherholt. All Saints’ owns the land and the building and leases the church for $1.00 a year to the one extended family who intermittently worships there. The building is in disrepair and the family is not maintaining its commitments There are many unanswered questions regarding the exact circumstances, but there are implications that could affect All Saints’ and result in dissolving that long-standing relationship. Fr. Tommy will speak again with Ann to try to find out more details.

Following the evaluation, the meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Gary E. Crump, Registrar