Church of St. Catherine Parish Pastoral Council

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Meeting Minutes

Members present: Gregg Gropel, Patty Evans, Mike Jarchow, Fr. Tom, Deb Goebel, Pat Saum, Dan Nath, Steve Heitkamp

Members excused: John Serie, George Langford

The meeting was called to order by Vice President, Dan Nath and began with a prayer from Fr. Tom. The meeting minutes of November 14, 2007 were approved. A motion was made by Pat to approve the minutes as written, seconded by Mike. Motion carried. The agenda was approved.

Old Business

A) Ministry Schedules - There were no comments or suggestions on the 3 month schedules. It is working well.

B) Communion – to hospital, nursing homes, home bound. Currently providing communion monthly. Would like to begin weekly visits.

C) Liturgical Ministries Coordinators – Mike Cox has volunteered to be the coordinator for the greeters. He implemented the greeter badges and ensures that the greeter schedules are covered. We are working to fill coordinator positions for the other ministries such as readers, Eucharistic Ministers, ushers.

New Business

A) Parish Store – Council members toured the parish store.

B) Social Ministry – Wednesday, January 9, 2008, Nicole Paladie presented ideas on working with the grieving and the shut-ins. This was her second visit and the committee will meet with her again in March. LCCW presented Poinsettias to all parish members who had funerals the past year.

C) On-going Paint Projects – Volunteer painters, Bruce Gluf and Dick Smook are looking to take a little break. There are still areas of the church that need to be painted, such as the gym and the classrooms. More volunteers are welcome.

D) Bishop Harrington’s new pastoral letter – “Proclaim Jesus” was in the December Courier. The letter listed 5 initiatives that we will be working to incorporate. The next meeting with the Bishop will be in Adrian on Monday, February 11 at 6:30. George Langford will represent our parish at the meeting.

E) Trustee and Finance Council Positions – Paul Von Holtum resigned as trustee and Finance Council member leaving two open positions. In addition to filling the trustee position, it was recommended that the Finance Council be increased from three members to five.

F) Video Camera and TV – Steve passed along a recommendation from parishioners to purchase video equipment to be used during masses when the gathering space is needed for masses (i.e. Christmas and Easter). Dan will look into the equipment needed and the cost. Will continue discussion at the next meeting.

G) Direct Deposit – Dan mentioned that it would be fairly easy to set up direct deposit for contributions. He will work with Mary on this.

Reports

A) Liturgy (Dan and Fr. Tom) – No report.

B) Faith Formation (Dan) – Katie Baustian is doing an excellent job and will be invited to present at the May Pastoral Council meeting. She is in need of a kindergarten teacher as one has resigned. There are a few meals coming up one being the Lenten soup supper.

C) Knights of Columbus (John) – No report.

D) LCCW (Patty) – Patty reported that Kathy Hamann and Awanda Siebenahler are the kitchen coordinators and work directly with groups wanting to use our facilities. They ensure that the kitchen is kept in proper order. The pro life collection will be after both masses this weekend and volunteers will be holding baby bottles for the donations. LCCW is sponsoring the Valentine box for Tyler Scheidt.

E) Finance Council (Mary) – We are still waiting for the church lighting to be installed. Finances are straightened out and balanced with the last two bank statements. The year end statements were mailed today to all parishioners.

F) Social Ministry Committee (Fr. Tom) – No further report.

G) Pastor’s Report –There are now10 RCIA candidates and the meetings are going great with good discussion. On February 21, the staff retreat will be with Nicole Paladie and the topic will be “Living your Strengths”.

H) Administrator – Mary finished her first year as Parish Administrator and is looking forward to the future. We all commended her on the fine job she has done this past year.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 8:00 pm. Fr. Tom led us in our closing prayer.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Deborah Goebel, Secretary