Present:  Tom Hackley, Gary Cook, David Sarra, Dick Berndt, Bea Takeuchi, Amy Eklund

Minutes from February were approved as corrected.

Treasurer’s report was informally given by Dick Berndt.  (No statements distributed) Pledge letters will be going out at the end of this month that will show people how much they pledged for this church year and how much they have paid to date on their pledge.  At this point it does not appear that there will be any surplus.  Despite generating more income this year we may wind up just about the same point we were last year.  Dick is still working on getting the reports to be the best working tool.  No new member pledges came in.  Dave suggested that we have a New Member Packet which would include information on the church, pledging, member list, etc.  There was discussion about contributing in-kind and assigning value.  It was determined that the property tax bill we received last month did not belong to us.  Dick notified the actual owners of the property.  Additional payment to Gretchen has begun but she has not yet received the full amount of retroactive pay that is due her.  Dick will email out the financial detail and a summary detail.

Issues remaining from the auction:  There were some furniture items that Bea gave away because she was not told that they had been sold so a refund will have to be made.   It was suggested that Chris make a list of the tasks that were involved in the auction so if someone else takes charge of it they will have something to work from.  The issue of the donation of the dinner at Café Gulistan was discussed.  Before another auction occurs a policy needs to be established for contributions from commercial providers.

President's report:  The membership committee will handle the food ordering for the pledge banquet.  Last year invitations were sent out.  There was discussion about what format that would take this year. The  Elkhart group cannot trade servers with us due to a scheduling conflict.  There was discussion about whether we want to change our date.  A motion was passed to change the pledge banquet to April 26 if this date will work for everyone involved.  Tom will check with Beth on date and entertaining.  David will write the pledge letter and mention the dinner.  David and Tom will coordinate on the dates and the list.  Tom will come up with an invitation card.  Babysitting needs to be arranged.

The nominating committee will need to be contacted soon so they can start planning.  Terms will be ending for David, Bea, and Viola.

For April 6 service Don Wheat cancelled and so David is proposing that Beth make up her Sunday on that date.

Maynard Kaufman is willing to do a guest sermon on Living in Interesting Times and gave potential dates.

David has not received an update from Emily Hecht on COSA.  There is a Crop walk meeting this Thursday.  David will continue to try to connect with her.

IRS tax guide for Churches and Religious Organization was downloaded for reference.

UUA has new bumper stickers available.  Gary will check this out.

RE Committee report:  Theresa LaPlante would be willing to do another year of RE.  Her official review needs to be done.  Dave will announce this and put in a request for feedback in writing.  Report accepted.

Bea suggests we honor the Fullers as part of the anniversary celebration.  Russell Babcock discussed a book called Brook Kerith.  Bea has this book and would like to donate it to the church in their name.

Building and grounds report: Bea spoke to Charles who is willing to work on the Building and Grounds Committee.  She suggested Harvey be involved too as well as Gary.  Dick would be willing to participate.  She will pass along all the parking lot material to whoever chairs the Building and Grounds Committee.

Membership Committee: see above re policy for commercial donations.  Tom has been in touch with South Bend and Elkhart churches regarding advertising.  They have included the amount for the joint ad   in their budget.  There was discussion regarding whether we should make it a voluntary extra pledge item rather than putting it in the regular budget.  Tom reported on the endowment contribution  idea.  He had talked with Marilyn Klawiter about it and she felt there weren’t any difficulties that needed to be watched out for.  The next step would be to make an appointment with Marv and Kate.  There was a seminar on planned giving last week but it was cancelled because there weren’t enough interested in attending.

New Business—There was some discussion about whether we should consider a new location at some point for social justice and visibility.

Moved to adjourn.

Next meeting, April 27.