Present: Chris Sirotiak, Janice Zerfas, Gary Cook, Amy Eklund, Beth LeFever, Dave Sarra, Dick Berndt.

There were no minutes available from the October meeting.

Agenda approval prior to meeting. A suggestion was made the items be accepted for the monthly board meeting agenda until the Wednesday before the meeting. Items which are not on the agenda can be suggested at the beginning of the meeting for the board’s consideration and if it is the concensus of the board then the board will add the suggested items. The president shall send out the agenda with what has been proposed thus far on the first Sunday on the month and then people will have until Wednesday to suggest other items. Reports from committees will be due on the first Sunday of the month.

The Herald Palladium has stopped running our ad because our payment is late for the want ad that we ran. Dick has asked Gretchen to come up with a job description and he will ask her to submit it by next Sunday and then we can vote at the next meeting on an agreement.

Dave has been fingerprinted and he will put in the policy that the results will be sent to the office administrator. There is a request for a TV set that plays DVD’s and for a copier and it has been suggested that the money be taken out of the DRE budget items that will not be used. Chris moved that we that we apply the money from the DRE program for the DVD/TV and the copier. The motion was seconded by Janice. Motion passed. (It was generally agreed that the copier will not be purchased until the old one is in its death throes.

Beth’s report. She has met with the committee on ministry. She is interested in starting a contribution basket of food and take it to a food pantry so our congregation could bring an item or two. It was suggested that we need to check with our own congregation to see if anyone is in need first. Janice and Chris are willing to work on that project. Beth would like to respond to proposition 8.

Dick stated that he has found there is a lack of coordination regarding scheduled guests (outside of regularly scheduled ministers) and how much we pay who. We are paying mileage sometimes, sometimes not, and paying differing amounts. There is no consistency. All of the arrangements and how much is being paid needs to be coordinated through Harvey and communicated to the Treasurer. Dick will talk with Harvey about this.

Treasurer’s report from last month. A suggestion was made to increase the rental fee for the building by $150 for our regular renters. The board felt this was reasonable. Dick will check to see when the contracts are due to be renewed. The projected amount of receivables is off because the budget contained an assumption of new member pledges of $5900 which has not come about plus there is the amount of $900 for additional child care which was an error. There was a suggestion that May might be a good month to do the service auction so we will schedule for the first weekend in May. We will meet in December at Dick’s house. Gary will email board by next Sunday for suggested wording for publishing the plan for a special congregational meeting in January in the newsletter. Topics to be covered at the special annual meeting include budget proposals, possibly a change in the affirmation, and the participation in the service auction.

Dick stated that our cash balance is drifting down because we aren’t having the pledge income that we had predicted from new members. Each month the impact is a little greater. Dick will donate time for lawn mowing.

Projections will be made regarding how much we will be behind and how the actual expenses and receipts differ from what we had predicted in the original budget. Dick and Gary will work with this.

Dave was paid for September and October even though Dave wasn’t hired until the middle of the month. Dick is asking if Dave’s salary should be prorated. It was agreed that we would compensate Dave for the full month. Chris will donate $2000 for services performed at her home.

Amy moved to accept the Treasurer’s report, Chris seconded. The motion was passed.

Amy moved to schedule the congregational meeting for January 11, Chris seconded. The motion passed.