Present: Emily Hecht, Lisa Dalgleish, David Sarra, Dick Berndt, Amy Eklund, Chris Sorotiak, Janice Zerfas

Minutes from previous meeting were present. Motion to accept the minutes made by Dick, seconded by Chris Passed unanimously.

Election of officers:

President: Janice Zerfas
Vice President: Emily Hecht
Secretary: Amy Eklund
Treasurer: Dick Berndt

Chris moved that we formally nominate the slate of officers. Lisa seconded the nomination. Nominations were accepted unanimously and slate was elected unanimously.

Chris reported on her meeting with an accounting firm from Lansing. They will be sending her information on a range of options to pursue. They suggested that we do not have a true full audit because we are a smaller organization which this would be very cumbersome for but instead do a financial assessment. They would do a basic examination of the books and make suggestions about how we handled our tracking, etc. They stated that it is common practice in organizations to have a third independent party making the deposits. The range might go up to $2500 depending on how complicated we choose to make it. By next meeting the financial committee will be ready to report on our options.

Janice moved that we meet on the second Sunday of the month, Dick seconded, passed unanimously.

Dick suggested we have an email list that includes the administrators that is designated as “board plus”. Dave will be working with Gretchen to get things set up. Dick suggested we work toward having a discussion board where most of the discussion takes place. The HQ drive will also contain copies of the contracts.

Gary has left a couple messages with Jim McConnell and has not heard back. Dave will coordinate with Harvey to schedule the Sunday services that RE will be doing. Dave is working on the plans for RE for the fall. Dave and Gretchen will work together and Dave will bring the list of duties for the job description to the next board meeting.

Since Beth will not be here next year it was suggested that we remove her name from the sign for the coming year and replace with a message such as “welcoming congregation”. Amy will contact Gary and ask him if he will take care of getting the sign changed.

Music Director: Dave called Candace Onweller twice and requested she come at 10 am this morning but has not heard back from her. If she does not show up today Dave will suggest that she come August 9. (Candace has suggested previously that she would be music director in return for using the church for piano lessons.)

Lisa volunteered to chair the Membership Committee.

It was suggested that we might do a service honoring the wisdom of age (or similar related phrasing) sometime during the year. Dave said there was a message from Doug Geisler stating Marion Geisler passed away recently. Lisa will follow through with checking with Doug and sending a sympathy card to the family. Dave found a message regarding money owed for an event at the Berrien Hills Country Club. No board members had any knowledge of these events. Gary has volunteered to assist Harvey with the Sunday Service committee so he may need to retain a set of keys. Dave will work on an announcement regarding soliciting members for the various committees. The retreat may be a good place to focus on where we go for the next 50. We will spotlight members who have been here for a time in the newsletter such as Ohmanns. Lisa will go through the membership book and figure out 10 to feature in the newsletter and bring the list to the next meeting and then we will divvy up the responsibility for writing the interviews for the newsletter. Janice and Emily will come up with a questionnaire for writing our interviews.

Lisa will contact the district and see if they have any guidance for us regarding the policy regarding disclosure of members with sex offender history or other felony offences.

Janice wondered if we might be helping out with the soup kitchen. She would like to be involved in some way. She will talk with Francie to see if that might be one of the things they would like to support. Francie has mentioned that they would like to support the OWL curriculum. It might be nice to have a speaker from the soup kitchen also.

Tom Hackley presented an opportunity. He has been working with Marletta Seats on a training program for energy workers (weatherization, renewable energy, etc.) There may be an opportunity for fund raising. She would like to involve her son’s church. It involves using no worker left behind funds and there is a training program set up in the Detroit/Lansing/Flint area. It would probably be housed at her church which is near the Mercy center. (a COGIC church) They are looking up at setting up a training program here. American Green Careers. They would start with the training for weatherization to capitalize on the low income weatherization projects. Tom would like to know if he should continue to advance with exploration. The board informally agreed that Tom can explore this idea.

Moved to adjourn by Dick, Chris seconded. Approved unanimously.