Walker Church Council
October 26, 2006

Present: K.C. Bretzke, Kristine Smith, Walter Lockhart, Jesse Watkins, Kathryn Swain, Nancy Larsen, Jennifer Gahnstrom, Mary Burns, Wayne Bailey.

Jesse opened.

The minutes were approved as read.

Jennifer gave the finance report. There is enough money in the Outreach budget from the YIP grant to pay Sally for 15 hours a week of work and keep the Campfire group running.

Joel Albers of the Minnesota Universal Health Care Action Network has signed the fiscal agent contract with Walker.

Walter is testing the water at Walker with the idea of changing the time of the Sunday morning celebration to 10 am year round, instead of just in summer. This gives us time to converse over coffee after the celebration without intruding on the service of the renters, who start at 1 pm. Walter plans to ask for plenty of input before a final decision is made.

The lease for the renting of the parsonage has been signed, said Wayne. Occupancy will be November 15. He still plans to rent the garage to a neighbor for $40 a month. Wayne is scrambling to get the property cleaned and ready in time.

Wayne and Jennifer discussed the recent party rentals. Wayne thought there were problems, but Jennifer said the complaints she has heard are groundless.

Kristine stated how much we netted from the rummage sale. She is thinking of cutting back to one rummage sale a year since she has fewer and fewer workers who are willing to take major responsibility and put in the necessary hours. Walter responded that he could think of volunteer tasks around Walker that would be a better use of Kristine’s time. He also mentioned some ideas, such as bringing in suburban volunteers and making the sale bigger, that would preserve the income Walker receives from the rummage sale. Several members of the Council affirmed Kristine’s feeling that the rummage sale needs to evolve. A final decision on this will be made this winter, in time for the spring rummage sale preparation, which starts Easter Monday.

Walter spoke for the Involvement Committee. He plans to have a charge conference on Thursday, November 30, with the Church Council meeting to follow. If the slate of officers is ready, we will elect officers then. If not, they will be elected and installed at a charge conference in January. K.C. brought up a concern. If we have a charge conference on a Thursday night, only a handful of members will show up, certainly less than the numbers possible at a meeting after a Sunday potluck. People may feel excluded from the whole process. After some discussion, she asked that the November Charge Conference be scheduled the last Sunday in November after a potluck if the slate is ready to be voted on. Walter agreed.

The volunteer appreciation dinner is scheduled for Friday, November 3.

Walter gave the pastor’s report. He is in the process of designing a brochure with which we plan to flyer the neighborhood. He has dreams for the future of Walker, which he plans to take to the Staff Parish Relations Committee to use the members of the committee as a sounding board.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted.
Nancy Larsen
Church Council Secretary