Seekers Church
August 3rd 2014 Stewards Meeting
Present: Peter Bankson, Marjory Bankson (angel), Kevin Barwick, Ken Burton, Pat Conover , Cynthia Dahlin (worship), Sandra Miller (angel), Trish Nemore, Brenda Seat, Keith Seat, Deborah Sokolove (moderator), Jacqie Wallen (recorder)..
Absent: Dave Lloyd, Margreta Silverstone
Visitors: Mary Carol Dragoo (MSG), Judy Lantz (MSG),Vincent Shepherd (MSG), Larry Rawlings (Koinonia)
Worship: Cynthia led worship and concluded with a joint reading of the Stewards’ Commitment Statement.
Housekeeping: next meeting will be September 14th at 5:00 pm at Seekers.
Moderator: Ken Worship: Sandra
Recorder: Trish Angels: Brenda & Keith
Takoma Park Folk Festival: Larry and Brenda
Seekers will have a booth at the Takoma Park Folk Festival on Sunday, September 7th. There will be only one combined table for Seekers and Carroll Café to make staffing less demanding. We will have a display of artists who have exhibited in the Seekers gallery over the past 12 months. Larry would also like to have a bulletin board where people who have attended Seekers can post about their experience for others to read. A sign-up sheet for staffing the booth will be posted two weeks before the festival. There will also be a meeting on the third Sunday in August (August 17th) after worship to share an “elevator speech” that people who work at the booth can use to tell people about Seekers. We will have the lemonade again and people who want to give donations will be given a little (lemon) yeallow card that has Seekers’ address on it so they can mail in a donation if they wish.
Mission Support Companions: Mary Carol
Mary Carol read the new statement of call for the Mission Support Companions, a group that is separate from but related to the Mission Support Group, though not itself a mission group (primarily because it doesn’t have two people who are able or willing to be Stewards). Though it does not have official mission group standing, the Mission Support Companions group functions like a mission group.
Ministry update: Carroll Cafe
Because of travel and other obligations, Carroll Café has not been able to meet to produce a report for this meeting but will give a report in November. Stewards were reminded that Jesse’s CD release concert is on September 12th, an important occasion for all of us.
Oiko Credit check: Marjory.
Marjory reported that in June we received a $93,000 check from Oiko Credit saying that they were closing out our account due to a reorganization and would like permission to reinvest it on our behalf. The reinvestment was approved.
Safe Space Stickers: Cynthia
Cynthia reported that she had attended a meeting of Clergy for Justice where she learned about Safe Space Stickers and asked if we would like to get some to show GLBT people that we are a welcoming community. Stewards expressed an interest in getting some of the stickers.
Holy Spirit Fund: Peter presented a report on the Holy Spirit Fund’s spending for the past year and noted that spending has been climbing over the past several years. SLT has examined what they have been doing, what has worked, and what hasn’t worked and have developed some guidelines aimed at ensuring consistency and containing costs for the Fund. One major change is that the Holy Spirit Fund will no longer give loans. It will give money, as appropriate, but not lend it. Along these same lines, SLT expressed a desire to forgive all outstanding loans included in the current spending report. Stewards expressed support for the guidelines and approved forgiving all outstanding loans in the Holy Spirit Fund report. There was a discussion of how Stewards could support SLT in setting limits on the use of the Holy Spirit Fund. It was agreed that Stewards would have a longer future discussion about the guidelines.
The meeting closed with SOUL TALK. Deborah mentioned that she will be installed as a Full Professor at Wesley Theological Seminary on October 21st at 11 am. The ceremony will be held in the chapel at the Seminary.
Submitted by Jacqie Wallen
August 15, 2014
