Stewards Minutes
Seekers Church
January 3, 2010
Present: Marjory Bankson (notetaker), Peter Bankson, Ken Burton, Lewise Busch (angel), Pat Conover, Cynthia Dahlin, Jane Engle, Sue Johnson, Muriel Lipp (angel), David Lloyd, Sandra Miller (worship), Trish Nemore, Brenda Seat, Keith Seat, Margreta Silverstone, Deborah Sokolove (moderator).
Absent: Jacqie Wallen
Worship began with an Epiphany reading by Sandra.
For Next Month: February 14, 2010 (Valentine’s Day)… to avoid Super Bowl Sunday.
Moderator…Trish Notes……… David
Worship….. Ken Angels……. Sandra, Pat
Since the building is in use by regular groups on the second Sunday of the month, our first choice is to meet at the regular time (5pm) at Goodwin House. If that’s not possible, we’ll meet from 12-2:45pm at Carroll St. Marjory will contact Emily to arrange for Goodwin House. [Done. We will meet at GH]
Report on 2025: Keith
There was no visit by the Prime Minister of Georgia, so nothing is happening on that purchase possibility. The sales agent will begin to circulate the building for other buyers.
Time & Space office rental: Deborah
Since we have not had a tenant for the office in more than a year, T&S proposed that we accept an offer from the Resource Center for AlAnon at $400/month. They will be in the office part-time, 1:00-6:00pm Monday-Thursday and some for delivery of materials on Saturday. They are willing to share the space if we find another renter for times when they are not scheduled to be there. Stewards approved the rental contract.
David requested T&S seek a contract for clearing snow from the parking lot. He thanked Pat and Trish for clearing the front sidewalk after the huge storm on Dec 19, and for the major effort that it took Pat, David and Peter to clear the parking lot in time for Christmas Eve dinner. T&S agreed to pursue this.
“Meet a Seeker”: Peter
To encourage all Stewards to participate in the web-feature, “Meet a Seeker,” Peter passed out a list of prompts and gave us ten minutes to write and then share in trios:
1. When did you come to Seekers Church?
2. Why did you stay?
3. What sustains your spiritual journey?
4. What is God’s call on your life at this time? In Seekers Church? In other places?
6. What is your prayer for this time?
He collected finished pieces and encouraged the other Stewards to send their stories by email.
Budget Surplus: Marjory
For the Financial Oversight Group (FOG), Marjory shared the year-end financial figures for 2009. In addition to the generous Christmas offering of $4,912.25, we have a net income of $80,000. Contributed income is nearly $50,000 more than we anticipated at $240,000; building use income was higher by $6,000 and we have underspent anticipated expenses for the rest. As planned in the budget, $45,750 has gone for principle repayment on the building loan and $9,442 for interest.
From that surplus of $80,000, Pat requested a $22,000 loan for Ron Kraybill, who was commissioned as a missioner from Seekers two years ago. He and his wife, Odelya, and their twin boys, visited Seekers last week and Pat talked with him about some of their pressing financial needs. After some discussion about whether a larger loan would be appropriate, we settled on this particular need. Pat will arrange for a letter of understanding with Ron, with repayment to begin in April. That left the net income at $58,000.
At the December meeting, we decided to use 25% of any net income for charitable giving. A special Year-end Gift Committee (Pat, Jane, Sandra and Cynthia) proposed gifts to the following recipients:
27% Capital Area Food Bank
27% Shepherd’s Table
27% Arlington/Alexandria Food Assistance Center
16% Community Vision
$500 Jake Folger’s homeless ministry
After much discussion, Stewards decided to allocate $20,000 (34% of our net come) for charitable giving and to use $38,000 (66%) for additional debt repayment. Jane suggested that the Year-end Gift Committee meet to revisit the amounts for each organization. Cynthia will let Sue know how much to send to each recipient.
Two Stewards to share: Cynthia and Sue shared in more depth about their lives and callings.
After Soul Talk from other Stewards, we closed with prayer.
