2005 - 2006 Annual Reports

Church Council

Church Council is responsible for reviewing the work of the church and acting in the name of the congregation between congregational meetings for administration of the church’s business.

This year Council worked with the Investment Committee to develop a policy for withdrawals from the General Investment Fund.  The policy we put in place is a principal protection plan where the amount available for yearly general budgeting purposes would normally be any growth or earnings that exceed 3% of the fund’s value on the first day of the church’s fiscal year.

Council continues to look at plans for the parsonage.  In the next year we plan to do a space study of all church facilities to make a final determination on the need and feasibility of using the parsonage as part of our church ministry.  We plan to bring a proposal to the congregation at the 2007 Annual Meeting. 

A Council subcommittee continues to look at our proposed church-wide planning initiative.  Without funds available to hire a consultant, this group is working through a self-education process with the hope that we can put together an internally led planning initiative.  The education process will continue through 2006.

Council is introducing new fundraisers this year.  On May 6 the church will be hosting Heritage Day.  We are looking forward to a day of antiques appraisals, learning more about our history, and fellowship with members of our community.  A special thanks to Richard Tuerck and Paul Lindemann for all their work in putting this event together.  In the fall we are looking forward to a couple of other new fundraisers, a church-wide yard sale and a sweatshirt sale.  Council also approved adding an Amazon link to the church website (www.fpc-ucc.org).  Under this program the church will receive a percentage of all Amazon purchases made through the church website link.

The budget has continued to be a major part of Council’s work.  For each of the last three years, the church has ended the year in a deficit.  In order to cover expenses we have had to borrow money from other church funds.  Council is working on plans for how to raise the money to repay the accounts we borrowed from.  We expect we will need to introduce more fundraisers along with other deficit reduction ideas. 

Council believes it is critical that we find a way to end the run of deficits and bring a balanced budget to the congregation.  Doing that is no small task.  For the 2006/2007 proposed budget we held all salaries at their 2005/2006 levels, made cuts to the Music Ministry and Christian Education programs, and asked the Facilities Board to find ways to cut costs for maintenance and custodial services.  We are not happy with these cuts, believing we have a responsibility to provide fair raises to our staff, but without the necessary income we feel these are the cuts we have to make. 

The fundraisers mentioned above, the Youth Ministry Committee’s decision to contribute over half of the proceeds from their auction, and the commitment to use all of the Sugar Plum Fair proceeds have all helped to increase income for this budget.  Unfortunately, even with the cuts we made and the additional sources of income, the budget we are presenting is $6,000 short of being balanced.  The only avenue left is to look for additional pledge income. 
Council will be working with the Stewardship Board to communicate the budget objectives and ask for additional pledging support.  Our minimum goal is to raise the $6,000 needed to balance the proposed budget.  Our stretch goal is to raise $25,000 which would allow us to provide our staff with pay raises and reinstate the cuts we made to the Music Ministry and Christian Education programs.  Council believes we can achieve both goals and we look forward to working with the entire congregation to make it happen.

Church Council:
Becky Fleury, Moderator; Bill Mann, Assistant Moderator; Fred Merrill, Treasurer; Cathy Pottle, Clerk; Alice Ling, Senior Pastor; Lucy Alexander, Associate Pastor; Cathy Baumann, Christian Education; Jill Buelte, Christian Outreach & Mission; Lee DeBell, Diaconate; Bill Armstrong, Facilities; Cindee Cadieux, Music; Sue Lindemann, Personnel; Mike Schroeder, Stewardship; Sandy Carter, Member at Large; Gail Hepworth, Member at Large;  Mark Wiseman, Member at Large