Wardens’ Report: October 2020
The vestry met on Tuesday, October 27th, remotely. Dan Vogel led us in our time of prayer this month and it was a privilege to know we were praying alongside Good Things Grow Through Prayer. We hope each of you will join us (the spots are full, but there is no limit to the number who can join us in praying!) in this weeklong opportunity for us to pray together.
We received an update from David Hanke about the vestry nomination and election process. We are grateful for all who were nominated this year and invite you to join us in praying over the slate of nominees who will be presented to the congregation in mid-November.
The Vestry approved changes to our Child Protection Policy for APEX (middle and high school programming) in order to help grow relationships between our leaders and students while preserving a safe environment both in person and virtually. APEX parents can expect details on these changes in the coming weeks.
The Vestry reviewed and approved changes developed by Kevin Marshall to our Bylaws, which had not received a thorough update since our inception 10+ years ago. The primary changes seek to improve our deliberations, institutional memory, and ability to work effectively with the Rector, including codifying practices that have worked well.
Dan Vogel, the vestry liaison to our Outreach Steering Team (OST), presented, and the Vestry approved, a policy to guide OST’s giving, ensuring that it is aligned with our beliefs and mission while also allowing flexibility. As we have done in previous years, we will continue to give our Christmas offering to a local outreach partner and our Lenten/Holy Week offerings to a global outreach partner. Additionally, we approved additional gifts to some of our outreach partners based on additional funds we had available at the end of FY2020 (which ended in August). Thank you Restoration for enabling us to give generously to these partners!
Brad Jones, our treasurer, gave an update on our finances and in-person and virtual attendance. Brad also led discussions of recommendations from the Finance Team regarding best practices for allocating and distributing OST grant amounts each year and regarding what to do about our mortgage. As we continue to think about how best to use the birthday gift from our ten year celebration last November, our Finance Team has offered us several options on how to move forward with our mortgage. We look forward to seeing more details and reaching a decision in the months to come.
Finally, Lorene Eberhart, our personnel chair, gave an update on the hiring process for the Director of Worship Arts and Director of APEX positions. We invite you to join us in praying for our hiring teams led by Kat Downs, our Director of Operations. Details about both positions can be found on our website.
As always, we welcome your questions and feedback. You can read an archive of past Wardens’ Reports on our website or Vestry Meeting minutes on CCB, under the ‘Files’ tab in the ‘Entire Church Group’.
– Johanna Montague and Kevin Marshall, Wardens