Warden’s Report: January 2020
The Wardens’ Report: a brief summary of highlights from monthly Vestry meetings, designed to provide information about our growth, finances, priorities and progress towards our strategic plan.
January 28th marked the first official meeting of our new 2020 vestry. We gathered for dinner together and prayer before starting the meeting. This month David Hanke led us through our prayer time which focused on asking the Holy Spirit to bless our time together and give us wisdom as we start the meeting and a new year. Additionally we prayed for David and for his work as the rector of our church as he preaches, leads, creates, plans, and stewards this body. We prayed for his leadership of our staff, his preaching and teaching, and for his overall care of our congregation. And we prayed for his family as they love and support each other day to day. We welcome your prayers for all the staff, the Vestry, and God’s work here on Quincy Street.
At our retreat last weekend, we elected officers for 2020. Our wardens are Johanna Montague and Kevin Marshall; secretary is Mary Breed; Treasurer is Brad Jones.
On Tuesday, we voted to approve changes to the rosters of several of our advisory teams. These teams offer invaluable guidance and advice to the vestry and include: Finance (led by Brad Jones), Outreach (led by Dan Vogel), Facilities (led by Adam Guzzo), and Personnel (led by Lorene Eberhardt). We are grateful for all who serve in this capacity.
Brad Jones, our treasurer, presented an update on end of year giving and the first quarter of fiscal year 2020. We are grateful to report that attendance is trending upward, our giving is on track, and our overall financial health is good. The finance team, under Brad’s leadership, continues to monitor our financial situation and weigh options for our mortgage. Brad will give a report to the congregation on our financial health at the Parish Meeting on February 25th.
The vestry, in accordance with its policies for such matters, considered four bids for and a staff report regarding a contract to improve our website, which was an item in Good Things Grow Here. After a discussion and some clarifications, the vestry unanimously approved proceeding with one of the bids. We are excited for what God will do with our church in the next five years and the ways an updated website will aid us in that work.
Lastly we spent time discussing how we could best use the 10th Anniversary Gift we collected around our celebration in November. We are grateful for the generous gifts totally approximately $250K that were collected from that weekend. Thank you to all who so generously gave! The 2019 vestry has already put a portion of those gifts to work through a new website (see above) and hiring Scott Buckhout as our Curate. The 2020 vestry will be discussing and praying over the coming months about how best to put the remainder of this gift to good work.
As always, if you have questions, concerns, words of wisdom or encouragement, please know that we are open to your 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