August - Lindenwood Christian Church

Lindenwood Christian Church
General Board of Directors Meeting
Bell Conference Room
Sunday, August 17, 2014 – 12:15-1:45 PM
Agenda
Present: Wayne Cook, Ric Potts, Gary Aulfinger, Susan Archey, Rachel Lyles, Bill Dancer
Absent: Emily Duke, Herb Hilgeman
Others in Attendance: Rev. Dr. Bill McConnell (Sr. Minister), Marena McDonald (Chair of Deacons),
Anna Hough (Chair of Elders), Lynn Pleasants (Finance Liaison), Alan Wells, Susan Wells, Adrienne
Sloan (Chair, Sr. Minister Search Committee), Bill Eddings (Maintenance Ministry) and Frank Fly
(Maintenance Ministry)
Call to Order – Rachel Lyles @ 12:15 PM
I.
Opening Prayer
II. Consent Agenda – Rachel Lyles (5 min.)
i.
July 20th Meeting Minutes and August Ministry Reports
i. In the July minutes is a comment from Clay Isom that the Foundation is not
moving forward with establishing a separate entity at this time. Marena
asked the reasoning for this. Rachel to follow up with Clay to get more detail.
Rachel will update the July minutes with Clay’s response and resend to the
Board.
ii. Ministry report – Outreach – Peabody Elementary (LCC’s adopted school)
School Store was a huge success (150 students served was the goal, 260 was
the actual number!). Lindenwood was able to do more for Peabody than
originally planned/expected.
iii. Ric Potts made the motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Gary Aulfinger
seconded. Unanimously approved.
III. Sr. Minister’s Report – Rev. Dr. Bill McConnell (10 min.)
i.
Bill sends emails to the church’s visitors. A few comments have been received that
the Sanctuary service is not attractive to younger visitors. Bill feels there is a need to
recruit younger members to help establish the future of the church.
ii. Staff is working on retaining members, welcoming more visitors.
iii. Small Group leader training (Life Groups) – If people are in healthy, spiritually
growing small groups, it’s impactful in their lives. Get involved in ministry. Need lay
leaders to talk to their sphere of influence and encourage involvement in Small
Groups. Bill will meet with the trained leaders every few weeks. Bill would prefer if
a small group wants to follow a curriculum, they should discuss their ideas with him
first – some studies are better than others. Bill would like Small Group leaders to
attend the Alpha Course and to have other Small Groups go through it together.
IV. Old Business
i.
Water Damage incident/Insurance update – Bill Eddings (35 min.)
i. Bill recommends going with Belfor – they are a restoration contractor. Bill
feels we need a restoration contractor vs. a general contractor.
ii. Quotes: Chris Woods Construction – $88,388; Landmark - $73,449; Belfor $69,411
iii. Storage containers (See Breakdown of Insurance Repairs, p.1): LCC
responsibility – can rent cheaper than Belfor and will not have to pay
overhead cost to Belfor to get them
iv. Rebuilding the stage in Stuaffer Hall (p.1): LCC responsibility – private
donations are being secured
v. Sound room – Insurance adjuster included replacing cabinets in the claim.
Gary/Alan feel cabinets are good, as is, so those dollars will be redirected.
vi. Floor finishes will be handled directly by Kenny Flooring. Kenny put in the
original flooring in the church. Working directly with Kenny saves the
church the overhead of paying Belfor. All carpet, vinyl base. Mike Taylor
(member and interior designer) has helped in selecting the carpet samples.
Mike also helped select paint colors.
vii. Bell Conf. Room – The corner of the solid surface top was broken during
demolition but can be easily repaired vs. purchasing entire new surface. Will
save money to repair vs. replace. The saved dollars can be used for other
items.
viii. Bookstore – Paint only. Floor is not damaged. $4,500 savings.
ix. Administrative Office – Room is in good condition. No repairs necessary.
Small water stain that can be steamed out with carpet cleaning. $1,900
savings.
x. Copy Room – Replace carpet with laminate floor. Walls are in good condition
and do not need repainting. (Marena brought up concern of the sound of
copy machines in a room with laminate vs. carpet. Bill E. to check with Cindy
Franklin and Carol Smith in the church office to see if they’d prefer carpet.)
xi. Insurance did not include carpet in the section off of Easterwood Gallery that
connects Easterwood Gallery to the chapel hallway (by the stairs to the
second floor). Kenny has included this section in their quote.
xii. Church will pay a $5K deductible because it was wind that caused the
damage to the flashing that gave way to the water overflow that led to the
water damage. Wind damage is a higher deductible.
xiii. Insurance co. has already sent $50K towards the claim. Balance to come in as
work begins. ServiceMaster bill for cleaning up the water was $68K and will
be fully covered by insurance company.
xiv. A/V Side – Sent out design specs to three companies – one declined to bid.
Other two quotes are from Memphis Audio (Yarborough) and Interactive
Solutions. Bids are similar in cost, although content is different. Quotes came
back on Saturday, 8/16. Current thought is to bid video to Interactive
Solutions and audio to Memphis Audio. (This is what will be presented to
insurance company.) Total - $200K. Quotes to be presented to insurance
Monday, 8/18. Will be some wait time for insurance to get back to Alan
Wells. Start date for A/V repair still TBD.
xv. Bill E. – A/V is a totally separate item. Insurance company will reimburse the
church for cost of temporarily relocating the WOW service (main item is
chairs – 200 chairs, about $1/chair/week).
xvi. Rachel made a motion to approve Bill E.’s plan. Susan seconded. Unanimous
approval.
V. New Business
i. Sr. Minister Search Committee Update – Adrienne Sloan (10 min.)
i. Three resignations from Committee – decided to replace only one member.
Committee is still an odd number of members. New committee member is
Niyah Newman. (Full team now includes Adrienne Sloan - Chair, Carter
Beard – Secretary, Mike Robb, Niyah Newman, Francis Offiong, Amie
Vanderford – Vice Chair, and Tammy Snyder.) Clay Isom is the ex-officio
consultant, having been on the previous committee.
ii. The committee suspended work during August. Next steps: review
Congregational profile as a new committee. Review the candidate names
that were previously submitted. Initial contacts to begin in the late fall. Goal
hire date – mid-summer 2015. (Will provide overlap with Dr. McConnell’s
tenure.) Candidate should represent where we want the church to be in the
future. Initial thought is for a younger minister with a family but will
consider ALL candidates equally.
iii. Next committee meeting – Sept. 10
ii. Financial Report – Lynn Pleasants (10 min.)
i. A/P is now converted to accrual vs. cash basis; unpaid invoices now show in
the financial report. There is $25K unpaid as of the end of July.
ii. Looking at the cash flow, there is a plan to pay $10K towards principal on
the line of credit in September.
iii. Child Care is holding the line. Life Center is in the negative – did not hit
targets for enrollment in Summer Camp and is currently below target for
After Care.
iii. Insurance coverage approval vote – Rachel Lyles (5 min.)
i. Bill D. made the motion to formerly approve the Philadelphia Insurance
property insurance quote. Ric Potts seconded. Unanimous approval.
iv. Designated fund cleanup update and vote – Rachel Lyles (5 min.)
i. Stewardship is working to reduce the number of open designated/restricted
fund accounts. Members of Stewardship have been talking with the fund
managers to determine if the accounts are still active and whether or not the
remaining amounts can be “written off” or reimbursed. (As a reminder, it
was discovered at the end of 2013 that the designated fund dollars had been
spent – the fund amounts were showing in the general ledger but the
physical dollars were not in the bank account.)
ii. Rachel advised that, per Alan Dunn’s report presented to the Board in Dec.
2013, the Board is the manager for monies in the Special Offerings category.
There are two Special Offering funds showing in the Designated Fund list
that Stewardship has been working from – Week of Ministry ($107 balance)
and Reconciliation ($862 balance).
iii. Susan said she feels the church owes the money and needs to send it in as
soon as possible. Susan offered to donate a portion of the monies needed so
the church could send in the money sooner, rather than later.
iv. Rachel advised that, during her research, she has discovered some accounts
had not been properly updated – money was spent from the account, but the
account was not reconciled, so it looked like the money was still there. Gary
recommended tabling the discussion until we know whether or not the
Special Offering accounts were properly reconciled. Lynn will check Shelby
Systems to see if a check was cut for either fund account last year. Rachel
will include on the Sept. meeting agenda.
v. September Congregational Meeting Agenda – Rachel Lyles (5 min.)
i. Initial thought is to move meeting to the Sanctuary, since Stauffer Hall is
unavailable. Bill M. brought up concern that not enough of the congregation
is participating in the Congregational Meetings.
ii. Items to feature: Sr. Minister Search Committee; Flood repair updates; and
finance
VI. Members - Questions and Comment Time (5 min.)
VII. Closing Prayer
VIII. Adjournment
Next Board of Directors Meeting – Sunday, September 21, 2014, 12:15 PM
MINISTRY REPORTS
Sr. Minister Search Committee – Adrienne Sloan, Chair
From July 22 Meeting:
Most of the time from this meeting was spent updating our newest member, Niyah Newman on the
progress to date and giving her the Congregational Profile to Review. Niyah fills the vacancy created
by Joe Filipiak's resignation.
The committee also discussed contacting the candidates who were initially approached to let them
know that our timeline has shifted. Before I did that, I wanted to confirm with the Board that our
timeline is accurate. I'll join you at the meeting this week.
We plan to contact potential candidates again towards the end of the year and beginning the
interview process in the early part of 2015, given that it can take some time. We believe that a hire
date of Summer 2015 (June/July) would make the most sense for the way the church activity ramps
up in the Fall and schools start. This does give us about 6/7 months of overlap with Dr. McConnell's
contract. Because our team feels that a younger (still experienced) minister with a family would be
the best fit for the Senior Minister position, consideration of the end and start of the school year is
important. To be clear, this is not the only criteria we're using, and we are not using it to expressly
exclude other potential candidates.
Our next meeting will be at the church Wednesday, September 10 in the Agape classroom.
Elders Report – Anna Hough, Chair
The Elders met on June 15th and July 13th with Bill McConnell, Rachel Lyles, Susan Archey and
Lynn Pleasants to discuss the financial concerns of the church. We were informed about the safe
guards that have been implemented to protect LCC's finances.
On August 1st & 2nd, the Elder's helped with the Peabody Elementary School Store.
The Elder's are serving as greeters during the month of August.
Our prayer list continues to grow, praying for all on the Church's weekly prayer list and adding
prayers for Ken & Betty Joplin, Harold Cloud, Jess Ross, Rob Mitchell, Katherine Eddings, and
Cynthia Wright.
Maintenance Ministry – Ralph Black, Chair
We are trying to openly share anything regarding the insurance claim. We have completed
inspections of the air conditioning systems, the foundation and brick and mortar issues and are still
waiting to receive the report on the roof from Jolly Roofing. There's a lot of activity, but we have
nothing new to report. Since Bill Eddings has been handling the insurance, he will report on
progress to resolve our claim as needed.
If there is anything specific the Board needs information on, please let us know.
Deacons Report – Marena McDonald, Chair
The Deacons met on July 13th in the Sanctuary.
We discussed the financial status and concerns of the church with Lynn Pleasants, Susan Archey
and Bill McConnell.
Carter Beard presented several service opportunities where help is needed for our Community
Service Projects.
The Deacons helped the week of July 20 – 25 with the SOS project at St. Matthews Church and also
helped on August 1-2 with the Peabody Elementary School Store.
Evangelism leaders, Mike Taylor and Connie Thiemonge discussed needs for volunteers to sign up
to be Greeters in the foyer before each service.
The Deacons will be assigned several months to serve as greeters.
Terry Reeves and Susan Archey presented information on LindenFest, A City-Wide Community
Harvest Festival on October 18th.
Many volunteers from the entire church will be needed for this Lindenwood event!
Life Center – Phil Vaughn
I'm currently reviewing the Employee Handbook and making suggested changes. I will work with
Personnel when I finish. I have asked 3 people so far to be on an advisory board and 2 have agreed.
(Adrienne Sloan and Michelle Campbell). I am waiting until I have time to work with them before I
go any further. I would love for church members to be present at the After School Open House to
meet parents (Sept. 4, 5-6 PM). I have already invited staff members.
I had Carol put details on After School in the church bulletin. I sent staff to every school during
registration to talk to parents. We are right at 145. Still short of budget.
Right now most of our focus is on transitioning bookkeeping and concessions to myself and Toni
Key; our August 26 DHS and state assessment; Sept 4 open house; and hiring and training After
School staff. Hopefully by mid-September we will be able to catch our breath. Plus, I just became a
grand father for the 7th time and plan to fly to Virginia for a few days next week.
We are managing expenses very well. Josie and Toni are very helpful and supportive.