NewSong Interim Council

Minutes of February 3, 2003 Meeting

 

The NewSong Leadership Team met on Monday, February 3, 2003 from 7:00PM to 9:00 PM at the church office. All Interim Council members were present and accounted for: Dave Allen, Rebecca Brown, Tom Frederick, Steve Jackson, Brent Orr, Curt Sloyer and Michael Smith.

 

The meeting opened with prayer and a discussion of the children’s sermon time while Steve is out with surgery. It was agreed that Michael Smith would ask David Eitel to do this on 2/9 (while Vicki is preaching). Michael also said he would handle the 16th. Brent Orr agreed to do the children’s time on 2/23 and we did not cover March 2nd.

 

Old Business

 

1.      We reviewed the January 2003 attendance and offering numbers. Our average attendance for the month was 176, with average weekly offerings of $2,918.01. Membership gains since last meeting include the Waters and Curtin families. There were no membership losses. We have a good number of prospects for membership, including several who have taken the membership class. We discussed why people don’t join. Dave Allen then said we really need to get a process/group to follow up with prospective members in addition to the work Steve does on this. No decision was made about how/who would do this, but Dave insists (and we all agreed) we need to do something.

 

Financially speaking for the month of January (and YTD) our operating expenses exceeded our revenues by $458.25. We then had a brief discussion about developing our budget. Tom Frederick said he and Dave Allen and Brent Orr would work on this.  Steve announced he would be doing three stewardship sermons in March when he returns to the pulpit.

 

2.      Other Old Business talked about included: Central Plaza Building latest information we are getting is that they are 60 days away. Steve says it would be more like Easter probably. Also, there have been two Small Groups meetings now, both well attended. The families leading these are now deciding how to structure them, whether there will be two or more groups, etc. The next “small group connection” meeting is Feb. 15 at the Tidwells. Steve said Jason Lee is working out well but the turnout for Youth has been a bit disappointing. Steve is working with Jason to give him ideas to increase participation/attendance at youth. We also discussed Steve’s upcoming surgery. Steve expects to be out of the pulpit on Feb. 9, 16, 23, and March 2. He will be back before then, but will not preach again until March 9th. The speakers in his absence are Vicki E. 2/9, Jason L 2/16, Dave A. 2/23 and Amy J. 3/2.

 

New Business

 

  1. Steve advised that our legal counsel (Angie Martin) had reviewed the bylaws and made a few suggestions. Steve has made those. With that, the group agreed we should begin operating under these bylaws. The entire group who worked through these (the Interim Council) then signed several copies to indicate their approval of them.
  2. Related to this discussion, Steve suggested that we should elect a Secretary to replace Diane Lasorda who resigned. After discussion Michael Smith was nominated and elected Secretary. We now have a full slate of corporate officers: Steve Jackson, Pres., Dave Allen, V. Pres., Michael Smith, Secy., and Tom Frederick, Treasurer.
  3. Steve then suggested that we begin operating our Interim Council meetings based upon our bylaws, which calls for Dave Allen as corporate V.P. to function as our Interim Council Chairperson. The group agreed to this and Dave assumed leadership of the meeting at that point.
  4. Dave Allen then initiated a discussion of the Elder Selection Process. We talked about this at length and agreed we need to get the process started immediately, with hopes of electing our Elders on April 27th, the one-year anniversary of our chartering. Steve had begun work on a document to be mailed to the congregation that explains this process and asks for nominations. This document will be edited by Michael Smith and be mailed shortly in order to preserve the required timeline for electing Elders. Dave also asked that by the next meeting we select and announce the Elder Nomination Team. 
  5. The final order of business was a discussion of a Senior Pastor Employment Agreement. In order to get us started on this required document, Steve presented a draft copy to the Council. He will forward an electronic copy of this document to Dave Allen and the group will discuss and approve an agreement by or at the next meeting of the Council.

 

Dave Allen then closed the meeting in prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 9:00PM.

 

The next regular monthly meeting is set for Monday, March 3, 2003 at 7:00pm at the church office.