Meeting held Via Zoom

Fr. Raj opened the meeting with a prayer at 5:02pm

Present: Bill Jacobs, Anne Welborn, Terry Brennan, Dan Putschoegl, Eileen Grant, Brad DeSaye

Staff: Jim Wren, Donna Maneely, Shelly Cooper

 

  1. Minutes Approval: January Meeting Minutes approved
  • Anne motioned to accept the January meeting minutes; Dan seconded the motion; motion passed
  1. Financial Statements: January Financials approved
  • Brad motioned to approve the January Financials; Bill seconded the motion; motion approved
  1. Bank Statement Approval:
  • Terry reviewed the January bank reconciliation;  no discrepancies noted
  1. Pastor’s Report:
  • Lent has begun. More parishioners are coming to Mass as they are feeling more comfortable since many are getting the vaccine and cases are decreasing. We are averaging 240-250 people per Mass. We have added more chairs to the Gathering Place. He is hopeful that the Diocese will update the guidelines for how many people can come to Mass.
  • We gave out the book “I Thirst” to our parishioners for Lent.
  • The Charity and Development Appeal has begun. Thank you to Bill Jacobs who did a great job speaking at the Masses.
  • We are not able to have the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner this year so there will be a special prayer and blessing at the Masses the weekend of February 28 and we have a gift for all of our volunteers. They can pick it up in the Church Office.
  • There is a training and commissioning planned for Lectors and Eucharistic Ministers in March.
  • We have added a 5:30pm Mass Monday through Thursday during Lent.
  • Stations of the Cross in Spanish and English will be every Friday during Lent except Good Friday.
  • Confession times during Covid have been expanded.
  • Holy Hours for the Lord will take place on March 26th from 8am-6pm.
  • We will have a virtual Lenten Mission in English on March 30th and 31st. The Spanish Mission will be in person on March 8th and 9th with Fr. Ernesto from the Diocese of Phoenix.
  • A Day of Reflection for the priests will be on March 29th in Phoenix. The Chrism mass will take place at that time.
  • Last year we were only able to livestream Holy Week Masses. This year we hope to have regular Masses for Holy Week.
  • All the Councils are meeting virtually. Fr. would like to meet in person within the next couple of months.
  • Virus numbers are decreasing so hopefully more groups will start meeting at the church.
  • The priests had a Zoom meeting with the Claretian Provincial. He expressed interest in our New Parishioner Dinner and our Ministry Booklet.
  1. Parish Manager Report:
  • The Ash Wednesday collection was about $3k. Masses were crowded.
  • We are already at 30% of our goal of $138,000 for the Charity and Development Appeal. The new reporting software for the CDA is not working.
  • Our virtual Lenten Mission was a gift from the Holy Spirit as we did not have a mission planned. Catholic Community Foundation called Jim to ask if Sacred Heart wanted to participate in a virtual mission. It is on March 30th and 31st from 6-8pm. It is called Renewed in Christ and hosted by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Parishioners will be able to log in from our website or the Catholic Community Foundation website.
  • The Diocese has billed us for Safe Environment. Jim asked the Diocese to provide a breakdown of the cost but they do not have that. They stated it is always billed every other year for documents and labor.
  • Doug McMurrin was able to find a used piano that our Piano Tuner had for sale. The tuner reduced the price from $7k to $5k for us. It is a better color match for our pews. The current piano needs to be tuned a few times per month. The piano will be delivered the second weekend in March. They will also haul the old piano away.
  • Jim reached out to Lifetouch (which used to be Olan Mills) about doing a new parish directory as we had used them for the previous directory. Lifetouch is not currently doing parish directories due to Covid.
  • We ordered the new Songbooks. We had been putting it off since we can’t have them in the pews. They were a bit more expensive than we budgeted for due to the cost going up and the need for the accompaniment books. Singing is part of evangelizing so we can use part of the online giving grant to offset the increase.
  • Our March Meeting date overlaps our Lenten Mission and is during Holy Week so Jim asked if we could move the meeting to March 24th. Brad motioned to move the March 31st meeting to a live meeting on March 24th at 5pm. Dan seconded it; motion approved.
  1. Old Business:
  • 2022 budgets:
    • The first drafts of the 2022 budgets were sent out. We will not know of any changes in benefit costs until at least the end of March. Jim thinks that health insurance cost will increase as there wasn’t an increase last year. This could affect our budgets significantly.
    • Bill asked why we are only taking 3% of the endowment in the budget. He thinks we should budget for 4%. CCF recommends taking the 3%. Bill motioned to change the endowment percentage to 4%, Anne seconded it, motion passed. The next draft of the budget will reflect the change.
    • Bill asked if the council could see a breakdown of the donations budgeted. We will get that to the council.
    • Bill asked about the screen projector in the Reserve Budget. He suggested we buy it now and use this year’s Reserve budget money. Jim said we could use the old projectors from the school and then buy a portable screen to use at Mass. There were no objections to buying the screen this year.
    • Bill commented that there has been a dramatic decrease in interest rates in our Money Market account. He will speak with Chris Kissel for a recommendation on how to proceed.
    • Anne asked if the $44k budgeted for utilities was the actual cost. Jim verified that what is presented is the actual cost.
  • Bill called for an Executive Session; Eileen seconded the motion; all approved.
  • The Council moved into Executive Session at 5:35pm and returned to the regular meeting at 5:45pm.
  1. New Business:
  • None

Fr. Raj made some concluding remarks. He thanked the council for asking questions and for the Christian spirit that comes out of our meetings.  He hopes that confidentiality is maintained. We are a good team!

Fr. Ralph led a closing prayer at 5:50pm

Respectfully submitted by Donna Maneely