Terry began the meeting at 4:30pm Via Zoom.

Fr. Raj opened with the Synod prayer.

Present: Bill Jacobs, Eileen Grant, Terry Brennan, Dan Putschoegl, Bob Dressler, Brad DeSaye

Absent:  Anne Welborn

Staff: Jim Wren,  Donna Maneely

  1. Minutes Approval:
  • Bill motioned to approve the January meeting minutes; Bob seconded it; approved
  1. Financial Statements:
  • Bill asked if we are sending Fr. Vicente’s salary to the Claretians or are we getting a stipend from them. We are not paying Fr. Vicente’s salary nor do we receive a stipend from the Claretians. Currently Fr. Ralph’s salary is being paid by St. Catherine’s and we are responsible for Fr. Raj and Fr. Gaspar.
  • Bill asked about the IFA and BOK totals on the balance sheet. He does not feel that they are comparable as originally agreed upon. We may need to revisit the structure and balances in the accounts.
  • There was a discussion about placing some funds into CDs in the near future but they do not generate much interest. Eileen suggested buying an I-bond, the interest rate is 7.12% for Series I-bonds but you can only invest $10k. Jim will follow up with the Diocese about I-bonds.
  • Eileen motioned to approve the January Financials; Dan seconded the motion; motion approved
  1. Bank Statement Approval:
  • Bill reviewed the January bank reconciliation; no discrepancies noted
  1. Pastor’s Report:
  • February is the kick off month for the Charity and Development Appeal. It has been talked about at Mass for the last two Sundays.
  • The Synod Committee was formed last month. Meetings have been scheduled and more will take place in the coming days. The finance council will be having their synod session following this meeting. The intent is to survey the spiritual life of the parish. The listening sessions will be documented which will show us what we can do to help our parishioners with their spiritual life.
  • The Preschool spaghetti dinner was successful; over 200 people attended. Parishioners were pleased with the participation of the kids.
  • Lent begins this coming week on March 2nd and the English Lenten Mission will take place on March 6th and 7th.
  1. Parish Manager Report:
  • Fr. John Narhgang, who is leading the Diocesan Synod process is presenting our English Lenten mission on March 6th and 7th. The theme on March 6th and morning of March 7th is ‘Jesus Is Merciful’ and on the evening of March 7th, ‘Jesus Conquers All Evil’. Fr. John will be handing out two sacramentals and will be hearing confessions after the mission talks. He will also be handing out miraculous medals after the 7am Monday Mass.
  • Jim has almost completed staff performance reviews. He will begin meeting with staff later in March.
  • Tom Trask can not lead the Safety Committee any longer due to his health. Harry Boden has agreed to lead the committee. Many new people are joining.
  • We received our semi-annual Together Let Us Go Forth deposit from the Diocese. It was $27k which is almost double the amount of the first deposits. The church roof is half funded due to this and other parishioner donations.
  • February collections as of February 23rd -Plate: $45k, Online Giving-$34k.
  • The Diocese is having a webinar next week to demonstrate a new financial software called Sage Intraact. Jim asked the council to let him know by Friday if they would like to attend the webinar.
  • Jim asked the council for feedback concerning a tuition increase at the school. The Diocese is recommending a tuition increase. Shelly is sending registration packets home next week. She does not want to increase tuition. Dan mentioned that with inflation the school is in a tough place. Terry mentioned that there hasn’t been much promotion of the school tax credit-CEA.
  1. Old Business:
  • Passing the basket at Mass was discussed. Unfortunately, we do not have enough Ushers at each Mass to do this.
  1. New Business:
  • 2023 first draft budgets
    • The Diocese has not released any information about recommended salary increases yet; the Catholic Schools Office has recommended a 4% salary increase for teachers and school staff. Jim feels that the Diocese will recommend the same for parishes. Hopefully, we will have more information by the next meeting. The parish has a $5k surplus in the first draft before salary increases.
    • Two items that are not in the budget: Parish directory-which could be costly. Roger Dubin has said he would take the photos but we need to form a committee to figure out costs, logistics and printing. Also, we do not have an amount for a service contract for the chiller. Phillips wants to charge $25k so we are getting a second quote. Some of the cost can be absorbed since the Maintenance budget is never fully used.
    • Eileen asked if increasing our interest income in the budget is a good idea due to all the current volatility. Jim agreed it may be a risk and we may have overstated it.
    • Bill discussed salary increases: the staff has not had a substantial raise in many years. The staff is losing purchasing power due to inflation. He is in favor of a 5% salary increase. He suggested rather than increasing the Claretian Mission donations by $2.5k to make it a second collection. Fr. Raj is not in favor of this since the Diocese already requires many second collections. He suggested that over the summer we could have a Claretian mission speaker.
  • Reserve Study: Tom Thompson completed his site tour and finished his report. We are 97% funded. We do not have to increase our contribution to reserves. The parish is in an excellent position. The report will be discussed at the March meeting. Bill suggested that we could put the chiller service contract expense into reserves as long as it is a 2-year contract.

Fr. Raj led a closing prayer at 5:24 pm.

Respectfully submitted by Donna Maneely