President Nancy Dreesen called the meeting to order at 7:00pm. Pastor
Alicia led the opening prayer.
Members present: Barb Atwood, Sherri Coughlin, Billy Cox, Raidel
Cubero, Gabriela Gutierrez, Alicia Saenz, and Skip Knudsen.
Guests: Debbie Lechner, Esmaralda Gomez, Pr. John Doolittle, Pr. Nate
Jackson, and Angela Jackson.
Action Items
Minutes of the April 17, 2018 meeting were distributed and
unanimously approved.
Minutes of the May 6, 2018 Special Council meeting were distributed
regarding the recommendation to hire Esmeralda Gomez as the new
Administrative Assistant effective May 14, 2018 were unanimously
approved. Esmeralda was present and was introduced to and welcomed
by the Council.
Treasurer Barb Atwood distributed the April 2018 financials. We
continue to take in more money than budgeted. Barb pointed out that
our checking account was quite large and recommended that we move
$30,000 from checking to the money market account. Motion to
approve this report and to move $30,000 from checking to the
money market account was made, seconded, and unanimously
approved.
Youth Center space was discussed. The Council is recommending that
community group meetings and activities be moved to the former youth
center and not utilize Jacobson Hall for these activities. Council hopes to
have this space available sometime around July/August.
Report Items
Youth Center items previously inventoried, were photographed and
listed in the May Church Bulletin and available for purchase by
members of the congregation.
President Nancy introduced our new Administrative Assistant,
Esmeralda Gomez.
Nancy Dreesen distributed information and recommended that Council
consider the possible purchase of new folding chairs and storage cart
from Costco. Council agreed. It was also suggested that we open this
action to members of the congregation to “adopt” a chair. A label could
be affixed to the chair indicating who donated the chair. Cost would be
$30.00 per chair. Total cost of chairs and storage cart is $799.00.
Council welcomed members of the Claremont Lutheran Church who
were invited by Nancy to share information regarding their experience
of being one congregation with two languages. Pastor John Doolittle
stated that, “nothing works perfectly.” He recommends an honest
conversation among leadership is necessary. CLC still conducts two
separate services. They do, however, have combined bilingual services
approximately eight times a year on special occasions. These services
are conducted much like St. Mark’s has done in the past where both
languages were printed in a single pamphlet and worshipped
concurrently. They found that trying to have a combined service orally
delivered alternately in both languages was not smooth and was not
well accepted by either congregation. Recommendation by Claremont
Lutheran visitors: communication and perseverance is key to success.
Council thanked the visitors from Claremont Lutheran for their
willingness to visit with us and to give us valuable insight into their
experience with a dual language congregation.
Meeting was adjourned with prayer at 8:20pm.
SK