Reports for the March Council Meeting
FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
PRESENT: Dorcas Berg, Kathie McIlroy, Russ Pendred, Bruce Boulineau, Dan Roberts, Cheryl Moore, Pastor Randy Smith and Hank Vogt
TREASURER'S REPORT: As of March 8, 2010, the checking account balance was $137,345.23 including $61,277.54 in designated funds resulting in an Operating Fund balance of $76,067.69. Receipts for March 7 of approximately $21,000 had a favorable impact on our Operating Fund balance. The Treasurer's Report format will be revised to show Operating and Designated Fund revenues and expenditures separately to provide a better understanding of funds flow in each category.
BUSINESS MANAGER REPORT: Operating revenue for the first two months of the year were $115,150 compared to expenditures of $105,851. The committee discussed current giving levels compared 2010 budget requirements. Attendance for the first two months of the year was impacted by the cold wet weather but the large collection received the first Sunday in March may be an indication that the overall level of giving is improving. The committee will closely monitor the level of giving in the months ahead to determine if downward revisions to the budget will be required.
COJ: Total gifts received to date total $998,686. Many members have paid more than the amount pledged and some have not met their pledge obligations for various reasons including economic hardship and movement out of the area. A thank you letter will be sent to all members reporting on COJ receipts and asking those who have not already done so and are able, to fulfill their pledges prior to the completion of the campaign in April.
TRUSTEES: No report. It was noted that expenditures by Trustees are significantly under budget in a number of categories due to the hard work of Rick Smith and other committee members. There are no major projects scheduled for the balance of the year so there is a good possibility that there will be favorable variances in a number of Trustee line items for 2010.
SPRC: A number of personnel changes have been made to deal with the departure of Jan Fenner, however the budgeted salary for the Music Director position will not need to be changed. Changes have been made to the way we are cleaning the Life Center which are expected to result in a $7800 savings to the 2010 budgeted Custodian line item (5527).
AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT: The Audit Committee has completed its work and found everything in order. A special thanks was given to Kathie McIlroy for assembling all the necessary financial information.
ELECTRIC FUND DIRECT DEBITS: The committee reviewed the procedures used to implement the ACH giving option and approved using Vanco Services at a cost of $.25 @ transaction. Church Council will be asked to approve our action.
Respectfully submitted. Hank Vogt, Chairman
Keeping the LRUMC Website Up to Date
Our website is a useful tool not only for our members and visitors but for people who are searching the internet looking for churches in the community that meet their needs. LRUMC offers many diverse programs and services that are detailed on our website along with a number of pictures that give a person searching the Internet a glimpse into our daily church life.
In order to keep the website a usable tool we are asking for your assistance in keeping information on the site current and therefore easy to use. We are requesting each committee/group:
- Review web pages or links relevant to your specific committee to ensure that the information is accurate. Send detailed information for any changes or additions to Charlie Schuler and Linnea Knecht and we will take appropriate action. If you would like assistance reviewing information regarding your committee, contact Linnea and we can arrange a walk thru of the pages. Some things to think about during your review:
- Is the information about officers and events relevant to 2010?
- If there are monthly activities listed, are they for the current or upcoming months?
- Are there any forthcoming events that you want to let people know about?
- Pictures - Are they up to date? Should any be deleted? Should any be added?
- Minutes – For those committees that have this section either post them prior to your next meeting or if your committee does not want to post meeting minutes on a monthly basis then perhaps you should have the minutes section removed or have a general statement under the minutes section stating “For future use” or “This section is currently not being used”.
- Send any calendar updates or information that you want added to specific web pages to Charlie and Linnea each month when you prepare and submit information for the forthcoming month Family Gathering.
- Create a small statement of general information about your group that is not “time sensitive” (if this does currently exist on the website). An example of that may be “The xxxx group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10 am.” This is important because Linnea will review the website information on a monthly basis (approximately the 15 th of each month) and we will remove outdated information (eg. January 2010 calendar events that are still listed by mid February).
We realize the information you are providing for the website is also available in hard copy in many different formats such as the monthly newsletter, weekly church bulletin, handouts given in Sunday school classes and meetings many attend. More and more people rely on the Internet and “paperless” information. Our goal is not to burden you with extra work. We feel if you would provide web information at the same time as the monthly newsletter and once a year provide updates regarding officer changes or any other yearly change, we should be able to keep information on the website up to date. This will help us spread the word about all the wonderful things being done at LRUMC, attract new people and have a useful tool for our current members and followers. Thanks in advance for your help.
Our contact information is as follows: Charlie Schuler charlie34@sc.rr.com Linnea Knecht linneyconnect@gmail.com
Evangelism Committee
Did you realize how much LRUMC gives away to our church, visitors, and the community through the Evangelism Committee? Take a look at our 2 tables - one in the Fellowship Hall and the other in the Life Center lobby. On there you will find all kinds of tracs (in all shapes and styles, even $1,000,000 bills!) for adults and youth, "Invitation" CDs and New Testaments, Bibles, pamphlets, Upper Rooms, and booklets all with the Gospel message! And they're all free for the taking! We want them to be taken! In 2010 LRUMC's Evangelism Committee will give away over 2700 CDs, 500 New Testaments, 200 Bibles, countless tracs, and booklets on these tables, at the Shrimp and Jazz Festival and North Myrtle Beach Christmas Parade, not to mention in our first time visitor Welcome Bags! We are giving out the message of God's saving grace through Jesus Christ as He told us to in scriptures!
Joan and Donna report that visitors who come into our church during the week for counciling, meetings, and events stop by these tables and take something with them! I am so thankful that LRUMC has its priorities straight and funds this kind of ministry!
Respectfully, Beth Coley
Missions Committee Report
Lenten Donations: Shared UMCO Haiti and Providence Home.....
Sock Collection Fostering Hope
Shelter Meals serving Street Reach between 120 and 140 people.
Future Plans : Concert with other churches to support His Hands of Horry County,have a volunteer team for a Saturday work day for His Hands of Horry County home repair. Sunday Pizza Lunch after Easter another Missions Fair giving more people the opportunity to attend. Finally sponsor a Thursday Night Connection Entrepreneur Night: Showcasing those in the church that have started new businesses.
Next Committee Meeting the end of APRIL
Respectfully submitted, Elaine Hoch Chairperson
FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
MARCH 8, 2010 AGENDA
Welcome and opening prayer
- Treasurer's Report
- Business Manager's Report
- Stewardship Report
- Trustee Report
- SPRC Report
- Update on upcoming 3 year campaign (CTJ)
- Old Business : 1) Payment arrangements for electronic sign; 2) Implementation of ACH payment capability for pledges
- New Business
Donna Levinski, Director of Youth and Children’s Ministries
United Methodist Youth Fellowship Groups’ scheduled activities and special events for each month are posted on the Bulletin Board in Fellowship Hall and included in the Family Gathering. We have extended the time for our meetings,
to now be from 5:00-7:00 PM.
- Our community service activity for the month of February was the Souper Bowl of Caring soup sales and “soup-pot” collection. The youth earned a total amount of $742.25, which they sent as donations to Street Reach Ministries and North Strand Helping Hand to feed the hungry.
- Our community service activities for March will be to participate in UMCOR’s assembling of hygiene kits to be sent to Haiti and the youth will prepare and serve dinner to the hungry at Street Reach Missions in Myrtle Beach.
- Our March youth trip will be to Planet Fun in Shallotte for a night of Lazer Tag, Bowling and Cosmic Golf
- All of the Adult Sunday School classes and church groups have been invited to provide a meal for the UMYF group on one Sunday night during the school year.
Our goal is to provide an opportunity for the adults from our congregation to interact with our young people.
The CGIF SS class will serve dinner for the youth on April 11, 2010.
A sign up sheet is available at the information station in Fellowship Hall
- On Sunday night, February 28 th, the youth from Andrews Chapel UMC joined our UMYF group and performed a “black light” song from the Casting Crowns album called Who Am I. They were our guests for dinner and enjoyed interacting with our youth in a devotion and game night.
- On Sunday night, March 14, Jan Fillipow, counselor from Coastal Samaritan Counseling Center, will lead a program for our middle school and high school youth on “teen issues”.
- The First Steps, Parent’s Morning Out Ministry has an enrollment of 16 children. Applications are still being accepted with a maximum set at 20 children that can be enrolled.. We employ 4 caregivers and one director to work with the children Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00-12:00. Our ad on the church website has been updated with all new phone numbers and information.
- A Recreation night/ Egg-splosion has been scheduled for Saturday evening, March 27, 2010 to provide additional opportunities for youth and young families from the community to come to our facility and encourage intergenerational interaction for our congregation. Additional Recreation nights will be scheduled in May, and Oct..
- Our Youth and Children Summer Gathering Activities will be different for 2010.
Due to scheduling conflicts on Wednesdays, we will no longer have Wild and Wacky Wednesdays. We will begin a new program called Fabulous Freaky Fridays. The dates that they will meet are Friday, July 9; Friday, July 23; Friday, August 6 and Friday, August 20.
Children and Youth Council Report
The Children and Youth (CandY) council is hard at work and has been meeting with a full agenda. Saturday March 27 is a scheduled Recreation Night and we will be combining it with the Easter children’s event, EGG-SPLOSION, promises to be a fun-filled evening for all, volunteers encouraged and welcomed! We are also in full swing planning our Children and Youth Art Show to represent our children and youth in the upcoming Celebrating The Journey campaign. The children will be sharing their gifts and talents and are very excited about displaying their works. The children’s enrichment series sponsored by the Dugout and the Upper Deck has been well received and attended with two incredibly talented young ladies, Asleanne Cane and Karmen Smith performing dance and signing, we hope to show off our new skills in upcoming worship services. We have held our first Vacation Bible School volunteer meeting and are generating lots of excitement for our Sonquest Rainforest VBS to be held June 14-18 this year; anyone wishing to volunteer should contact Norma Carvalho or Donna Levinski.
Respectfully submitted, Norma Carvalho
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Children and Youth Council: CandY Council – The Council has met twice under the leadership of Norma Carvalho and many exciting things are happening. The Council will sponsor the Recreation Night with UMYF on March 27. This year we will add our Children’s Easter Program – EGG-SPLOSION – to the Rec Nite Agenda. There will be Easter Games and prizes and we’ll do a cake walk. In addition there will be sports, Bounce House, Board Games. This is for all ages.
Sunday School :Attendance Average for January was 190. Attendance most Sundays is over 200. Thanks to Debbie O’Dell for her attendance reports.
Children’s Sunday School is growing.
- We have begun a Children’s Enrichment Sunday on the 3 rd Sunday of each month. January was Ashleanne Cane teaching the children song and dance. February was Karmen Smith who taught the children to sign a song. We will continue to rehearse and the children will be performing in Worship Alive on Easter Sunday.
- On the last Sunday of the month we celebrate all birthdays for the month, students and teachers.
- The children and youth will participate in the Celebrating The Journey Campaign by putting on an Art Show. Patsy Perkins is doing great work in preparation for this.
- The first of our Spiritual Stepping Stones in Children’s SS is having the children learn the Lord’s Prayer. They are doing great. They have a lesson each week on a phrase of the Lord’s Prayer.
- The DUGOUT continues to be a favorite place at the Upper DECK. Patsy has crafts, educational toys, wonderful books and activities for the children to use. They can also check out books, CD Roms, and DVDs for a 2 week period.
- Matthew Simonson’s grandparents donated several wonderful new books for the DUGOUT
- We appreciate the members of the Sunday School Support Team for Children’s Sunday School who assist us during Children’s Sunday School.
- Youth Connection Sunday School: Great Attendance
- Adult Sunday School
- 2009 the Adult Sunday School classes gave over $10,000 to local and world missions. This is to be applauded.
- All classes are doing excellent in attendance.
- The new Young Adult Class – CGIF – Christians Growing In Faith – is growing and thanks to Charlie and Marianne Schuler for their excellent leadership.
BIBLE STUDIES:
- 2 Disciple Studies doing well. Thanks Pastor Randy and Cookie Weber
- Dawn Grubb’s Bible Study “Sisters – Wising Up” filled up.
- Tuesday Morning Bible Study is growing.
- Lenten Study – JESUS’ RESURRECTION: THEN AND NOW – led by Pastor Randy had over 40 students the first night.
New Studies for the Spring:
- Men’s Study – OH BROTHER; WALKING TOGETHER IN FAITH – Will start April 13- 7 week class on Tuesday evenings. Led by Don Woodwell and Charlie Schuler
- Spring Beth Moore Bible Study – ANOINTED, TRANSFORMED, REDEEMED – Study on David’s Life. 7 week study – first night orientation and introduction. Begins April 8 – Orientation then Thursday nights at 6:30
Joan Moales, Director of Education