Minutes from Coffee with Fr. Bill – 1-14-07 The meeting began at 1:00 pm with a prayer led by Fr. Bill asking for discernment of direction.  He explained that we would be hearing from the: Pastoral Council Finance Council Strategic Planning Committee Spring Jubilee Then we would hear about Fr. Bill’s concerns followed by a question and answer period. Ed Dodenhoff – Info Sheet Attached

Parish & Family Life - D’ann White added that all ministries heads are being visited to assess their needs.  She also made the introductions of the rest of the Council Members.

The Building Committee is constantly looking at the buildings for necessary repairs and maintenance.  It is beginning to look at the results of the new church buildings in the area to be aware of the short sightedness and pitfalls that have resulted. The Development Committee is taking a look at vendors for future projects.

Howard Revelle - Info Sheet Attached

Finance Council – There are 2 main areas for information purposes – who and what. 

#1 The Finance Council is the only group mandated by Canon Law, financial affairs are that

important.  The current council is very good.  It is made up of small and large business management people who have expertise in the areas expressed.  There are many mundane, everyday issues to discuss.

#2 “Safeguarding your gifts” is another area of importance.  You need to be sure that your gifts are used responsibly.

(Displayed headline “Priest Stole $8.6 million From Parish”) The Finance Council ensures that this does not happen.  Several measures are taken to make sure that the entire monies coming in are accounted for.  The collections are bagged in money bags, put in the drop safe, teams which are rotated come to count the money which is recounted by another team to reconcile. The priests never handle the money.

The end of December was mid-year, and we are over budget on revenue, but not expenditures. The budget is not fixed in stone, but it is rather a guideline, or yardstick to measure the financial needs of any organization as rapidly growing and dynamic as this church. The over budget items need to be appropriated in the budget, and are items that come up during the year after the budget is set.  Some of the items were:  salary, roofing, upgrades in the rectory to make it saleable with an eye to the future and background screening, $47 for staff, and $35 for volunteers. The Religious Ed office was expanded, we are looking for a Sacramental Coordinator, and we need someone for outreach in Evangelization.  There is no deadwood on staff, but a lot of burn out.  Fr. Bill generates a lot of work. Expect hiring to increase, but make sure it is budgeted. We must be proactive in our homework.

 We spend money in 3 ways, the church maintenance and liturgy, the rectory, and other parish expenses.  There is complete access to the finances at any time.

Q – What about Angels Among us?

A – It is not in the budget, it goes to the school.

Q - Is there a target for fund raising?

A – Unsure.

Q – What happens if pledges are not filled for the Pastoral Appeal?

A – If our goal is met, then we are not responsible for the rest of the pledges.  If our goal is not met, then the church has to make up the amount pledged.

If parishioners send all of their offerings and pledges directly to the Diocese, 16% of it comes back to the church.  But we have just a few who do that.  Our goal will be higher next year.

A report on parish expenses is available upon request from Howard.  Staffing is the bulk of our expenditures.  It takes over 1 entire collection to pay for debt reduction,   

Q – Do we anticipate adding more staff?

A – Yes, with growth there will be a need for more staff.

There are 3 advisory boards: 

Pastoral Council, Finance Council and the School Advisory Board

Lisa Huetterman

School Advisory Board

We have a fantastic school, it is an incredible ministry of this church.  It is going to be accredited at the end of March.  There is a Finance Committee at the school, also, and the school is running favorably to budget.  Registration is underway, Parish School Week starts next Sunday, and we are planning to expand classes.  That means that we are adding modular buildings, and an explanation of the upgrading of modulars was given.  The Parish subsidy to the school will not rise, and after the new church is built, we will replace the modulars with permanent buildings. That is far down the road.  The school is consistently under budget, and the goal is to be self sufficient. The parish needs meeting rooms, and the modulars can help.

Q – Who teaches the religious education? 

A - Each teacher of the elementary grades teaches their own religious ed.

     It is part of the curriculum of all the teachers’ expertise so that religious ed is not 

     Pigeonholed, but incorporated in all classes

Q – How many children can the school effectively serve?

A – 339 children are enrolled.  The break even point, based on an average, is 395 children. 

      &160,000 is not an exorbitant subsidy, more is spent on religious education with volunteers

      than on the school.  The School Advisory Board is open to involvement and questions, and

      is constantly assessing the school at all times.

Tim Donahue

Strategic Planning - Hillsborough County has 60 census tracks, and the 3 fastest growing tracks are all within 5 miles of St. Stephens.  The number of houses being built in this area is 4,000, and our population in 202 should grow to about 200,000 people.  By 2025 a population

The size of Atlanta will be living in Tampa.  That means 2 people move to Hillsborough County every hour, every day, every month of every year.

We are working on a project that we hope to have completed by summer.  We want to establish what we need to do as a parish with all of its concerns; buildings, community facilities, ministries, new ideas, storage, meetings, and any other needs that arise.

We are setting up teams of volunteers to interview each ministry in the church.  Each volunteer is asked to give 6-8 hours of time from February through April, with an introductory meeting on Saturday, January 20^th. This is a time to develop team, assign ministries and familiarize everyone with the three-page questionnaire to help conduct the interviews.  We can see that in 10 years every parish in the Diocese will be a one priest parish.  24 priests retire in the next four years, and there are no replacements to speak of. We need to learn to deal with that.   For further information contact Debra Boje.

We need to plan for projected growth, already St. Clemon’s and St Paul are too small.  We need to plan from the grass roots level including caretakers and disabled, military support and Hispanics. 

Frank Wuco

H-657-2061, C-484-3907, e-mail-wucoknight@tampabay.rr.com

Spring Jubilee – There will be a Spring Jubilee this year, and it will be better than ever.  We have a great team and the focus is a community event sponsored by St. Stephen Catholic Church.  We are operating with $2.75 million.  We have to be resource wise. The Jubilee is designed to make money for the school.  It is not taxed by the Diocese as we earmark it for the school, a sort of tax shelter from the bishop. 

Mechanically – permits/construction items- we are good.

Security, Parking are great.

Carnival – Frank will leave that to the carnie experts.

The Jubilee will be more festive, there will be banners for sponsors, an art fair with objects for sale, a chili cook-off, but no Corvette show and the 5K run is questionable.

There will be a separate area for kids, and we will use the multi-purpose building for Bingo.

We have had food trailers and booths before, but there was too much waste.   Local restaurants will set up kiosks with more variety.  The entertainment will be locally based, and we will have the Brandon Idol competition. The Knights of Columbus will have the beer concession.  The area of need right now is sponsorship.  It is a money maker and a money saver.  The main tent costs $11,00 for 4 days, and several sponsors can benefit from a 503C tax exempt event. The Stage is several thousand dollars to rent.  We are considering opening early on Saturday for special needs kids use only. Music showcase is sponsoring all the sound equipment.  There will be some kind of military gathering, an Honor Guard is coming from MacDill, and hours of medical service have been donated for this Jubilee.

Fr. Bill’s Time

Fr. is amazed by the many supportive families in the church, and he would like to meet like this every month.

Eminent Domain is a big concern as the county will be taking property from both our Bell Shoals and our Boyette properties.  Cary Gaylord is our legal representative,  and the outcome looks good.  The county has been upfront and very helpful.

The modular building spoken of before will be going in about the same time as the Spring Jubilee, and will be a great asset to both religious ed and the school.

The property behind the school is for sale – 20,000 acres – for about $1.5 million.  This land will never be available again, and we have the right of first refusal.  We are looking for out of the box ways to control it, as the Bishop cannot increase his debt.  There is a Blue Ribbon Committee studying this issue.

And the million-dollar question is: “When are we building our church?” 

75% of the cost of the new church has to be in the bank before we can start building it.  Conversely, many pledges come when people can see the building in process.  Plus we don’t want to build a church under the present guidelines of moving the tabernacle out of the sanctuary.  It is advisable to wait  for Pope Benedict’s guidelines on that subject so that we may be very clear about permanent placement. 

We hope to have the Strategic Plan out at the end of summer.  Concerns are:

How much room does the St. Vincent De Paul Society need?

Do we want a place to continue the coffee and doughnuts on Sunday?

What are the youths’ needs?

Do we want more than one cry room?

What are the needs of the special needs people?

Do we want family bathrooms?

Why do we still have a line for the women’s bathroom?

Do we need sound rooms?

Do we want to tape liturgies so that homebound parishioners can be included?

This is a time to dream and then pare down.

Our 20^th Anniversary is coming up, how will we celebrate?

We need to budget in turning lanes and lights.

We are considering moving Mary to the other side as Mary is usually on the bride’s family side.

The Diocese is looking for property in Hillsborough County for a High School, but building in is coming to an end for the Diocese at this time.  We need to have 2 classes for every grade, and 5 feeder schools to maintain a High School. 

Q – How soon do we have to act on the property sale?

A – We have no idea of the time that we are working with.

I left at 3:00, so I missed any other questions and answers that there might have been, as well as any closing prayer.

Kathy Taylor