Our Lady of Perpetual Help-Redemptorist Parish Council Meeting
Wednesday, January 9, 2013, Sullivan Banquet Hall
6:00-7:30 p.m.
Members Present:
Patty Acton, Amy Basurto, Carl Capra, Chad Cillessen, Pat McDonald, Bette
Szafranski, Joe Williams, Fr. Brian Johnson, Alice Atwell
Members Absent:
Mary Finn, John Lathrop, John Rayos, Fr. Denis Ryan, Fr. Bob Lindsey
Parishioners Present: Missy Basurto, Aidan Williams
Objectives:
1. Review Bylaws and Proposed Amendments
2. Vote on whether to accept Proposed Amendments for further consideration
3. Nominate candidates for Parish Council Vice-President and Secretary
4. Review role of Parish Council and purposes, methods of pastoral planning
5. Discuss agenda for 2013-2014; develop consensus as to agenda
6:00
Opening Prayer – Pat McDonald
6:02
State of the Parish Report- Fr. Brian Johnson
Fr. Brian Johnson stated that we as a church got through the Holidays good. Having the two
masses worked out better than having the four usually scheduled in previous years. But he stated
that if we had to we could always go back to having four masses. The Christmas day masses had a
good turn-out. Throughout all of the masses for Christmas we collected a total around $25,000. He
then stated that the collection on regular weeks has gone up with us collecting $12,000 in the last
couple of weeks.
The work on the church is pretty well finished as to what we have stated the Capital
Campaign was for. The painter was in and finished up his work. Next week Monday through
Wednesday the work on the roof will be finished up. We borrowed $80,000 which was less than
what we had planned to borrow. We should have some money left over to complete some work
that needs to be done on the outside of the church. The steps are in over by the rectory and are
being used. Father also stated that we will wait and see to see if the pledges still come at a good rate
before we decide to return the excess money that we had borrowed.
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Also updated us on how Father Paddy was doing. He is doing well in the stages of his
recovery. Father Morgan had melanoma (cancer) removed from his face and is recovering well.
6:12 Report from the President- Pat McDonald
Alan Harris is busy doing other things with his job and has stepped down as a member of
the Parish Council. He stated that it had nothing to do with the Council itself it was just that his
work and travel schedule become more active. Pat stated that she has left a voicemail for our past
president Nichole Jansen but has not had a reply, so we are going by we have in regards to the
minutes and any information that we have. Pat met last week with Father Brian to discuss his
goals/agenda for the Parish Council. The main points that he thought we needed to accomplish are:

Growing the parish

Build community within the parish

Listen and talk to the parishioners and discover their needs, concerns, ideas

Plan and implement goals as a Council
6:15 Financial Report- John Lathrop
As stated in his email: The Finance Committee met last on Dec. 10. Denis Greene from the
Development team made a presentation to the committee on the benefits of an annual campaign. He
discussed the benefits of an annual campaign, noting most Church’s get about 10% benefits from this
process. This would involve soliciting parishioners, asking them to commit each year to a specific dollar
amount for their tithe. No decision or action was taken on this matter at this time. There was a discussion
about the timing of this type of request coming on the heels of our capital campaign.
The committee also discussed the financial results and liquidity position of the church. Overall we
have seen some improvements in our situation. I would describe this as improving but we are not where we
would need or would like to be. Our recent cash flow has been adequate to meet our needs, we are not
delinquent to any significant extent on the payments of any bills, and we have not had to borrow any money
on the line of credit put in place to ensure we could fund the capital campaign expenditures as these
obligations became due. Starting in January we will reduce the ingoing benefit we have historically provided
to the Social Center and this will also improve our cash flow. We have collected almost $400k of capital
campaign pledges through the end of 2012. We will continue o collect pledges over approx. the next year and
a half. The cost and repairs will likely not be as much as our pledges, assuming we collect the outstanding
amounts due. There are a number of contingencies associated with the maintenance projects where any
excess pledges could be put to good use. The Finance Committee worked with Alice to get a bulletin insert
for the status of the capital campaign distributed to the parishioners in December. We plan to be periodically
communicating the status as we move forward. Assuming we are successful in the collection efforts and
spending projections, any excess capital campaign funds would be communicated when it becomes clear this
is our actual situation, most likely together with a list of potential additional maintenance projects.
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6:20 ARS Report- Amy Basurto
White elephant sale went well we were able to bring a good amount of money with that. As for the
reception held for Father Quinn we have received nothing but good compliments to the presentation. Father
was very grateful as was his family.
6:25 Evangelization Committee- Bette Szafranski
They have many things planned in the up-coming year for the Year of Faith that we should be
looking for in the bulletin. Bette stated that we need to start getting parishioners involved in the activities
that we will do for our church. She also stated that the team needs more volunteers because the four people
that they have is not nearly enough to get the points that they want to get across.
6:30 New Business/Old Business
Elections of Parish Council Officers:
Elect. Patty Acton was elected Secretary.
Chad Cillisen was elected as Vice President/President-
Proposed Amendments to OLPH Parish Council Constitution and Bylaws: The members
considered and discussed the proposed amendments, which would allow the Council to function with
between 7 and 12 members and would accordingly adjust the quorum requirements. The Council’s
consensus was in favor of such amendment, and the Council voted to give the proposed amendments further
consideration at the February meeting, where the Council will vote on whether to ratify the proposed
amendments.
Pastoral Planning: Pat proposed that the Council begin the process of pastoral planning in 2013.
The Council discussed the proposal, and the Council’s consensus was to begin the pastoral planning process.
7:30 Closing Prayer – Fr. Brian
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