St. Georges of Forest Hill
Parish Council Minutes for April 22, 2014
Present:
Mike Stredwick, Chair Nelson Cuthbert Vivian Harris
John Dale, Secretary Gary Knoop Mary Shaw
Reta Risto John Ryrie Judy Proctor
Mary Ann Millar Karen Ascah Cheryl Fox
Valerie Cuthbert Karen Baker
Jean Horne Lesley Burland-Prong
Anne Taylor Charlotte Cromarty
Regrets: Murray Gamble, John Shaw, MaryLynn Forrest, Don Davidson, Janet Hartry,
April Couzens-Brown.
1. Call to Order: At 7.30 p.m., by Mike Stredwick.
2. Regrets: As above
3. Devotions: Led by Judy Proctor and Karen Baker.
4. Agenda- Additions or Revisions: Requests were made, and accepted, to include in current agenda item 10: discussion of errors in the notices of services in the Record, the lunch for
Habitat for Humanity volunteers, Sunday School staffing difficulties, and possible revisions to communication strategies. Motion to accept the Agenda as revised: Proposed, John Ryrie;
Seconded, Judy Proctor. Carried.
5. Reading and Acceptance of March 25, 2014 Minutes: Motion to accept the Minutes of the
March meeting: Proposed, Nelson Cuthbert; Seconded, Leslie Burland-Prong. Carried.
6. Business Arising from the Minutes: a) Wooden Sleeves in pews. No report, Fr. Don being absent. b) AED defibrillator. Nelson Cuthbert and Joe Buchanan have selected the model to be purchased. The cost will be approximately $2200, including case and signage. After installation,

Nelson will arrange with Br. Mark’s friend from St. John’s Ambulance in Cambridge to offer free training to those who sign up for it. c) Bulletin Board. Vivian Harris reported that the Little Dragon Camp will use the Board for the month before camp starts to advertise the camp to those using the church premises. No other groups have yet requested use of it. However, Outreach will use it after the camp has finished with it. d) Updates to Church directory (street and email addresses; ‘phone numbers). Mary Shaw reported that the “update tables” in the narthex have been well used after Sunday services. 32 street addresses and ‘phone number changes/additions/verifications have been recorded; as well as 35 email address additions/verifications/changes. These numbers include some additions for attendees for whom no data was previously available. Mary will continue the initiative for a few weeks and then will telephone those who have failed to register changes or verifications. Vivian Harris requested that, if email addresses are common to both husband and wife, they should be shown for both, and not just for the male partner. She has received comments from parishioners requesting this, and felt it was important for us to show gender sensitivity in this matter. Both John Ryrie and Nelson Cuthbert mentioned some history here: significant work has occurred over the past two years to “clean-up” our membership files since they were quite out of date. Further, such an initiative must be on-going even though it is almost impossible to be totally accurate and up-to-date given the inevitability of change in addresses, ‘phone numbers etc. e) Other. None was forthcoming.
7. Rector’s Report (Fr. Don): No report, Fr. Don being absent.
8. Standing Committee Reports: a) Finance. Anne Taylor presented the financial statements as of March 31 st . The Balance
Sheet showed an accumulated net loss (expenses over income) of approximately $10,000. The implication being that, if we had not been able to borrow temporarily from money in designated funds which had been allocated but which was not currently needed, $10,000 would have had to be taken from the bank account. Regarding the designated funds, over $1000 raised by the Pancake Supper had been paid into the Foster Child Fund (enough to cover this year’s Foster Child expenses), and approximately $2500 had been paid into the Memorial Fund in memory of Connie Buchanan.
Regarding Revenue, in spite of the inclusion of a one-time donation from FaithLife, actual revenue for March was over $3000 less than budgeted. This was largely because the usual
“bump” in income resulting from collections at Easter services had not yet been included in income (Easter being in April this year); and projected income from RENEW had not yet

materialized. Anne added that income from Easter services appeared to be around $7000, and she expected actual income to be close to that budgeted at the end of April.
Regarding Expenses, personnel expenses were less than budget, but the agreed 1% increase has not yet been implemented, and when it is, it will be retroactive. As a result of the severity of the winter, utility expenses were over budget. Altar Guild expenses were over budget but included a $500 payment for an artificial Christmas tree. $260 offsetting donations have been received for the tree (approximately $410 has been pledged), but at present are still included in the general Parish Budget account, not yet having been moved to the Altar Guild account. $255 has already been received in donations for a new church sign to add to current funds set aside from the STARS campaign; the issue of a new sign being likely to be addressed in the future
RENEW initiative. At present this money has not been moved from general funds to the Sign
Fund.
Income from Parishioner Donations was about $16,300 in January, $15,300 in February, and approximately $17,800 in March (which included 5 Sundays).
Motion to accept the Financial Report for March 2014 as presented: Proposed, Anne Taylor;
Seconded, Nelson Cuthbert. Carried. b) Worship. Mary Shaw suggested that bookmarks (bearing information about St. George’s and indications of the page numbers at which the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha begin) be produced and placed in the bibles in the pews in order that parishioners might mark the places of the readings before the service. It was further suggested that the use of the bookmarks and the bibles be explained to service attendees for a few Sundays. Council was reminded that it had previously been decided that readers should pause before giving readings to allow attendees to find the readings, should they wish to follow them. These suggestions will be brought up at the next meeting of the Worship Committee on 29 April. c) Outreach. Reta Risto said that she had circulated information indicating how successful the collection of potatoes for St. John’s Kitchen had been. 400 lbs. of potatoes had been asked for;
700 lbs. delivered, as well as 30 lbs. of onions, Easter treats and $50 worth of milk and cheese
(donated by Superstore). John Ryrie pointed out that we indeed should publicize our successes in this way. Reta added that on May 3 rd a free childrens’ clothes closet will be held (new-born to
12 years old); set-up will be on the previous Thursday and Friday. Tickets for the May 28 th concert in aid of St. Monica House will go on sale this Sunday at the 8.15 service. Outreach is also busy organizing the St. Monica House prom. The Out-of-the Cold programme was given
100 free coffees using winning Tim Horton’s “Roll-up-the-Rim” cups. d) Property. There has been no meeting since the last parish council meeting. May 10 th (raindate May 13 th ) was chosen for spring clean-up. Nelson Cuthbert will update Murray Gamble, and an announcement and broadcast email will be generated to parishioners, asking them to come and help, bringing a rake and gloves. Start will be 9.00 a.m. Judy Proctor reminded
Council about the offer from the May Court ladies to assist (see last Council minutes). Council certainly welcomes their help. Judy will pass the acceptance of their offer and details along to

the May Court Chair. Leslie Burland-Prong suggested that this was a good opportunity for High
School students to collect volunteer hours. This has been done in the past. e) Stewardship. Vivian Harris reported that the next meeting of the committee will be May 5 th ; so she will have a report at the next meeting of Parish Council. f) RENEW. Nelson and Valerie Cuthbert: Valerie Cuthbert said that, owing to unforeseen circumstances, there has been no meeting since the last Parish Council meeting; thus there is nothing to report. g) New Camp Garden Shed. Reta Risto reported that a garden shed had been selected; dimensions being 9.5 X 8 feet (the maximum permitted by the bylaws), and the cost being
$1399.99. It will sit on a poured concrete base, and the property committee will be asked to choose the best location for it. Motion to endorse the erection of shed (dimension approximately 9.5 X 8 feet) for the use of Little Dragon Camp, when a suitable site on the church property has been selected: Proposed, John Ryrie; Seconded, Reta Risto. Carried.
9. Old Business: None forthcoming.
10. New Business: i) Errors in Record Notice of Services: Karen Baker said that she frequently saw gross errors in the listing of service times for St. Georges in the notice which appeared in the Record, but
Valerie O’Reilly reports that she sends the correct information to the Record. Karen suggested that the Record notice simply redirect readers to the St. George’s website. Nelson Cuthbert mentioned that, the last time this had been a problem, a visit to the Record offices had been fruitful, but he needed actual examples of errors. Valerie Cuthbert said she would ask Valerie
O’Reilly to copy the information she sent to the Record to the wardens, who would then monitor the notice in the paper for mistakes, and note them to provide data for Nelson. ii) Sunday School: Karen Ascah reported that she had spent $500 on Sunday School curriculum materials for the fall, and that the last day of Sunday school would be June 8 th . However, there are also serious problems; there are only 5 teachers (quite recently there were 10), so there is an urgent need for additional teachers as well as for a second co-ordinator. Her efforts to recruit additional teachers have met with no success. Messy church appears to effect an increase in the number of children attending Sunday School on the Sunday subsequent, but, at the same time, some of the teachers who had previously worked in the Sunday School had now re-directed their efforts to Messy Church or RENEW. Mary Shaw suggested that the children should be asked to bring their parents to Sunday School, previous efforts to recruit parents having been unsuccessful. Anne Taylor, however, was doubtful whether parents were the answer, since children behaved differently when their parents were present. Cheryl Fox suggested that recruiting efforts should employ the term “Sunday School Assistant”, rather than “Sunday School Teacher,” since the former seemed less threatening. Valerie Cuthbert

suggested that the effort to enlist Sunday School Assistants would fit well in the RENEW initiative as it was now shaping up, since it was beginning to appear that our implementation of
RENEW might involve gifts of service rather than, or in addition to, financial giving. She indicated that some kind of “Job Fair” might be held, at which participants might be shown a sample lesson plan and have the procedures explained to them, so that the task might seem less daunting. iii) Lunch for Habitat for Humanity volunteers: Valerie Cuthbert said that she had received information from the Habitat coordinator indicating that food could no longer be prepared at home, or at the St. George’s kitchen (since it is not a Health Services inspected kitchen).
Apparently Habitat’s kitchen could be used, but it is small. Leslie Burland-Prong said that some churches, Parkminster United, for example, did have such a kitchen; perhaps some other church’s facilities could be used. Valerie said that she would probably decide to go ahead with the provision of the lunch anyway, and try to figure out the logistics somehow. Motion that
Parish Council will support the provision of a lunch for Habitat for Humanity volunteers at some point. Proposed, John Ryrie; Seconded Judy Proctor. Carried. iv) Mary Shaw expressed concerns that the Dragon-Flyer mailings were often late (in the sense that they listed events already past) and that the postage involved was very expensive, especially when many regular parishioners could retrieve theirs with no cost at the church and that some mailings probably went to people who no longer attend St. Georges. She suggested the information should be left in church mailboxes (service attendees being urged to check these), and only mailed if left in the boxes. Nelson Cuthbert said that this is close to the procedure used for income tax statements, these being left in well-marked cardboard boxes in the centre of the Narthax for two weeks and, after that, any remaining statements mailed out.
Leslie Burland-Prong said that we needed to frequently update our communications strategy and make full use of email. It was suggested that an effort might be made to establish which parishioners actually wanted the mailings, and note their preferences for delivery by email or traditional mail. John Ryrie pointed out that mixed distribution of this type might be too complex and time-consuming a task for the single part-time Church Secretary, and Vivian Harris said that she thought that it had been established that the Dragon-Flyer (because it contained images) was too large to be emailed. The parish certainly appreciates the work and effort involved in the production of the Dragon-Flyer and the increased effort given this, the first edition of the year, by our new editor, Catherine Carlson. It was decided to ask the Stewardship
Committee to consider allowing a two-week “pick-up” timeframe at the church before mail-out of the remaining Dragon-Flyers. A further “content” suggestion was to consider including future church planning/new initiatives in the publication as the content now tends to be current and past happenings, some of which are already published dates, times etc.
11. Correspondence: None forthcoming.

12. Upcoming Dates:
Apr 27 th . Ploughman’s Lunch in honour of St. George’s day; Deanery Confirmation (4.00 p.m.).
May 3 rd . Bishop of Huron’s Prayer conference. 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. at St. Aidan’s Anglican church,
London, Ontario (details in Bulletin).
May 3 rd . Children’s Clothes closet. 9 a.m. – noon.
May 10 th . Spring Clean-up at St. Georges (rain-date May 13 th ).
May 11 th . Mothers’ Day.
May 21 st . Spring into Summer Tea – 2014 (Lillian Cressman). 7.30 p.m.
May 24 th . Messy Church (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
May 28 th . Teachers’ Choir concert for St. Monica House.
May 31 st . First Aid Certificate training.
June 8 th . Final Sunday School. T-shirt Sunday. Barbeque.
13. Next Parish Council Meeting:
Tuesday, May 27 th at 7.30 p.m. Chair, Vivian Harris. Devotions, Charlotte Cromarty.
Refreshments, Janet Hartry.
14. Adjournment:
9.25 p.m. Proposed; Judy Proctor. Carried.