Stewardship Committee Minutes 4/17/08

Attendees: Bill Burns (Chair pro tem), Paul Curley, Deacon Charlie Cornell, Jon French (Secretary pro tem), and Esther George

Parish Needs

• Building & Grounds Committee

• The committee is now active and meeting regularly with Dave Goulet as the chairman.

• Bobby Norton located a burner service company who salvaged some parts from the three burners and now has two of them operational. Bobby has also been shown how to operate and do minor maintenance on them. Deacon Charlie thought the quote to fix the third burner was in the order of $6,000.

• Kathy O’Brian has volunteered to mow the grass. Dick Quinn did this last year and may also wish to do it this year.

• Dick Bonetti has been planting bulbs and handling some of the landscaping.

• Social Committee

• Al Debenedetto has volunteered to be chairman.

• Parish picnic in still scheduled for early September with hopes the Stow Lions will again cook the food.

• Garden Committee

• We discussed this at length. All agreed something needed to be done in April but nobody could come up with the name of a person who might put out a request from the pulpit. Deacon Charlie will try to collect some information on what needs to be done and when for an item in the bulletin.

• Parish Kitchen

• We will ask the Building and Grounds Committee to look into repairing the drawers.

• Bill Burns will ask his wife Sue to put together a work group this summer. Their goal will be to empty the cabinets and drawers, inventory everything, put labels on each cabinet and drawer, and put everything in its proper place. Deacon Charlie suggested this as a summer project so we could set up some tables and leave everything out long enough to do this. I.e., it might require several sessions.

• Someone to inventory

• Food Pantry

• Bobby Norton told Lorraine the cost of running a 220 volt line across the church hall would be very expensive and suggested installing the freezer on the other side. Nancy dome is currently using some of this area. This will need to be resolved by the staff.

• Warm Hearts

• Warm Hearts did not need assistance in picking up the food baskets Easter week.

• Budgeting for Mission

• The PFC & PPC did meet with the Business manager from St Julia’s in Weston. The PPC will be focusing on a revised mission statement in the coming year. The PFC will continue to provide fund raising ideas.

• Deacon Charlie went on to explain a little of what is happening at the archdiocesan level regarding planning for the future, the state of the collaboratives, the expected lack of priests in the near future, and the increasing number of Deacons. Much of this was covered at the joint PFC & PPC meeting.

• Landscape Lighting

• Bobby Norton has replaced some of the key exterior lights. Some of the others may be more of a challenge. This is now a Building & Grounds Committee item.

• Safety marks need to be repainted on the pavement

• Jon French recalls being part of a group that stenciled the fire lane and handicap parking signs and some of the parking lines close to the building. He still has a lining template and recalls somebody borrowing ‘handicap’ and ‘fire lane’ stencils from the Town of Acton. Deacon Charlie will check with Michael Clayton of the Stow Highway Department to see what they might have that we could borrow.

• This item should also be offered to the Building & Grounds Committee.

• Church cleanup for spring

• Deacon Charlie explained the staff is revising the Confirmation program. The new program will be two years long, more structured, and might include specific service projects like the church cleanup in place of the current ‘community service’ requirement. But this will only help in the future.

• We still should do a church cleanup before the First Communions that will be held the first & second weekends in May.

• Expand the Stewardship Committee

• The best recruiting idea still seems to be asking someone you know, particularly someone who wants to be a ‘doer’. Requests from the pulpit and blurbs in the bulletin have not been successful.

• We should focus on new parishioners and parents with newly baptized children.

• Bill asked for a clarification of the Stewardship Committee Member role. Deacon Charlie explained he saw us as ‘doers’, people who would take the lead in making something happen either by spawning a new committee or recruiting people to help on a given project.

Next meeting 5/15/08.