| ATTENDEES: | Scott Bryden, Marilyn Dean (chair), Jimmy Ogunshakin and Andrew Torbet |
| IN ATTENDENCE: | Helen Torbet (secretary) |
| APOLOGIES: | none |
The meeting began at 7.50pm and opened with a prayer.
| Topic | Action | |
| 1. | Approval of Previous Minutes | |
| The Minutes from the previous meeting held on 23rd November 2006 were agreed and duly signed by Marilyn Dean who acted as chair for that particular meeting. The minutes from the Joint Meeting held on 2nd December 2006 were also agreed, as slightly amended and duly signed by Scott Bryden as chair of that meeting. | ||
| 2. | Matters Arising | |
| Various items arising from previous meetings were converted into main agenda items and included below. | ||
| 3. | Shepherds Items | |
| a) | A recent Shepherd's meeting agreed that Coral & Phil would be 'co-opted' into the Shepherd's group in 2007. The Trustees were satisfied with this approach. | |
| b) | Date of next Joint meeting, between Shepherds and Trustees, would be Saturday 3rd February 2007, 2-5pm at the Study Centre. | |
| c) | Progress of Membership Covenant - MD proposed a new back page which would allow people a range of responses from full agreement to a wish to discuss the issues. It was agreed that this could give people a clearer opportunity to express their feelings to the covenant and thereby provide a clearer picture of the congregation's mindset. The default responses proposed would be discussed further with Duncan Lawrence. | Trustees |
| The covenant has not yet been used in Leicester, and therefore this new back page could be used in this context. It was noted that in Birmingham, over 40 people have already completed the forms. However, it was noted that the covenant itself would probably be a work in progress for the whole of its useful life. | ||
| Jimmy Ogunshakin and Duncan Lawrence would work together on a joint presentation to explain how Birmingham has used the membership covenant and how Leicester would be approaching the situation. | JO/DL | |
| It was agreed that a telephone contact list (possibly with birthdays included) could be compiled but should be treated as a completely separate matter since the information would be made available for the use of the congregation as opposed to church business. The two sets of information will have different terms of use and hence must be controlled differently. | ||
| 4. | Finances | |
| a) | With regard to the recent freewill offering, it was proposed to send a cheque for £3000 to HOPE as soon as possible. A covering letter would need to be drafted to explain which projects this money should go to. It was noted that Leicester and Wolverhampton had sent donations already. | MD/AT |
| b) | Monthly spreadsheet - MD presented the monthly spreadsheet. Unfortunately, it was incomplete as the bank statement for the Leicester account had not yet been received. MD will update this asap. | |
| c) | New Signatory - AT reported that he had spoken to Sophie Charles, who had agreed to be a signatory for the Birmingham account. Paperwork is to be completed. | AT |
| d) | Draft 2007 Budget - MD tabled a draft budget from previous discussions at joint meeting on 2nd Dec. There were still some outstanding figures (principally teens group and benevolence) to be added and a few amendments were made. MD to update and distribute. | MD/Trustees |
| 5. | Employment of Minister | |
| JO had been making some useful contact with ICCM for input on a draft contract. He had also sourced a solicitor who specialises in commercial immigration and will be proceeding with this in the New Year. | JO | |
| 6. | Legal Matters | |
| None to report, save for above. | ||
| 7. | Any Other Business | |
| New Trustees - an enquiry had been received from a brother who would be interested in becoming a trustee for the Leicester congregation. It was agreed that he would be invited to attend at the next trustees meeting. | MD | |
| Church secretary - HT will be increasingly less available as her pregnancy continues. It was agreed to trial a digital recording of the meeting to allow her to type them later, therefore negating her actual presence at the meeting. The recorder will be purchased anyway by AT as part of a planned improvement in the recordings of sermons and lessons. | AT | |
| Benevolence - an issue of potential benevolence was raised. This would be passed to the Bakers for further investigation. Permission would be granted to purchase vouchers up to the sum of £50 to help over the Christmas period for the individual involved, should this be necessary. | AT | |
| Date of Next Meeting | ||
| The date for the next meeting was set for Thursday 18th January 2007 (susequently changed to Thursday 22nd February 2007) |
Helen Torbet
Church Secretary