|
The Congregational Board met in
the Church Hall on Thursday 14th. March at 7.30 p.m. The meeting was
begun with prayer after which apologies for absence were noted. As
work commitments had prevented our clerk, Dorothy, from attending, it
was agreed that Eric would take minutes.
The main business of the meeting
was to ensure that the accounts were in order for the Stated Annual
Meeting of the congregation on Sunday afternoon. Karen took the
meeting through the accounts and through the budget for next year.
Everyone was happy with both accounts and budget (not
surprisingly as we had examined them at our last meeting - and also
because they are the best annual accounts we have ever had). The
meeting discussed the importance of encouraging our members to
complete Gift Aid declarations and noted that these could increase
our annual offerings by at least £2,000 a year.
The meeting also discussed the
matter of our electricity supplier. Most disappointingly, Scottish
Gas had not replied to our letter written after our last meeting. The
meeting agreed that a small group (Eric, Karen and Jim) will seek to
move our account to another supplier as soon as possible. It was also
decided to discuss our total dis-satisfaction with Scottish Gas with
the Church of Scotland and to take advice from the Church on other suppliers.
The Property Report was given by
Margaret. The final stained-glass window is now ready to be
installed; the new Church lights have now been installed; an
insurance claim has been lodged for the damage to the roof during the
recent storm during which we also lost one of our finials; and
it is planned to do the reharling of the Church during May of this
year. Tribute was paid to the help given to the restoration of the
Church by Norrie and Cathy Campbell who will be moving away from the
district very soon. They will be missed.
Margaret also gave the
Housekeeping and Church Hall Report. The refurbished Dyson is as good
as new; the second machine which was bought recently has shampooed
the carpets throughout the building. It was agreed to buy a new mat
for the front vestibule of the Church (cost £20). As the
Slimming Club is no longer a commercial group it was agreed that if
they kept their one hour meeting to Monday from 6 - 7 p.m. then there
would be no charge for the use of the hall. This would enable us to
get another group into the hall on a Monday evening. It was also
agreed that the rent for the local authority computer club would be
£10 an hour - this followed considerable discussion at which the
cost of other facilities (considerably more than £10) was
raised. However, we felt that £10 an hour was a fair and
generous rent which encouraged the local authority to continue to
provide such activities for our community. It was noted that
immediately after Easter our 'Discovering Faith' and 'Songs of
Praise' evenings would begin. It was also noted that during Holy Week
there would be no meetings in the halls as there would be services in
Church on each evening of the week.
Gill reported that the Fund
Raising Committee had got off to a grand start. The Car Boot Sale
raised £207 .65 and the Easter Fayre £808 .24 - a total of
£1,015 .89. Well done everyone! The next event is the Savoy
Group who will be coming to Arrochar on 26th. April. Their
programme will be a first half of songs from the shows followed by a
short version of 'The Pirates of Penzance' by Gilbert and Sullivan.
Tickets will be available very soon.
The Stewardship Report was given
by Mary who reminded us that later this year we will tackle
stewardship in a big way. The emphasis now is on getting all our
members to use Freewill Envelopes and on signing up for Gift Aid
where appropriate.
After a reminder that our next
meetings were planned for Thursday 25th. April, Wednesday 12th. June,
Wednesday 11th. September and Wednesday 11th. December and that our
Stated Annual Meeting is on Sunday at 3 p.m. our meeting was closed
with prayer at 8.30 p.m. |