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The Congregation Board met in the
Church Hall on Thursday 12th. September, 2002 at 7.30 p.m. The
meeting began with reading and prayer and then apologies were
received from Janine, Margaret, Anna, Gill, Marion and Neil.
The minute of the last meeting was
read by Dorothy and agreed by everyone as a true record of the
meeting and then we were straight into the business of the night.
First up to report was Karen with the Finance Report. This was a
pleasure to hear. Our offering income was up on our budget projection
by £959 and our total budgeted income was up by £772 (Fund
raising events hadn't quite reached their target but this was largely
due to the stage of the year - more events are on line and the target
will be achieved without difficulty before the end of the year.)
Because our expenditure is also well within our budget the budget
projection of an annual surplus of £9 (at the start of the year)
is now running at a projected surplus of £5,329 - which can't be
bad! However much of this surplus has now been used to complete the
restoration project ahead of schedule and in reality our actual
surplus is around £2,500.
Under the heading of Property,
Jimmy reported that the Church restoration project would indeed be
completed by the end of the month - this was, of course, a cause of
much celebration for the Board. It was agreed to spend money from the
equipment budget for a new notice board (£176 .24) and a
projector screen (£231 .48) for use in the Church.
Housekeeping and Hall allocation
was in the hands of Retta. She explained that there would be less use
by the computer group this year as they had found difficulty in
attracting people for one of their courses. She wondered about
spending £160 on twenty stacking chairs for the back of the
Church. This provoked a huge discussion! Many felt that we didn't
really want extra chairs at the back of the Church because when they
were most needed (at funerals, for example) it was better just to
have the space and to allow folk to stand. That way many more people
could be accommodated. Others were against plastic chairs at the back
of the Church because they felt that it took away from the look of
the building and, if these were used at weddings they spoiled the
look of the Church very considerably. Retta explained that she
objected to having to move the large and heavy red chairs from the
hall to the Church. It was agreed that this shouldn't be done but it
was also felt that no extra seats should be bought just now. Rather
we should make it clear to people that the seating capacity of the
Church was between one hundred and one hundred and twenty and once
our regular requirements meant that this was too few then we would
consider a more appropriate solution to the problem.
The Fund Raising total to date is
£2,169 .89p. Karen, standing in for Gill, reported that the Loch
Lomond Cruise had raised £733 (thanks to Cruise Loch Lomond and
to Mark Carmichael and his band) and the aerobic group had
contributed £288 to this fund. The next big event will be the
Fiddlers' Rally on Friday 11th. October at 7.30 p.m. in the Church.
Karen also reported that the overall target for the Fund Raising
Group (£3,400) would be reached before the end of the year.
It was noted that the Church lunch
would be at the Loch Long Hotel on Sunday 22nd. September and that
members of the congregation would be charged £7 .50 for lunch.
There was no Stewardship report at
this time but under Other Business Eric raised the matter of the
proposed move of the war memorial to the Church grounds. The Board
reaffirmed what the Session had said, that if the community wished
the war memorial to be moved to the Church grounds and if the Roman
Catholic Church was happy with this proposal then the Board had no
objection either. The Board asked Jimmy Kelly, the Property Convener,
to investigate where might be an appropriate site for the war
memorial within existing Church grounds.
There being no further business
the meeting ended with the Grace at 8.45 p.m. |