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The Congregation Board met in the
Church Hall on Wednesday 11th. December, 2002 at 7.30 p.m. The
meeting began with reading and prayer and then apologies were
received from Stella, May, Mary, Margaret, Anna, Tom and Janine.
The chairman told the meeting that
he had received the resignation of Dorothy Stewart from the Board and
from her position of Clerk. He and Dorothy had discussed the matter
and agreed that as Dorothy was now part of the congregation at Luss
it would be more appropriate for her to channel her energies into
that congregation while remaining a good friend of all of us at
Arrochar. The meeting expressed its gratitude for all that Dorothy
had done both as a member of the congregation and of the
Congregational Board. It was agreed that Neil Black be appointed as
Clerk to the Congregational Board, a suggestion with which
fortunately Neil concurred. The minute of the last meeting was read
and agreed by everyone as a true record of the meeting and then we
began to consider this evening's business.
The church accounts were in an
excellent state. Karen reported that our income for the year to the
end of November already exceeded our budgeted income for the whole
year. Members had been generous and it was particularly encouraging
to see that the greatest increase had been in our covenanted giving.
On the expenditure side, almost everything had been kept within
budget and Karen was now projecting a surplus for the year in excess
of £5,000. In fact even although a great deal of money has been
spent this year from within the General Fund in order to complete the
restoration programme, once the VAT reclaim under the listed places
of worship scheme and the enterprise grant have been received, we are
likely to have as much money in the funds as we had at the start of
the year - which only a short while ago we would have considered to
be impossible. And to consider we hesitated about whether to go for
it and complete the restoration of the Church this year! Even the
difficulties with Scottish Gas appear to be resolving themselves -
the firm has agreed that our bill will be recalculated using the
rates initially agreed with us and then we shall start on the new
contract. Eric felt that any money we owed Scottish Gas would be in
hundreds rather than anything more and Karen indicated that she had
money in reserve for this purpose.
Jimmy's property report recorded
the fact that the restoration project was completed and that the
insurance repair to the tower was nearing completion (the scaffolding
will be dismantled next week and re-erected to complete the work in
January). Jimmy indicated that his thoughts were already turning to
next year when he hoped to replace the windows in the hall and
provide concrete plant holders in front of the church. He asked that
£4,000 be made available for the work of his committee next
year. He also told us that he had arranged for the church to be
floodlit this Christmas with lighting from the front and from the car
park side of the church.
Under the heading of housekeeping,
Retta told us that the halls were still exceedingly well used by
community groups and that a dance class had started on a Tuesday
afternoon. A contract will have to be drawn up with this group as it
is a commercial let. The person in charge has already exhibited the
groups insurance policy to Retta who will also check out the whole
area of child protection, if appropriate asking those involved to
attend one of the courses run by the Church of Scotland. Rates for
commercial hiring were discussed and agreed and then, for something
completely different the Board discussed a new vacuum cleaner as the
Dyson is proving not to be up to the job!
And so to the fund raising
committee. Gill told the Board that her committee had been given a
target of £3,400 for the year and to date had brought in
£4,309 .02. Haven't they done well? Gill feels that this year
has been exceptional - Lyn's sponsored walk and the Cruise Loch
Lomond Boat Trip were both exceptional - but then every year has been
exceptional. She also asked if next year thought could be given to
fund raising for a special purpose rather than just to balance the
books. Dane expressed pleasure that such a proposal was possible -
just a couple of years back we could not have imagined being able to
sustain ourselves without fundraising and now, thanks to the colossal
generosity of our members that really is possible. Gill also said
that Margaret West had replaced Eileen Kay on the fund raising
committee due to Eileen's other commitments.
There was no stewardship report
because Mary was unable to be with us. But we hope to invite the
Church of Scotland Stewardship promoter to visit us as soon as all of
the scaffolding is finally down. We believe our stewardship to be
good - but surely this is the time to ensure that it remains that way
and to build from strength.
There was no other business
although we did mention briefly the suggestion that the war memorial
be moved, emphasising that the Church was happy to provide a home for
it but only if the community was sure that it wanted the memorial to
be moved.
Dates for future meetings were
tabled and agreed and a busy but extremely happy meeting came to an
end at 8.45 p.m. |