December 6th, 2001

Members Present:Mary Eve Thomas, Jim Graves, Gene Gagnon, John McElhatton, Carol O’Toole, Claude Paradis, Anne Keeffe, Susan Sell, Peter Eichten.
Welcome to new member Deb Meyer: The group did brief introductions.

1. Opening Prayer:
   Was led by Claude. There was brief check-in by all members
2. Mission Statement & Covenant: were read, and this practice will be discussed further.
3. Minutes from November meeting were approved.
4. Old Business:
   
   1. Council Visibility: Carol handed out schedules, some adjustments were made. Schedule begins after the first of the year.
   2. Policies: Web site policy was discussed first. It was decided to take out the sentence that refers to an advisory board since such a board does not exist. Fund Raising Policy was discussed next. There were some minor changes in the wording for clarification. The Council decided to leave any language about sale of tapes and books out of the policy. A lengthily discussion then took place about the Cabaret. The question is, how does the Cabaret fit into the fund raising policy? It was decided that the Cabaret Committee needs to be made aware of this conflict. The Finance Committee also should be made aware of this issue, and eventually make a recommendation to the Council on how the Cabaret fund raising fits into the policy. The Council felt it would not be a good idea to say something specifically about the Cabaret in the policy. The idea of have some Cabaret committee members come to a Council meeting was discussed, no decision was made. Both of these policies will be on the agenda again for next month.
   3. Personnel Handbook: The Personnel Committee is meeting next week to discuss some of the changes that were brought up by Carol and Joan Riebel.
   4. Growing In Faith Archdiocesan Capital Campaign: It continues to go. We are at 2% of our goal. Overall the Campaign is doing well with Block II at 70% of its goal.
   5. Segregation of Duties: Finance Committee will look at this issue again.
5. New Business:
   
   1. Housing Summit and Peace Conversations: Peter gave a brief description of these two events that were initiated by Julie Madden. The Parish was informed about the Housing project a few weeks ago, and there has been an excellent response by parishioners to work on the affordable housing problem. The Conversations on Peace began right after Sept. 11 and are continuing with a committed group of parishioners involved. They are hoping to bring Dayton and Wellstone to SJA in the near future.
   2. Stewardship Handout: Peter handed out the packet of financial information that the Stewardship Committee put together, and the Council briefly looked at the packet. The Council thanked the Stewardship Committee for doing this.
   3. Calendars: The Council was reminded that we meet every first Thursday of the month, please have that on your calendars.
   4. So African Connection: Susan had been asked by a couple of parishioners what is the relationship of the folks going to So. Africa and SJA? Claude said that it is similar to the AIDS Ride. Neither of those are projects of SJA, there just happens to be many parishioners that are involved. Chuck knows more about the whole So. African project and he may want to talk about it more next month.
   5. Beginning and Ending of meetings: Chuck had requested that we do not read the covenant or do the quick evaluation at the end of the meeting. This will be discussed further at the next meeting. It was suggested that perhaps we should end the meeting with a question like: How has this meeting helped the poor in our world? Or something like that.
   6. Liaison Reports: Susan reported meeting with Kathy Itzin and Lisa Chirpich to talk about sacramental prep. Susan was impressed with the programs that are in place. She noted that we have about 16 baptisms a month; there are a lot of children at SJA. Carol reported on the Justice Fund Committee that met last month to distribute funds. She listed those that received money. She indicated that this was an interesting and fun process. Mary Eve reported on the up coming Advent Retreat that is being planned by the retreat team - she said she was much more suited for that type of work than Council work! (Mary Eve, you do just fine on the Council!)
6. Final Prayer: led by Claude.
   Meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Peter Eichten