Present: Pastor Chad Brekke, Associate Pastor Natalia Terfa, Sue LaGue, Tim Marker, Christina Jobe, Julia Sevald, Mike Isenberg, Richard Habstritt, Jeff Amstrup, Linda Forkey, and Jeremy Hanson

Absent: Ryan Ohm and Dale Emter

Guests:  Denise Dube, Craig Krogstad and Kathy Arveson attended the meeting during the presentation by Becky Palmgren.  Katie Rykal attended the meeting during Becky Palmgren’s presentation and also during the Rally Day discussion.

 Call to Order: President Sue LaGue called the meeting to order.

Devotions:  Christina Jobe led us in devotions.

Introductions: We went around the table and introduced ourselves.

Adoption of Agenda: A motion was made by Linda Forkey and seconded by Tim Marker to adopt the Council agenda with the change of moving Unfinished Business and the Rally Day Discussion up in the agenda. Motion approved.

Approval of Previous Minutes: A motion was made by Jeremy Hanson and seconded by Richard Habstritt to approve the minutes from the April 19, 2016 Council meeting as written.  Motion approved.

Unfinished Business: Becky Palmgren, Gift Planner from ELCA, (and her colleague Darren Waloch) spoke to the Council about how she discusses gift/estate planning with members of the church. Sue or church staff will be in touch with Becky to schedule a session(s) at Prince of Peace.  There is no fee for these sessions.

Rally Day Discussion

Katie Rykal and Pastor Natalia presented ideas for this fall’s Rally Day.

• A hot dog vendor/food truck would be the main food. This would be the one thing that the members would need to pay for.
• Any other food that we might have (e.g., snow cones, popcorn) would be held inside to help bring people indoors for the Ministry Fair.
• The Ministry Fair this year will just focus on the five ministry teams.       Council members are encouraged to start thinking now about how their area/booth would look and to start communicating with their teams now about the Fair.
• We will have bouncy houses.

Reports of Officers:

Treasurer’s Report:

• For the month of April, receipts were lower than expenses.
  • The general/building fund activity for the month was a loss of $1,882. This is unfavorable to budget and prior year by $5,092 and $7,352, respectively.
  • Total April offerings were lower than budget and prior year by $8,596 and $7,720, respectively. Other receipts for April were higher than both budget and prior year, mainly related to building use income increases, partially offset by lower Thrivent Choice dollars coming in.
  • Overall, expenses are lower than budget and only slightly higher than prior year. The favorability to budget is mainly related to lower gas & electricity expense in April.
• For April year to date, receipts were lower than expenses. Offerings year to date are lower than budget and prior year. Expenses are flat to budget but higher than prior year due to repairs & personnel expense.
• The general fund cash balance available for use is $67,129 at the end of April.
• The designated fund with significant activity in April was the plant sale/WAPO fund.

President’s Report:

Sue reminded us there will be no meeting in July.

Vice-President’s Report:

The amended Leave a Legacy by-laws will be sent to Council members within the next week or so. Both a redlined copy and a clean copy will be distributed.  The Council will discuss them at the next Council meeting in June.  Members were encouraged to look at the copy and address questions to Tim beforehand, so he can be prepared with answers for the meeting.

Secretary’s Report: None

Ministry Team Reports

Property Report

Property committee did not meet.  Nothing new to report.

Spiritual Development  (Spiritship):

Jeff met with Sally Onstad. There is currently $285 in the library budget.  If/when that money is depleted, anything the library might need would come out of the Spiritual Development budget.                                         

Sunday Morning Experience (report sent in prior to meeting)

Sunday Morning Experience Team met on May 2.

1. Key Topics –
   1. SME Committee Membership: Goal to add 3-4 members is complete with (4) new members – We have welcomed George Umolac, Joel Odens, Rick Swanson, Jim Knucky.
   2. SME \ WE Team ministry Ice Cream Social date was set for Monday – May 23 at 6:00pm. Email invitation sent on May 11 to all known email addresses. Need to share verbally with others.
   3. 2016 Team Initiatives update:
      1. Invite Head Ushers to visit SME Committee Meetings – May = Rich Kvamme. Rich provided helpful and welcome feedback to committee and encouraged efforts.
      2. Discussed recruiting more Head Ushers for 2017 schedule – We have listed 2 new Head Ushers (Steve Young & Jeff Hansen). Will continue recruiting for more.
      3. Establishing the WE Team Coordinators & implementing weekly teams of Ushers and Greeters – have added (24) new team members in 2016 and still have about 24 openings (half way there). A sub-committee agreed to reach out to a list of 24 who have indicated interest.
      4. Visitor Welcoming \ Visitor Bags – In last month we have shared four bags to visitors and are now out of bags. Kim Neisen will replenish the supply.
      5. Ice Cream Social – May 23, 2016 per item 2b above.
      6. Veteran’s Day – November
   4. First Aid / AED Training for Head Ushers was not approved for funding – tabled for next year.
   5. Coffee & Cookie Ministry is doing well, and is looking for some added helpers.
   6. Pew Organization & Clean Up is doing well – Elaine Zimmer is performing the work this spring and summer.

Congregational Care   

New member session was this past Sunday. There were two couples, a single individual, and the spouse of one of our members.                                            

Outreach

Upcoming Projects:

• Sunday, May 15 – Jeans and Junk
• Tuesday, June 7, 7:00 p.m. – Brooklyn Avenues June Birthdays Celebration
• Wednesday, June 8 – Serve food for Park Brook Graduation
• June Good News Daycare Donation Collection
• Phoebe Hospital Fundraiser – Timing TBD

Competed Project Report

• Saturday, April 16 Avenues Garden Planning Meeting
  • Upcoming volunteer/resident activities
    • Making garden pavers – Alison Isenberg’s small group may volunteer with the youth to create these
    • Building garden fence – VFW volunteers will build; funds will be used from our garden grant

• Monday, April 25 – Blood Drive
  • 26 people donated blood
• Friday, May 6 – Loaves and Fishes
  • Temporary location this month – team served another church made the meal
  • Armory will be the permanent site

Community Life

Mike has started a Google Doc with ideas.                                                         

Pastoral Reports:

Pastor Chad’s Report:

Tanzania Vision Trip in June.

Pastor Natalia’s Report:

• I spent a few days with Chad and our lovely crew of delegates at the Minneapolis Synod Assembly May 6 and 7.  The theme of the assembly was “Can I get a witness” and the whole thing was centered around learning how to and giving congregation members opportunities to share their stories.  It was really encouraging to leave the assembly feeling like Prince of Peace was one up on this, with our “Thin Places” series during Lent, and also from the pulpit in the past weeks and months.  Basically, we’re awesome.
• GroupLife Spring Session is finishing up!  Conversations have been lively and engaging around the idea of discipleship, and I can’t wait to see what comes out of them.
• We’ve got our summer worship services planned out and once again, there is no slowing down around here! Our Sunday morning worship will combine to 9:30am beginning Memorial Day weekend, through Rally Day.  I love our summer worship on Sunday mornings, it feels a bit more casual and we can be creative in how we spend our time together.  Wednesday nights are taking shape too, with a lot of great speakers from around the area coming to share their wisdom with us.  We’ll also be bringing back our Picnic and Worship in the Park – at Hartkopf Park on the last Wednesday of each summer month.  Spread the word and bring friends to any or all of these great worship services.

Highs and Lows: Jeremy, Sue and Linda shared.

New Business: None

Action Items: Mike will send the Google Doc to all Council members.

A motion was made by Mike Isenberg and seconded by Tim Marker to adjourn the meeting. Motion approved.  Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Christina Jobe

Council Secretary