WEBSITE VERSION - PART

Transcription

1 WEBSITE VERSION - PART 2 El Dorado County Federated Church ANNUAL REPORT FOR: MISSION STATEMENT: The people of Federated Church are a Christian Community shaped by servant-hood, inclusivity, peacemaking and simplicity. All persons are welcome to participate fully in the ministries of Federated Church, regardless of age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, cultural background, disabilities, marital status or financial circumstances. Federated Church 1031 Thompson Way Placerville, CA Website: eldoradofederatedchurch.org office@eldoradofederatedchurch.org Facebook: Federated Church Placerville

2 Table of Contents Refer to PART 1 for beginning of report. 5 Focus Groups... 2 EarthKeepers... 2 Lamplighters... 2 Prime Time... 3 ROMEOs Denominations... 4 Presbyterian Regional Activities... 4 Presbyterian Women... 5 United Methodist Church Missionary Partners... 6 Café Justo Coffee and Frontera de Cristo... 6 Haiti Report Federated Church Preschool Budget and Financial Statistics... 8 Church Treasurer Rod Leggett... 8 Financial Documents 5 Year Review, 2011 to Financial Documents 2016 Approved Budget, Page Financial Documents 2016 Approved Budget, Page Financial Documents 2016 Approved Budget, Page Financial Documents FCW Treasurer s Report, 2015 Year-End Financial Documents FCW Treasurer s Report, 2015 Savings ANNUAL REPORT COMMITTEE: Sharon Fraser, Ruth Humes, and Elizabeth Tiedemann. EDITORS NOTE: Each report was written by the submitter. Sharon Fraser edited their reports only for punctuation and grammar, if needed; then formatted and compiled all of the reports into this Annual Report. Page 1 of 14

3 5 Focus Groups EarthKeepers Submitted by: Carolyn Bush Taking action to educate and connect our community to secure the future of a living environment. EarthKeepers held its first official meeting in March of 2015, following the expressed interest of people who had attended Bob Olmstead s study series Painting the Stars: Science, Religion and an Evolving Faith. The goal of EarthKeepers is to educate, generate discussion, and help make connections within Federated Church and the larger community regarding our role as humans to love and care for the Earth and all of creation. In 2015, EarthKeepers provided: A bulletin board with announcements, tips, and interactive displays of varying themes. Weekly EarthKeepers Korner announcements with information, helpful tips, and relevant church and community events. Activities to compliment the themes for the Season of Creation. A nature-inspired art show (Planet Earth) A two-can challenge to collect food for SHARE (Humanity) A field trip to the community observatory (Sky) A hike (Mountain) - canceled due to rain! A survey to gauge the Earth-care interests of the congregation. The top twelve responses to the all-church survey (all with 50% or more) showed congregants interest in the following areas: Reduce/re-use/recycle in the church Water efficiency at church Exchanges of goods; Sermons on related topics (tied) Living more simply Energy efficiency at church; Nature awareness walks; Children s Time on related topics (tied) Waterway and other clean-ups; Creative ways to re-use/re-purpose (tied) Landscaping with native and drought-tolerant plants; Hikes (tied) EarthKeepers plan to focus on helping our congregation connect around these interest areas in Lamplighters Submitted by: Betty Bawden Lamplighters are a group of senior church members who meet the second Thursday of the month, (we also meet in July and August). We usually go to a local restaurant for lunch and fellowship. We contribute $2 per person to a kitty; and when this accumulates to a good sum, we donate it to a good cause. This year we gave money to the Federated Church Preschool Scholarship Fund and contributed to the Oven Fund for the church kitchen. Page 2 of 14

4 Anyone is welcome to join us at our monthly get-togethers. Watch for the location of our monthly luncheons in the Sunday church announcements. Prime Time Submitted by: Nancy Dutton Prime Time, a social group of singles and couples in the prime time of life (mostly retired) folks. The group usually meets once a month on the third Saturday of the month but the dates are changed at the discretion of the hostess(es). Leadership of monthly meeting events is passed around the group. Prime Time is a self-supporting group of approximately seventy active members. Monies collected from the group were donated to the fund drive for new ovens for the Church kitchen. Prime Time hosted coffee gatherings between Church services quarterly. The programs/activities are decided upon by whoever is in charge for that month. Programs for 2015 included: January Chinese Luncheon and Annual Planning February Red, White and Tuna, Imagination Theatre March Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Tour April Holy Land Trip Presentation May Historical Cemetery Tour June 0ld Coloma Theatre July Annual Ice Cream Social August Gold Bug Mine September Attended Rachel Green Concert October Guys and Dolls, Sutter Street Theater November No program December Christmas Dinner Potluck ROMEOs Submitted by: Norm Menzie This group of Retired Old Men Eating Out was instigated by Harry Caldwell, Bart Bawden, and Bob Wakeman as a weekly breakfast group but soon morphed into volunteering to help those in need. Sometimes they haul wood, or repair residences for HELP, or weekly haul bread and baked goods donated by Safeway, or unload food at the SHARE food closet located in the basement at Federated. After meeting for breakfast each Wednesday, the ROMEOs unload food at SHARE that has been picked up at the Food Bank Warehouse in Cameron Park by members of other cooperating local churches. From time to time, the group members are recruited by the Food Bank, Marshall Hospital, or the US Post Office to haul food to SHARE. Also, on the fourth Tuesday of each month, they unload the food delivered to SHARE in the Food Bank truck. Chuck LePere is their fearless leader in the relationship with the Food Bank. If the Food Bank truck is out of commission, several private trailers and/or pickup trucks are pressed into service. Page 3 of 14

5 Each Saturday one of the ROMEOs picks up donated baked goods and bread from Safeway and drives it in their own truck to SHARE. This is a long standing arrangement with Safeway set up by Harry Caldwell with the only stipulation that all of the day old bread or pastries must be taken. This group of around 15 ROMEOs enjoy each other s company, having breakfast together, and find it fulfilling and gratifying to assist people who need help. 6 Denominations Presbyterian Regional Activities Submitted by: Don and Peg Vanderkar Members of Federated Church played a very active role in the Sacramento Presbytery this year. Our Presbytery boundaries extend from Vacaville to the Nevada border and southern Sacramento County to the Oregon border. Peg Vanderkar was moderator of the Presbytery for the year, and presided over the regular quarterly Presbytery meetings and three Special Presbytery meetings. She also served on the Presbytery Council. Federated Church s regular voting commissioners to the Presbytery in 2015 were Judi Angell, Sharon Fraser, and Don Vanderkar, who attended and participated in the Presbytery meetings. Elaine Livingston also attended in May as a Federated Commissioner (Judi was out of state) to vote on the Gracious Dismissal Policy. Other critical votes included actions regarding churches experiencing financial and other concerns, actions related to churches considering leaving the Presbyterian Church USA, and Presbytery support of the biennial national PC/USA General Assembly s landmark decision to define the marriage sacrament as: a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman. Susan Taseff served on the Nominating Committee recruiting elders from churches to serve on Presbytery committees and teams. [Teaching Elder is a technical term for an ordained pastor; a Ruling Elder is a lay person who has served on Presbyterian church councils or sessions. ] Judi Angell served as chairperson in 2015 for the Committee on Representation (COR), a committee of the Presbytery that seeks to insure balanced inclusiveness of ages, genders, and ethnicities in Presbytery work. As part of her leadership toward inclusiveness, the COR recommended a policy change to allow remote participation on committees, allowing home bound, temporarily ill, or otherwise unavailable but qualified persons to serve on committees. Further, the Judi worked on preparing an "Overture to the General Assembly 2016" (i.e. an item to be voted on), adding "Southeast Asian" to the ethnic representations to be sought on PC/USA committees. Judy also served on a team of five persons which labored intensively to prepare the new Gracious Policy for Dismissal [from the PC/USA], adopted by the Sacramento Presbytery in May 2015, which directs the procedures of the Presbytery should a congregation wish to leave the denomination. Don Vanderkar served on the Committee on Ministry (COM). Sharon Fraser was elected to fill a vacant position on the COM toward the end of the year. Ron Johnson was elected to serve on COM starting Page 4 of 14

6 January 1, COM welcomes and evaluates Teaching Elders coming into the Presbytery, supports churches and their ministries, and addresses concerns about leaving the denomination. Presbyterian Women Submitted by: Sharon Fraser The Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in June of Judi Angell and Sharon Fraser were able to attend the conference, thanks to scholarships received from both the Federated Church Women and the Sacramento Presbyterian Women. The four day conference was filled with worship, singing, workshops, educational opportunities, local mission trips, exhibits, meetings, and an organized peace march. It was a wonderful experience. United Methodist Church Submitted by: Linda Gates, Elected Lay Member There was something for everyone at this year s California-Nevada United Methodist Annual Conference: Techies enjoyed electronic voting Shopaholics enjoyed making purchases in the Cokesbury store Politicians enjoyed debating and voting for legislation Networkers enjoyed connecting at the display tables Foodies enjoyed scheduled mealtime events or exploring nearby restaurants Musicians enjoyed worshipful and inspiring music Scholars enjoyed the wisdom of our featured speaker Global health advocates enjoyed seeing a campaign total of $1,750,000 for Imagine No Malaria! All United Methodists enjoyed singing, praying, praising, connecting with one another again! The main business of this year s Conference was to elect Clergy and Lay Delegates to the 2016 General Conference to be held in Portland, Oregon; and to elect Clergy and Lay Delegates to the 2016 Western Jurisdictional Conference to be held in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Jurisdictional election was important because it is at this Conference that a new CA-NV Conference Bishop will be elected. The 2015 Annual Conference Session was held June at the Hyatt Burlingame in San Francisco. In addition to being the elected Lay Member from Federated Church, I was responsible for coordinating display tables and mealtime events during the Conference. It is an honor being your elected Lay Member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference! Page 5 of 14

7 7 Missionary Partners Café Justo Coffee and Frontera de Cristo Updated by: Sharon Fraser In the past, Carol and Bob Olmstead saw firsthand the work of mission partners Mark Adams, the Presbyterian Border Ministry of Frontera de Cristo, and the Café Justo coffee growers. When Federated Church folks buy Café Justo coffee (Just Coffee) on the patio and in Price Hall, we are helping 100 Mexican farming families to stay on their ancestral lands in the Chiapas mountains instead of attempting to cross the border into the United States. Mark Adams and Frontera de Cristo are deeply involved in Christian ministry within the narco-culture of the U.S./Mexico border. They are partners with CRREDA a drug rehab residential program. Through the Migrant Resource Center (yet another joint project), persons who have just been deported are provided food, shelter and clothing, and are reunited with families (often hundreds of miles away). Frontera de Cristo, CRREDA, and Café Justo were embarking on the construction of a coffee shop adjunct to the roasting facility in Agua Prieta. The goal was to create a space where youth could gather, hang out, and find the support to resist the pervasive narco-culture and violence of the border. Frontera de Cristo hoped to hire a youth/night minister who would be on the streets inviting youth to the coffee shop as well as developing drug-education programs for the schools. Valerie and Janet Chelseth sell the coffee between services every Sunday, and they are happy to support the families and the mission of Café Justo in this way. If you are a coffee lover, buy Café Justo from them to support all of these good works. For more information visit Haiti Report Submitted by: Sara Munday Although no one from Federated made it to Haiti in 2015, our adopted school in Hinche continues to grow. Reports from the Toms food project (who built the solar cart) are that computers are being used daily in the classroom, and classes are now being held both upstairs and downstairs. They sent a team to Hinche last Spring, and provided eye exams for 101 people in the community, furnished and fitted 47 pairs of reading glasses, and made 27 referrals to an eye doctor, mostly for cataracts. They had planned to take a medical team in the Fall, but political unrest prompted them to cancel the trip. Page 6 of 14

8 8 Federated Church Preschool Submitted by: Cheryle Price, Program Director Federated Church Preschool has been providing families with infants and preschool aged children (3 months 5 years old) from the community and our own church for over two decades now with loving care and early childhood education. We continue to feel very blessed to have the support of our preschool families, church members, church council, and from merchants in our community, many of who contribute generously to our silent auction and other fundraisers during the year. We also have a scholarship fund that lets families continue to come to the preschool when things are tight. And of course we have a few wonderful volunteers that help us in the classrooms, fix broken toys, make new toys for the children, and do any needed repairs to our facility. Thank you volunteers, we really appreciate you! This year we have had over 60 families enrolled in the preschool. We are thankful that we were able to keep our doors open after many unexpected staff changes and financial difficulties this last year. We are grateful to be able to continue to provide quality, loving care to so many families. Thank you for helping us touch the lives of young children in a positive way, sending them off to kindergarten ready to learn. Page 7 of 14

9 9 Budget and Financial Statistics Church Treasurer Rod Leggett It has been my pleasure to serve as your Treasurer in a volunteer capacity since March My role in that capacity has been to provide guidance for the bookkeeping function for the Church, and financial reporting and analysis for the Church Council. I meet with Priscilla Dixon, another volunteer, as required to answer questions and provide financial guidance. I review expenditures and sign the checks. I attend the monthly Council meetings to provide an analysis of the monthly and year to date financial information. The primary purpose is to provide the best information possible to be used as a basis for the strategic planning for the Church. I am also engaged in the budget process. That involves meeting with other members of the Budget Committee and providing alternatives along with the related impacts to Council for their consideration. Once the budget has been approved, it is then provided for input to the accounting system, provided for this publication, and presented at the All Church Meeting in January. The year 2015 was certainly an eventful year. In March, Council approved revisions to the annual budget which called for reduction of staff either in eliminating positions or reducing hours. The elimination of the Financial Secretary position meant initially outsourcing the bookkeeping and payroll processing functions. Later in the year we were fortunate to have Priscilla volunteer to perform the bookkeeping function. That provided a huge advantage due to her understanding of Church functions and in terms of providing a timelier turn-around of payments. We continue to outsource our payroll. The revised budget and resulting staff reductions provided a much needed transition for the Church. The initial budget for 2015 showed a deficit of $124,000 and that was on the heels of an actual deficit of $98,000 for The revised budget showed a surplus of $2,000; a reduction of expenses by $126,000. In retrospect, this wasn t easy. There was the anxiety of those having to make the agonizing choices, the hardships caused by those choices, and a lot of hard work from those who stepped forward to help out. The actual results for the year were better than any of us could have imagined a surplus of almost $21,000. That was only due to the hard work and dedication of the congregation members who stepped up to fill the gaps left by the reductions. And, thank you for your patience and understanding during this transition. The following documents are included on the subsequent pages: 5 Year Financial Review 2011 to 2015 Approved Budget for 2016 Pages 1 to 3 Page 8 of 14

10 Financial Documents 5 Year Review, 2011 to 2015 Page 9 of 14

11 Financial Documents 2016 Approved Budget, Page 1 Page 10 of 14

12 Financial Documents 2016 Approved Budget, Page 2 Page 11 of 14

13 Financial Documents 2016 Approved Budget, Page 3 Page 12 of 14

14 Financial Documents FCW Treasurer s Report, 2015 Year-End Page 13 of 14

15 Financial Documents FCW Treasurer s Report, 2015 Savings Page 14 of 14