June 22, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
June 22, 2005

The Pastoral Council met June 22, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Wayne Snyder, Brad Grill, Dennis Meier, Damian Gerstner, Nancy Fahey, Linda Albani, Tom Skorupa, Pris Pawlikowski, Linda Winter, Fr. Mike Roach and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Dennis Meier
Prayer: Nancy Fahey
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Nancy opened the meeting with a prayer.

The council was informed that Steve Hilliard has chosen to resign from his position on the council.

A “Success Planning Subcommittee” consisting of Linda Albani, Damian and Wayne was formed to develop procedures for rotating the council membership and for filling vacancies. This committee will meet at least once prior to the next full council meeting.

Dennis led a discussion of goals and objectives. There was much discussion surrounding three proposed strategic goals:

To create a more caring and intimate parish.
To explore and channel our giftedness.
To form faith filled witnesses of Christ.

Tom agreed to attempt to draft language that would include a 4th goal “to refine and enhance the organizational structures of the parish to further promote communication, leadership and administrative support for all ministries.” This statement was included as an objective on a draft proposal. It was agreed that this statement was important, but elevating it to a goal seemed to clash with the “pastoral” nature of the other goals. Tom agreed to attempt to “soften” the language.

Future meetings were scheduled for 6:30 July 6, July 20, August 3, and August 17. The agenda for the next meeting will include:
Finalizing the goal statements
Developing procedures for collecting more objectives
Status report from the “Succession Planning Sub-Committee”.
For the July 6th meeting, Dennis will facilitate. Wayne will lead prayer and Joe will scribe.

Proposed Strategic Goals

St. Therese
Long Range Plan 2005 - 2008

Strategic Goals 2005 - 2008
· To develop and integrate a ministry of welcoming and hospitality in each area of service, liturgy, education, pastoral care, and administrative leadership

· To refine and enhance the organizational structures which facilitate communication, leadership, and administrative support for all ministries of the parish.

· To cultivate a commitment of stewardship among all members of the parish to support the development of human, spiritual, and financial resources.

· To expand and enhance faith formation activities for all ages (which develops an awareness of the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist) and supports the spiritual growth of each parish member.

· To expand outreach activities and services to build an awareness of and responsiveness to social justice issues.

· To sustain the commitment to provide and/or support a high quality Catholic education for all children of the parish.


Assignment
As we discussed at our last meeting, the goal statements above identify some of the key areas of growth, quality, and support for the St. Therese community. The assignment for each group is to review, revise, edit, add to, or delete from these goal statements. These statements are truly a first draft version and need refinement. In the end, each goal statement should support our Vision statement, promote the Seven Essential Elements, and provide a core direction for leadership and tactical planning.

After your group meets, please email your versions of the goal statements to me. We will then have four, second-draft versions and we will see how much variation there is among them. Hopefully we can finalize the goal statements at our next meeting.

Thanks,
Dennis