June 2021

 

Note that draft Minutes of the Congregational meeting of June 13 will be available through the office.

The Rejuvenation Committee submits its final report below. Council commends the committee members and the Property Oversight Committee and many other volunteers for their great work!

Arts Committee

Heather Swallow, Chair

Arts didn't meet in June, but we have two bullets anyway - all being organized by email: 

• During Summer Spirit drop in on the lawn on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm to build community and create. Bring your own chair and snacks. Protocols will be in place. There will be a schedule possibly looking like the below, but subject to change. It's very informal. People can also bring their own creations and work on whatever they like if the theme of the evening doesn't appeal: 

July   7 - Painting stones | Plasticine | Paper creations
July 14 - Textiles - Knitting | Crocheting | Quilting | Macrame
July 21 - Music Night on the lawn (campfire style?)
July 28 - Movement - Creating a Body Prayer for Pacific Spirit United Church
Aug   4 - Flower Arranging - bring flowers to share | a unique vase for your arrangement 
Aug 11 - Watercolours | drawing | colouring mandalas
Aug 18 - Music Night on the lawn (campfire style?)
Aug 25 – To be decided

• Wayfarer Arts Event Knox United is planning an arts event on several church lawns for August 14 noon to 5 pm - like a museum crawl. We have indicated our interest in providing one of the lawns and tents in the event of questionable weather and will be promoting this to the Pacific Spirit Community as we are looking for a couple more tents and some volunteers, as well as art! We need help to set up at 10 am, or take down after 5 pm, or hosts throughout the day beginning at noon. Volunteers can contact me. A call for artists and other details are here: https://knoxvan.com/blog/2021/06/12/wayfarer-art-show

Children Youth and Family Committee

Irene Griffiths, Chair

• The search continues for a suitable temporary employee to take over duties while we search for a permanent CYF minister.

Finance Committee

Julie Poznanski, Chair

The finance committee did not meet in June and will meet next on July 22 to review and prepare a comprehensive six-month report to the congregation. 

In Reach Committee

Sally Ball, Chair

• Coffee hour and greeters:  We are waiting until  we hear what September plans are in place to set up schedules when  it is possible to provide coffee again and we are thinking that the greeting function and any registration/ health check entry system may need to be combined.

• Tours of the rejuvenated church facilities! A great brainstorming occurred to plan tours for the congregation to see all the improvements. This will take place over two weeks between Monday, August 30 and Friday, September 20. Refreshments and transportation will be offered.

Outreach Committee

Patricia Alexis, Chair

• First United Focus on First: (Patricia) The fundraiser drive raised $1,208. The amount of $1,090 was spent on jogging pants, socks and underwear. A thank you was sent via the newsletter to the congregation. Partnership circles are on hold for now.

• Springhouse: (Sabina) Comfort in a bag project is well under way. Extra purchases of sheet sets are in the Stitch N Chatter closet. Sabina has sent an updated flyer outlining the program. It will be in next week’s newsletter.

• Reconciliation: (Maggie) An installation in memory of First Nations children who died in Residential School was placed by the bench in the front of the church. Maggie, Susan Dixon and Heather Swallow. They will be working on a permanent garden (small and heart-shaped). Maggie has requested that the plants from the garden at Dunbar be transferred to PSUC. A healing fund within the United Church for survivors has been established. Outreach has donated $500. Church members will be invited to make donations.

• Refugee Sponsorship: (Maggie and Jean) Sabina has spoken to Hassan. The family is doing well. Hassan continues to do research on finding a job. The Al-Zazas have had Covid and are in recovery. The adults now have their citizenship.

Ministry and Personnel Committee

Jacqueline Kelly, Chair

• Meeting with the Coordinating Minister- The Committee met with the Coordinating Minister to talk about how things are going and plans for the summer and fall.

• Post summer custodial needs- The Committee noted that there may be a need for additional custodial services once we are able to meet in person, particularly on Sunday mornings. While this is not an M&P responsibility or decision, the Committee agreed this should be raised with Council for its consideration as our full time Custodian works Monday -Friday.

• Safe Workplace Policy- Both the United Church and WorkSafe BC require that as an employer Pacific Spirit have a policy in place related to the prevention of workplace bullying, harassment and violence. A draft of such a policy based on the template developed by the United Church, adapted to reflect the requirements of applicable BC legislation, is available with the full minutes of this council meeting.

Property Oversight Committee

Mark Mikulec, Chair

• POC meets on the 2^nd Wednesday of each month.  During this past year, a significant part of our deliberations has been directed towards ‘Rejuvenation’ projects, and several members have volunteered many hours of work on those projects.

• Except for the approximately 60-foot section of roof gutter that detached in one of the storms of early 2021, and the need to replace a leaking expansion joint in the ‘radiator’ in the Fireside Rm. (these together will cost at least $1000), we have not had any major repairs.

• POC did have to oversee some major cost work on recently acquired house at 2291 W. 45^th.  A roof-deck at the rear had to be dismantled and restored to a roof area.  The front stairs had to be rebuilt.  These two projects totalled almost $18,000 – which were ‘added to the purchase price.’

• POC budgeted for, and is still hoping to replace the badly deteriorated siding on the three half gables at the front of the Memorial Centre.  However, our contractors are all quite busy at this time.

Rejuvenation Committee

Erin Peters, Chair

• The committee is making all documentation available on Google Drive for anyone interested in details of the committee's activities over the past few months. The work is now considered complete.

Spiritual Nurture Committee

Chris Epting, Chair

• No report for June.

Trustees 

Doug Smart, Chair

• Grant Request from Camp Spirit for Youth Leadership Program: Pacific Spirit has provided a grant to Camp Spirit for the past four years for this program. Pacific Spirit youth have participated in the Camp Spirit Youth Leadership Program in past summers and two are scheduled to participate this summer.  Trustees recommended to make the grant of $20,000 available to Camp Spirit for 2021 and advise Camp Spirit that we may not be able to provide on-going support for this program as we review the priorities for use of the Vera Radcliff Thompson Youth Trust Fund in providing youth programs.

• Insurance for Outside User Groups: Emile and Doug will follow up with Regional Council and the National Church for any current guidelines around insurance for outside user groups, and then have further discussions with our insurance broker. When we have that update, we may want to clarify which of our user groups need to have liability insurance.

• Ownership structure of 2291 West 45th Avenue: Mark Paetkau is working toward ensuring the transfer of ownership of the building to the congregation under similar terms as the other buildings. The church should be exempt from property transfer tax pursuant to Tax Bulletin PTT 025 and Mark will pursue the matter further.

• Monthly Reporting: The Trustees adopted the following motion: That we authorize Connor Clark & Lunn to give access to all monthly balance and transaction reports for our funds to Julie Poznanski, Chair of the Finance Committee to facilitate the financial record keeping and reporting of trust funds and income.