Council Meeting

August 12, 2008

The Council Retreat of the MN Valleys Presbytery was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by chairKathy Terpstra.  Christina Berry led us in prayer and devotions.

Those present included:

Rev. Dawn Carder, Presbytery Moderator

LeRoy Ennenga, Presbytery Vice-Moderator

Rev. Sue Coller, Executive Presbyter

Rev. Pamela Prouty, Stated Clerk

Those excused included:  Rallah Madison, Class of 2008, Rev. Norma Spurgin, Class of 2008.

Community Building

Sue led us in a discussion of where we have experienced God since we last gathered.

Then we spent time developing a group of norms for our meeting together, how are we going to be together.  These are the norms we discussed 1) Keep cell phones silent, 2) Respect everybody’s voice, 3) We each take responsibility for contributing to the conversation, honestly, 4) We take responsibility for inviting others to speak, 5) We will start on time, 6) We will arrive on time, 7) Respect time constraints when we speak, 8) We will end at 3:00 p.m. 9) We come prepared for the meeting 10) We will ask people to serve, not appoint

Council Action Planning Task Force

Sue brought forth the following report:

Proposed Action Plans for Council

From the Council Action Planning Task Force

            Sue Coller, Dawn Carder, Al Jergenson, Kathy Terpstra

1.     That Council have worship and communion once a year.

2.     That a job description be written for the council liaisons (see below)

3.     That council design and implement a process to focus the resources of the presbytery.  This could involve conversations with sessions about what they need from presbytery, revisiting the comprehensive study from 2001, or other ideas.

4.     That the mission responsibility that is currently a part of Congregational Resources be transferred to the Social Action Committee

5.     That we no longer have a representative on the Camp Okoboji Board of Directors

6.     That the council recommend to the Leadership Development for Ministry Action Team that they consider planning a periodic event (annual retreat?) for people interested in serving on a presbytery committee

7.     That the Leadership, Care and Encouragement Ministry Action Team be dissolved.

8.     That the council recommend to presbytery that a communications and technology committee be formed, with a membership of six people.

a.     This committee would be responsible for: 

                                          i.    Disseminating info regarding opportunities, grants, meetings, assistance, news, etc. 

                                        ii.    The Valley Bridge.  The Valley Bridge editor would relate directly to this committee, and this committee would be responsible for determining what the Valley Bridge might develop into.

                                       iii.    Exploring, making recommendations, and setting up other alternative ways of meeting, including video-conferencing.

                                       iv.    Continual growth and fine-tuning of the web page, including updating pages and developing new pages.  (Virginia would still do the day to day updating of minutes, address changes, etc.)

                                         v.    Resourcing congregations in developing their own communications, including newsletters, websites, etc.

                                       vi.    Possibly considering a presbytery-wide media campaign or working with other presbyteries for a state-wide media campaign that would raise the visibility of Presbyterian churches.

                                      vii.    Having a member on each of the strategy area leadership team conference calls, for the purpose of assisting them with communicating their work and activities to the presbytery.

9.     That existing committees, ministry action teams, presbytery task forces, and the proposed budget and finance committee and personnel committee be grouped into “strategy areas.”

a.     Strategy areas would be responsible for

                                          i.    resourcing and engaging the presbytery and congregations in its area of responsibility

                                         ii.    encouraging members of congregations and pastors to become involved in its area of responsibility

b.     Mission Strategy Area

Mission Strategies would include such things organizing mission opportunities, connecting congregations in mission, resourcing, encouraging congregations, etc., in accordance with the presbytery vision and mission.

                                          i.    Social Action Ministry Committee

                                         ii.    Presbyterian Clearwater Forest Camp Board

                                        iii.    International Partnership (Ministry Action Team)

                                        iv.    Minnesota Council of Churches representative (currently none)

c.     Congregational Strategy Area

Congregational Strategies focuses on the health of the congregation, directing congregations to resources, working in partnership where appropriate, toward the end of supporting, encouraging, and furthering the mission and ministry of the congregations of the presbytery in accordance with the presbytery vision and mission .

                                          i.    Committee on Ministry – those parts of its responsibilities that relate directly to congregational life (as opposed to the care and nurture of pastoral leaders), which includes such things as triennial visits, pastoral transitions, church conflict

                                         ii.    Congregational Growth and Development

                                        iii.    Congregational Resources – Education, Stewardship, Evangelism, Youth

d.     Leadership Strategy Area

Leadership Strategies focuses on developing and supporting pastoral leadership for congregations, and leadership for service in the presbytery, and non-pastoral leadership within congregations

                                          i.    Committee on Ministry  -  those parts of its responsibilities that relate directly to care and nurture of pastors, which includes such things as pastor to pastor, pastoral nurture – education, spiritual retreats, colleague groups, etc., mentors for incoming pastors, and minimum salary requirements.

                                         ii.    Committee on Preparation for Ministry

                                        iii.    Leadership Development for Ministry (Ministry Action Team)

                                        iv.    Readers of Ordination Exams

e.     Governance Strategy Area

Governance Strategies focuses on the administrative and polity responsibilities of a presbytery, including representation at Synod and General Assembly.

                                          i.    Committee on Representation

                                         ii.    General Assembly Commissioners

                                        iii.    Synod Commissioners

                                        iv.    Bills and Overtures Committee

                                         v.    Nominating Committee

                                        vi.    Session Records Committee

                                       vii.    Permanent Judicial Commission (not required to participate in quarterly conference call)

                                      viii.    Advocates Team (not required to participate in quarterly conference call)

                                        ix.    Budget and Finance Committee

                                         x.    Personnel Committee

                                        xi.    Communications and Technology Committee

10.  That each strategy area have a leadership team, consisting of one representative from each group (committee, presbytery task force, or ministry action team) under its area of focus, plus two council liaisons. 

a.     The leadership team for a strategy area would be responsible for:

                                           i.    coordinating the work the groups in its area of responsibility.

                                          ii.    communicating its work and strategy to the congregations of the presbytery and others where appropriate.

b.     The leadership team for a strategy area would be responsible for sharing its work with the council through the council liaisons and inviting the council’s input where appropriate and receiving the council’s suggestions.

c.     The council would appoint eight liaisons to work with each strategy area  (2 liaisons per strategy area)

                                          i.    The two liaisons would facilitate a strategy area leadership team quarterly conference call to share information and coordinate ministry. 

                                         ii.    The liaisons would be responsible for taking minutes during the conference calls and emailing those minutes to the participants following the calls.

                                        iii.    The liaisons would report regularly to council on the substance of those conference calls.

                                        iv.    It is expected that on the quarterly phone calls, the liaisons would be active participants, not just listeners for the sake of passing on information to council.  When necessary or helpful to facilitate work among the groups in a strategy area, the liaisons may find it helpful to attend meetings of those groups or do additional work between conference calls.

11.  That each strategy area do an in-depth evaluation of its responsibilities, work and effectiveness, and make recommendations regarding what committees/task forces it needs to be effective, in line with the vision and ministry of the presbytery.

a.     That council set a date for that evaluation to be completed.

b.     That council provide resources and help to the strategy areas for that evaluation.

12.  Recognizing that the council is recommending to presbytery that personnel and budget and finance shift to being committees of presbytery instead of committees of council, it is recommended that the council take on the responsibility of addressing the following needs of the presbytery:

a.     Nominating people for the presbytery nominating committee

b.     Visioning  -

                                          i.    development and keeping it before the presbytery

                                         ii.    monitoring that all decisions and actions of presbytery groups reflect the vision and mission of the presbytery

                                        iii.    Be a sounding board for new ideas and initiatives that don’t naturally fit in an already established committee/ministry action team

c.     Be a connecting Link between all groups of the presbytery structure (through the liaisons).

d.     Be responsible for the planning of presbytery meetings, insuring that meetings incorporate a learning time, a relating time, a decision-making time, a community building time

e.     Be responsible for leading a new commissioner orientation at every presbytery meeting

13.  That the membership of council be 14 persons, with the following suggestion for that membership:

a.     8 at-large members representing the wider presbytery - seven of whom would be liaisons to the four strategy areas and facilitate the quarterly conference call, one would be the council chairperson (one class of two persons, two classes of three persons)

b.     Presbytery Moderator (on by virtue of office, serving a 1 year term)

c.     Presbytery Vice-Moderator (on by virtue of office, serving a 1 year term)

d.     chair of the budget and finance committee (on by virtue of office, serving a 1 year term)

e.     Chair of personnel committee (on by virtue of office, serving a 1 year term) This person would also be one of the liaisons for the governance strategy area leadership team.

f.      Executive Presbyter (on by virtue of office)

g.     Stated Clerk (on by virtue of office)

h.     While not a specific recommendation, it is suggested that the council might want to consider forming a council sub-committee for planning presbytery meetings and worship, and that this sub-committee include the moderator, vice moderator, stated clerk, and two additional members, who may or may not be members of council.

With this idea, and our current council membership, this is what council might look like as we work toward the new membership make-up:

	For Year 2009	For Year 2010	For Year 2011
	Class of 2009 1.          Nancy Chamberlain Leave current vacancies unfilled	Class of 2010 1.      Al Jergenson 2.     Christina Berry 3.     Donna Hendel 4.