St. David’s Holds Their Annual Meeting - January 27, 2008

On a remarkably clear day in January, St. David’s Episcopal Church met for our Annual Meeting with 44 parishioners present. Mike Atkinson offered the opening prayer.

The 2007 minutes were reviewed and approved, and Jody Gebhardt, standing in for Willa Don Holmes, gave the Treasurer’s Report. She repeated Willa Don’s comments last year that it is amazing and gratifying to see the generosity of all of us, that “this small community of Episcopalians is known across the nation, not for the size of our bank accounts, but for the way you all pitch in to meet our mission.” Jody noted that while we fell a little short of our pledge goal, an additional $12,870 was contributed by one time visitors, Page residents, Diocesan members and family members of parishioners. Most of that money went to our Building Fund.
The Budget for 2008 was presented by Jody Gebhardt and Mike Atkinson. Jody noted the challenge of creating a budget with so many unknowns, such as how much the new building will really cost to run. Key points in the proposed budget included an increase in spending for utilities, altar supplies, and an increase in our Diocesan Assessment for 2008. In contrast, for the first time in several years, we have been given a Diocesan grant for operations. Mike noted that the Vestry is looking at ways to decrease spending, such as with our copy machine, and shifting our savings account to a higher yielding interest account.

Senior Warden Connie Tkalcevic offered her view of the past year as “Unforgettable!” wishing she had Nat King Cole to sing it for us. She remarked on how we all stayed together despite the disruptions in place and time of worship. She then presented Steve+ and Jean with the annual gift from the parish, to help them with their planned trip to Alaska. Among the gifts were fish related foods to help them prepare for Alaskan cuisine, rain gear and fleece hats and gloves in case it was cold, bug spray and sunglasses in case it was warm, souvenirs (to save time in buying them), and a penguin equipped with a check to help cover costs

Dr. Mike Atkinson gave the Junior Warden’s report, noting that since we’ve moved to the Catholic Church, his job has been really easy! He thanked Zane Jewett for his efforts in taking on the
cleaning of the Aiken Center. He also thanked Liza Ermeling for her efforts in guiding us
through landscape clearing and planning, and Robert Barnett for providing a backhoe and
time to remove plants in the way of construction.

Liza Ermeling gave an update on the Building Committee. She described the new landscape plan, and announced that Star Nursery has offered wholesale pricing on landscape materials. She suggested that we’d have plenty of opportunity to contribute sweat equity after the building is finished, since we are putting the landscaping ourselves.
Steve+ noted that the Diocesan Jubilee Committee is very grateful for our efforts to keep costs down, especially regarding the booster pump situation. He announced that the Fire Marshall had endorsed the booster pump plan, and that we expect several subcontractors to be on site on Monday.

Jean Keplinger presented the Sunday School report. There are 29 children in Sunday School, with a weekly average of about 8. The curriculum is “Seasons of the Spirit” a lectionary based, 3 year plan, which we can keep using. She really needs a second person to help out, especially when the age span is great. In Vacation Bible School this year, we had 38 kids and 16 volunteers, using a program examining Native American culture and stories and how they meld with our own. The program “Children of the Dancing Sun” is a two year curriculum, so we can use it again this coming summer. We had Navajo women come in to share their stories and teach everyone their traditions. They thought it was wonderful that we would accept their stories as part of the teachings.

Jean also gave the report on the Food Bank and our Social Ministry programs. Last year, we fed 5446 families, about 24,396 people and gave away 12 tons of food, counting only what was shipped, not what was individually donated or from food drives. The Food Bank had 62 volunteers who put in over 2869 volunteer hours.

Social Ministry - The Soup Kitchen at the Methodist Church served 12,946 meals including takeout. Soup Kitchen volunteers numbered 67 this year. In Emergency Assistance we served over 82 families. The people we sent to a national conference on albinism in Native Americans are now out on the Rez, teaching other people how to care for family members with Albinism. The Salvation Army staff provided energy assistance to 800 families, and 300 were helped by the Circle of Page.

Mary McDonald reported that she and Virgil have purchased the new piano, a Yamaha Clavinova, which is staying in their guest room while they explore its features. Virgil has created MIDI discs of 58 hymns so far and still has more to go. There are 43 different organ sounds the piano can generate. On Lessons and Carols this year, Mary thought the joint service with the Catholic Church was wonderful, and that it was easy working with Cathy Gomez. She hoped everyone liked our new Christmas Pageant. She and Virgil are working on more programs, like the Hansel and Gretel opera they performed for Halloween. Mary also shared a story from her Messiah production in Kanab, that Steve+ gave the opening prayer before the performance. Afterwards, the President of the Choir suggested they come and sing at our dedication. The Orchestra also offered to perform. Steve+ also praised Mary Stevens for her dedication to our mid-week Meditations service, both in playing for it and developing new music for each season.

Greg Poling gave the report on the Youth Group. He noted they had an addition of 4 kids moving up as 7th graders, giving the Youth Group some new blood. They now meet on Wednesdays at Mary Jewett’s home. This past year, the Youth Group took 8 kids to LA to do a service project for elderly low income in the Watts neighborhood. They also participated in 2-3 Diocesan Retreats and the Moab Retreat Camp in Moab. Steve+ thanked both Greg and Mary Jewett for their work with our Youth group.

Connie thanked everyone who presented reports for all their work for St. David’s. She then presented the Vestry’s nominations for new vestry members, nominating Frances Cline, Tammy Poling and Bernadette Pierson for the two full terms and one two year term. It was agreed that the new members could work out which terms they would take. To represent us at Diocesan Convention, Kyle Poling, Kathalin Walker and Zane Jewett were chosen as delegates, while Judy Gossard, Jody Gebhardt and Mary Stevens were elected as alternates.

Steve+ then gave the Rector’s Report. He noted that despite our lack of a building, we are still together, and have not lost our energy. Our goal was to keep growing and we have done that, even as we have moved around. He thought that the state of St. David’s was great, that we were living out our mission and living into diversity. He was proud of the two Wardens, Connie as Senior Warden and Mike as Junior Warden, both of whom have agreed to serve one more year to see through completion of the sanctuary, although he did suggest that Connie may have been Senior Warden of St. David’s before there was a Jesus. Steve’s goals for the coming year:

• to have more kids in church
• to increase our presence as caretakers of God’s creation
  
• and to kick things into gear in our new church, not rest on our laurels, but
  to celebrate and then move forward.

Steve+ then presented gifts to Kathalin Walker and Laurel Begay for their service as Vestry members. Finally, he presented the Rector’s award to Ray and Mary Stevens, noting that even individually their efforts on behalf of St David’s would qualify for recognition. Ray’s contributions included his dedication to the Discernment Process, spending hours and hours to develop a handbook which the Diocese is using as a model; his service as leader of a difficult and very sensitive discernment process; his commitment to creating an altar that will connect us with creation; and his efforts to find a solution to the booster pump problem that is a cheaper way to go. Mary Stevens was cited for her gift of music, not only with Taize, but also at Vacation Bible School and filling in when Mary and Virgil can’t make it. She shares her artistic talent in the creation of quilts, banners and is making all the new frontals for the sanctuary. Her skills at baking range from cookies for the Bishop, desserts and cooking for special events. Both Ray and Mary have made trips to Convention just to staff our sales table, and have also served as delegates and alternates to Convention. Everyone in the meeting soundly applauded Steve+’s
choice for commendation.

Jean thanked everyone for the gifts presented earlier, but also just for being who
we are.