Present
Fr Tom Egan, Gerard Barden, John Donnelly, Melanie Gibbons, Edoardo Albert, Kevin Keenan
Apologies
Brian Hunt, John Wilson, Greg Howard,
Minutes of last meeting
Minutes of the meeting of 28 November 2011 were signed as correct.
Matters Arising
Gerard has spoken to Chris Nagle about the plans for the locating the scouts trailer at the side of the church. Chris will consider the cost of the work and will get back to Gerard to decide how to proceed.
Finance
A full Finance meeting will be held on 27th February at 8:15pm. Brian, Patrick, Ray, Fr Tom and Gerard to attend.
Website & IT
Discussed the set of a parish Flickr account to publish photos of parish events.
The meeting discussed the concerns, issues and benefits of using Twitter and Facebook as methods of communicating with parishioners. It was decided that while Facebook is probably not an appropriate vehicle at the moment, Twitter might be a useful tool as it is easier to administer and control. Gerard to set up a parish Twitter account which can then be trialled.
Prayer/Evangelisation
There is to be a recruitment drive for altar servers. Current levels of volunteers are disappointing, especially at the 11:30am Sunday family mass. The meeting discussed possible ways of encouraging people to volunteer, for example, should children be encouraged to volunteer at first communion classes or could the school do more? Fr Tom said he would rather appeal to adults and young people of the parish directly, emphasising the importance of this ministry.
In this way it is hoped that volunteers might be more enthusiastic and committed. Father Tom also suggested that rather than using a rota system people might be inclined to volunteer if they were able to serve at the mass they usually attend.
Fundraising
There has been no campaign to encourage an increase in planned giving for five years and plans for a campaign have been put back twice in the meantime. The meeting discussed the possibility of raising extra revenue by introducing gift aid envelopes for use by parishioners making cash offerings to the collection plate at masses and for mass offerings to the priests.
At present the loss to the parish in terms of non Gift-Aided offerings is considerable. The Finance committee will discuss this at their meeting on 27Th February to decide if an envelope scheme for non planned-giving donations is practical, what information would need to be captured on the envelopes (e.g. is the address of the taxpayer to be included each time a donation is made) and how to best communicate the scheme to parishioners.
Parish Hall
Gerard received an e-mail raising concerns about the parish hall and the untidy state that some users leave it in. Possible ways of encouraging users to leave the hall as they find it was discussed including the possibility of withholding deposits from users if the hall is not left in a satisfactory condition.
Father Tom emphasised that the hall is now only hired out for children's parties and funeral receptions. In the case of funerals a degree of sensitivity is required in dealing with people at such a vulnerable time, and in general terms past experience has shown that it can be difficult to administer a system of deposits, and that withholding deposits often leads to difficult situations.
AOB
· Family Sports Day
The meeting discussed the possibility of hosting a family sports day in place of the annual parish barbeque, with Walker cricket ground suggested as a possible venue. This could be held in May or June and possibly be based around an Olympic theme. The possibility of obtaining sponsorship was discussed but Fr Tom advised that it can be very difficult to attract sponsors for these type of events, particularly in the current economic climate.
· Parish Group Volunteer Recruitment Drive.
An event will be held for parishioners to find out more about the various groups and activities taking place in the parish and to provide groups with an opportunity to recruit new members. This will take place in the parish hall on a Sunday so that parishioners can attend after mass.
It will need to take place outside of school holidays and Sunday 29 April was suggested. Gerard will check with Jane Landi to make sure that this date is suitable (i.e. won’t clash with any other events) and to obtain contact details for the various groups.
· Bereavement Counsellors
There has been a good response to the appeal for bereavement counsellors. Once training for volunteers has been completed there will be a meeting to discuss how counselling will operate within the parish. Sister Joyce from St Monica’s will be invited to offer her experiences of how counselling works in her parish.
Future Meetings
Finance – Monday 27 February at 8:15pm
Parish Council -Monday 19 March at 8:15pm.
The meeting closed with a prayer.