PRESENT
Fr. Tom Egan, Fr. Damian Cassidy, Brian Hunt, David Clark, John Donnelly, Pat Madigan, Joe Sutton, Marianne Ahearne, Pat Bolger, Ramon Landi, Eddie Albert, Jane Landi, John Wilson, Gerard Barden, Peter Coleman, Jackie Reddington, Gregory Howard, Clyde Webb and Celia Webb
APOLOGIES
There were no apologies.
OPENING PRAYER
The meeting started with a prayer.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING ON DECEMBER 14th
The minutes were signed as correct
MATTERS ARISING
BUS STOP. Eddie has received a vague but polite letter from London Transport. A couple of LT employees were seen looking at the stop. Cars pulling out from behind parked busses could be dangerous to people using the church entrance or the pedestrian crossing outside the church. Eddie will write again if there are no further developments.
BENCHES. Have been installed and look lovely.
FINANCE
Assessable income for the year has gone down by £12,000 since 2006.
Total recurring income has remained steady but it must be borne in mind that £6,000 Christmas Offering is listed in 2008 figures, but belongs to 2007. This shows a slight drop in TRI from 06 – 08.
Expenditure in 2008 included £35,000 on repairs and renewals, compared with £14,000 in 2006. Much of this has gone on roof repairs and having both church and hall painted last summer.
The Diocesan Assessment has increased since 2006, but will be slightly lower in 2009 because the percentage has reduced from 33% to 29%.
Our Net Recurring Income for 2008 was £43,000. If repairs and renewals are added in, it gives a comparable figure to 2006: 43 + 35 = £78,000. NRI for 2006 was £93,000.
Third party payments should balance out. Fundraising and other donations amounted to an extra income of £9,000.
The amount in the bank has increased by £52,000 despite the RR costs and there was £159,000 in the bank at the end of the year, although £78,000 has now been paid for the benches.
The End of the Year Return was sent to the Diocese on time.
The Finance Committee looked at a budget for 2009. There will always be items that need paying for in a parish of this size.
FAIR TRADE STALL. Michael has now completed a year of FT stalls in the Hall and submitted some figures, which were given out at the meeting. He is doing very well and underestimated how much stock he would need. It wasn’t felt necessary for Brian to check his figures, which his accountant daughter had prepared for him.
PAPER SHOP. The new regime has doubled the turnover in the last 12 months from £3,700 in 07 to £6,800 in 08. The ladies are doing very well.
WEBSITE
Doing well, nothing particular to report.
PRAYER AND EVANGELISATION
LENT. There will be Stations of the Cross on Friday’s during Lent in the morning and the evening.
Fr. Tom hopes that he and Fr. Kevin will be able to give three talks on Tuesdays about St. Paul’s letters. They will take the form of a study of the letters.
Eucharistic Adoration can be held on Sunday afternoons, but we do need to make sure that people are in the church. A sheet could be left out for people to sign up on Ash Wednesday, so that we can start with the First Sunday this weekend.
THE EFFECT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS.
We could help local shops, by using them and encouraging parishioners to use them. We will miss them when they’ve gone. Some of our shop keepers are already noticing a drop in sales.
What can we do generally to help parishioners who are having problems. Gerard and Jackie agreed to meet to look at various options.
We can help pastorally by creating a register of skills. People who can offer useful advice: how to budget a reduced income, debt counselling, how to arrange a funeral/sort out a will, how to write a CV. etc.
We can suggest people apply to the Citizens Advice Bureau, or other organizations – put posters on the notice board. There are Catholic groups who might be able to help individuals if they are made known to the parishioners.
We can’t use parish money. It’s against the law and wouldn’t go all that far, but we could look into setting up a credit union.
FUND RAISING
We have already received over £4,000 from the Benches appeal, including a couple of very large donations. £3,500 has been transferred from the Pound a Month and there was £800 from Celia’s Lunch. When the envelopes stop coming in a Gift Aid claim will be submitted.
Names from the envelopes will be written into a book, which will be kept, with other books, on a special shelf under the altar.
All donors will be offered a general thank you through the newsletter.
The VAT bill from the rebuild of the Hall was never paid, as the builder went bust and has no reason to claim money he will only have to hand on to the government. This leaves around £30,000 in our hands.
Nigel Blomiley promises a concert in the foreseeable future.
Celia and Clyde’s Lunch. This was an extremely successful occasion and had a wonderful community aspect as well as raising a considerable sum of money. They hope to do a Buffet Lunch in the Autumn and another Roast Lunch for the Feast of Our Lady next February.
PARISH HALL
The theatre group, Ten Ten, who have been using our Halls for rehearsals since before Christmas, have asked if they can use Reception Room 1 (behind the kitchen) as office space. They have sent Fr. Tom a letter setting out their needs and offering services to the parish and school in exchange. They have particularly requested a telephone line, internet access and space for files and have been told that they can’t expect exclusive use of the room, as it is used by FHC catechists, the Scouts and Fr. Tom when he needs to interview parishioners.
Ten Ten have a Catholic ethos and perform moral and ethical plays in schools, which engage the children with pertinent social problems. It would be good if we could help them. They have already performed a couple of plays here in the Parish.
- how will it actually work for us when the room is full of their equipment?
- We can’t ask for rent as this formalizes things, which could lead to us having liabilities towards them.
- We could certainly use their help with our Confirmation programme, especially as Southwell House is closing down.
- Insurance implications? They would probably be covered as other Hall users are.
- They made a donation of £500 at Christmas (before this request was made) – would this be a regular figure? It’s not much compared with a commercial hire rate.
- Should we set up a notice period, so that we can ask them to leave if we need the room back?
- A contract doesn’t have to be in writing to be binding.
We need to talk to Stephen Peter at the Diocese and find out how we can offer to help them without obligation on either side. An implied contract can become a legitimate expectation – whatever you do becomes “normal” over time. Should get it checked now rather than later.
How does this differ from Irish Dancing or Keep Fit, who both make a profit and pay us a “fee” for using the Hall. Other groups keep equipment in the Hall.
It was decided not to allow a phone line – they can continue to use their mobile set up and plug into the wireless internet access in the Parish Office. They can keep files in the room but they should be free standing and not fixed to the walls. Eventually they should be able to move out when they are on a better footing.
The other reception room.
Can it be tidied up? How much of the stuff in there is still used? We have talked about buying a shed for the patio for more storage but sometimes that just leads to more rubbish hanging around. Cupboards should be cleared out regularly and we should make the most of local recycling centres.
PARISH HALL
Chairs are being pushed against the fire extinguisher at the far end of the Hall and causing it to leak. Does it need a notice, or some yellow tape marking out a “no-go” area?
PARISH TEAM
Fr. Tom read extracts from the report sent by Bishop John Arnold after his Visit last December. He enjoyed attending the Christmas party in our excellent hall, which serves the community well. He also enjoyed meeting our catechists, who provide a good programme and are a well established team.
He was pleased that our Finance Committee has properly grasped the point of the Benchmarking system of working with the parish accounts, that we have a good accounting procedure and that we are able to afford what we want for the improvement of the church.
The parish council is competent, enthusiastic and has a good cross-section of parishioners. He enjoyed the masses, and the music and says we have an excellent team of altar servers. The seminarian, Brian O’Mahoney, who has been spending his Sunday mornings here, is enjoying his time with us.
Fr. Tom agreed that parts of the letter could be posted on the website.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
LINKS WITH THE SCHOOL. Peter Coleman has set up a meeting with Miss Wells on 5th March.
MICROPHONE IN CHOIR CORNER. The sound from the choir can’t be easily heard in parts of the church, leading to feelings of “being cut off”. Talk to the electrician and see if it can be connected to the altar mics, or use a standing microphone.
CHILD PROTECTION. Things are going well, group leaders are getting the hang of passing names onto Nicky when new volunteers come along. There are still about six people who are not completing the forms for whatever reason, which means the parish is not completely covered. Fr. Tom agreed that he would speak to them, explaining why it’s important and that it’s a Diocesan requirement.
Hopefully Nicky will soon be able to put a link on the website to the forms.
BACK OF THE CHURCH. There will be cupboards where the last row of benches used to be for our books and there will be some chairs as well for the choir. The concrete floor will be painted. Clyde, Marianne and David will look into it. Use better paint than last time.
NEXT MEETING
Monday 27th April at 8.15 pm.