108th ANNUAL MEETING

January 28, 2001

The annual meeting of the church membership was held on January 28, 2001 at 11:A.M. in the Sanctuary of The Shelton Congregational Church. The meeting was called to order by church manager Tony Unger. Rev. Dr. Greg Schmidt began with an opening prayer. Betty Ogden, clerk, reported that 38 members were in attendance and a quorum, specified by the bylaws as ten percent of the church membership (168), was deemed to be satisfied.

The minutes of the previous annual meeting, held on January 30, 2000 were reviewed and approved. 

Tony Unger then asked for questions or comments on the regular (non-financial) officer and committee reports, as listed on pages 5 to 18 of the current (2000) annual report. Bruce Nichols said the Trustees Report needed two grammatical changes. On page 9, line 5 the word "alternate" instead of "alternated". Also the word "with" added, so line 28 would read " in conjunction with past year's projects". There being no other questions, Lucille Wells' motion to accept the officer and committee reports was approved.

Bruce Nichols presented the Annual Treasurer's Report for 2000, on pages 19-23 of the annual report. Regarding year 2000 outflows listed on page 19, he said that $300.00 should be added, for a transfer to the sabbatical fund, to the Deacon's amount of $7,579.46 (corrected figure should be $7,879.460). Bruce observed that the non-budgeted outflow ($3,685.00) on page 19, included considerable pass through expenses, such as charitable collections and cost of the August 2000 New York City theater trip, which are not really regular church expenses. . As to the Income Report on page 20, Bruce noted the significant effect of $10,000.00 estate donation received by church at year's end (found in the Misc. Donations amount of $13,586.00). In summary, Bruce noted that the year 2000 inflows of $112,171.04 against expenses of $127,341.83, resulted in a deficit of $15,170.79 (see page 19). Bill Barker then commented that without the extraordinary year-end donation of $10,000.00, the deficit would have been $25,000.00. Walt Crosby asked why the fund raising income figure of $5,292.19 (page 20) was higher than his committees report total of $4,953.55. Bruce explained that the higher figure was gross receipts, and the lower figure was net profit after expenses. Walt also asked if return on investment figures were available for the church's financial investments. Bruce said no. A motion to accept the Treasurer's report was approved unanimously.

Bill Barker, Budget Committee Chairman, was called upon to review the Proposed Church Budget for year 2001. The budget authorizes expenses of $123,678.00, or about $4000.00 less than actual year 2000 expenses of $127,642.00. Against this, the budget forecasts anticipated income of only $97,418.00. That computes to a record projected deficit of some $26,260.00. Bill explained that, last September, though difficult, the committee felt it necessary to recommend a freeze in employee salaries for the coming year. This decision is reflected in the proposed 2001 budget and was endorsed by church council in October. Linda Macdonald then asked if salaries could be adjusted, due to inflation, during the year. Bill responded," that might be considered if we have a financial windfall," and a special membership meeting would be needed to approve such a budget change. A motion to approve the budget, as submitted, was then seconded and approved unanimously. >

Old Business: None.

New Business: None.

Glenn Wells, on behalf of the Nominating Committee, submitted the slate of proposed new officers and committee members for the coming years. (this list appears on page 27 of the annual report). To fill vacancies, volunteer nominations from the floor were received from Andy Campagnuolo for Fundraising, Lois Sutter for Membership, Linda Macdonald for Stewardship, Janet Wells and Mary Unger for Outreach.

The slate, as amended, was approved by the membership.

Rev. Dr. Greg Schmidt then led the membership in a closing prayer. Walt Crosby moved that the meeting be adjourned. This motion was seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 12:00-noon.

Respectfully submitted:
Betty Ogden, Clerk