Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes | September 7, 2022 - Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church

Blessed Sacrament Parish | Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes | September 7, 2022

Attendees: Annette Clark, Dick Dolinski, Fr. Rob Howe, Jim Mahoney, Jim Marinek (via Zoom), Lyn Pajk, Jeff Paulus, Patrick Regier, Cathy Richard

Excused: Barb Warczinsky

Meeting began at 7:01pm
Patrick Regier moved and Jim Mahoney seconded the approval of the minutes of the Joint Pastoral and Finance Council meeting of June 1, 2022. The motion carried.

Church carpeting installation project is underway and to be completed in two weeks per the contractor.
A new coffee maker has been purchased for the parish center
The concrete upgrade project at the west entrance to the parish center has performance troubles. The material is substandard and is pitting. The contractor is working with the supplier to remedy the situation.
Joe Dostal is collaborating with a contractor to evaluate the outdated pneumatic utility valves for the school, gym, office, and social hall areas. They likely will need replacement with electronic controls. The decoupling of these integrated structures will also be assessed at the same time to permit future flexibility in building utilization.
The parish picnic was well received and attended. An estimated 700 people attended the outdoor Mass and picnic and expressed support for continuing the same next year. An amusing comment was expressed by a 5^th grade boy who suggested starting earlier because “two hours is just not enough time!” Another suggested improvement is to have water outside (not just beer). The total cost of the picnic was about $3,000 less than last year.
The Golf outing was also well received. 26 teams participated
The State of the Parish video has received very positive reviews.
The Midland Area Catholic Community Loons baseball outing was well attended and contributed to the largest attendance of the year!
The annual car show will be held in our parking lot from 8:00am-4:00pm on September 18.

The small faith groups initiative is starting up. Meeting with lay ministers were held in August in preparation for the program start in February. Fr. Rob and Lyn are also producing a promotional video for the program featuring 8 individuals who will make 45 second spots on Flocknotes explaining why small faith groups are impactful and have influence in their lives.
Training for facilitators will be available for the program to be held during the 6 weeks of Lent next year.
The parents of children in the faith formation will be receiving cards in the mail every other month listing events with QR scans to sign up. This is an attempt to get through the “noise” from the frequent stream of e-mails that parents receive today.
Kristyn is working with the outreach team to improve its “marketing” effort to explain their work and encourage greater participation.
The Youth to Youth Retreat program has 25 youth on team for the retreat. Their target is to invite 3 friends each resulting in a group of 100 for the retreat.
A dinner is being planned for the volunteers in the faith formation program

The 2021-22 Christ’s Mission Appeal drive has ended. Blessed Sacrament fell approx. $28,000 short of our goal. The largest factor contributing to the shortfall is the religious education deduction from our assessment is smaller than past years due to the closure of the school. Next year’s program will begin later this month.
The fiscal year ended with about the same results as the previous year. Expenses were lower than budgeted and were in line with the overall budget.
The average annual church contribution was $1,030 per household up slightly from last year.

Cathy noted that the men’s Christ Renews program currently has 22 men registered. Several are coming from outside the parish including from Bay City and Saginaw and one person from Berwyn Illinois!
Rob asked if there is anyone interested in caring from the grounds around the grotto. It was become somewhat weed-infested.
Patrick noted the following schedule of meetings:
- Wednesday, October 5^th and Wednesday December 7^th. There is no meeting in November. The December meeting will be a joint meeting with Finance Council.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:56pm