Big Canoe Chapel

Benevolence Committee Summary Annual Report

January 2012-December 2012

Vision Statement

The purpose of the Benevolence Committee is to support charitable and faith-based organizations

as well as individuals in need in Dawson and Pickens Counties. If resources allow, support will be

considered for similar organizations in surrounding counties. Assistance will be in the form of

either one time or scheduled financial support based on the Committee’s review of recipient needs.

Organizational Support

Abba House Appalachian Children’s Center

Boys and Girls Clubs of North Georgia CARES

Cherokee Family Violence Center Good Shepherd Ranch

Dawson County Family Connection Dawson Senior Center

Ferst Foundation Good Shepherd Clinic

Georgia Mountain Hospice Good Samaritan Health and Wellness Center

Habitat For Humanity Hope House

Joy House NOA

North Georgia Pregnancy Center Prevent Child Abuse

St. Vincent DePaul, Pickens St. Vincent DePaul, Dawson

Ric Rac

The above 21 organizations received a total of $150,610 from Big Canoe Chapel during 2012. All

organizations were audited during 2012 and will continue to receive Chapel support up to the next

audit during summer/fall of 2013.

One Time Grants

A one-time grant was given to an individual in the amount of $1,420

Emergency Aid During 2011

A total of $8,376.70 was disbursed to benefit 39 people in Dawson and Pickens Counties. All

payments were made directly to vendors, primarily for propane, electricity, and rent. We continue

to rely heavily on the Saint Vincent DePaul organizations in both Pickens and Dawson counties with

their Intake Processes, their extensive data base, and their historical files to avoid duplication and

fraudulent requests, and to “stretch” funds in the most effective ways.

Thankfully submitted in Christ’s Name,

Big Canoe Chapel Benevolence Committee

BIG CANOE CHAPEL

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

2012 – 2013 Major Activities & Accomplishments

o Developed a Chapel communications plan

o Conducted a benchmarking study of church websites o o Developed and launched a new Chapel website

o Website support for all Chapel organizations

o Created a Chapel Welcome brochure and video

o Developed and implemented a Chapel awareness marketing plan

Posters for the Postal Facility & Broyles Center

Ads for Smoke Signals

A classified ad in the HOA Member directory

A billboard on Steve Tate Highway

o Developed and had built a Chapel site sign

o Conducted a benchmarking study of church worship bulletins

o Created a new Worship Bulletin template and production process

o Created and implemented a new TouchPoint Information Center

o Poster and brochure creative support for Chapel organizations

o Developed a bulletin board management/scheduling process

o Created a new identity for Wednesday Fellowship

o Developed/implemented marketing plans for Stewardship and the Mission Conference

o Created Broyles Center room signs to help clean up clutter

o Marketed old inventory of Chapel Christmas cards

o Currently reviewing/developing a new name badge program

o Currently reviewing workloads and processes to support Chapel communications needs

Standing Committee

Annual Report

Committee Name

Endowment Committee

Date of Report

April 25, 2013

Person Submitting

David Coker

Membership

Returning to serve on the Committee were: David Coker, Bob Ayres, Ray Bedingfield and Jack

Schroder. New members serving their first year of a three year term: Dan Macari, and Tom

Isherwood. Serving also were: Roger Mosshart [Chapel Treasurer],

Ron Ceravolo [Board of Trustees liason], Richard Hauenstein [Committee on Committees liason],

Len Walker [Senor Chaplain], Lamar Helms [Associate Chaplain].

Major Discussion Items/Action Taken

A primary effort is the monitoring of the Endowment Fund Performance at each quarterly meeting.

At each meeting, Jeff Cederholm of Longview Financial Advisors provided this performance review.

The performance of this investment portfolio has been positive and consistent with moderate risk

desired. There has been continuous due diligence provided to the oversight and management of the

portfolio by Cederholm.

Because of the Committee’s interest in and financial support of the beginnings of the enhancement

of the audio and visual delivery system of the Chapel, each meeting has reviewed the current status

of upgrades to this important service. The Committee applauds the efforts of the IT Committee and

the success of the incremental upgrades that have been achieved.

One funding request was presented, discussed and denied.

The purposes and goals of the Committee were discussed at each meeting. These resolved into the

following: [1] the continuing review and monitoring of the performance of the fund portfolio, [2]

the periodic consideration of funding request and [3] the primary focus on he enhancement of fund

through selected endowment growth strategies and tactics as well as potential capital fund

initiatives. Work has been started on this latter focus and will continue into 2013-2014.

The Chair of the Committee for 2013-2014 will be John Slim.

Big Canoe Chapel Terraces Committee Report 2012-3

The Big Canoe Chapel Terraces Committee moved forward with the plans presented by former

Terraces committees and constructed a covered stage which now offers protection from the

elements for our performers as well as equipment. Under the direction of builder and Chapel

member, Bill Collins, construction began in Dec. 2012 and was completed in early April under

budget and in time for our first concert of the season.

This year we have hired a professional company to manage the sound and lighting needs at the

Terraces. This company also brings their own sound equipment to augment our existing production

capabilities as well as makes recommendations for the future.

The Chapel Property Committee has taken over the maintenance of the Terraces grounds and

improvements have been many: lighting in the parking lot, plumbing, repair of walkway lights,

painting and replacing rotten timbers. The Terraces Committee is most appreciative of this change.

Our concert series has been designed to span the musical genre in order to offer a variety of

entertainment. Six (6) concerts have been scheduled beginning in April and concluding in August

featuring tribute bands, Dixieland, bluegrass, jazz trumpeter and vocalist, and country. We reach

out beyond the gates of Big Canoe to invite guests to listen to great performers as well as invite

them to come to the Chapel.

Personnel Committee Annual Report

2012-2013

Personnel Committee Members:

Co-Chairs: Jerry Brunson and Ches Tredway

Mary Jane Chester

Joe Childs

Lloyd Larsen

Polly Mills

Pat Tipton

Anne Youmans

The Personnel committee together with the Property committee hired Paul Schmidt

for the maintenance staff. Paul was the contractor who built the Broyles Center.

When Charlene Terrell retired, Leigh Young was promoted to Business Manager.

She has oversight of the office staff and day to day maintenance and custodial

activities. Additional staff added were Teri Sawyer, Director, Bella Voce and Janet

Larsen, pianist for Bella Voce.

For the first time the Personnel committee recommended salary increases on all

staff members to the Board of Trustees. Guidance for these increases was

provided by performance reviews on the staff. Because the chapel was no longer

eligible for group medical insurance (only one full time employee needed group

insurance and one person does not make a group), the committee recommended to

the Board of Trustees that medical insurance no longer be offered by the chapel.

Salary adjustments were approved by the Trustees to reflect that action.

Ches Tredway

Technology Committee – Annual Report, 2012-2013

The Technology Committee was chartered as a new standing committee in August 2012, including

responsibility for audiovisual services.

Initial emphasis was placed on securing and protecting the Chapel’s data systems (computers,

networks, phones, data, etc). Critical concerns in this area have been resolved and/or adequately

mitigated.

An “audiovisual self-service” initiative was begun for the Broyles Center. Existing McCormick Hall

equipment has been successfully re-configured to this end. A project was approved to install a new

audiovisual system for Cousins Hall. Implementation of this project is underway and should be

completed soon.

The audiovisual technician team has been successfully “re-constituted” following the loss of most

former members of that team. In addition, audiovisual support for the Terraces performances has

been successfully re-staffed and restructured.

Simplification and upgrading of the Chapel audiovisual capabilities (including video streaming) is

now underway. This effort will continue throughout much of 2013-2014.

In addition to these items, numerous additional incremental improvements have been implemented

to enhance the benefits of technology solutions applied to various opportunities throughout the

Chapel.

Questions/information/assistance, e-mail → Technology@BigCanoeChapel.info

mailto:Technology@BigCanoeChapel.info

Chapel Library Report submitted by Chairman Kaaren Arthurs This has been a banner year for us as we have expanded the size of our library by moving our religious and inspirational inventory into Room 107. This has been a dream come true as we were definitely outgrowing our chapel library. We recently have also moved the religious fiction books into Room 107 as we had the room to do so and thought it would be the perfect way to display them, giving them easy access. With this expansion we have been able to reorganize the chapel library itself, moving the History and Biography sections into the first room of the library which gave us the room to expand our Fiction section in the second room of the library. We have now eliminated the overcrowding on the shelves, making the library look more presentable and giving our patrons easier access to our books. The library expansion into Room 107 was completely funded by

gifts and memorials from faithful supporters of our library in our Library

Memorial Fund that had accumulated over the years. The shelving

was built by Frank Talley Cabinets of Dawsonville, who were

recommended by Ray Bedingfield, and were designed by Lee

Arthurs. We appreciate all the hard work by everyone who was

involved in the project and are extremely pleased with the results.

The chapel library continues to be a wonderful asset to our chapel

members and to the Big Canoe community.

ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE REPORT

April 30 2013

Cindy Krause and Martye Marsh, Co-Chairs

The following were organized and hosted by the members of the Activities

Committee from August 2012 to the present:

1. Memorial Receptions for Gloria Schafer, Eugene Burke, Margaret Anderson,

Jayne Beske, Emily Thurman

2. The Annual POA Employee Appreciation luncheon in September

3. Organize and host the reception following the choir's Christmas program in

December

4. Organize , set-up and serve the Moravian Love Feast held during worship in

December

5. Serve dinner to the Handbell Ringers on March 3

2012-2013 Scholarship/Education Committee Report

The committee met monthly from September, 2012 through April, 2013. We had fifteen members

which was a good number to complete all necessary tasks without overburdening anyone. All

members were needed for the interview process. We made one change in operating procedure

from previous years, which was to eliminate the parent interview. It was decided by the committee

that the students needed to stand on their own merit and that having parents come to the Chapel

for interviews was an undue hardship on some due to gas prices and distance needed to travel here

and back. Also, the parent interview did not figure into our point system used to rank students on

our spreadsheet.

Due to an increase in giving by the congregation and an increase in the percent of outreach money

from the Chapel budget, the committee had a considerably larger sum to work with this year. With

$133,496 from the Chapel and $4,000 from anonymous donors, we had $137,496 to distribute to

101 applicants. In addition, we had five mentoring students graduate who were promised $1,000

each as 8th graders if they graduated on time and continued their education beyond high school.

Three of these five also applied for the regular scholarship. Thus, 103 students received

scholarships from the Chapel on May 7, 2013 at our award service and reception.

Scholarships awarded: 1 $5,000 $5,000 2 $3,000 $6,000 11 $2,000 $22,000 42 $1,500 $63,000 37 $1,000 $37,000 8 $ 500 $4,000

Total 101 $137,000 In addition, 2 students received $1,000 scholarships and 3 students included in the

above numbers received an additional $1,000 from the mentoring reserve fund.

Distribution was to the following schools: Pickens High School 36 Dawson Co. High School 61 Home-Schooled 2 Private School (War Hill Academy) 1 Mountain Ed. Center High School 3 Total 103

MEMORANDUM

TO: Chuck Gordon

Chairman, Chapel Trustees

FROM: David Howe

Chairman, Finance Committee

SUBJ: Annual Report of the Finance Committee

DATE: May 1, 2013

In keeping with the basic goals of the Chapel Finance Committee to monitor the financial condition

of the Chapel, these are highlights of the 2012-13 year:

Analyzed 12-year Chapel revenue trends in order to help establish realistic revenue trends over the next three years

Reviewed and made recommendations to the Trustees concerning operating reserves and the continuing use of market investments as a tool for managing those reserves.

Reviewed investment portfolio performance with the responsible manager and developed tools for monthly monitoring of investment performance by the committee.

Conducted a thorough review of the Chapel insurance program and made recommendations to the Trustees.

Expanded committee membership to nine

BIG CANOE CHAPEL MISSION REPORT FOR 2012-2013

April 24, 2013

In 2012 we supported 13 Missions for a total spent of $76,525.00. We

evaluated 19 Missions for 2013 and selected 13 Missions to support for

2013, 6 were International and 7 Domestic. We have allocated $26,000 thru

the lst quarter of 2013 and will be allocating another $24,000 at the end of 2nd

quarter in June.

The Mission Committee assisted in the selection of Missions for the Mission

Conference. We select one of the Mission’s which we support and each

quarter someone from that Mission speaks at both church services keeping

the Chapel Members appraised of the Missions which the Chapel supports.

We are now working on Mission Trips to Rivers of the World, In-Step and

Amigos for Christ. The lst meeting for ROW was held this week at the Chapel.

The Mission Committee respectively submits the above report and are

honored to serve the Chapel .

Juanita Vaughn, Co-Chair Mission Committee

Sue Ceravolo, Co-Chair Mission Committee

l

Notes on Property Committee accomplishments

2012-2013

Integrated the Chapel and Terraces Maintenance programs together in the beginning of 2013. All maintenance functions for both are handled by the

staff at the Big Canoe Chapel.

With the Personnel Committee leading the effort, we recruited and added a full time Lead Man/Supervisor to the Maintenance Staff in December 2012.

Developed a procedure to handle the long range capital program and schedule shorter range projects to be budgeted for five years. Emphasis is

on the upcoming year for budgeting and action.

Updated all Fire, Safety, and Security systems and restored them to a ready state.

The Facility Use Policy which was developed in 2011 was revised, approved by the Board of Trustees and implemented. It was recently posted on the

Chapel webpage.

Our defibrillator has been serviced and put in operating condition. A training program is being planned for the Staff as well as others that are

interested.

A work request procedure is being developed to enable the maintenance staff to receive requests of work to be done and track it to completion with

feedback to originator. This should be completed by the end of June 2013.

Safety, Security and Energy Conservation continues to be our highest priority for the Committee and Staff.

Identification, documentation and labeling of Electrical circuits, HVAC units and controls, Building Drawings and other key equipment is an

ongoing program and is being published on the bigcanoechapel.info website.