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Parish Council – Meeting Minutes

For meeting – 7pm Tuesday 16th May 2017.

Location: Victory Lutheran College.

MISSION STATEMENT

God’s purpose is for our Parish to work together to minister to one another, to recognise opportunities to preach the good news and to empower people to

commit to sharing Jesus.

VISION

God’s vision is that through the mission and ministry of our Parish we would see the love of Christ come to life as His spirit changes and transforms people and

builds them into a Christian community.

1. ATTENDEES

Phillip Edwards (Chairman), Pastor Jaswanth Kukatlapalli, Andrew Enever, Adrian Gutsche (Sunday representative, School Council Chairman), Peter Lade (Secretary), Tim Mc Innes (Yackandandah Administrator), Paul Schirmer (Saturday representative), Jenny Simboras, Karen Starr and Paul Vogelsang (Treasurer).

2. APOLOGIES

John Alatalo.

3. WELCOME

3.1 Meeting declared open at 7.00 p.m. with Chairman Phillip Edwards extending a warm welcome to all in attendance.

3.2 Pastor Jaswanth opened in prayer.

4. DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST

“Council members will all be familiar with the definition of Conflict of Interest, as presented in the Parish Policy and the LCA Handbook on Governance and adopted by Parish Council on 16 May 2017.

Each council member participating at this council meeting is to let the Chair know if they have any perceived or known Conflicts of Interest as per the items listed in the Agenda for this meeting. This will be noted in the Minutes.”

4.1 The following parish council members declare a conflict of interest:

4.1.1 John Alatalo – for building and construction projects involving the Wodonga Lutheran Parish.

4.1.2 No other COI declared for this meeting. INFO

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5. DEVOTION

5.1 Led By: Pastor Jaswanth

6. COUNCIL CORRESPONDENCE

6.1 In:

6.1.1 Copy of WLP Mission and Ministry Team Minutes.

6.1.2 Copy of VLC Audited financials for 2016 (signed by College Council).

6.1.3 Copy of VLC minutes. No minutes from last month due to governance workshop. INFO

6.1.4 2017-2018 Lutheran Insurance Questionnaire/Survey

6.1.5 Email from District Administrator acknowledging Child Safe motion dated 6 Apr 2017.

6.1.6 Email from District Administrator acknowledging letter requesting briefing time to DCC dated 6 Apr 2017.

6.1.7 Email from Hartley and Reta Schubert’s Estate with donation dated 9 April 2017.

6.1.8 Letter from Bishop Priebbenow advising of consultation process for the LCA’s continued consideration of the ordination of women in lead up to 2018 Synod.

6.2 Out:

6.2.1 Letter to District Administrator requesting opportunity to brief DCC dated 6 Apr 2017.

6.2.2 Email to District Administrator confirming proposal passed on Child Safe motion dated 6 Apr 2017.

6.2.3 Meeting Notes of 29 March 2017 to LEVNT.

6.2.4 Letter of thanks to Hartley and Reta Schubert’s Family dated 11 Apr 2017.

6.2.5 Email to District Administrator dated 11 April 2017 submitting Book of Reports for 2017 AGM.

7. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

The Minutes of the previous ordinary meeting be as a true and accurate record.

Proposed By: Karen Starr Seconded By: Paul Vogelsang

8. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING

8.1 Plant & Equipment Committee Update. Report emailed by Eddy…….INFO

8.2 Stand in for Heather during her leave 12th June to 23rd July.

Still looking for looking for volunteers. ACTION Pastor Jaswanth

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8.3 500 Year Celebrations Committee. Update on planned tree planting. Tree planting on 4 June 2017 underway.

Motion for Peter Steicke to be asked to give the sermon as guest speaker for the service on the Reformation Sunday 29th of October, subject to the Bishop’s approval invitation letter to be issued. Parish to cover reasonable travel costs from Adelaide.

Proposed By: Jenny Simboras Seconded By: Paul Vogelsang

Screening of movie at the Cube on 25th August, still trying to determine screening rights. Ticket sales and advertising to be co-ordinated. ACTION Pastor Jaswanth

Will be a community meal after the service on the 29th of October. INFO

8.4 Parish statistics – need to re-validate membership from a baseline report. Names of members no longer known or active in the Church need to be proposed to a Parish meeting and removed from the roll. Ongoing

8.5 WLP Constitution and By-Laws revised version – currently with the District Administrator.

9. REPORTS

9.1 Chairman.

9.1.1 Parish Policy Manual.

9.1.2 Parish Council Calendar – themes.

9.1.3 LCA Governance review of LEA.

Engaged with next round of consultations on the 26th April. Adrian & Tammy dialled in with representatives from around the state to review the proposed models. INFO

9.1.4 Parish Organisational and Governance model.

Organisation Structure, Governance Structures Foundation Documents presented to VLC College Council’s last meeting. Phill went through this with Parish Council. Refer copy attached to the minutes. Copies available online from the website. INFO

9.2 Pastoral Report – As Tabled by Pastor Jaswanth.

Thanked Lay Assistants for their coverage during his leave.

9.3 Finance Report – As Tabled by Paul Vogelsang.

9.4 Victory Lutheran College Principals Report – As Tabled by John Thompson.

9.5 Wodonga Lutheran Parish VLC Council – Meeting Minutes.

No minutes tabled from April meeting due to Governance Workshop

9.6 Saver’s Corner: Future intent for Saver’s Corner as discussed by Maria Davison.

Refer to General Business below.

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10. GENERAL BUSINESS

10.1 Update from Savers Corner.

Maria gave an update, receptive of 2 year hiatus during relocation to the school and integration of bank accounts. Concern about what will happen during that time, loss of client base, loss of student scholarships, change of client base and what volunteers will do during that time. INFO

10.2 WLP Call Committee – status of Call.

Call meeting held prior to this meeting with decision made to pursue a College Chaplain for the rest of 2017 with a possible option to continue into 2018. INFO

10.3 Saver’s Corner. Established and referred to in the Parish AGM of 1992, however, it has not been incorporated into the Constitution other than in the Service Co-ordinator at 11.31 and operates a separate bank account not reported on to any formal body. Parish Council need to recognise the continued operation of Saver’s Corner and to incorporate the accounts into the Church account’s for accounting and reporting controls. Motion to recognise and motion to incorporate the accounts.

Paul to investigate the implications of incorporating Saver’s Corner’s account into the Church’s account. ACTION Paul Vogelsang

10.4 Parish sign located at St John’s does not include the parish website address, retains Pastor Tim and could be updated to include the LCA tagline logo. Proposal needed to update the sign as per sample attached.

Sign to be updated. Tim will arrange for sign to be updated once he has all the updated details. ACTION Tim McInnes

10.5 Building of a new Church at the VLC precinct.

10.5.1 Project definition.

10.5.2 Independent legal advice.

Tim presented 22 page report as emailed to council members. To be treated as highly confidential. INFO

Versions of advertising sign presented. INFO

2nd of June meeting with DCC in Melbourne. INFO

It was reiterated that Parish Council is directly responsible for the financial implications of this project. INFO

Independence financial advise will be sort in due course. INFO

Copy of resolution from 2017 AGM required by DCC as supporting documentation. ACTION Peter Lade

10.6 Coordinator of Training.

Call was made for a volunteer to take on the role of Coordinator of Training.

LCA website has details of mandatory training required for Parish Council. INFO

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10.7 Compliance – Safe Place reporting, i.e. numbers and expiry date.

10.8 Decisions Register and Action Register.

10.9 Registration with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC). WLP is not compliant with its Annual Information Statement (AIS) as follows:

10.10 Delegations Register – Treasurer others.

10.11 Church Decluttering.

10.11.1 5S - Sort lead people asked to clean up their respective areas. Garage sale planned for 27 May 2017. Susan Edwards is going to operate a cake stall on the day and provide tea and coffee.

Application for Permission to Proceed for cake stall submitted to council and approval given. INFO

10.11.2 S - Straighten independent scan of the areas by alternative person as per table below:

Area Sort - Leader Straighten - Leader

Parish Office Heather

Gardening Shed Phillip & Susan

Church Cupboards Susan

Hall Marie

Savers Corner Maria

Yackandandah Tim

Parish Nurse Angela

11. WODONGA LUTHERAN PARISH VLC COUNCIL

11.1 VLC Council – Head of Schools compliance with Constitution Object VII.

11.2 VLC Policies review. VLC is to reference policies the approved LCA policies and confirm they are compliant with the policies.

Number Policy Status Current to Reviewed

Human Resource

Grievance

Volunteers

Child Safe

Public Interest Disclosure

Managing Unsatisfactory Performance

Workplace, Health and Safety

Prevention of Workplace Harassment

Business Continuity

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Disaster Management Plan

VLC Security Plan

Risk Management

Financial Management

ICT

Acceptable Use Policy

Use of Resources

11.3 VLC Council – Future building development applications to be submitted to Parish Council and sent for review under signature of Parish Chairman or delegate.

11.4 Overview given of planned 5/6 buildings. INFO

11.5 LCA Governance review of Lutheran Education system. Report on dialogue with Parish and VLC.

11.6 Adrian gave overview as described above in reports above. Will put documents together onto USB stick. INFO

11.7 VLC Council – Ratification of Appointments

11.8 Approval given by DCC for elected members of VLC council requiring ratification. Refer letter from Paul Weinert to Phill & Adrian dated 9th May 2017. INFO

11.9 VLC Council – Governance Workshop

11.9.1 Jan & Rob Baker took workshop with College Council and was well received. INFO.

11.10 Rite Journey Service week with Parish Council to propose options for any money's raised

Paul Kinning made contact with Pastor Jaswanth for ideas about where to donate funds raised. General discussions were against using funds to assist with Parish’s 500yr celebrations. Pastor requested input from council members as to where the funds raised could be directed. INFO

12. KEY DATES

12.1 Chairman:

12.1.1 Canberra 18 Jun 17 – Standards of Ethical Behaviour Workshop.

12.2 Pastor Jaswanth:

12.3 Principal’s key dates:

13. ITEMS TO BE CONSIDERED AT NEXT MEETING

13.1 Fire Safety briefing and walk through at St John’s.

Items to be discussed and included in the next meeting at St Johns. INFO

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13.2 The next ordinary meeting is 20 Jun 2017 at St John’s.

13.3 Devotion: Pastor Jaswanth

13.4 Meeting Closed 9:32 p.m.

Month Meeting Date Day Theme Location Devotion

February Ordinary 20-Feb-18 Tuesday VLC Staff Room

March Ordinary 20-Mar-18 Tuesday VLC Staff Room

March AGM 25-Mar-18 Sunday Church

April Ordinary 4-Apr-17 Tuesday VLC Staff Room Jaswanth

May Ordinary 16-May-17 Tuesday Relocation to VLC precinct VLC Staff Room Jaswanth

June Ordinary 20-Jun-17 Tuesday Fire Safety/Mission Church

July Ordinary 18-Jul-17 Tuesday Mission Renewal VLC Staff Room

August Ordinary 15-Aug-17 Tuesday Council/s self assessment VLC Staff Room

September Ordinary 19-Sep-17 Tuesday Relocation planning VLC Staff Room

October Ordinary 17-Oct-17 Tuesday Budget Development VLC Staff Room

November Ordinary 21-Nov-17 Tuesday Draft Financial Report & Budget VLC Staff Room

Wodonga Lutheran Parish - Meeting Schedule 2017

Peter Lade Date: Parish Secretary

Phillip Edwards Date: Parish Chairman

14. ATTACHMENTs

14.1 Decision Register (Note: A3 size).

14.2 Actions Register (Note: A3 size).

14.3 Governance Policy – Conflict of Interest

14.4 Parish Signage for updating.

21 June 2017