Endowment
Minutes June
9, 2008
In
attendance: Bob Brundage (council liaison),
Luanne Crockett, LaJean Wenzel,
Susan Prosser Absent: Jesus Duran, Martin Nehring
(action
items in bold)
-As
we gathered each member read through the three scholarship applications we
received
-Pastor
Erik opened with prayer at 12:15pm
-reviewed
the change in our by-laws for the endowment that was passed at the annual
meeting, cleaned up language to say
each member who joins does so for a 3 year commitment and added language about
a liaison being appointed from the council for a one year term, LaJean made a
comment about changing a couple words to make it sound smoother
Pastor Erik to check on annual
meeting minutes to confirm the final phrasing
-We
reviewed the current financial statements.
There was a lengthy discussion trying to re-confirm since last year the
cycle we are on in terms of what quarterly distributions are included in our
total so we would know how much we can withdraw and have accurate numbers. It was finally concluded that the committee
would use four quarterly statements to determine the total amount available for
distributions. Because of our emphasis on scholarships for graduating seniors
the committee decided the cycle would include statements from June of the
previous year to March of the current year.
Using this guideline the committee decided that $6,600 would be available
to distribute for this year. (June 07-March 08)
-In
addition to the scholarship applications, Pastor Erik handed out several appeal
letters from different organizations we have supported in the past. After discussing how we could divide up the
total amount available the committee came up with the following decision:
Scholarships
for Graduating Seniors from Mount Cross
$3,000
LRCC
(El Camino Pines)
$ 800
ELCA
Missionary
$1,000
PLTS
(Lutheran Seminary in Berkley
.$
400
Mount
Cross Youth (for National Gathering)
.$ 1,200
New
City Parish
..$
100
Teen
Challenge
$
100
-members
signed the withdrawal form
Pastor Erik to mail in the withdrawal form to the ELCA and once the
check comes in he will direct the Mount Cross treasurer to distribute it
accordingly
-meeting
was adjourned at 1:55pm
Meeting called to order at 12:15 with prayer.
Members in attendance:
Luanne Crockett, Jodell Johnson, Gene Myers,
LaJean Wenzel, Pastor Erik
Since the majority of our members were present we decided to proceed with the meeting and the decision-making process of how much money to distribute this year from the endowment fund and to whom it should go.
Our current book value for the endowment is $134, 921.96. Our current market value is $157,347.21. We have received approximately $7,300 in distributions this year off the interest of the fund. The committee decided to add $500.00 to make the amount an even $8,000 to distribute. This will affect our book value slightly, but the committee thought that the market value had risen so much we could afford to do this.
Next there was discussion about where the $8,000 should go. After looking at the requests we had and the scholarship applications we had the committee decided on the following breakdown for distributions:
Two College Scholarships
..$2,000.00
CLU Music Dept. for Instrument Repair
.$500.00
Youth Summer Trip
..$1,000.00
Tijuana House
$1,000.00
LRCC (camp El Camino Pines)
$600.00
LSS (Lutheran Social Services)
$600.00
Missions:
ELCA
missionaries
..$1,000.00
Lutheran
Bible Translators
.$500.00
ELCA College student on short-term misson .$300.00
We will look to have another meeting in the Fall. The meeting was adjourned at 1:30pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Pastor Erik
Members in attendance: LaJean Wenzel, Gene Myers, Jodell Johnson, Luanne Crockett, Stephanie Nylund, Pastor Erik
Members not in attendance: Martin Nehring, Jesus Duran
-Meeting began with a welcome of new members (LaJean and Gene), the group brought them up to speed on the history of the endowment
-everyone reviewed financial statement from the last two years, there was discussion on how we should receive our distributions,
-the first year we rolled over our quarterly distribution back into the pooled trust of the ELCA in order to continue receiving interest until we made our one withdrawal for the year,
- in 05 we changed in order to receive each distribution on the quarter, the
reasoning was that we would have money on hand if we needed it and we would avoid some of the risk of the market going down
-after discussing this issue again the group decided that the potential gains of letting the quarterly distributions be rolled back into the Pooled Trust to earn interest were greater than the potential risk, and since we really only do one withdrawal a year anyway, the group decide to go back to how we received distributions the first year, signatures were given
Action: Pastor Erik to mail in the form to change our distributions
-discussed how we would solicit requests this year and what would be the timeline
decided to do a bulletin insert on April 9 to be followed up by a time on the patio with an information table on April 30, the deadline for requests will be June 30 to allow students time to get in scholarship applications
Action: Pastor Erik to mail out scholarship applications to Senior students, prepare a bulletin insert with help of church secretary and prepare an endowment brochure with the help of the church secretary
Action: Luanne to write newsletter article on the endowment reminding people what it is and that groups can make requests, to be written by
Action: Stephanie said she would work on creating another eye-catching bulletin board for the patio time
Action: Gene and Luanne said they would be at
the patio table from 9:30-10:45
LaJean said she would sit at the
patio table after late service (12:00)
-discussed the process of getting approval for emergency situations via e-mail, the group decided that next year we might set aside a certain amount of funds to be used to help Lutheran Social Services when they have specific emergency requests to help people with things like rent, the group thought giving Pastor Erik authorization over e-mail was fine but that we should decide on a common way of stating such approval
Action: Our statement for approving special requests via e-mail will be:
I, __(your full name)_______ , as a member of the Mount Cross Lutheran Church Endowment Committee give my approval to allow Pastor Erik Goehner to authorize our church treasurer to send ____(the amount of money__ to ___(name of Organization like Lutheran Social Services)___out of the Endowment Designated Fund.
-discussed how people could give money in memory or in honor of someone and how we would list it in the newsletter and some kind of memorial book
Action: Pastor Erik to have this option listed in the new brochure
-Pastor Erik made group aware of grants that Thrivent was making available to educate people on charitable giving options, the group discussed how this could be used to help promote giving to the Endowment fund
Action: Gene Myers said he would follow-up with the local Thrivent office on how we could best utilize these grants
-meeting adjourned at 1:20pm
submitted by: Pastor Erik Goehner
The Mount Cross Endowment
Committee Meeting Minutes
July 24, 2005
The meeting was called to order
with a prayer by Pastor Erik at 12:15 pm.
Members in attendance were Pastor Erik, Luanne Crockett, Jesus Duran,
Jodell Johnson, and Martin Nehring.
Last year the committee
distributed $11,400. The award was
larger last year due to better returns in the stock markets were the funds are
invested. For 2005, the Endowment Fund had smaller stock market gains, so the
committee elected to leave those gains in the Endowment Fund.
We went over the amount of money
the Endowment Fund has to distribute.
Bob Winters provided a spreadsheet of the account values which showed we
have $6,323 in cash in the account. The
Fund has a principle amount of $136,908.90 and an account value of $144,669.63
on June 1, 2005. The committee approved
distributing $10,000 this year, which includes selling $3,677 of Fund
shares. The committee has an unofficial
benchmark of not drawing the Fund below $140,000. Pastor Erik provided the distribution form which was signed by
Luanne, Jodell, and Jesus to withdraw the additional $3,677.
The committee received three
scholarship applications, and they were reviewed by each member. One potential student is not a member of Mt
Cross but has worked at the church for three years. Aleyssa Calvelli was awarded $500 and is attending Ventura
College in the fall. Justin Rhodes was
awarded $1,000 and will attend CLU. Jeremy Graziani was awarded $1,000 and will
attend San Diego State. The committee
awarded unequal amounts because of the cost of attending a four year university
versus a junior college.
The
following awards were made:
Pacific
Lutheran Theological Seminary $2,000
(same as last year)
Teen
Challenge $500 (new request)
Lutheran
Retreats Camps and Conferences $500 ($1,000 last year)
Mt
Cross Youth Trip for 2006 $2,000 (same as last year)
College
Scholarships $2,500
($2,400 last year)
Support
of ELCA Missionary $1,000
(same as last year)
Tijuana
Trip $1,000**
($1,500 last year)
Lutheran
Social Services (LSS) $500****
(new request)
** The committee is holding $1,000 for a potential Mt Cross Trip to
Tijuana. Pastor Erik said there is a
potential donor for this project which would free up this $1,000 for another
project.
**** The committee wishes to support LSS with $500, but there is
concern that sending the check to LSS corporate in Los Angeles may not filter
the funds down to the office in Thousand Oaks.
The Thousand Oaks office is in need of basic supplies. The suggestion
was made to have LSS buy their supplies and we would reimburse them for each
expenditure. Pastor Erik will look into
this.
The committee will look to have
another meeting in September. The
meeting was adjourned with a prayer at 1 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
Martin
Nehring
Mount Cross
Lutheran Church
Endowment
Fund Committee
MINUTES
FOR:
Pastor Erik Goehner 482-3847 PastorGoehner@cs.com
Jesus Duran jduran@oxnardsd.org
Jodell Johnson
482-9541 taxbaby@adelphia.net
jjohnson@catalyticsolutions.com
Luanne Crockett 388-5220 lcrockett@ez2.net
Stephanie Golnik 987-5027 nylun100@hotmail.com
The congregation voted and passed
the Endowment Funds Congregational Bylaws, and the committees next step is to
present the Endowments Funds Statement of Investment Strategy and Policy to
the church council.
ELCA vs. Calvert Funds
Pros of the ELCA:
The ELCA has no middle
person and therefore the committee would deal with ELCA directly. In the long run, the Endowment Fund can have
the option of making more money. The
ELCA has been in business since 1986.
They also have socially conscience funds.
Cons of the ELCA:
The ELCA is limited in
family of funds and also has fixed percentages: 70%-equities and 30%-fixed income funds.
Calvert:
Calvert has socially
conscience funds and the committee would be able to place more percentage of
the fund into the fixed income option.
The cons of Calvert are using a middle person to maintain the investment
and the company has not been established as long as the ELCA.
The committees final
decision was to use the ELCA as the investment group. The decision was made on the items listed under the pros of the
ELCA. The decision was also based on
the committee wanting to keep the money in a fixed percentage, and not having
to worry about switching percentages from fixed income to or from
equities. Rather, the committees main
focus wants to be marketing to receive more donations and more importantly, how
and when to disperse the Endowment Fund.
Pastor Eric provided an example of a statement of investment strategy
and policy. The purpose of this
statement is to outline our investment goals, define where the money will go
and also provide a clear and straight forward strategy to present to the church
council. The first draft of this
statement is enclosed.
-Complete the Statement of Investment Strategy and Policy.
-Jesus Duran and Pastor Eric
to present the Statement of Investment Strategy and Policy at the next church
council meeting: June 10, 2003.
-The committee will review the ELCA information at
the church office. Pastor Eric to call
or e-mail the other members when the information has arrived.
-Next meeting: August 2003. The next meeting will be how to market the
congregation for more donations. Also,
discussing when the deadline will be for the applications (disbursement of the
funds) and how to rate each application.
Created by Stephanie Golnik (5/21/03)
Mount Cross
Lutheran Church Endowment Fund Committee
MINUTES FOR:
March 11, 2003 at 7:30pm
1. Attendance:
Pastor Erik
Goehner Paul
Jodell LuAnn
Stephanie Golnik
2. Committee membership positions decided:
Chairperson: Jesus
Financial
Secretary: Jodell
Recording
Secretary: Stephanie
Pastor Advisor: Pastor
Eric Goehner
Other members: Paul
and LuAnn
Committee membership terms
decided:
One‑Year
Term: Paul
Two‑Year
Term: LuAnn
and Stephanie Golnik
Three‑Year
Term: Jesus
and Jodell
Amendment to the
congregational bylaws:
The committee has updated and made the first
draft of the to the Congregational Bylaws for the endowment fund. The recording
secretary will be typing the first draft and providing it to the members of the
committee prior to the next meeting date via e‑mail.
Management of endowment
funds:
The committee has voted and decided to use
the ELCA Foundation investing group.
Next meeting:
‑Next meeting date:
March 25, 2003 at 7:30pm.
‑At the next meeting:
making the final draft of the Bylaws for presentation at the
-April 6 congregational
meeting and reasons for choosing the ELCA Foundation.