Highlights of a recent Vestry meeting

How Are You Doing? Early each year Vestry members complete an individual plan for their Vestry involvement for the year ahead. Called Vestry Servanthood Plans, they are then placed in a common file where they are available to all Vestry members. In past years the Vestry has taken a mini retreat, usually in the summer, to revisit the plans and discern whether members are on track. That midterm evaluation didn’t happen this year because the Vestry was busy welcoming our Interim Rector, the Rev. Maryjane Peck. So, the Vestry devoted the first portion of their October meeting to reviewing the plans and discussing whether they were useful and should continue to be an expectation of members in the future.

Progress Review: The Vestry also sets goals for the entire body. A second task was to evaluate progress on each goal. In groups of three, members graded the Vestry’s progress on goals set at the annual retreat in February, 2019. The Vestry set six goals for itself, and the self-evaluation averages were:

  1. Grow and engage membership C+
  2. Support staff and clergy during transition A
  3. Continue healing of relationships & souls while building trust
    through communication and transparency B+
  4. Update and strengthen our commitment to the safe church policy A-
  5. Strive for a balanced budget for 2020 B
  6. Support ministries/commissions B+

Meow: Senior Warden, Knut Hill, reviewed a draft of a letter to be sent to the congregation introducing the Congregational Assessment Tool (CAT) to be implemented in the next several weeks. He asked for Vestry input before sending the letter to the entire congregation.

And the Routine Stuff: The rest of the meeting was devoted to “business as usual” that comes before the Vestry on a monthly basis: review and approval of the financial report, minutes of previous meetings, and reports for staff, commission and committees.