Resources Team Meeting Minutes - 6-12-07
 
Present: John Bergford, Amy Hasbargen, Denise Wilkens, Ross Bartels, Kermit Kramer, Marty Carlson, Steve Maurelli, Susanne Haas
 
Ross called the meeting to order at 7:05 and started the meeting with a prayer.
 
We first reviewed the status of action items from the last meeting:
 
Ross reported on his action of ascertaining whether there were currently any outstanding offers for the parsonage. No offers have been extended. There were two expressions of interest in the parsonage at some point, one from a member of the congregation. Pastor Gayle has the nformation.
The only recent rough estimate we have for the value of parsonage comes from a realtor who is a member of the church and who estimated its value at $750,000 (about a year ago).
 
John Bergford reported on the research he did regarding potential property taxes on the parsonage and assessments:
The parsonage was assessed at $1.45M ($535,800 for land/$509,200 house). Based on this assessment, the property tax payable in the event of commercial use of the property (i.e. renting it out) would be $15,947 a year (in 2007). The parcel size is 52ft/134ft
In comparison, the house next door to the parsonage is assessed at $1.3M ($700,300 for land/$599,700 house). Property tax is $19,847 in 2007. The parcel size is 140ft/150ft.
The duplex around the corner from the latter property (on Franklin) was sold in 2006 for $849,900, but is assessed at $674,000 and 2007 taxes are $8,190. The parcel size is 107ft/144ft.
Finally, the property behind the church on 21st Street is assessed at $591,000. The parcel size is 58ft/144ft.
A short discussion followed on what the rental value of the parsonage would be, but no conclusions were drawn. It was mentioned that the parsonage could potentially be rented on a temporary basis.
 
Since Judy Bigelow was absent, we expect her report on parsonage use around the Twin Cities for the next meeting.
 
Denise reported on current giving trends in the congregation to help us assess the giving potential of the congregation as a resource.
Currently, 52% of the pledged income at LOTI comes from 20% of the households. 82% of pledged income comes from 50% of households. 94% of pledged income comes from 75% of households.
We have 155 total LOTI households (may not be completely accurate).
12 of those households give $5,000 + annually (accounting for $86,960), 9 give $3,000-$4,999 (accounting for $31,360), 14 give $2,000-$2,999 (accounting for $35,240), 32 give $1,000-$1,999 (accounting for $43,436) and 30 give $150-$999 (accounting for $17,591).
58 households listed appear to give nothing (some of them may not be members anymore and some of them may be making cash gifts which cannot be recorded to them).
This would mean that 63% of the households make gifts and 37% do not.
Based on this information, it appears that even gifts in the smallest category from those households which apparently do not contribute (extrapolating from that group's giving pattern), could amount to another $33,000 - if giving could be initiated.
It was discussed that even the pledging and contributing households could be counted on for more contributions in the future given a more effective stewardship campaign and improved communication of LOTI's goals and activities.
It was mentioned again that even without an expectation of tithing, we should be able to triple (and certainly double) our income.
More work needs to be done to access this potential and communication of the great work our church is doing should be improved and increased. The question was raised how and whether we could get any more data for the actual giving potential.
 
Amy reported on time and talent resources currently available to LOTI.
Out of current members (not households), 99 people devote at least one hundredth of an hour per month to LOTI. Total hours per month given by members are 350 hours.
The median is 2 hours a month.
The top 20 % give at least 8 hours a month to LOTI.
The church office has some time & talent sheets which were filled out by members and Amy found 6 new names on these sheets of people who may be interested in volunteering some time. It was discussed that follow-up with these people is required.
Questionnaires about time and talent available should be handed out at all new member meetings.
We should also note that the best way for LOTI to get people involved or more involved in the church is by asking them directly to take over a certain task or be involved in a certain activity.
 
Ross will report on his discussion about a survey of the congregation (with Mary Sabatke) at the next meeting.
 
Denise reported on her meeting with the immediate neighbors to the parsonage. Denise and Jeff visited the neighbors to find out what their future plans are and what their thoughts are about the parsonage and its use. The current owners stated that they would not sell house and land separately if and when they sell the property. They had at one point considered buying the parsonage from LOTI, but decided that the noise from the church's AC was too much. With respect to their thoughts about outreach programs, they mentioned their concern about teenagers (runaways, for example) and mentioned "The Bridge" as a worthwhile organization.
 
The group discussed what its next steps and actions should be. Ultimately, we would like to present a white paper on all of the resources of the congregation.
 
We revisited the resources we listed in the last meetings to see if we might have missed anything. We felt fairly confident that we had a complete list.
 
Further discussion was held regarding the purpose of the team and its deliverable. We should not create another parsonage task force report. Much work has already been done. Our charter is broader than the parsonage task force's was.
 
Questions to address: Do we sell the parsonage? If we do, what do we do with the money? If we don't sell, what do we do with the parsonage? When we conclude as a team, do we present factual information to the council? Who presents to the congregation? What role does the Uses Team play in this? Do we create our recommendation as a team? Do we take a vote in the team? What are the recommendations to present to the congregation?
We agreed that we will present options to the congregation, supported by data. We will list all of the resources of the congregation.
The Uses Team will be presenting what the outreach project(s) should be.
 
Action: Denise took the action to find out whether we can only borrow against the parsonage or whether the church itself could be used as collateral.
 
We brainstormed about options for the parsonage. Some options mentioned were tear-down, keeping property or house in case space is needed in the future, the latter was questioned by some due to the current underutilization of space in the church building. More work needs to be done here.
 
We discussed the difficulty of balancing the shorter term issue of the parsonage and the longer term issue of stewardship and the relationship of the two. Would the liquidation of the parsonage asset have an effect on stewardship and is so, what would the effect be? Does it depend on what we do with the proceeds (use for a mission project or to pay the church's bills).
 
Action: Marty took the action of talking to the Synod about examples of other churches and their sale of parsonages and the effect of such sales in the past.
Action: Marty will work on finding out about whether there is a positive effect of mission projects on churches in decline. Jeff Hickstein may have some information.
 
Our next meetings will be June 27th at 7:00pm and July 10th at 7:00pm.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 pm.
 
Respectfully submitted by Susanne Haas