1. Ministry Teams Meeting Minutes: 8 January 2014
Ministry Team: Children’s Formation
Members Present: Becky Showalter, Megan Douglas, Kellam Gaddy, Bobbi Feraco, Judy Williams
Agenda Items Discussed:
1. New Service Schedule – starts 1/12/2014.
8am, 9am, and 11am services with Sunday School hour at 10am.
Details that are Set
Teachers have agreed to teach all classes at the 10 o’clock hour.
nd th
Room 201 has been decorated/supplied for the 2 -4 grade class to meet.
Nina and Kristen will both work every Sunday until I can find a third caregiver that is willing to split time with
Kristen or be backup when she cannot make it.
Kristen will work with the 4-6 year olds in the Education Building and Nina will work with the infants – 3 year
olds in the church during the service. Kristen will bring her kids over to the church at 9:45 and 11:45
respectively. They will both be in the nursery during the 10 o’clock hour.
The youth helpers that were helping during the 10:30 service have been divided up between the two services
to help Kristen with the 4-6 year olds.
**Email Kristen that she will help with Preschool Sunday School at the 10 o’clock hour.
Details that Need to Be Worked Out
Need to find a backup/half time caregiver. Craigslist? Who can do this?
**Bobbi has a friend who is a teaching assistant who is looking for extra work who she thinks would be great!
It would be nice to have a short Children’s Church Service at 9am and 11am. Stephanie may hire someone
to do this. Are we supposed to be doing anything?
**Becky to contact Stephanie and ask her thoughts.
Need to ask parents that are not teaching to volunteer as helpers in the 10 o’clock Sunday School hour in the
st
preschool and K-1 Grade classes (our youth helpers will be in their own Sunday School now!)
**Emailed parents. Put off making schedule until after Teacher Meeting on Feb 9 to see what teachers think.
2.
Teachers Meeting – February 9 after Church
A mid-year Teacher’s Meeting to get feedback and swap ideas has been scheduled for February 9th. It was
included in the Glad Tidings and a save the date email was sent out. Main discussion points will be how the
new schedule is working and swap ideas about what is working and not working with Spark.
3. Family Ministry
Bobbi Feraco may start a family ministry by sending out the family pages to families each week.
**Will start when possible – possibly beginning of next year.
4. Community Service Project Leaders
Stephanie Sumner and Lisa Avery – Plan Food Shuttle volunteer opportunity for spring.
5. Children’s Communion Class
Interest has been expressed by several parents. Stephanie has scheduled it for the afternoon of Sunday,
January 26.

2. Ministry Team: Youth
Members Present: Jon Showalter, Fran Kenney, Jane Weinberger, Beth Crow, Lori Special, Sally Bloom, Dave
McKinnon
Agenda Items:
Old Business.
1. Decided to make sure that the Youth Mission Statement is distributed to youth leaders, webmaster, etc.
• Nativity’s mission is to provide an environment for teens to encounter the transformative power of Jesus Christ,
through community, worship, prayer, and service.
2. Budget Stewardship update: Vestry is voting soon re: hiring a youth minister. Discussion whether YMT would be
support part-time youth person. After discussion, consensus is that we really believe that the work requires a full time
person. Part-time would be supported IF the right candidate, who is seeking part-time work was found. But in the end,
fulltime is what’s needed for the work to be done, and for amount of work to be done.
New Business:
1. We reviewed the Youth Assessment to understand where we are in the process and what we think should be done
next.
2. We discussed what Core Values--what they are, why they are important. Dave agreed to draft some for the YMT to be
used as we develop a three-year goal and steps to reach them.
3. We reviewed current and possible Youth Involvement with view for implementing Mentoring Program for rising YACS. It
was decided that they what is developed will be used for Pilgrims in the spring curriculum. Sally will help implement this.
4. Review YAC Mentoring Manual and discuss how to implement for rising YACs.
TO DO:
Goal
Task
Assigned To
Due Date
From Assessment Plan
Done?
Visioning and Review Assessment,
REQUIRED, and annotate
Strategic
Plan for
in your own color!
Youth
(“SPY”)
All YMT members
12/4/11;
updated to
1/8/14
YES
SPY and
rising YAC
idea
Contribute to Shared
Document of CURRENT
Youth activities in Whole
Church
ALL YMT members
12/10/11;
updated to
1/8/14
A strategic plan has been developed YES
for helping the youth become an
integral part of the whole church,
weaving the youth ministry into the
fabric of the entire church. This plan
may include creative ways to plug
youth in leadership roles throughout
the church. Build off the desire of
youth and parents to make a
difference in the world as well as
their local community. The current
outreach opportunities have been
evaluated for effectiveness. Create
a plan for promoting and exposing
the youth to outreach throughout the
year.
SPY and
rising YAC
idea
Contribute to Shared
Document of POSSIBLE
Youth activities in Whole
Church
All YMT members
12/10/11;
updated to
1/8/14
A strategic plan has been developed YES
for helping the youth become an
integral part of the whole church,
weaving the youth ministry into the
fabric of the entire church. This plan
may include creative ways to plug
youth in leadership roles throughout
the church. Build off the desire of

3. youth and parents to make a
difference in the world as well as
their local community. The current
outreach opportunities have been
evaluated for effectiveness. Create
a plan for promoting and exposing
the youth to outreach throughout the
year.
Rising YAC
idea
Review Mentoring Manual
for YAC program
Anyone can, will
share, but Jane,
Sally and Fran to
review for possible
implementation
12/10/11;
updated to
1/8/14
Rising YAC
idea
Discuss and Decide, using
Shared List of current and
possible Youth
Involvement possibilities
YMT
12/11/13;
updated to
2/12/14 or
separate Jan.
meeting
Mission
Statement
Distribution
Distribute Mission
Statement to Youth
LEaders, and others on
web team, Parish
Coordinator for proper
placement. GT article?
Ask Youth Leaders to
include in weekly emails
Fran and Sally
(Sally can send to
youth leaders)
2/1/14
YAC IDEA
Implement with Pilgrims. If
it is decided to do so.
Sally and Jane
1/15/14;
update to
2/12/14
Creating
SPY
Taking the input from
above, write a narrative of
these components to see
how they fit into a plan to
integrate youth and what
else needs to be done
Sally
3/10/14 based From Assessment: Christian
on
Formation Plan: Define the purpose
discussions
of the youth ministry and how the
various components fulfill that
purpose. Create an integrated
template for connecting each
component of the ministry: J to A,
youth group and Confirmation.
Visioning
Draft set of core values for
visioning process and
share for input on
google docs
Dave
12/10/13;
updated to
1/7/14
Visioning
Draft Three Year Goal(s)
and share for input on
google docs (three years
means beginning of
academic year 20162017?) or do you prefer
calendar years?
Jon
2/10/14
Visioning
Revise and Complete 3
year goals
Jon/Sally
3/10/14
Visioning
Draft Benchmarks to reach Fran
3 year goals, based on
3/10/14
or...
YES
[Whether we meet in person or
virtually in December, we would
need a decision on changes to
Pilgrim curriculum for spring so can
be implemented].
YES
In
progress
Remember our mission: Nativity’s
YES!
mission is to provide an environment
for teens to encounter the
transformative power of Jesus
Christ, through community, worship,
prayer, and service.

4. draft provided 1/6/14 and
discussion on 1/8/14;
share on google docs
SPY
Review/annotate Draft
SPY on google docs
All YMT Members
3/12/14
Visioning
Complete Benchmarks
based on Completed 3
year goals
Fran/Sally
3/12/14
SPY
Complete SPY
Sally
3/10/14

5. Ministry Team: Buildings and Grounds
Members Present: Marc Marotta, Kenneth Special, Riley Gaddy and Alfred Christensen
Agenda Items Discussed:
• Follow-up on last meeting’s action list.
Action Item
Put up trap for squirrels in the attic
Assigned To
Alfred
Due Date
12/16/2013
Come up with ideas for how to get
rid of the old trailer without
spending a lot of money.
All
01/08/2014
What is the status of the Memorial
garden landscaping design
activity?
Check water fountains for leaks
Alfred
01/08/2014
David
12/11/2013
Comment
Done. One squirrel
relocated to safe distance.
Requested contact for
repair/demolition work.
Will also put it on Craig’s
List
There is no news on the
status of this activity.
David has done this and all
seem to be OK.
•
Request from the Communications Team regarding signs with service times:
o Can the Buildings and Grounds Team please remove the sign from the post on the driveway (wrong
times) and temporarily replace it with the standard Episcopal sign that is leaning against the wall of Estill
House?
o If the metal sign includes the old times, is there someone who has a saw that can remove that part of the
sign? We can order a new sign when a decision is made in June whether to continue with three services.
o Anyone volunteer to do this? It has to be done before this coming Sunday where we start the new
service schedule:
8am, 9am and 11 am with education for all at 10am.
o After meeting status: The old Episcopal metal church sign works OK – the service times were written on
an attached smaller sign (attached to the bottom of the larger sign). The smaller sign has been removed,
and the larger Episcopal standard sign has been placed on the post on the left side of the driveway.
•
2013 power use summary.
o All churches in the NC Diocese are encouraged to keep track of their power usage in order to better
monitor the effectiveness of power saving initiatives.
o Nativity has data back to 2006, and we just updated that data with 2013 numbers.
o We improved our power use efficiency in 2011 and 2012, but 2013 did not continue the trend. Other
churches in the diocese have seen the same trend, so some of the reason is weather related – both
spring and fall in 2013 were colder than normal and required more heating than usual.
o We are currently doing some detailed analysis of our power use and billing in preparation for a rate plan
discussion with Duke/Progress Energy to make sure we are on as optimal a plan as possible.

6. •
Identify power savings activities for 2014.
o We need to identify power savings activities for 2014 – what are the actions we can undertake this year to
reduce our power use?
o We have done most of the “easy” activities (bulbs, motion sensors, etc.).
o We will in 2014 focus on power savings related to cooling and heating. Our HVAC systems consume the
majority of our power. This means some expenses are required to purchase new more efficient
thermostats.
•
Woods trash pile cleanup – round two!
o Two years ago we had a contractor remove old trash (refrigerators, cans, bottles, etc.) from the woods
behind Nativity.
o The contractor left behind a large amount of broken glass spread over approximately a 30x30 foot area.
o With the new pre-school starting up and planning to spend a large amount of time in the woods, the
broken glass would become a safety hazard. We had a contractor come in last week to dig out 4 to 6
inches of dirt with as much broken glass as possible, and then spreading half a foot of mulch over the
area.

7. o
It looks OK now and is much safer for the children who will be playing in the area.
•
How much will we use Fetsko Landscaping in 2014?
o The last few years we have used Fetsko Landscaping for various grounds maintenance related activities.
o The planned activities for 2013 were budgeted at $5,580.00 and included:
Prune all shrubs and trees in beds 2x yearly
Take clippings and branches to landfill
Mow and edge all lawn areas during growing season
Provide and spread 37 yards of triple shredded hardwood mulch
Winter cleanup - February– Prune, pick up branches, leaf blowing 1x
Pull/Spray weeds in all beds and natural areas
5 lawn care applications per year.
o The team needs to decide how many of these activities will continue to be done by Fetsko and how many
we can take over ourselves.
o We will use Fetsko for lawn-related activities: spraying for weeds, fertilizing, mowing, edging, etc.
o Alfred will contact Fetsko and request an estimate for 2014.
o We will take over the remaining activities ourselves and have them performed at two annual B&G work
days: one in spring for spring cleanup (to be placed before Palm Sunday), and one in the fall for fall
cleanup.
•
Start planning for a spring grounds cleanup day
o Palm Sunday is April 13 this year. Cleanup should be done before that date.
o Any volunteers for planning this activity?
o Possible dates are Saturday March 22 or Saturday April 12.
•
Our furry friends (squirrels) are back in the attic of Estill House.
o One squirrel has been trapped and relocated, but more are likely to find their way into the attic as it gets
colder outside.
o If anyone has any ideas about how to find out where they come in – please share those ideas with us.
o We have now called in the professionals: “Critter Control” to come out and help us squirrel proof the attic
in Estill House. The squirrels have begun chewing through our Local Area network cables in the attic and
three cables had to be pulled out and replaced completely this last week.
•
Anything else we need to discuss in today’s meeting?
o It was noted that the kitchen faucet sprayer in the kitchen is not hooked up to the water supply.
o Does anyone know why not? Is there a reason why it is not connected? If not, we’ll plan to connect it.
o A question was also raised about the “red phones” in the church building and the Education Building: do
they really have to be on each their own direct external line? Can’t they share a line or call out through
the phone gateway using the two lines we have available there?
Action Items Assigned/Tracked:
•
Action Item
Put mobile class room on Craig’s list
Put up Episcopal sign along driveway
Contact a squirrel proofing company
Clarify requirement for dedicated phone lines in the
church and education building
Contact Fetsko for 2014 estimate
Assigned To
Alfred
Alfred
Alfred
Marc
Due Date
2/12/2014
2/12/2014
2/12/2014
2/12/2014
Alfred
2/12/2014
Comment
Done
Done

8. Ministry Team: Worship
Members Present: Stephanie Allen, Joan Parente, Waltye Rasulala
Agenda Items Discussed:
• Discussion centered on a post analysis of the following services:
o Christmas Eve 10:30pm service:
Pre-Music needs to shortened to 15 minutes
9:45-10:00PM
Service will start at 10:05-11pm
o Lessons and Carols:
Liked the service this year, liked the time
Add more congregational singing
Bells made it special
Should we have communion?
Liked the fact that it was a Christmas Lessons and Carols
Discussion with ushers before the service re: traffic flow
o Epiphany Service
Good service, good music
Had 45 people
Will do again
• Discussion of Lent and Easter Season plans:
o Lent
Great Litany will be done at the 11am service not the 9am first Sunday in Lent.
Palm Sunday
• 9am - Could we have a pageant version of the service with Adults?
• 11am
Stations of the Cross throughout Holy Week on a Saturday (spoken)
Foot Washing – Thurs with Taze
Good Friday noon and 7pm with music
Holy Saturday possible - 8:30am ?
Vigil - 6:30am-Easter
o Easter: 9am and 11am
Choir
Bells
Brass

9. Ministry Team: Communications
Members Present: Ben Huckaby, Emilie Sigel, Gail Christensen, Sarah Bernart, Jason Pace
Agenda Items Discussed:
•
•
•
Permanent banner on posts near church building – discussion
o What should we put on the permanent banner near the church (that now has incorrect service times)?
o Welcome message
o Service times - Jason provided variations on wording and we chose one
Posting videos on website
o Mike Belmares has recorded a video of Stephanie reflecting on the sermon and posted it to YouTube.
Where should this go on the website?
Stephanie’s blog would be an excellent location
Who will volunteer to take this responsibility?
o Mike recorded this video on his phone, and that limited how long it could be. We plan on adding a digital
camcorder to the Communications Team budget to make this easier and allow us to record videos of
Stephanie’s reflections and other events more easily.
What are we going to present to the Vestry at their February meeting?
o Since this is a new Vestry, it would be good to present an overview of what has happened over the past
18 months (including updates on social media channels)
o Incorporate how the brand for Nativity has evolved over that time, show the results, and explain the vision
of how to continue moving this effort forward and why it is important to keep a cohesive look and feel
across all official media from the church.
o “Official” media includes:
Any public-facing posters, social media outlets, Glad Tidings, stationery, presentation templates,
brochures, etc.
Action Items Discussed/Tracked:
Action Item
Design new Service Schedule banner for campus posts
Get in touch with hosting service to verify hosting price prior to renewal
Check with Stephanie about what the Communications team will need to do to help with Lent
Ask Finance Team for additional monies in Comms Team budget for 2014
Collect information presentation to Vestry
Pursue getting a video camera and trip for the church to use for Stephanie’s blog, sermon commentaries and other
special services