1. The Session called a special meeting of the congregation for January 9, 2011, immediately following the morning worship service, to vote on the request of the Rev. Christopher Carlson that the pastoral relationship between himself and Faith Presbyterian Church be dissolved and to vote on the terms of severance.
Pastor Carlson spoke to the session about his decision to request dissolution of his pastoral relationship with our church, with January 16, 2011 being the last day of his call. He excused himself from the meeting while the session discussed and acted on several related motions from the Personnel Committee. The session unanimously approved the motions to recommend that the congregation consent to the dissolution request, to call a special meeting of the congregation (as described above), and to recommend “that the congregation approve the severance package for Reverend C. Carlson. This severance package is to consist of payment for accrued vacation, salary plus housing allowance, and required Board of Pension payments on these amounts. Severance payments to end 19 April, 2011 (3 months from the separation date) or when new employment begins, whichever occurs first.”

2. We will change to a fiscal year based on the program year, rather than the calendar year.
Currently our church works on a fiscal year that coincides with the calendar year. This presents a challenge in doing proper budgeting and spending during the year because 20% of the church’s income is received in December, the last month of the current fiscal year. The session approved a motion from the Finance Committee to change to a fiscal year that begins July 1. We will have a short transitional fiscal year from January 1 through June 30, 2011. Our new regular fiscal years will then run from July 1 through June 30. We anticipate continuing to have our pledge drive in the fall since most families do their budgeting on a calendar year basis.

3. Meetings with church consultants are being scheduled.
Plans have been made for the session to have lunch with and hear from one church consultant after the worship service on January 23. Plans are underway to arrange a similar meeting with another church consultant for sometime in February. If the session finds one of those consultants to be a good match for our needs, we will begin working with that person to further develop what was proposed by the Short and Long Range Study Committee and to adopt specific plans for our congregation’s future.