The Glen Waverley Uniting Church PSALTERGLEN WAVERLEY UNITING CHURCH COUNCIL
Meeting to be held at 7.45pm Wednesday 15th October 2008
AGENDA
1. Welcome & Apologies
2. Devotions: David Jackson
3. Confirmation of Minutes of September meeting
4. Correspondence.
a. Glen Waverley Occasional Childcare.
- Jan Clear and Geraldine Fleming have been Church Council representatives on the Advisory Committee. We need either Councilors to join the Committee or Committee members to become Church Councilors.
b. Mission and Service Calendars. http://victas.uca.org.au/main.php?pg=download&id=239392
- These are available for $3, with the suggestion that they be sold for something more than that as a fundraiser. Is anyone interested in taking this on?
5. Ministry Team report / Caring and Sharing / Discovery time
6. Supply. Documentation of costing of ministry options from
- finance committee meeting Oct 13. To be circulated after the meeting Also finance committee report.
7. Visioning process. Report from implementation committee meeting Oct 14 To be tabled
8. Staff telephony policy. For adoption. Attached document 1.
9. House finance report. For information. To be tabled
10. Other Business.
11. Next Meeting: 15th October 2008
Tea and Biscuits: Max & Amy Whittaker
- Attachment 1
Report to Church Council on telephony needs:
Ministry means different things to different people, and can be expressed in a variety of ways. None of these differences makes the ministry any more or less important. How we express our gifts of ministry also differs and the tools we use may differ. What I consider essential to do my job or my ministry, may be considered by someone else as pointless or excessive.
What is certain, resources, tools and methods of operation will change, grow and evolve. So it is with the telephony needs of our ministry team. For the purposes of this proposal, telephony includes telephone, mobiles, fax and internet or derivations of those options.
GWUC provide different levels of support for the different ministry team members. In the past it has not been in accordance with their needs, but rather related to their negotiating skills or their individual expectations. Some have been by Synod decree.
A recent gathering of the ministry team, church council, property and finance committee members discussed the needs and the options. A wide ranging and frank discussion took place regarding the teams expectations for access to telephony. The discussion extended to aspects concerning the provision of office facilities and meeting spaces and issues concerning copyright, and the variety tools needed or wanted.
What was clear from the discussion was the inequality of the current approach, the need to recognise that ministry needs have changed from that prescribed by Synod and that our ministry team are generous of spirit and giving to provide their own telephony and other equipment to support their work. The congregation expects a great deal from our ministry team, and does not pay for all the associated costs they incur.
There is also a strong argument to be proffered that the telephony within GWUC could be enhanced so that the houses, the complex and the ministry team could (technically) be able to be integrated into an effective wide area network of services, that would be less expensive than the current facilities. That said, this will take may months work and could not be completed in a short space of time. It is however the longer term project that Property will undertake as a task, with the aim of gaining maximum outcomes, at minimum cost.
However, in the immediate short term, the ministry team needs to have an equitable access to all the key resources they need to do their ministry.
The ministry team indicated the following:-
Landline telephones as prescribed by Synod these days provide limited value, but are needed to give a focal point for contact for both the congregation and the wider community. Mobile phones have a much greater roll to play, in that they enable the ministry to keep in touch with each other in a timely and flexible manner. They also are the key form of contact for much of the youth culture while providing the immediate contact that is sometimes needed in emergencies. Fax has become a much less needed tool, but still is used for confirmation and evidentiary proof. The internet has become the key research tool. Although it does not replace books, newspapers and other forms of reference, the vastness of the information and the ease of access cannot be achieved in any other medium.
GWUC provides the full time ministry team with a landline telephone to their homes, and free internet at GWUC. GWUC also reimburse any claims by the ministry team for GWUC expenses incurred, but often due to their nature, or the ability to identify them from their personnel expenditure, they choose not to claim. The part time ministry team are entitled to claim for 'business' calls, but often do not. This creates an inequitable situation in the team. Only some members of the ministry team have been granted mobile telephone and internet fully paid.
It is proposed that the following principles should be established:-
1. All members of the ministry team should be treated equally and proportionately to their ministry appointment and needs.
2. GWUC will continue to provide to the ministry team members the use of free fixed line telephone, internet and office equipment within the GWUC complex.
3. The GWUC owned manses will have a paid for by GWUC fixed line telephone installed, and existing Synod regulations related to use and expenditure recovery will apply. This telephone number will be treated as the after hours contact number for communication purposes. The Office telephone number is to be the first point of call during normal working hours. A ministry team members mobile number shall not be made public and may only be given out by the minister as they see fit.
4. GWUC will provide a monthly allowance to enable the ministry team members to apply towards the operating costs of a home fixed line (in the case of ministry team members not in GWUC manses), mobile telephone, internet or any other office or technology facilities they wish to choose.
5. Should identifiable expenditure in excess of the allowance be incurred on behalf of GWUC, the ministry team may seek reimbursement as per the existing regulations.
If the above principles are agreed, the finance committee is to be authorised to:-
1. Set an annual allowance to cover the agreed costs, based on a reasonable equivalent packages available from major suppliers.
2. Finance committee is to review this allowance each year in time to be reported to Church Council as part of the budget setting process , and to apply from 1 January each year.
3. The Finance committee can, at its discretion, review this allowance in the event of significant cost variations in the areas of the allowance make up. I.e.. Mobile phone charges or internet packages.
In summary,
It is believed that the ministry team need a landline telephone, mobile telephone and internet available to them in their homes to support their work. Although GWUC is not expected to fully fund these costs, as well as provide free facilities at the church, it should be anticipated that if the proposal is accepted, there may be an additional cost to GWUC to bring all the ministry team onto the same basis of funding. The allowance is seen as an equitable way to provide differing levels of expectations, while providing the best taxation options for the team members.
Warren Greenwood
Property Committee Chair.