Meeting Minutes: May 9, 2019

Open meeting was held at:

Our Lady Queen of Heaven
Kateri Hall
Spanaway, WA
6:30 – 7:30 PM

All Board members and 14 other attendees were present.

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm.

An agenda and April 25th meeting minutes were distributed.

Review Meeting Minutes: Amend if necessary, vote on approval.

The April 25th, 2019 meeting minutes were reviewed. The minutes were approved with the following amendments: 2nd bullet, in the “Report on Status of Licensing and Framework” section be changed from “5013c” to “501c3” and in the “Maintenance of Church” section, 1st bullet that personal names be deleted. Motion to amend. Seconded. Amended.
Member’s names should not be used in the meeting minutes.

Report on AD Movements (Pastors, Deacon Fish and Archbishop)

Father Bourke is dedicated to Visitation Church.
There is no dedicated priest for Holy Rosary.
Deacon Fish is assigned to Holy Rosary for 8 hours a week.
Sister Hanh is moving to Everett this summer.
A new Seattle Archbishop has been assigned, from Alaska. Effective June 7th or 9th. He has priests and nuns in his family. Open minded. He is good at creating plans and seems nice.
Concerns about the leadership at Holy Rosary. We need someone to represent us. We lack viability, a leader, and we are not sure what we have to lead with.

Anything to report on with the Parish Council (April 30th?). Schedule for Open Parish Meeting with the AD (May 29).

The Board will contact Deacon Fish about estimates and report back to STLC.
They are still collecting data from the engineers and architects.
The May 29 meeting is still scheduled at Holy Rosary. If it is an open meeting, lets get as many people as we can to attend.

STLC has requested a copy of the property deed to find out if there are any stipulations about parceling off the land and other restrictions of a sale.

Website and Facebook Discussion

Discussion about invoice structure and refunds.
We should focus on the building and preserving a shrine.
If we demonstrate our goodwill and collect funds, can the AD give us some direction?
We do not want to apply pressure or box the AD into a corner. We want to have a positive, rather than a negative effect.
There were 500 hits the first day the website was open. It has declined rapidly since.
There was difficulty navigating to the funding button.
We should add a total thermometer to reflect how we are doing.
If there are reoccurring donations, how do we set that up or how do the donors stop the payments.
There was a volunteer to be our Social Meeting Manager for twitter and Facebook. We voted, seconded and approved.

Fundraising Report

We had a Fundraising Expert attend our meeting. She writes grants for overpasses and her own home in the City of Sumner. She has met with Deacon Fish. She is from the Vancouver Portland area. She shared a story of trying to renovate a 100 year old church and then the cry room catching on fire. The 16 million price tag seemed very daunting. They broke it down or up to appeal to major donors, grass roots people. Targeted private gifts and grants. Appealed to religious and art community. She will try to bring examples of what was done for McCaw Hall in Seattle.
The AD is not refusing STLC help. They did not try to stop us but are not assisting us.

Logo Design

Next steps in Fundraising

Pitches to different groups; architecture, historical, Holy Rosary as an ornament of Tacoma, helping immigrant family newly arrived with no religious affiliation to relocate to Tacoma.
Musical venues, concerts in the church: Something respectful like a string quartet or 70 – 80 era rotating concerts.
Meet with the mayor, historical society and state representatives.
Some people are computer illiterate. Posters, fliers and Catholic bulletins.
Following the data: Where are the large donors? Who has the connections?
Prospecting for partnerships and grants.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 pm.