St. James Pastoral Council
Meeting Minutes

Jump to most recent minutes

Results of Meeting September 24, 2005

The "interim" Council held a parish meeting on Sept. 24 to solicit input from parish members and ministries on the organization and membership of the Council. As a result of this input, the Council agreed by consensus that, in addition to council officers (Pastor as "ex officio", President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Diocesan Pastoral Council representative, and 4 members at large, all the parish ministries would be invited to participate and be represented. The Council will request that ministries organize into "groupings" to help make the Council process more efficient. This Council will begin to meet as a whole group beginning in the New Year. Elections will be held in June for establishing the first full council in 2006.

Minutes of Monday, March 13, 2006

Members Present: John Kennedy, President; Kathy Sennello, Vice President; Susie Kelly, DPC rep; Bob Groh, At-Large; Doug Dade, At-Large; Eileen Nemeth, At-large; Esther Bidaurreta, At-large; Dave Langerman, KOC; Pat Murch, Finance Council; Lucy Spingola, ICF; Pat Louks, SVDP; Anne Marie Riedel, Liturgy; Rolly Rosario, Squires; Grace Herrold, CLAS; Alba Silva, YLI; Donna Cook, Women's Group; Roberta Guerra, Music Liturgy; Josh Guerra, Youth Council; JP Ospital, Fr. Michael, Joe

The President called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.

Minutes: Motion/second - Murch/Kelly to approve the minutes of February 13 was unanimously passed.

Kathy passed out nominations forms for At-large and DPC reps and asked each representative to distribute them to their respective groups. They should be returned by the end of March. Kathy will put a notice in the bulletin and have additional forms at the back of the church. The Elections Committee will then take over the process in April. Members were encouraged to volunteer for the elections and/or nominations committee.

Anne Marie and Roberta updated the council on the plans for the Ministry Fair to take place April 29-30. Bulletin announcements will be on April 16 and 23, and they will speak at all masses on the 23rd. After the 5:30 Saturday mass, the KOC and Squires will provide wine and cheese in the courtyard; Sunday 7, 9, and 10:30 masses will have doughnuts and coffee; 12:00 will have finger sandwiches, iced tea, and lemonade provided by the Women's Group. Leftovers will be served after the Sunday 5:30 mass. They plan to have the ministry descriptions available on the sign-up tables. John will get these to Roberta.

Josh announced a planned overnight "lock-in" for the Jr. High group. The chili cook off went well as did the religious article sale.

Roberta reported many compliments received after the Taize service. Vacation Bible School is planned for June 19-23 at St. Vincent's High School. 60 children have made their first reconciliation, and First Communions are scheduled for April 1 and 8.

Donna reported that the Women's Group held a Communion breakfast which was so successful that many have asked for it to be a yearly event. Day at the Races is planned for March 17. They collected clothing for the homeless and delivered it to St. Boniface in San Francisco. This year they have asked for scarves, hats, and gloves by November to be distributed at Christmas.

Fr. Michael suggested adding a COTS table to the ministry fair.

Alba said the YLI is having a mass at 11 on Thursday followed by lunch and an annual Communion Sunday for their 80 members.

Grace announced that the CLAS will hold a May shower for Birthright on the 3rd Wednesday.

Dave reported that the KOC is taking scholarship applications now. The St. Patrick's Day dinner was well attended. The Easter egg roll is scheduled for April 15. March 25 is Day of the Unborn, and May 6 the Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Rolly mentioned that the Squires have a year long activity sending school supplies to a Catholic school in Biloxi, Mississippi. They are donating money from the doughnut sales. April is Squires month and their 60th anniversary. They are trying to find any of the original squires in the area.

Pat needs volunteers at the Kitchen in Santa Rosa for Saturdays and Sundays.

Lucy said the ICF will host the St. Josephs table on 3/18 for $12/person. Proceeds will go to scholarships.

Fr. Michael asked the council to adopt policies on sales, bulletin announcements, and speakers to keep St. James from becoming too commercial.

Susie invited everyone to attend the Diocesan Pastoral Council's plenary session March 25 in Ukiah. Kathy is driving and has room for 6 passengers.

Fr. Michael and Roberta updated the council on the new Generations of Faith program which will start with grades 2 and 3. The KOC will provide a dinner to start off the program in October with an Octoberfest theme.

Due to the Reconciliation service, our next council meeting will be held Sunday April 9 after the 5:30 mass. If you are attending the pasta feed, bring your plate over to Room 9 for the meeting.

Lucy is interested in a monthly calendar for the parish. The rectory staff will ask St. Vincent's about their software program and take on this project.

John will list everyone's positions and/or organizations on the master roster and distribute it.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Sennello, Vice President
Interim Secretary

Minutes of Monday March 13, 2006

Members Present: Kathy Sennello, Vice President (acting President); Susie Kelly, DPC rep; Eileen Nemeth, At-Large; Esther Bidaurreta, At-Large; Marilyn Kristovich, Bereavement; Pat Louks, SVDP; Dona Cook, SJWG; Maryanne Brunn; Lucy Spingola, ICF; Grace Herold, CLAS; Joshua Guerra, Youth Council; Dolan Beaird, Cursillo; Anne Marie Riedel, Liturgy; Joey McMahon, Squires

Kathy called the meeting at order at 7:04p.m.

Minutes: The minutes of the March 13, 2006, meeting were approved by consensus as submitted.

Nominating Committee: Reported that presently we have 6 nominations (2 men & 4 women) for the At-Large positions. No nominations for the DPC representative. The names will be turned over to the Elections Committee later in April.

Election Committee: Mary Jo Teplitz, Eileen Nemeth and Joey McMahon will organize the election to be held in May. They will be requesting short bios of the candidates. It was recommended to keep the election process as simple as possible.

DPC Report: Susie Kelly reported that the meeting was successful. All parishes will be receiving a survey(from the Bishop) to be passed out to the congregation. The survey is to assist parishioners to speak their minds regarding the issue of the decreasing number of priests in the diocese. Susie recommended that the survey be done before the ministry fair which is to be held the last weekend of April, but after discussion it was decided to do the survey after Fr. Michael returns from his trip, as per his request.

Ministry Fair Update: Anne Marie Reidel reported that the Saturday April 8 organizational meeting was not very well attended. Other ideas discussed were: 1) a mini fair (a smaller scaled event than was initially planned); 2) postpone the fair; 3) cancel completely. After discussion, it was decided by consensus to continue with having the fair the weekend of April 29 & 30 with those ministries that come forward and would like to participate, and then to have a follow up event in the fall (September) to continue to promote involvement in the ministries.

Ministry Reports:

Bereavement: They will be doing advanced directives for parishioners.

CLAS: they will be having a shower for Birthright; old cell phone collecting fundraiser; bake-less bake sale.

YLI: In May they will be having the crowning of the Blessed Virgin & offering out a scholarship.

Squires: Have sent school supplies for a Mississippi school affected by Hurricane Katrina; Easter Egg Hunt is planned for Saturday April 15; Volunteering to help in any capacity at the Ministry Fair.

Youth Ministry: Pasta Feed and Youth Mass today April 9; VBS &endash; kickoff registration is the First week in May.

Cursillo: Dolan Beaird reported on the Kairos (prison ministry) and Kairos Outside (Women's Support) for families and that they will be taking the Cursillo experience in to the prisons).

Generations of Faith: there was no office representative present, but Dona Cook reported that she had spoken with Ray Noll after the meeting with the second graders and families and that all seemed excited about the program.

New Business:

Discussion was held regarding the Bylaws and that the Nomination and Election Committees process needs to be modified and clarified.

Susie Kelly shared the KOC Magazine article about the wheelchair foundation fundraising event. The article reported a very successful event and she wanted to thank and congratulate the Squires for their participation in December in such a positive event.

The closing prayer was given by Susie Kelly.

The next meeting will be Monday May 8, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.

The meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Esther Bidaurreta
Acting secretary

Minutes of Monday May 8, 2006

Members Present: John Kennedy, President; Maryanne Brunn, Ministry to Sick & Elderly; Eileen Nemeth, At-Large; Pat Louks, SVDP; Roberta Guerra, Music & Vacation Bible School; Joshua Guerra, Youth Council; Doug Dade, At-Large; Alba Silva, YLI; Grace Herold, CLAS; Anne Marie Riedel, Liturgy; Susie Kelly, DPC rep; Esther Bidaurreta, At-Large

John called the meeting to order at 7:10p.m.

Josh offered a beautiful opening prayer.

Minutes: The minutes of the April 9, 2006 meeting were approved, after correction of parentheses, by consensus.

Nominating Committee: Kathy submitted a written report to the Council. The candidates are as follows: At-Large Men: John Kennedy & Doug Dade; At-Large Women: Esther Bidaurreta, Susie Kelly, Julie Parnow, & Carol Russell; DPC rep: Kathy Cherstrom. All candidates were interviewed and the committee was satisfied with all the candidates. The names have been submitted to the Election Committee.

Election Committee: Eileen reported that all the photos and bios have been received and are being processed for a presentation board. Next weekend 5/13 & 14, a poster board with candidate information (photo & bio) will be available outside the Church for parishioner review. A candidate info flyer will be inserted into the bulletin as well and posted on the parish website. Eileen suggested that it would be a good idea for the candidates to be available by the poster boards after the Mass that they would be attending. Election weekend will be 5/20 & 21. John and/or will get with Fr. Michael after he returns to determine how the ballots will be distributed (John may discuss this with Fr. Michael because of a timing issue with the parish survey &endash; see below). The Squires have offered to help count the ballots. This elections process has definitely been a challenging experience, so Eileen recommended that this first election been used to establish election guidelines for the future.

May Survey-DPC: Susie reported that the Diocesan Pastoral Council has asked that this survey be completed in May, so the results can be tallied for their meeting in June and in preparation with the DPC's meeting with the Bishop this summer. After discussion it was felt that, with the Pastoral Council elections this month, doing both activities (survey and elections) would be overloading the parishioners. Also, with Mother's Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend, Church attendance may be compromised. It was suggested that we postpone the survey until the first weekend in June. Susie will call Yvette Fallandy at the DPC and explain our situation and reasoning. It was suggested that Fr. Michael do the survey as part of the Homily at the masses on "the survey weekend" so that people would take the time to fill it out. Also, copies will be made and the Ministry reps will pass out to those in their ministries.

Ministry Fair: Anne Marie reported that after a slow start at the 5:30p.m. Saturday Mass, and making some modifications, the fair was a success. The setup looked very professional and put together. The following Ministries had signups:

Bereavement - 9	Squires - 4
Cursillo -14	Italian Catholic Federation - 7
Kairos/Kairos Outside - 2	Knights of Columbus (KOC) - 7
Liturgy - 13	Marriage Prep - 4
Ministry to Sick & Elderly - 3	Generations of Faith - 2
RCIA - 6	Saint James Women's Group - 5
Saint Vincent DePaul (SVDP) - 2	Young Ladies Institute (YLI) - 2
Hospital Ministry - 3	Total - 83 sign ups

The Respect for Life Ministry expressed an interest to be part of the next fair. Looking ahead, the committee is planning another fair for September to be held in conjunction with a parish community event. The Council recommends that September be the annual month for the Ministry Fair. John asked each of the ministry reps to conduct immediate follow-up calls to those that signed up, as soon as possible.

Generations of Faith: No official report was given, but Roberta asked for all our prayers to make this first year a success. We also all agreed to prayer for the success of each of our ministries whenever each ministry gathers and prays for special intentions.

Ministry Reports:

Squires: Rollie reported that the Squires celebrated their 60th anniversary on Ministry Fair Sunday. There are currently 15 members. Three older members were found living in Petaluma.

Ministry to Sick & Elderly: Maryanne reported 3 signups from the fair. Is able now to cover the needs of the parish. Has plans for a flyer to distribute at the next Fair.

SVDP: Pat reported that their monthly meeting date has been changed to the first Wednesday of the month. They served 12-15 people last month helping with food vouchers, visiting & prayer.

Music/VBS: Roberta reported that music is doing fine. Easter went well. VBS registration began last weekend 5/6 & 7. Bake sales was a success making $800.00. They are expecting 375 children and it will be held at St. Vincent's HS. This is the 19th year.

Youth Council: Josh reported there are several youth going to Mexico to build houses and help at an orphanage on June 20-24. If there is an interest in that type of service, Susie suggested the Seeds of Learning group that goes to third world countries to build schools.

KOC: The slate of officers will be changing next month. The Cinco de Mayo dinner was poorly attended, but they did make enough money to fund a scholarship. Also the Wheelchair Fund Raising Coffee Can received a generous donation that will cover the expense of one chair. It was reported that the New Years Dinner-Dance event this year might be the last due to poor attendance. David asked the Council to think about how we all might be able to help promote our different parish events. Their next event is the rummage sale on 7/15/06.

YLI: Alba reported that this Thursday, 5/11/06, the Crowning of the Blessed Mother will take place in the Church at 11:00a.m. They have scholarships available for students. A group of YLI women attended a meeting of the National Council of Catholic Women, as they are affiliated with the organization. There were two very interesting presentations: 1) the trafficking of children & 2) a doctor & wife that volunteer in Africa. The group is active in continuing their novenas.

CLAS: Grace reported that the Birthright Shower will be 5/17/06. She also reported on behalf of ICF &endash; this Saturday 5/13/06 is the annual chicken cacciatore dinner.

Other Business:

- Roberta expressed a concern regarding the participation of the parishioners in the parish activities and recommended that the Council members take a pro-active role and support the Church activities. With participation so low, many activities will be going by the wayside. After intense discussion, it was decided that this was a subject that needed further and deeper discussion. Some suggestions at this time were education of activities, developing a monthly calendar of events, adult education to rediscover some of the traditional practices of the Church &endash; i.e., the rosary, novenas, why certain practices are followed, making activities family oriented etc. David commented that parishioners need to look at Church as a community and not as an obligation.

- Rollie would like to see an adult retreat offered during Lent.

- Josh suggested the parish adopt Adorations of the Eucharist.

- The Ministry Rep List is being updated and Anne Marie will call each rep to make sure their one-page ministry report is on file at the Rectory.

The next meeting will be Monday 6/12/06

Final prayer was offered by John.

Respectfully submitted,

Esther Bidaurreta
Acting Secretary

Minutes of Monday June 12, 2006

Members Present: John Kennedy-President; Kathy Sennello-Vice President; Doug Dade-At-Large; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Bob Groh-At-Large; Eileen Nemeth-At-Large; Dona Cook-Women's Group; Gloria Tienda-PSR; Grace Herrold-C.L.A.S; Alba Silva-YLI; Nancy Brown-Youth Group; David Langerman-KOC; Roberta Guerra-Music; Josh Guerra-Youth Group; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Julie Parnow-Newly elected At-Large; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy; Father Michael (8:00 - 8:15)

John called the meeting to order at 7:07 in Room 9 and opened with a prayer. The minutes of May 8 were approved as submitted.

Julie Parnow was welcomed as a new At-Large representative replacing Susie Kelly. Esther was re-elected. Esther chose a 1 year term and Julie chose the 2 year term to facilitate continuity on the council. John and Doug were re-elected as the male At-Large reps. Wayne Till requested everyone's pictures be taken for the website.

Election: Eileen reported that the election went smoothly and particularly thanked the Squires for their help tabulating the 482 valid ballots. She suggested a candidates' forum for the next election as well as a longer biography.

Council officers will be voted upon at the September meeting. The Nominating Committee (Kathy Sennello and Dolan Beaird) will call council members seeking volunteers for President, Vice President, and Secretary and submit the slate by the end of August. At the September meeting, the Council will revisit the schedule for the following spring elections.

Any ministry representative planning on leaving the Council should notify their organization now so a replacement can be chosen over the summer and be ready to start in September.

Ministry Fair Update: Another Ministry Fair is being planned for October. It was suggested that a bulletin supplement be printed 2 weeks prior, which would give brief descriptions of ministry positions and the time commitments for the various ministries. The insert would ask parishioners, "What would you like to do?" Nancy suggested a parish luau to tie in with the ministry fair. The Langermans volunteered to coordinate lector seminars to anyone wishing to serve. Fr. Michael suggests additional Eucharistic Minister training for ministers to home and hospital. Fr. Michael would like the ministers to really pray with people they minister to, and to pray from the heart.

Survey: Kathy presented Susie Kelly's follow-up on the diocesan survey. 712 responded, and 398 said they would increase their volunteer time to St. James. Many people offered comments representing the entire spectrum of opinion.

One of the comments from the survey regarding diminishing Mass attendance on the weekends was raised and briefly discussed, and a suggestion was made that Sunday Masses could be consolidated. No options were presented and no consensus was reached on this.

Generations of Faith: Gloria updated the Council on the plans for implementing this new program this Fall for 2nd and 3rd grades. She stressed that this was not PSR but a parish ministry. She is planning to train facilitators in August. They will serve 1 night a month for 7 months on either Sunday or Thursday evening. She will also need craft people and child-care helpers. Child-care workers are needed for 2 hours once a month. All adult volunteers over 18 must be fingerprinted which Gloria will facilitate. She is asking the parish's service clubs to provide the food. The expense will be offset by a charge of $10 per family. Eleven parishes in the diocese are starting Generations of Faith.

Ministry Reports: Due to the late time, these were deferred to the July meeting.

Other Business: Anne Marie suggested changing the announcement of the Mass intentions to the prayers of the faithful. She will discuss this with Father Michael and the council will discuss it at the July meeting.

Kathy will follow up with providing name cards for council members.

Final Prayer: John concluded with a prayer and adjourned the meeting at 9:05 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 10, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Sennello
Acting Secretary

Minutes of Monday July 10, 2006

Members present: John Kennedy-President; Doug Dade- At-Large; Julie Parnow-At-Large; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Dona Cook-Women's Group; Nancy Brown-Youth Ministry; Roberta Guerra-PSR; Joshua Guerra-Youth Council/Squires; Angela Ovard-Parishoner; Chris Ovard-KOC; Grace Herold-C.L.A.S.; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Pat Louks-SVDP; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy; Fr. Michael

John called the meeting to order at 7:10p.m.in Room 9. Fr. Michael opened the meeting with a prayer. The minutes of the June 12, 2006 meeting were approved.

Even though they were not present, John gave a sincere thanks to outgoing members Susie Kelly and Eileen Nemeth for their dedicated contribution in establishing the Council.

John introduced Angela and Chris Ovard. Chris is the new Grand Knight and will represent the KOC on the Council. Self-introductions were continued all round.

Ministry Reports:

Women's Group: Dona reported that there are no July and August meetings. Meetings will resume in September with the new officers. A potluck will be held. The regular activities, such as game days, walking groups, etc. are on going. If you would like to receive the newsletter, contact Jan Balshaw and she will put you on the mailing list.

ICF: Lucy reported that the next fundraiser will be July 22 and will be a Ravioli Feed. The cost will be $13.00. There will be a note in next Sunday's bulletin.

SVDP: Pat reported that they continue to have monthly meetings; two important current issues: 1) SVDP Society of Santa Rosa is looking for a director for their store & kitchen in Santa Rosa; 2) The Santa Rosa Society is currently running in the deficit and their savings are being used to run the kitchen. Due to a raise in the prices at the store and a competitive thrift store that located close by, income took a severe fall. Until a new director is found, the Board is managing the store and prices have been adjusted to increase income. They are also accepting vehicle and appliance donations as well as donations of personal estates.

The local SVPD is meeting the needs of the Petaluma community. St. James takes calls for the east side of the freeway and St. Vincent's takes the west side.

CLAS: Grace reported the Birthright Shower in May was a success. Members also attended a convention in June. As Alba was absent, she also reported for YLI that the members attended a convention and thanked Nancy Brown for the wonderful music that was provided by her youth group at one of the evening events.

Liturgy: Anne Marie reported that 2 Masses are being consolidated into one. The 10:30a.m. and 12:00p.m. masses will become the 11:00a.m. mass. She will be rescheduling the groups for the Masses. The new recruits have been trained. Dave Langerman trained the lectors and Theresa Haire will continue this. Last month's training session went well.

Youth Group: Nancy reported that the group made $800.00 at the Fairgrounds on July 4 selling snacks. There will be a group of youth attending a music conference in August. The summer program begins 7/11/06. There has been discussion at the Diocese level about attending World Youth Day 2008, which will be held in Australia. Some intense fund raising will need to be done for this experience. It would likely be a 2-week trip and will be open to those 18 & older.

Music: Roberta reported that she and Beth have been discussing the music for the 11:00a.m. Mass. They will most likely alternate Sundays, sharing the ministry. She will give a more definite report after all the kinks are settled.

Vacation Bible School was a great success. There were 360 participants, 100 adult volunteers and 80 High School volunteers. There are pictures on the St. James web site. Next year's Bible School will be held at St. Vincent High School from June 25th to the 29th.

Parish Youth Council/ Squires: Josh reported that he Squires have new officers: Chief: Jack Fessler; Deputy: Spencer Hall; Notary: Aaron Lundquist; Burser: Joey McMahan. Some member of the Youth Group accompanied a group to Mexico to help build houses. The trip was a success. In a coordinated effort, blankets were made at VBS and will be sent to a daycare center in Tijuana, Mexico.

KOC: Chris reported that the annual rummage sale will be July 15th from 9 to 3. There will be food available for purchase as well. Knights are available to pick up any merchandise for donation. Last year's sales grossed around $3,800.00 netting $3,400.00. This year Green Waste donated the waste bin so that expense will be deleted. After the sale, items are grouped and given to organizations that might find the items useful. All monies made go to charities. Meetings are the second Tuesday of the month. The next event will be a dinner for the Knights and wives at the end of October.

Chris brought up an idea that has been discussed: A family movie night, possibly to be held in August on the 19th or 20th. Details would need to be worked out. After some discussion, the subject was moved to New Business for further discussion.

September Officer Elections: As of today no one has volunteered to be nominated. John encouraged all to come forward if you hear the spirit calling.

October Ministry Fair: After discussion, it was decided that the Fair is a go and will be combined with a Luau (parish picnic). Nancy Brown volunteered to take the lead of a subcommittee to plan the event. Responsibilities will be divided up among the different ministries. The fair will be held October 1.

Generations of Faith: Gloria was unavailable for report, but Fr. Michael thanked Nancy and Roberta for their great presentations after yesterday's Masses. He feels we still need to educate the parishioners regarding the program, as most people are not familiar with the concept. There will be a bulletin insert soon to promote the program.

Father Michael's Corner: Father would like the Council to establish a long-term plan. He has spoken with a parish in San Rafael and their Council has developed one. He is getting a copy of the plan and suggested we use it as a guideline.

The retreat in Konocti dealt with the priest shortage that the parishes are facing. Some solutions suggested were: closing parishes; forming mega-parishes; establish parish administrators (not a good suggestion for this Diocese as there are many parishes that have strapped finances), however, St. Helena Parish is being administered by their Deacon - the Pastor is still present there in a pastoral capacity.

Other Business: One of our Council goals is communication. Discussion was held on how we can enhance our communication to the Parish. Dona stated that the web site is full of Parish information and that we should promote accessing it &endash; reminding the congregation after Masses that more information can be found on the website. Wayne Till is in charge of the website. His email address is WRTILL@aol.com. He can be contacted for postings to the website. It was suggested that his address be posted in the bulletin.

Another means of communication discussed was a quarterly newsletter from the Council to the Parish. Also, possible a monthly insert in the bulletin.

The president suggested that the at-large council members work together to devise ways to promote communication by the Council to the parish.

Doug presented the monthly calendar project that has been discussed in the past. The Council agreed with developing a parish activities calendar. An annual master calendar would be set up and then monthly calendars would be submitted to the parishioners via bulletin. Lucy has had experience with calendars from other parish councils she has been involved with and is willing to work with Doug on the project. Dona volunteered to help as well. Doug will put something together, look into and possibly get the software and propose the project at the September meeting.

Dona noted that there is a conflict in September with scheduled Women's Group meeting. The Women's Group pushed their meeting back one week due to Labor Day. Dona will follow up with Susie regarding the date. The Council felt it needs to hold the date firm as it is the first meeting of our new Council year.

Chris suggested we move the movie night to December as the Council is busy with the Ministry Fair/Luau and other activities.

The Adult Ed Program will resume in November for 4 sessions. Fr. Michael asked that we think of some good topics for presentation.

The followers of the Latin Mass that is currently being held at Herman Sons Hall have asked for the use of St. James for their service. Father would like the Council to think and pray on giving permission for such usage.

A group picture of the new Council will be taken in September to be posted on the website and in the message center on the outside wall of the Church.

A reminder will be sent to all reps to be sure to attend the September meeting, as this is the beginning of the Council year.

Fr. Michael concluded the meeting with a closing prayer and John adjourned the meeting at 9:10p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Esther Bidaurreta
Acting Secretary

Minutes of Monday September 11, 2006

Members Present: John Kennedy-President; Kathy Sennello-Vice President-outgoing; Doug Dade-At-Large; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Julie Parnow-At-Large-newly elected Vice President; Rolly Rosario-Columbian Squires; Chris Ovard-KOC; Dona Cook-Women's Group; Pat Louks-St. Vincent De Paul; Grace Herrold-C.L.A.S; Alba Silva-YLI; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Pat Wapp-Homeless Shelter Program; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy - newly elected Secretary; Father Michael; Dolan Beaird; Wayne Till-Web Master; Jack Fessler

John called the meeting to order at 7:00 in Room 9. The minutes of July 10 were approved as submitted.

Election: Election for President, Vice President and Secretary was held. John Kennedy was re-elected as President, Julie Parnow as Vice President and Anne Marie Riedel as Secretary.

Luau & Ministry Fair Update: Luau and Ministry Fair date set for October 1. Julie Parnow gave update on behalf of Nancy Brown. As of meeting the luau only had commitments for salads and dessert and no work had begun on the Ministry Fair. After in-depth discussion of all members present, it was decided that plans for luau and Ministry Fair were not fully developed and that it should be planned for another time. It was also decided that the Ministry Fair to be held on a yearly basis and set for last weekend of April of 2007.

Diocesan Pastoral Council: Kathy Sennello elected to Southern DCP for 2 years. She reports the following:

- All schools have been paid back and all parishes to be paid by end of 2007;
- New class of deacons to begin: class to last 5 years;
- 2-3 new priest to arrive in 2007: 5 seminarians currently enrolled;
- Bishop wants to evangelize to lost Catholics.
- Next DCP meeting in Ukiah on 3/31/07.

Generations of Faith: Father Michael reports that 15 parishes are participating in GOF and Sunday and Thursday classes are full. The families seem to be happy and the hope is to bridge the gap between parents and kids. Though the GOF is for the 2 nd and 3 rd graders, all children to still go through First Communion training.

Ministry Reports: Lucy reports that ICF is having a benefit; Chris Ovard reports that KOC is having a membership drive 9/16-17; Alba reports that YLI is doing shoebox kits for kids in Africa; Dolan Beaird suggests that we talk after all Masses about ministries - highlighting a different ministry after each mass.

Other Business: Wayne Till, St. James webmaster, wanted to remind everyone to utilize the website. Lucy suggests that we do a write up in the bulletin regarding it.

John's closing remarks:

- review by-laws and ratify at next meeting;
- how to utilize at-large-members to brainstorm for future visions
- i.e how to use survey results;
- suggestions for November Adult classes;
- Ray Noll suggests we adopt a parish;
- use of St. James for current Catholics going to mass at Hermann Hall still up for consideration.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 9, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Marie Riedel
Secretary

Minutes of Monday October 9, 2006

 

Members Present: John Kennedy-President; Julie Parnow-Vice President -At-Large, Father Michael; Kathy Sennello-DPC Rep; Doug Dade-At-Large; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Rolly Rosario/Josh Guerra/Jack Fessler-Columbian Squires; Chris Ovard-KOC; Grace Herrold-C.L.A.S; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy - Secretary; Mary Acton &endash; Parishioner.

John called the meeting to order at 7:00 in Room 9 with opening prayer from Fr. Michael. The minutes of September 11 had one change then were approved.

By-Laws: By-laws were approved and Doug Dade asked to remain keeper of By-laws. ACTION ITEM: Council to further review At-Large election schedule.

Generations of Faith: Program started 10/8 with 16 tables of participants. Initial session went well with good atmosphere. Study of Saints in preparation for all Saints Day was the first module. A Saturday session from 10-12 has been added. Pastoral Council to be invited one night.

Adult Education: Classes start November 6. Fr. Michael still waiting from Pastoral Council for ideas. Some idea discussed:

Divorce
End of life
Pastoral Directives of Sacraments
Jesus before Christianity

Fr. Michael wants committee formed for future Adult Education topics.

PLEASE NOTE: see bulletin for final list of four Adult Education sessions in November.

Parish Vision/Setting Priorities: Members-At-Large to initiate Parish Vision and setting priorities for the coming year and beyond. Julie Parnow to chair committee of the At-Large members and the first meeting is to be held on October 25.

Announcements:

Squires are starting a Parish Library beginning November 1. They need donations of books and shelves with wheels.

Knights of Columbus to have Tootsie Roll drive October 20-22 to benefit OADS.

Women's Group hosting shower for Mary, Nov. 6. Carol Flinder to speak Dec. 4 on Women Mystic Saints.

Other Business:

Ministry Corner to appear in bulletin beginning January. Anne Marie to lead project;

Adopt a parish to be reviewed by Members-at-Large;

Still considering use of St. James for current Catholics going to Mass at Hermann Hall.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, November 5, 2006 at 6:15ish p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Marie Riedel
Secretary

Minutes of Sunday, November 5, 2006

Members Present: John Kennedy-President; Kathy Sennello-DCP Rep; Doug Dade-At-Large; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Julie Parnow-At-Large-Vice President; Alba Silva-YLI; Pat Louks-St. Vincent de Paul; Josh Guerra-Columbian Squires; Grace Herrold-C.L.A.S; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Roberta Guerra-PSR; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy - Secretary; Father Michael; Janet Adams - Parishioner.

John called the meeting to order at 6:15 in Room 9 with opening prayer from Fr. Michael. The minutes of October had one change, then were approved.

Members-at-Large: 4-member committee met on September 25 at Julie Parnow's home. Chair -Julie discussed meeting and tentative list of ideas. Committee to review and decide if ideas are do-able and bring to council for approval. Additional discussion items:

Discussed adding members-at-large names and email addresses to bulletin;

If suggestion box is put in place, Fr. Michael wants suggestions signed;

Fr. Michael suggested they have a separate booth at Ministry Fair 2007;

Suggested that they increase their presence at Mass; Alba suggested having members act as Greeters;

Julie suggested getting names tags for members-at-large and Greeters; Lectors give out bulletins after Mass.

Diocesan Pastoral Council:

New initiative to bring Catholics back. Executive council to meet after holidays to address how to start in St. James. Kathy spoke to Sr. Olive who informed her that there are four programs/organizations available to train on.

Fr. Wellington has article from parishioner on timeline of Bishop's case

Memo from Bishop Walsh on youth ministries and progress to reaching out to Jr. and Sr. High School.

Generations of Faith: 2nd & 3rd Graders. Packed night in October. Meal, hands on activities, prayer, singing and take home activities for remainder of the month. Theme each month and culimated in mass. 118 families

Adult Education: Ready to roll per Fr. Michael. Possible notice in bulletin about forming Adult Education committee for both parishes.

Announcements:

IFC donated money for at least 500 of little blue prayer book for Advent for St. James and St. Vincent's;

December 18 is Advent sing-a-long and cookie exchange 7-8:30pm;

Reminder that 4 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass is not a Children's Mass this year.

Other Business:

Look into adding flap to bulletin for "This Week In the Parish";

Re-train parishioners to bring new projects to council for review and approval if appropriate;

Fr. Michael requests that council considers an awning next to carport for ministry sales and remove announcements from pulpit.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 8, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Marie Riedel
Secretary

Members Present: John Kennedy-President; Kathy Sennello-DCP Rep; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Julie Parnow-At-Large-Vice President; Alba Silva-YLI; Pat Louks-St. Vincent de Paul; Rolly Rosario-Columbian Squires; Grace Herrold-C.L.A.S; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy - Secretary; Father Michael; Janet Adam &endash; PSR; Chris Ovard-Knights of Columbus; Angela Ovard &endash; Parishioner; Ken Manz-Deacon.

John called the meeting to order at 6:55 in Room 9 with opening prayer from Fr. Michael. The minutes of November had one change and then were approved.

Adult Education:

Fr. Michael felt that Adult Education was not well attended. It was suggested that maybe a year round program be developed, but Fr. Michael said that twice a year, Lent and Advent were fine. However, he does want a committee formed to suggest ideas to council and once approved, Fr. Michael would get the resources.

Angela Ovard would like an ongoing Bible study for the evenings.

Kathy Sennello felt that Jeff Wood's class left a lot of unanswered questions. She talked with many upset parishioners about Mr. Wood's presentation.

Make sure to include evaluations for next set of classes.

Diocesan Pastoral Council::

Minor revision to constitution.

Plenary session on March 31 in Ukiah. Bishop wants parishes to conduct outreach to and evangelize "lapsed" Catholics. There will be a guest speaker to talk on concrete ways for parishes to do this outreach. Guests are welcome.

Generations of Faith:

Classes resumed October 7th. Reconciliation as well as First communion program starting.

December program is for Advent.

Facilitators had meeting to suggest improvements to the G.O.F. program.

January program is on prayer.

John Kennedy suggests mid-year feedback from parents in the program to help make improvements during the first year of the program. Angela Ovard voiced being able to end earlier than 8:30.

Announcements:

IFC celebrating 50th Anniversary with a dinner on January 20th;

Squires raised $1875 for wheelchairs and with match funding was able to purchases 25 wheelchairs;

Squires library to open in two weeks time;

Annual Ministry Appeal in February. Spread the word to the ministries.

Other Business:

Fr. Michael wants to further explore the possibility of a community garden. It would have to be a 5 year commitment;

Contact Mimi about getting together a guest envelope;

Council to produce 2 deacon candidate names;

Ministries asked to review website for accuracy in their descriptions.

Council would like to see KOC to get ushers for all Masses and to seat late comers;

Committee formed for 2007 Ministry Fair. Committee includes Anne Marie Riedel, Julie Parnow and Esther Bidaurreta. Roberta Guerra to be asked to join and possibly be the spokesperson at each Mass.

Meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 12, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Marie Riedel
Secretary

Members Present: John Kennedy-President; Kathy Sennello-DCP Rep; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Julie Parnow-At-Large-Vice President; Pat Louks-St. Vincent de Paul; Josh Guerra-Columbian Squires; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy - Secretary; Father Michael; Janet Adam &endash; PSR; Ken Manz-Deacon; Roberta Guerra-PSR; Dolan Beaird-Cursillo, Kairos, Kairos Outside.

John called the meeting to order at 7:05 in Room 9 with opening prayer from Fr. Michael. The minutes of January had one change then were approved.

Badges:

Anne Marie got the cost of badges from Palmgren's in Petaluma. She is recommending a 2x3 badge with name and Parish name with cross in blue with white writing. Finalizing list and waiting for names from Chris Ovard for Hospital ministry.

Garden:

Petaluma Bounty is an organization that set up a network of gardens & lease plots by the year for a cost of $30-$65 per plot. They grow food for the poor and hungry. They do all the set-up, design of garden and get a board together. More information is needed and the Diocesan attorney will need to be consulted.

Ministry Fair: Anne Marie has no update.

Council Elections:

Elections to be held June 3rd.

Nominating committee to be Julie Parnow (Head), Esther Bidaurreta, Roberta Guerra and Fr. Michael.

For next year's council one male and one female needs to be elected for At-Large position as well as a Diocesan Pastoral Council Rep.

Nominating committee to interview potential candidates and nominees to be announced weekend of May 5/6. John Kenedy to head Election Committee and Josh Guerra and Squires to count ballots.

Meet the candidates during weekend of May 19-20.

DPC:

Suggestions for welcoming new parishioners includes a parish dinner or parish workday;

St. Vincent's Parish is planning their 150th Anniversary.

Plenary session on March 31 in Ukiah; training on bringing Catholics back.

Bishop's new worry is embezzlement of collections &endash; wants each parish finance committee to look at guidelines.

Generations of Faith/Parish School of Religion:

There was a gathering of other parishes to look at their various ways of running the GOF programs;

Reconciliation retreat held last weekend;

First Communion to be held March 24th;

Theme for March is the Tritium;

For 2008, GOF plan on Sunday morning session for pre-school through 4th grade.

Members-at-Large: Esther, Julie and John had a three hour meeting. They came up with a list of ideas and put it to council vote. The following at the five new ideas to be worked on:

Scripture classes

Community outreach

Returning Catholics

Renew type of group

Community Garden

Announcements:

IFC to have St. Joseph's Table on March 10. The funds raised to fund scholarships;

Squires' library is now open after every Mass;

Due to last year's Ministry Fair, Dolan was able to get a parishioner to help with Kairos Outside;

Fr. Michael wants to loan St. Elizabeth Seton's $435,000. A feasibility meeting with the parish happened earlier on February 12;

Tiny Tots announced a fund raiser for a child with Leukemia.

Meeting adjourned at 9:25 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 12, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Marie Riedel
Secretary

Members Present: Kathy Sennello-DCP Rep; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large; Julie Parnow-At-Large-Vice President; Pat Louks-St. Vincent de Paul; Josh Guerra-Columbian Squires; RoseAnna Cusci-ICF; Anne Marie Riedel-Liturgy - Secretary; Father Michael; Janet Adam - PSR; Roberta Guerra-PSR; NancyBrown - Youth Group; Dolan Beaird-Cursillo, Kairos, Kairos Outside; Pat Wapp-Homeless Shelter Program; Lucy Spingola-ICF; Ron Fredricks - Finance Board.

Julie called the meeting to order at 7:05 in Room 9 with opening prayer from Dolan Beaird. The minutes of March had 3 changes then were approved.

St. Elizabeth Seton Update: Finance committee update.

* John Kennedy spoke with Msg. Welton and called the attorney and no formal proposal has been made to Diocese;
* Was told that if a formal proposal was in place the Diocese Finance Board would hold a special meeting;
* Council is currently waiting for more information and a more formalize proposal;
* Ken Begin mentioned his proposal at a weekday mass to get a micro pulse and crowd approved;
* It was also confirmed that Diocese can not take parish money unless the diocese goes into bankruptcy and the court deems so.

Minstry Fair: Fair plans coming along. Meeting for participating ministry reps to be held next Tuesday and final plans with committee to be done after meeting.

Council Elections: No report.

DPC:

* 60 attended meeting on March 31. See Kathy Cherrstrom's notes attached;
* Will need to develop core group of 4-5 to meet in November to be party of diocese Evangelization.

Generations of Faith/Parish School of Religion:

* 1st Communion held March 24th;
* April's theme is Pentecost;
* Next year pre-school through 6th grade will be incorporated into GOF. Eventually to expand to all adults;
* Nancy Brown suggests still having weekly groups
* Janet Adams is rep for Safe Environment Program for child protection. Safe Kid is K-12.

Member-at-Large: no report.

By-laws: Change to by-laws with respect to election time was made. Lucy Spingola motioned and Chris Ovard seconded. Changes approved.

Announcements:

* Rebuilding Petaluma - April 21st; volunteers to meet a city hall at 6am;
* Pat Wapp needs volunteers for May 13 - 26th when St. James would house and feed families as part of the Faith Based Shelter program in conjunction with COTS.

Parishoner Forum:

* Lucy Spingola brought a comfort blanket and asked if a ministry wanted to undertake it for goodwill offering. Pat Louks also suggests a pray shawl. Julie suggests a committee be formed to coordinate groups for comfort blanket and prayer shawls. Nancy Brown, Janet Adams and Lucy Spingola volunteer.
* Pat Wapp read a thank you letter from Chaplin at Walter Reed Hospital for the Christmas cards that were sent to recovering soldiers;
* Anne Marie reports that greeter badges have been done and that she cancelled her ministry dinner;
* Pat Louks asked if any further progress was made on the community garden idea.
* Dolan asks for prayers for the upcoming Cursillo and Kairos Outside.

Meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 14, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 9.

Respectfully submitted,

Anne Marie Riedel
Secretary

Members Present: Father Michael Culligan, John Kennedy- President; Julie Parnow,-At-Large, Esther Bidaurreta,-At-Large; Doug Dade,-At-Large; Alba Silva-YLI; Grace Herrold- CLAS; Marie Wayne- Respect Life; Pat Loucks- SVDP; Josh Guerra- Squires; Roberta Guerra- Religious Ed; Nancy Brown- Youth Ministry; Sharon Cresci,-ICF; Roseanna Cresci- ICF; Mike Carlsen- Parishioner; Kathy Cherrstrom-DPC; Janet Adams-Religious Ed; Chris Ovard-KOC; Ken Manz-Deacon; Pat Wapp-COTS; Kathy Sennello-DPC

Fr. Michael opened the meeting at 7:05 p.m. with a prayer.

The minutes of the April 9 meeting were approved with the addition of the following:

"Reason for change

The last elections, which were the Parish's first, demonstrated the By Laws on Elections were overly complex, in that the ballot period was too long and the election was too close to Memorial Day.

Motion:

It is moved that that election rules be changed to read as follows: (these are the changes which were submitted for review to the council at the March meeting. New language is in red, and deleted language is in blue.)

Section 4 &endash; Election of Council Members

(a) The Election Committee shall distribute information on the candidates ballots for members at large and the diocesan pastoral representative, containing the names of all qualified candidates, to the parishioners in a separate insert in the Parish Bulletin issued on the second third weekend Sunday in May.

(b) The Election Committee shall distribute and collect ballots close of balloting for the annual election of members-at-large and the diocesan pastoral representative shall be the last on the first weekend Sunday in May June

(c) In the event of a tie, the current Board shall make the final selection.

The names of the new members-at-large shall promptly be made known to the Council members and candidates and announced in the Parish Bulletin. The President shall notify all unsuccessful candidates prior to the announcement. The committee shall post the names of the Council the parish website and on a bulletin board in June and should include pictures of the elected members."

Ministry Fair: Sign-ups for the various ministries were:

St. James Women's Group	2	Youth Ministry	3
YLI	7	ICF	3
CLAS	1	Respect Life	2
Eucharistic Ministers	10	Squires	4
Hospital Visitation	1	Music	2
St. Vincent De Paul	3	K of C	6

Each ministry is to call all interested persons as soon as possible. It was decided that future annual ministry fairs would be held on Good Shepherd Sunday, 3 Sundays after Easter. Next year there will be a thank you notice to the participants in the bulletin. The Ministry Corner in the bulletin will start soon. Sharon Cresci was thanked for donating biscotti.

Nominating Committee: Julie reported 4 At-Large candidates: Ron Forsell, Mike Carlsen, Meleia Lane, and Jeanette Wilhelmsen. No candidates have surfaced for the open DPC position. The Committee has prepared a biographical insert for this Sunday's bulletin and will meet Saturday at 2:00 to insert them .

Elections: Will be held June 2-3 with ballots and pencils in the pews. The Squires will tabulate the results.

Diocesan Pastoral Council: Kathy S. announced a lay convocation entitled "Coming of Age" to be held June 2 at St. Mary's Cathedral with participants from all dioceses in Northern California.

Generations of Faith: Gloria and Janet attended a workshop in San Jose in May, "Families and Faith". Next year grades 1-3 will have GoF. There will be a choice for 4 and 5 year olds with Roberta holding GoF and Karen Nau teaching Sunday school during the 11:00 Mass. A teacher appreciation dinner was held at McNears.

This year 66 were confirmed. Next year that number drops to around 50. Many would like to see GoF extended to Jr. High and High school age students.

Scripture Class: Ken Manz will begin a new scripture class in June with assistance from Fr. Michael and Ray Noll. It was suggested that a poster be created to advertise the class stressing "no homework".

Community Outreach: The 4 At-Large members met with Dolan Beaird and Pat Wapp last week and hope to present a program in July. They will postpone evangelization plans until the diocesan meeting in November. Pat will place a box for "Cards for the Troops" in the back of the church. Nancy suggested "Adopt a Chaplain". Pat will get a list from Travis and Walter Reed regarding their needs.

The Knights of Columbus put on a dinner for the new RCIA graduates last week.

St. Vincent De Paul visits 4-6 families a week.

Prayer Quilt: Pat proposed that we add crocheted hats and shawls to the prayer quilt project. Lucy was not present to give an update. The St. James Women's group will be approached for this project.

Ministry Announcements

The ICF is cancelling their chicken cacciatore dinner.

The KoC and Squires participated in Repair Petaluma and worked on the home of an 88 year old St. Vincent's parishioner. The Rummage Sale is scheduled for July 14.

Respect Life is battling the assisted suicide bill in the state assembly.

CLAS gave a shower for Birthright.

YLI presented 2 scholarships to St. Vincent's juniors.

Parishiones Forum: Julie asked if the KoC could provide more ushers. Kathy S. suggested that ushers be scheduled with the Eucharistic Ministers etc. Julie will ask Ed Kilgore to request sign-ups. Ken suggested that the greeters also collect at the offertory.

Kathy C. requested that the curtain to the hall be opened before Mass begins.

Finance Committee Update: Alba asked the status of the proposed loan to St. Elizabeth Seton parish. Ken Begin was not present to update the council nor did he send a report to John. John reported that at the Ministry Fair, Ken told him the matter was under negotiation. Fr. Michael then announced that the issue was to be voted on by the Diocesan Finance Board tomorrow morning. He said Fr. Griffin wanted everything in writing and would meet with Bishop Walsh.

Doug stressed how the Pastoral Council bylaws were written to reflect the desire of the pastoral council to work with the Finance Council and the need to be kept informed. Many council members expressed their disappointment with how this issue has been handled

Fr. Michael concluded with a prayer, and the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Sennello, Acting Secretary

Members Present: Fr. Michael Culligan; John Kennedy-President; KTHY Sennello-DPC; Sharon Anne Cresci-ICF; Rose Anna Cresci-ICF; Nancy Brown-Youth Ministry; Jeannette Wilhelmsen-At-Large(newly elected for 2007-2009); Josh Guerra-Squires; Grace Herold-CLAS; Roberta Guerra-Religious Ed.; Alba Silva-YLI; J. Douglas Dade-At-Large; Tom Cullen-DPC(newly elected for 2007-2010); Ken Manz-Deacon; Esther Bidaurreta-At-Large

Fr. Michael opened the meeting at 7:10p.m. with a prayer.

John welcomed newly elected members Jeannette Wilhelmsen and Tom Cullen and all-around introductions were made.

May Minutes: Unanimously approved after a correction on page 3 paragraph 12 changing "Fr. Griffin" to "Fr. Culligan".

Elections: John reported that all went well and thanked Josh for all the help counting the ballots. The results were very close and over 1000 ballots were cast.

Finance Comittee: Since there was no official representative from the FC, Doug D. gave a condensed overview of the current status of the St. Elizabeth Seton loan. (Doug has been attending the FC meetings representing the Pastoral Council). The proposal has been changed from the original presentation. The FC is continuing to collect information. They will meet on June 20 to make a final decision. They would like to make a presentation of their decision to the PC and parishioners on June 21.

Highlights: Our $650,000 loan will partially cover the current $900,000 loan being paid by SE to the Diocese. The $800,000 second loan that is due July 1, 2007 and the $250,000 balance will be postponed until SE pays off our loan in 5 -7 years.

More details will be presented at the June 21 meeting. A notice will be put in the bulletin announcing the meeting.

DPC: Kathy S. reported that the Executive Board met with the Bishop on June 9, 2007. The deacon formation program will begin in the Fall. There are currently 80 aspirants. Any recommendations need to be given to Fr. Michael by June18. The program will be led by Frank Dahl and is a 5 year commitment.

Nominations are being accepted for Catholic Heroes. Kathy suggested St. James nominate Pat Wapp.

Joint meeting of the North & South Deaneries will be held October 6th and 7th.

Respectfully submitted,

Esther Bidaurreta
Acting Secretary

Attendees: See Attached Roster

Father Michael led us in our opening prayer followed by all members introducing themselves and new representatives were welcomed to their first official meeting.

A card was sent around for signing to congratulate Sister Mary Anne Lenahan on her 50th

Golden Jubilee.

Announcement: Gloria needs the names of those attending the Evangelization Meeting 9/24 from 9:30-3:00 pm at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Windsor.

Attendees will be:

€ Father Michael Culligan
€ Nancy Brown
€ Ray Noll
€ Gloria Tienda
€ Janet Adam
€ Ron Forsell

Elections were held for the positions of President, Vice President and Secretary. Nominated were Julie Parnow, Ron Forsell and Jeannette Wilhelmsen respectively. There were no other nominations and the three were unopposed and motion to elect was granted.

A presentation was made by Julie Parnow to thank John Kennedy and Ester Bidaurreta for their years of service to the pastoral council. A special thank you went to John for founding the Pastoral Council and his role as acting President the last three years.

Ken Manz reported on adult scripture education classes held this summer. The topic was Ephesians. There was an average attendance of 15 very appreciative people each week.. Next session begins October 3 and the topic will be the Gospel of Matthew.

Julie Parnow reported on the community outreach program. This summer's project was Christmas in July. A giving tree was placed in the church covered with wish lists for our military service men and women at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Eighteen to twenty volunteers made up forty-two boxes of donated items that were sent to Walter Reed. There was a total of $2,000 in cash donations of which $1,100 went for shipping costs. The balance of cash was used to purchase phone cards and to send a cash donation to Travis Air Force Base to assist injured veterans and their families. See October 8th 2007 minutes for correct info from Pat Wapp.

The Giving Tree will be our community out reach for December but we need ideas for next July. It was suggested that in the future that there be specific sizes requested for the donations.

Ron Fedrick (Finance Committee)

Ron updated the council on the $650,000 loan to St. Elizabeth Seton that has now finalized. There is a memorandum of understanding that St. James will be first in line for repayment in the first 10 years, after ten years the Diocese will be repaid. If for some reason St. Elizabeth is struggling to pay off both loans, St. James is paid ahead of the Diocese.

After this amount was given to St. Elizabeth there remained $1 Million for site development projects at St. James. The finance committee is now looking for input from the council on what projects should be done.

Ron presented three suggestions from the Finance Board:

1. Build a kitchen behind the building and make more room in our church.
2. Brighten up the front of the church by the addition of stain glass windows or a little bit more lighting but making sure not to add more heat.
3. Retrofitting bathrooms to get them up to ADA requirements. They are soliciting a quote for the bathroom upgrade.

Susie Kelly representing the St. James Women's Group named some ideas their group had on where some of the money should be spent.

1. Janitorial help for table and chairs set-up. The ladies in the group are 65 and older and it is difficult for them to do it.
2. Re-key the doors. There are doors, with locks that the keys do not work very well.
3. Painting of the bathrooms
4. A temporary building on-site for meetings. It is difficult at times to get a meeting room in our busy parish. It could be located out in space available in the parking lot.

Julie Parnow recommended that everyone email her a list of suggestions/ideas for building improvements etc. She will then consolidate the list and bring it to the next meeting on October 8th. The council will then review the list and decide what ideas are to be presented to the Finance committee meeting on November 28th.

Kathy Sennello Diocesan Pastoral Council reported minutes from their last meeting.

1. Thirty-four men have signed up for the deaconate program, there are 85 seats available and they were hoping for more candidates. It was noted that these 34 have just begun the preliminary part of the process and may not make it all the way through the program.
2. St. Elizabeth again thanked St. James for the loan.
3. Evangelization Retreat to take place Oct 6-7th in Eureka. The Diocesan is asking for representatives to attend from all the parishes. The attendees would be required to pay for their lodging.
4. The Bishop has published a response to negative publicity surrounding the Pope in recent newspaper articles regarding Catholic and Protestant faith. Kathy had a copy of the document at the meeting.

Father Michael representing RCIA and Adult Religious Education reported that the RCIA program has successfully gotten underway. This year the RCIA class is open to any parishioner who would like to come and listen to the different topics being presented.

Father Michael is also looking for ideas for topics and/or speakers for the Adult Religious Education Program done every fall. Some ideas brought up at the meeting:

1. Carol Lee Flenders: Women Mystics
2. Randy Kokke: Dark Night of the Soul, Mother Teresa's Memoirs
3. Bob Leet from Resurrection Parish: Evangelism, what is evangelism within the parish.
4. Brother Matteo &endash; Franciscan Monk: Passionate about Jesus
5. Jim Bretishei &endash; End of Life Discussions

Gloria Tienda, PSR and Generations of Faith gave everyone an update on the Safe Environment Training.

She reported that all children and teens here at St. James have been given the Smart Kid, Safe Kid program.

The programs were administered by the following

Nancy Brown &endash; Junior High
Karen Nau &endash; Kindergarten
Gloria Tienda &endash; 1ST &endash; 6th grade

There have been more than eighteen people who have completed the three required steps, which are:

1. Live Scan
2. On-Line Registration
3. On-Line Safe Environment Training

These participants included priest, deacons and staff members.

There are still a number of potential teachers for this year's PSR program who have not complied. They were notified by mail in June, then followed-up with a phone call and an email. If they do not comply by Monday September 17, 2007 they cannot be with students and therefore will be unable teach in the classroom.

The Generations of Faith program is still moving forward with 80 of a 115 families returning this year. Summary of the program is as follows:

1. This year, First grade is mandatory that the families participate in Generations of Faith,
2. The 2nd and 3rd graders are split about half in GoF and PSR.
3. PSR is still available as an option for grades 4,5,6, classes and are held Tuesday and Wednesday each week.
4. The three sessions will meet on either a Saturday or one of two Sunday sessions A,B a month.
5. Another Sunday session, B, was added to meet demand. There are 88 families, 250 people signed up for Sundays.
6. The parents and children will separate during class time and then meet back together at the end.
7. There will be no big meal served this year, only a snack since the classes meet from either 10-2 on Saturday or 2-4 on Sundays after Mass.
8. There is a session, which will be for all 2nd and 3rd graders both PSR and GoF who are preparing for the sacraments of First Holy Communion or Reconciliation.

PSR classes will begin September 18th and GoF will begin Saturday October 13th.

Ministry Announcements

Lucy Spingola announced that the Italian Catholic Federation, ICF is holding its annual polenta and stew dinner, Saturday night September 15, 2007. The cost will be $15.00 and the cut-off for tickets was (Monday) that night so they could order food.

Nancy Brown reminded everyone that the quilting squares project will have its first meeting September 22 between 9:30 am and 3:00 pm.

Father Michael mentioned a woman at Beverly Manor named Jonita who crochets everyday who might want to be involved in the quilting project.

Ken Manz mentioned that he, Randy and Sue Kokke are going to prepare a healing ministry Mass which will be prayers for physical healing or something on their mind. They meet every Friday evening and Father Tom Diaz will conduct the healing Mass.

Youth Ministry:

Nancy Brown announced that two young people from St. James attended the Youth Forum, September 9th she said "Evangelization at Large".

Half of the tenth graders did not get confirmation forms sent to them. The office is following up. The oversight involved youths with last names starting with M, S, or T.

She also wanted to state again that youth ministry for junior high and high school is an open registration process and that young people can join at any time there is no registration deadline.

There were some people thinking that if you miss the fall registration you cannot join that year.

Nancy needs women chaperones for an overnight event coming up on October 19th.

Alba Silva wanted to tell the group what a nice day the 150th celebration was at St. Vincent High School. It was a beautiful mass and lots of festivities throughout the day.

Marie, parishioner, brought up the Emergency Response Planning session to be held October 2, 2007. John Kennedy recommended that she bring some information to present to the Parish Council in preparing the Parish to be an emergency shelter is a very big undertaking.

It was mentioned again that the Blessed Mother artwork needs to be removed from behind the bookcase. As of Thursday September 20, 2007 it has been moved.

All ministries should contact Wayne Till to update the website with their ministries information.

Julie Parnow extended an invitation to the council ministry representatives that they bring others from their groups to our Parish Council Meetings so that they may be more involved, since the representatives present already have many duties in heading up their ministry.

October 8, 2007 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm will be the next Parish Council Meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeannette Wilhelmsen
Secretary

Attendees:

Name	Ministry
Alba Silva	Young Ladies Institute (YLI)
Father Michael Culligan	St. James Pastor
Father Bonoface Nzomo	St. James Visiting Pastor
J.Douglas Dade	Member at Large
Janet Adam	Parish School of Religion (PSR)
Jeannette Wilhelmsen	Member at Large (Secretary)
Julie Parnow	Member at Large (President)
Pat Louks	SVDP Society
Pat Wapp	Faith Base Homeless
Ron Fedrick	Finance Committee
Ron Forsell	Member at Large (Vice President)
Susie Kelly	St. James Women's Group
Tom Cullen	Diocesan Parish Council (DCP)
Ester Bidaurreta	Parishioner
Renee Hayes	Giving Tree

Father Michael led us in our opening prayer and welcomed Father Boniface Nzomo to our Parish Council Meeting.

A card was sent around for Mary Calladay who left the Parish to enter into the Carmelite Order.

Attendees: The New Evangelization Meeting 9/24 from 9:30-3:00 pm at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Windsor.

€ Father Michael Culligan
€ Nancy Brown
€ Ray Noll
€ Gloria Tienda
€ Janet Adam
€ Ron Forsell

Ron Forsell gave the Parish Council a summary of the New Evangelization Meeting

Few take home messages of what the New Evangelization means:

1. Build on knowing Christ ourselves
2. Christianity is caught not taught
3. Build a relationship with Christ
4. Whole family catechesis, focusing on education of the adults as well as children
5. Giving to the Community as a Parish to those in need

Some programs already in place at St. James, which could be considered part of the New Evangelization movement:

1. Scripture Classes
2. Cursillo
3. RCIA
4. Generations of Faith

Father Michael as part of the New Evangelization presents a question each week in the bulletin to help us reflect on the scripture. The question this evening was: What does being in Christ mean to us as believers at St. James?

The members at large will meet October 15, 2007. Topic: Ideas for the New Evangelization of the parish.

Per Bulletin: Sunday October 21, 2007

Adult Education Classes\Speakers

1. Evolution and Creationism - Dr. Peter Hess of the National Center for Science Education at Berkley.
2. Mother Theresa: Her Work, Her Faith, Her Struggle with Spiritual Darkness - Randy and Sue Kokke
3. The New Evangelization- Sr. Olive Murphy, Director of Religious Education of the Diocese of Santa Rosa.

Religious Education Classes will be held on three Mondays, November 5th, 12th, 19th , no class was announced for the 26th in the bulletin.

A list of project ideas for St. James was compiled at the meeting. Doug and Julie will take the ideas back to the finance committee. They were broken out into two groups, the parish wish list and the maintenance list.

Parish Wish List

1. Multi-purpose room, old kitchen become crying room
2. Build a new Church and conversion of present Church to a hall.
3. Parish Facilities Manager
4. Bathrooms in compliance with ADA
5. Left side railing removed for more wheelchair space in church

Maintenance List

1. Re-key PSR building
2. No Lock on the hall table closet; have the lock removed.
3. Buff hall floor
4. Custodian to set-up and take down table and chairs, mop floor after meetings
5. Bathrooms in PSR building, clean, paint and decorate
6. PSR ceiling leaks
7. Bathrooms better maintained, paper products well stocked
8. Cleaning supplies, lighter weight mops
9. Calibration of stove for the oven burners (done by PG&E)
10. Fire proof the attic storage area, no sprinklers, heating system located in attic
11. Second maintenance person

Pat Wapp-Christmas in July and corrected last meetings notes.

$1300 remaining will be used for phone cards and food for the Fisher house, a facility for recovering wounded soldiers and their families at Travis Air Force Base.

She needs

1. Teens needed to help pack-up the cars
2. People to drive especially military volunteers with cards to get through base security

Pat Wapp - Faith Base Homeless

Pat will be collecting coats, sleeping bags, and blankets etc. Drop-off items on the picnic table outside of church and she will pick them up and distribute them.

4th Day Cursillo needs a meeting room, they meet once a week. Nancy Brown has coordinated with them to use a room on Thursday nights.

Lucy Spingola-prayer quilts. The group will be meeting once a month to make-up kits that people can sew in their home. The group is in the process of designing a stamp and logo. Requested a spot to keep materials and Nancy offered their group a cabinet.

Pastoral Council will ask Finance Committee for some funds for materials. The group would consider possibly setting-up a donation table outside of church to collect money to off-set costs.

Janet Adam &endash; PSR

The program was audited for Safe Environment Training. They have not heard whether or not they passed, but she said the Bishop was very pleased.

There have been more than eighteen people who have completed the three required steps, which are:

1. Live Scan
2. On-Line Registration
3. On-Line Safe Environment Training

The PSR program is now in its fourth week and is closed. Late enrollees can attend Saturday morning's program or be home schooled.

There are a total 107 families in GOF.

Ministry Announcements

Lucy Spingola announced that the Italian Catholic Federation, ICF is holding a ravioli dinner November 3rd, 2007. The cost will be $15.00.

Father Michael mentioned again that Chonita Rabena at Beverly Manor who crochets has still not been contacted by anyone. She knits all day and wants to donate.

Father also announced the Cots Breakfast is coming soon and St. James will have a table. It will be 10 people per table and the breakfast is free. The date/time/place is Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at the Sheraton Hotel in Petaluma, 7:15 to 8:15 am. Pat Wapp has volunteered to be our table leader.

Pat Louks &endash; St. Vincent De Paul Society will have pick-up days of November 17th and 18th in the church parking lot for donations of usable clothing and household items.

Doug Dade volunteered to create a general calendar of events for the council.

Reminders: All ministries should contact Wayne Till to update the website with their ministries information. Old announcements need to be removed.

Julie Parnow extended an invitation to the council ministry representatives that they bring others from their groups to our Parish Council Meetings so that they may be more involved, since the representatives present already have many duties in heading up their ministry.

Remember to send or email your organization's event calendar to Doug Dade. He has volunteered to make up a master calendar of events.

Next Pastoral Council Meeting will be Wednesday November 14th Room 2 7-9 pm

Note: The PCM was moved from Monday to Wednesday because of Adult Religious Education in November.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeannette Wilhelmsen
Secretary

Attendees:

Name	Ministry
Alba Silva	Young Ladies Institute (YLI)
Father Michael Culligan	St. James Pastor
Father Bonoface Nzomo	St. James Associate Pastor
J.Douglas Dade	Member at Large
Janet Adam	Parish School of Religion (PSR)
Jeannette Wilhelmsen	Member at Large (Secretary)
Julie Parnow	Member at Large (President)
Pat Louks	SVDP Society
Pat Wapp	Faith Base Homeless
Ron Fedrick	Finance Committee
Ron Forsell	Member at Large (Vice President)
Susie Kelly	St. James Women's Group
Tom Cullen	Diocesan Parish Council (DCP)
Ester Bidaurreta	Parishioner
Renee Hayes	Giving Tree

Ron Forsell led us in our opening prayer.

Sister MaryAnne Lenahan sent a thank you card, thanking everyone for the Golden Jubilee Mass, given in her honor.

We had cake and gave a card to Father Nzomo, welcoming him to St. James.

Ron Forsell gave the Parish Council a summary of the Member at Large Meeting, focus was the new Evangelization.

Those in attendance were: Ron Forsell, Julie Parnow, Nancy Brown, Doug Dade and Jeannette Wilhelmsen

Overview of the Discussion:

1. Addressed a need for social outreach of our ministries. Suggest we out- reach with a personal invitation. There may be people in this parish who do not feel qualified to help in the different areas. Suggestion: Get the parish corner published that Anne Marie was heading up. The ministries should get their 50 word or less information submitted to her so they can be posted by Wayne Till.

2. Bishop Clark suggested that each parish needs to learn about the New Evangelization for about 6 to 8 months before starting anything. One emphasis should be teaching adults in the parish about their faith. Focusing on those in the pews.

Religious Education: New Evangelization with Sr. Olive Murphy did not happen due to a date mix-up but instead an impromptu evangelization workshop was led by Nancy Brown. The audience was asked to break-up in groups of five, introduce themselves and discuss their relationship with Jesus. It was a very positive experience for the parishioners who attended.

Also mentioned at the Rel. Ed. Meeting, was reinstituting block captions for fallen away Catholics and RENEW, a program which has small groups meeting in the home for faith sharing. One of the questions asked was; how can your organization at St. James be more inviting?

Suggestions:

Church website address needs to be in larger font on the bulletin. Have Father Michael mention it at the end of Mass and let parishioners know they can get a copy of the church bulletin on the website, if you miss mass.

Email database to notify people of upcoming events.

Tom Cullen: Diocesan Council Meeting Highlights

Evangelization

- St. Leos' sent to out letters to people who were listed on old directories of Inactive Catholics.

- St. Leo's had a large funeral (over 400 people mostly non or lapsed Catholics) They were fed a four course meal. The people were overwhelmed with gratitude. The committee felt this was another good way to reach out to inactive Catholics.

- Elizabeth Seton's Fr. John hosts an appetizer and drinks gathering for new parishioners to get them acquainted with the Church and its activities

- RCIA &endash; why not offer them Ministry work after they 'graduate' to keep them interested in the Church.

- Elizabeth Seton has a Contemporary Music group that is drawing lots of people into Church who would normally not attend. This is another way to help attract Inactive Catholics back. This has been extremely popular according to Nora John.

In response to last month's wish list, Doug Dade, Julie Parnow, Ron Frederick and Father Michael met to go over the list of ideas for improvements and projects at St. James. The wish list is broken out into two groups, the parish wish list and the maintenance list.

Parish Wish List

Bathrooms in compliance with ADA

Ken Begin's son who is a contractor evaluated the bathrooms to come up with a list of improvements.

Since the building was built to code years ago, it is exempt from the ADA regulations except for the four items listed below:

1. Install necessary grab bars
2. Widen the 3 stall doors, minimum 32" wide, this can be done by removing side panels and installing wider doors.
3. Change sinks from tap to lever handles
4. Wrap pipes with approved ADA wrap tape to prevent a person's body from being burnt.

Build a new Church and conversion of present Church to a hall.

Ron Fredrick - Finance Committee

Ron had his friend who has built 30 churches to come up with some estimates on construction costs.

New church bare bones, $150-200/sq ft, last church built ran $500-600/sq ft, similar church the size of ours would run 5-6 million dollars. Only 2% in the last survey wanted a new church, by pushing it out into the parking lot. Cost of remolding is 2 times what the costs are to build a new parish hall.

Multi-purpose room with sport court floor

$150-225/sq ft = 1.4 million dollars to build structure.

Changing out flooring in back of Church

Asbestos tile removal $2-3/sq ft, the floor is 2000 sq ft = $6,000 -9,000 to remove asbestos tile.

New tile would run $2-10/sq ft for new tile. This would be hall area and bathrooms only, not kitchen area.

Father Michael's comments:

Removal asbestos = $7,000; Install Ceramic Tile = $28,000 -$30,000. Floor will be buffed on Tuesday for $850 and its condition reevaluated after that. New wheels for the chair racks have been ordered to replace the black wheels which leave marks on the floor.

New Folding Doors at the back of the Church

2-3 yrs ago they were given a quote of $40,000 - $45,000; today's costs would run $60,000.

Maintenance List : Review of Action Items

1. Re-key PSR building: Father Michael pointed out that the problem with the locks is the keys which have been duplicated over and over. His master keys work fine.

2. No Lock on the hall table closet; have the lock removed. No Action at this time.

3. Buff hall floor: Completed on Tuesday, November 20th.

4. Custodian to set-up and take down table and chairs, mop floor after meetings: Looking into increasing custodial time.

5. Bathrooms in PSR building, clean, paint and decorate: This would be done at the same time the bathrooms in the hall are redone.

6. PSR ceiling leaks: There is a leak, it has to be fixed.

7. Bathrooms better maintained, paper products well stocked

8. Cleaning supplies, lighter weight mops

9. Calibration of stove for the oven burners (done by PG&E): PG&E looked at stove calibration and one side was good and the other was off by 20 °F. It is not a matter of the gas coming into the unit.

10. Fire proof the attic storage area, no sprinklers, heating system located in attic: Needs to be evaluated.

11. Second maintenance person: Looking into increasing custodial time.

12. Left side railing removed for more wheelchair space in church: Completed and a seat cushion placed down on the pew bench.

Renee Hayes Report on the Giving Tree

This year Renee Hayes and Karen Chrisholm are our heading up the giving tree project replacing Diane Alexandrov and Sandy Yaeger.

They met with the different agencies and got their wish lists; the agencies will be picking-up their items.

Christmas cards have been sent out to make (500) tags; the tree will be in the church the first week of advent.

Bake sale raised $1600, which will be used to complete gifts with wrapping and shopping.

Sunday Dec. 16th is the presort, Monday Dec. 17th will be the final sort.

Ministry Announcements

Julie Parnow: Read the Parish Pastoral Council Statutes. Father Michael also motioned that the Bylaws established by our council would also stand.

Pat Wapp: She is requesting help with a dinner being put on for 60 Petaluma National Guardsmen returning from Iraq and their Families. She passed a flyer requesting side dishes and desserts.

Father Michael: Announced a benefit dinner at the parish being put on by Maria Tremble on Dec. 1, 2008 to off-set medical costs for another St. James Parish Family.

Pat Louks: St. Vincent De Paul Society will have pick-up days of November 17th and 18th in the church parking lot for donations of usable clothing and household items.

Reminders:

Remember to send or email your organization's event calendar to Doug Dade. He has volunteered to make up a master calendar of events. Doug's email address: jddade@earthlink.net

Next: Pastoral Council Meeting will be Monday January 14th Room 9

Respectfully submitted,

Jeannette Wilhelmsen
Secretary

Attendees

Name	Ministry
Alba Silva	Young Ladies Institute (YLI)
Father Michael Culligan	St. James Pastor
Father Bonoface Nzomo	St. James Associate Pastor
Grace Herrold	Catholics Ladies Aid Society
Janet Adam	Parish School of Religion (PSR)
Jeannette Wilhelmsen	Member at Large (Secretary)
Julie Parnow	Member at Large (President)
Kathy Sennello	Diocesan Parish Council (DCP)
Nancy Brown	Youth Ministry
Pat Louks	SVDP Society
Roberta Guerra	Music Program, Vacation Bible School
Ron Fedrick	Finance Committee
Ron Forsell	Member at Large (Vice President)
RoseAnna Cresci	ICF President
Sharon Cresci	ICF Rec. Secretary
Ester Bidaurreta	Parishioner
Karen Chisholm	Giving Tree

Father Michael led us in our opening prayer.

Minutes were corrected and approved.

Parish Pastoral Council Statutes - Group Discussion

Julie Parnow addressed the parish council about the statutes that were put forth by the dioceses and signed by herself (President) Father Michael (Pastor) and Jeannette Wilhelmsen (Secretary) and presented at the last council meeting.

It should be noted that an objection was put forth by Doug Dade (Member at Large) bringing to the Parish Council's attention that the Bylaws established by the Parish Council and approved 01/09/06 conflicted with the Diocesan Statutes signed by our council's officers in November 2007.

Father Michael commented that he had placed several calls to different people at the diocese to find out exactly what the intent of the document was, but had no information at this time.

Kathy Sennello commented that nothing was mentioned or talked about at the DPC meetings about the Statutes going out to the different parishes and its intention. She also noted it was not published on official Diocesan letterhead.

Ron Fedrick commented that a friend of his told him that at his parish they were pleased with the statutes from the Diocese because they needed this type of document to assist their parish council. It provided them the guidance and direction they needed.

He also commented that he had researched some information on bylaws and found that they are specifically for a corporation either for profit or non-profit. St. James is not a corporation rather it is a parish community and that the bylaws that were written were in effect guidelines.

Motion was made to approve and follow the St. James Pastoral Council Bylaws and to change the word bylaws to guidelines, all in favor, none opposed. The name will be changed to St. James Pastoral Council Guidelines.

Diocesan Pastoral Council - Kathy Sennello announced the Plenary Session Workshop, January 19th at the Chancery office at 9:00 am. For those who want to be involved in the planning or wish to assist with your thoughts/ideas on evangelization. Please contact Bob Leet at RobtELeet@aol.com or phone 544-7762. The 2008 Plenary Keynote Speaker will be Fr. David Pettingill of San Francisco who authored °Guidelines for Parish Pastoral Council in 1999°.

Finance Committee - Ron Fedrick

The building improvements which consist of tiling the back hall, redoing the bathrooms and adding more storage space are getting the first sketches/drawings made to share with the finance committee before going out for bids. A contractor will assist in the permitting process with the City of Petaluma who requires that the new construction be compatible with the original structure. The concrete blocks come from Southern California, which they need to find and use. The permit process will be first and then the pricing which is months and months away.

February 28, 2008 is the next Finance Committee Meeting

Pat Louks-St. Vincent De Paul, requested space available for storing dry goods in the new storage area when completed.

Father Michael received a quote for the sliding doors of $60,000. This price does not include taking down the old ones and disposal. The reason for the high costs is that they need to be custom made; Mead Clark has only 12 ft. high doors max.

Finance Committee would also like to thank everyone for the wonderful Christmas Collection.

Giving Tree - Karen Chisholm

There were a total of 800 gifts given to 7 agencies, as well as, individual families. The gift certificates for food worked wonderfully and will continue next year as opposed to having large food baskets which were heavy and difficult for our senior volunteers to deliver, in past years. The families were very appreciative. St. Vincent's had a total of 900 gifts. Karen Chisholm and Renee Hayes will co-chair the giving tree project again next year.

Spring Ministry. - Roberta Guerra

Ministry Faire, Good Sheppard Sunday, April 13, 2008. Ministries need to mark their calendar and have a table manned. There will be a new flyer for the parish with a contact information list. Roberta will contact Anne Marie about the 50 word bios on the different groups and ministries at St. James. She will also have a ministry contact list at the Parish Council Table. The decision was made not to have any food, but have the VBS bake sale that day so people will just donate to the bake sale.

Vendor from Bethlehem will be selling his wares during ministry faire.

Invite Simply Sacred Books and Gifts to the ministry faire.

Roberta needs a committee to help with the ministry faire.

Roberta will re-create a volunteer questionnaire that Pat brought back from St. Elizabeth and stuff in the church bulletins that day.

Summer Community Outreach Project Ideas

Tents for Darfur, Tents for Hope: This is a project which was started by Tim Nunn at Meadow School. The group purchases the tents $1000/tent and children paint panels on the tents. A donation can is placed at the tent to offset the costs, the tents are then sent to Darfur. Some church groups have started the program but the weather has been an issue with its success. This may be a project that could be taken up in the spring when the weather improves, possibly as a confirmation project.

Adopt a Parish. Parish in Sonoma had adopted a mission in Turkana. Newsletter is sent to the Parish from Sister Angelica.

Roberta announced this year will be a Taize prayer service on a Friday night during lent, soup supper 6-7 pm, service is 7:30-8:30, done in the dark. It is an evening of meditative reading and singing to connect us with the Lenten season. Father Michael suggested Roberta prepare a short script to help lead the parishioners as to what is going to happen.

VBS - Roberta Guerra & Amy Wheless

20th Anniversary. Theme is the Power Lab, Discovering Jesus, (Science Theme) The curriculum will cover the Ten Leapers, Peter on the Water, Jesus' Resurrection and Pentecost.

June 25th to 29th at St.Vincent's High school

Generations of Faith - Janet Adam

Nancy Brown and Gloria Tienda completed Smart kid, Safe kid class for GOF, PSR Junior High and Youth Ministry.

GOF Topic was Matrimony - John and Joanne Norris, GOF Topic Confirmation and Baptism -Ray Noll

GOF Topic Anointing of the Sick -Ray Noll, GOF Topic Reconciliation week of 1/15

Reconciliation is March 8th, First Holy Communion April 5th and April 12th, Confirmation April 25th

Jr. High, High School (Youth Ministry) - Nancy Brown

Everything is going well.

During lent High School will participate in Stations of the Cross

Confirmation retreat February 8, 9, 10.

Jr. High is going to confession Wednesday as part of the lesson plan, °Why go to confession?°

Ministry Announcements

Father Michael was approached by Mary knoll missionary Nancy McFarland to see if we had an interest in a sustainable living project. The speaker would be Rupiper from Chicago, who would come and talk about spirituality and ecology for three Sundays. He will take it to John Kennedy to evaluate.

He was also asked by an Animal Rights Group who is pushing through an animal rights initiative on the ballot against the practice of confining animals to cages and crates, factory farms which can lead to pollution and global warming, if they could be here after Masses. Father Michael will tell them no.

Nancy Brown asked about the New Evangelization and what is happening. We need all representatives from the different groups to participate.

One idea, wine and cheese for the new parishioners, baptismal once every 6 months, Jan-June, and July-Dec.

Those interested in participating in the New Evangelization: Nancy Brown, Roberta Guerra, Julie Parnow, Jeannette Wilhelmsen, Ron Forsell

Ron Forsell to find out about St. Vincent's starting Renew groups for the 150th Anniversary. There is a strong interest in starting Renew again at St. James.

Today is Father Michael's 23rd anniversary of arriving to Petaluma.

Father Nzomo led the group in a closing prayer.

Next Pastoral Council Meeting will be Monday February 11, 2008, Room 9

Respectfully submitted,

Jeannette Wilhelmsen
Secretary

Attendees: