minutes of a meeting of the parochial church council, st. barnabas’ church, linslade, held in the choir vestry at 8.00 p.m. on 17^th November 2003

Present:	Catherine Dyer	Keith Saunders
	Keith Dally	Sue Smith
	Maureen Gadsby	Simon Soper
	John. Deighton	Anna Barrett
	Charles Griffin	Russell Stannard
	Nick Moore	Valerie Stewart
	Carol Oakman	Jo Thomson
	Alison Cudby	Jim Pickering
		Rebecca Pickering
Apologies:	Janet Miller	Maggie Stannard
	David Darvill	Sue Nichol
	Wyn Jones
Absent:	Winston Forde	Fran Morrow
	Melvyn Gardner

The meeting opened with prayers

Minutes of the meeting of 21^st October 2003

The minutes were approved unanimously as an accurate record of the meeting and signed by the Chair. In the absence of the Secretary Simon Soper offered to take the minutes.

Matters arising from the minutes:

15/03	Parish Awayday.  Andrew Gear has produced notes on the Awayday. Jo Thomson wrote a one page summary which was distributed on the 20^th November. Further copies will be made available. It was pointed out that the targets set last year remain largely unchanged but priorities can be adjusted. The Standing Committee will propose what to do next and present this to the PCC at the next meeting.
17/03	Fund Raising.  The Autumn Bazaar and associated jumble sale raised approximately £1700. The PCC expressed gratitude to Anna and Carol for their hard work. Carol and Anna appealed for fresh ideas for future bazaars and fairs. The provisional date for the summer fair is 19^th June 2004 (subject to weddings) and planning must start now, e.g. booking the Recreation Ground with the Council.
27/03	Gates at St. Mary’s.  The churchwardens have applied for the necessary planning permission.
28/03	Site Development Committee.  The hall has been surveyed and the report is due at the end of the week. As expected the roof covering is in need of attention as is the kitchen area. Cost of the survey was £450 plus VAT. The committee will meet on the 8^th December
29/03	Disability audit.  The secretary of the Diocesan Advisory Committee advised that the requirement to allow two wheelchairs to pass each other in the aisles will probably not be forced on us. It was agreed that the provision of disabled toilets is more important but may have to depend on hall redevelopment.  The churchwardens also agreed to set up an incident book to record accidents etc.
30/03	Christian Aid.  The Standing Committee may have identified a volunteer to take over the organisation of the Linslade annual collection. There is still a need to find other volunteers for other tasks.
35/03	Report from Worship Committee. It was pointed out that the main reason for dropping the evening sung Eucharist on the first Sunday in the month is that the number of worshippers is too low to warrant such a service.
36/03	Meeting with the Choir. Keith Saunders has written to each choir member.
37/03	Repair to Hall Doors. This has been completed.

New items:

41/03	Application for Faculty for Removal of 6 Pews The faculty application has yet to be submitted. The Diocesan Registrar (John Rees) has been receiving letters both for and against the faculty application and has forwarded copies of these letters to Catherine. It appears that only about 50% of these are coming from regular attendees. The Diocesan Registrar will write to protestors asking if they wish to take the matter to Consistory Court and whether they are capable and willing to pay court costs if their objections are over-ruled. The PCC voted unanimously to proceed with the application – Nick Moore proposed and Sue Smith seconded the motion. Catherine stated that she will be meeting with the Arch Deacon to look at pastoral aspects of the situation.
42/03	Communications Committee Copies of the questionnaire prepared by the Communications Committee were handed out. After a discussion, there were no objections in principle to the questionnaire being circulated although a number of minor improvements were suggested. It was also recommended that the Church Office be included on the list of places where the completed questionnaires could be handed in. The Group will set up an Editorial Committee consisting of 3 members and the current editor will be invited to join the committee. The committee will draw up editorial guidelines and submit them for approval to the PCC together with the proposed membership of the committee.
42/03	Parish Share Jo reported that at the last Deanery Treasurers’ meeting the parish shares for 2004 were specified. Linslade’s share is £52542. The 2003 Parish Share (£48532) will be paid in full. She asked for more fund raising events to be organised.
40/03	Any other business Jo asked if there would be any objections to having water meters installed to reduce water bills. There were none. Jo asked for permission to buy a new fireproof safe to hold the registers etc. The cost would be £430 plus £60 for installation and a fee for removing the old safe. Keith Saunders proposed the motion to proceed with this seconded by Alison Cudby and passed nem con. The wall at St Mary’s near the gate needs repair and has been included in the faculty for replacing the gates. Carol Oakman proposed and Maureen Gadsby seconded a proposal to approve the repair, passed nem con. Cost of £600 to be met from the Churchyard fund. It was agreed that Rebecca Pickering be the parish link person to the GROW project. Keith Dally proposed and Valerie Stewart seconded a motion to allow the Friday night youth club to spend £50 from the Jim Chesterfield fund on Bibles and prayer books. Motion passed nem con.

The meeting closed with the Grace at 10.00 p.m.