minutes of a meeting of the parochial church council, st. barnabas’ church, linslade, held in the choir vestry at 8.00 p.m. on tuesday 22^rd april 2003

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

The meeting opened with prayers

Minutes of the meeting of 12^th March 2003

Russell proposed and Fran seconded a motion to approve the minutes as an accurate record of the meeting.  Catherine signed the minutes as an accurate record.

Minutes of the meeting of 23^rd March 2003

Charles requested that the second half of the first line of the item 63/02 be deleted as audited accounts had in the past been presented to the APCM.  With this amendment, John Deighton proposed and Alison seconded a motion to approve the minutes.  The motion was passed nem. con and Catherine signed the minutes as an accurate record.

Matters arising from the minutes:

42/02

Parish Hall.  There had been no further progress on this issue.  The diocesan adviser had not contacted the churchwardens to give his view on this.  One idea might be for the buildings committee to take this forward, but it was generally felt that a separate committee might be a better view.  The group would liaise with architects, look at fund-raising, and liaise with the congregation and the community and so on.  Jim/Rebecca, Melvyn, Nick, Carol, Keith Saunders were suggested.  Various other members of the congregation might also be willing to join in the work and a note would be put in the Cross and Crown.  Keith Saunders would organise this and convene the first meeting.

61/02 b

Canon Anthony had given thanks for the leaving gift from the parish.

New items:

01/03	To make appointments as follows: A. Vice-Chairman:  David Darvill. B.  Treasurer: Jo Thomson C.  P.C.C. Secretary:  Sue Nicholl had been approached.  Anna proposed and Charles seconded a motion to co-opt her on to the council. D.  Representative of the Friends of St. Mary’s:  John Deighton E.  Gift Aid secretary (no longer “covenants”): Vernon Smith F.  Churches Together Representative: Anna Barrett, Maggie Stannard and Alison Cudby G. Christian Aid co-ordinator: Derek May H. Fete and Bazaar co-ordinator: Carol Oakman and Anna Barrett I: Child Protection Officer: Peter Holman J: CRB Clearance Officer: Melvyn Gardner K: Standing and Finance Committee: Incumbent, Churchwardens, P.C.C. secretary and Treasurer were on this committee ex officio.  Wyn Jones and Nick Moore would also be willing to serve on the committee. L: Buildings Committee: Ex officio the churchwardens, the incumbent, a representative of St. Mary’s would serve on this committee.  Charles and Graham would also be prepared to serve.  The committee would co-opt further members as appropriate. M: Worship Committee: The membership would continue as previously with Russell Stannard in the chair.  N: Parish Outreach Chairperson: Valerie Stewart O: Sunday School leader: Jenny Smith Carol proposed and Alison seconded a motion that these people be elected to serve for the year.  The motion was passed nem. con.
02/03	PCC dates for 2003-2004. Some members said that they would be unable to make some Tuesdays during the year.  It was agreed, however, that having a fixed day was a good idea as there would always be days and dates which some members could not make.  It was suggested that a “meetings-free” Lent might be a good idea in view of the fact that the APCM this year had clashed with house groups. It was agreed that the standing committee should look again at this issue and put out revised dates.  The next P.C.C. meeting would still occur on 20^th May.
03/03	Removal of pews There was considerable discussion about the way forward on this issue.  It was recognised that there was a wide range of views on the issue, all of them strongly held.  Views were expressed for and against moving the pews, and it was recognised that the issue had stirred heated emotions.  Rebecca made the point that no proposals had been made without a great deal of thought and prayer.  Keith reported that, following the paper put to the congregation, 12 people had responded as requested in writing, with 9 being in favour of moving some pews and 3 against.  Russell suggested issuing a further leaflet to inform the congregation.  It was also suggested that an open meeting after the 10 a.m. Sunday service would be helpful – possibly on 1^st June.  It was agreed to go forward with both of these suggestions with a draft paper for the PCC to consider at its May meeting. At this stage, it was agreed to continue the meeting beyond 9.30 p.m.
04/03	Parish Plan Keith Saunders introduced the work he had done on the plan.  He explained that it was a draft document for discussion and was in two parts.  The first part was a review of the previous plan produced by Winston Forde and accepted by the P.C.C. as working document in June 2002.  The second part incorporated the old plan’s key objectives within which were a number of suggested targets.  Two additional objectives were added which related to pastoral care and Christian nurture. The broad structure of the review and the new plan was agreed.  Members of the council agreed to consider its contents and suggest additions, deletions and amendments, preferably in advance of the next standing committee meeting on May 6^th.  Alternatively, changes could be proposed at the next P.C.C. meeting. It was agreed that this draft would remain confidential to members of the P.C.C. at this stage. Keith agreed to email the draft version to all PCC members
05/03	Finance. Jo said that more ideas for fund-raising were required.  Jo also reported that the increased Parish Share target for this parish had been slightly reduced, although this still represented an increase on last year’s parish share.
06/03	Re-surfacing of car park entrance David reported that a contractor had approached him to re-surface the entrance to the car park.  A price of £250 had been anticipated, but an invoice of £750 had been received after the work had been done.  This had been re-negotiated to £450 which was still more than the amount agreed for the buildings committee budget.  Alison proposed and Jim seconded a motion to accept this.  The motion was passed nem.con.
07/03	Any other business
	a. Organist’s agreement The organist’s contract had expired on December 25^th 2002.  David had drafted an extension to his contract.  David and Charles proposed that the agreement be extended for a further three years.  The motion was passed nem. con. b. Soap dispensers David had got finance to pay for the installation of soap dispensers etc. in the toilets in the parish hall and this work would be done. c. Notice board A new notice board had been paid for and erected by Russell and Maggie Stannard.  Two donations had been received to pay for erection of notice board at the other end of the car park.  Thanks were given to Russell and Maggie for this. d. Sunday School leader Charles proposed and David seconded a motion to approve Jenny Smith as the new Sunday school leader.  Thanks were expressed to her and to Beatrice Ashley for her hard work.

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