Minutes of the Parochial Church Council, St. Peter’s Draycott

Held on 17/05/2004 at 7:30 p.m. in the church.

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1.     Opening prayers. 1

2.     Attendance and apologies. 1

3.     Minutes of previous meeting. 1

4.     Report on actions taken. 2

5.     Any other business. 2

6.     Items for Decision. 2

6 a.      Appointment of officers. 2

6 b.     Church Questionnaire. 2

6 c.      PCC invitations to 'First to the Lord'. 2

7.     Items for Discussion. 2

7 a.      Village office for the vicar. 2

7 b.     Worship. 3

7 c.      Fabric. 3

7 d.     Finance. 3

7 e.      Fund raising. 3

7 f.      Area for cremated remains (dealt with) 3

7 g.     School governors. 3

7 h.     Membership count 4

7 i.      First To The Lord. 4

7 j.      Church re-ordering. 4

7 k.      Glebe field. 4

8.     New business. 4

8 a.      Correspondence. 4

8 b.     Church publicity. 4

9.     Dates of next meetings. 4

10.      Closing prayer 4

1.      Opening prayers

Stanley Price opened the meeting with a prayer. Thea took the chair.

2.      Attendance and apologies

Present

Julie Brown

John Cartwright Wendy Cartwright

Richard Dingley

 

Sylvia Dingley

Chris Green

Wilf Lacey

Thea Oliver

Audrey Morgan

 

Stanley Price

Victor Skinner

Lorne Talbot

 

 

Apologies

 

Colette Jeff

A warm welcome to Lorne Talbot, our new member.

We must send a letter of thanks from the PCC to Tricia Corrick (ACTION: Chris)

3.      Minutes of previous meeting

Minutes of 30th March were agreed as correct.

Additional meeting to be recorded:

Extraordinary PCC meeting called by Vic Skinner.

Date: 18th April (after church on Sunday)

Purpose: to decide on whether to accept the grant from English Heritage.

Present: Wilf Lacey, John and Wendy Cartwright, Tricia Corrick, Chris Green, Vic Skinner

Motion: that we proceed with the application for funding, under the conditions stated (initially involving us to commit £3000 towards the costs of the initial project).

Proposed: Vic Skinner; Seconded: Chris Green. The motion was agreed (nem con.).

4.      Report on actions taken

7 b.      (Hearing loop etc.) If we have a temporary system it won’t need a faculty. A number of us need this facility. (ACTION: Richard will look into it)

7 c.      (Payment of parish share). Not done yet.

7 e.      (Area for cremated remains) Sandblasting is expensive. The Rodney Stoke solution is progressing- we should keep this under review. It will cost about £2,200.

7 g.      (Welcome pack). Tricia is progressing this.

5.      Any other business

Wilf raised the question of the ash tree in the churchyard. It was suggested that he cut it down.

6.      Items for Decision

6 a.   Appointment of officers

·        Chair: Thea Oliver

·        Secretary: Chris Green.

·        Treasurer: Wendy Cartwright.

·        Stewardship secretary: John Cartwright.

NB. We acknowledged that Wendy and John would be leaving us part way through the year, and we would have to make new appointments. In the meantime we are very grateful that they have agreed to stay in post.
ACTION: We should advertise for a treasurer in the newsletter.

6 b.  Church Questionnaire.

Generally the meeting was approving, although Audrey said that perhaps there was not enough emphasis on initiatives to include youth participation.

Motion: that the questionnaire should be used in its current form, and presented to the congregation of St. Peters on the 30th May. It should be on 2 separate pages, to allow writing on the reverse.

Proposed: Richard Dingley; Seconded: Audrey Morgan. The motion was agreed (nem. con.)

6 c.   PCC invitations to 'First to the Lord'.

·        Invitations had been received for all the PCC- these were distributed

7.      Items for Discussion

7 a.   Village office for the vicar.

·        The Jeffs and the Browns have both kindly allowed Stanley office space, but this was always a temporary arrangement and could not continue.

·        The school wanted £500 a year to accommodate an office- this was not on in our present financial circumstances.

·        The church could be used on occasion, especially in summer.

·        An office should be incorporated into designs for church reordering, if possible.

ACTION: Stanley can cope for the moment- we need a decision by October. In the meantime, we should like to thank Julie and Graham, as well as the Jeffs.

7 b.  Worship

·        Nothing new. We shall eventually need a small group to plan services in advance (say 6 months ahead).

·        We shall re-launch the worship group when the current questionnaire project is finished.

7 c.   Fabric.

·        The boiler is mostly off at the moment. We have had a gas leak- John got someone in to fix it. We need to find someone to look at it and give it a service. Suggested: firm of Mike Horwood. ACTION:  Wilf will make contact.

7 d.  Finance.

·        The recent balances of our accounts were circulated (update- the current general account now stands at £2008.66).

·        Stanley had asked for a budget and business plan. Wendy had taken advice, but the suggested formats were too business-orientated.

·        Our forecast income for this year is £12,965. Our forecast outgoings (including parish share, but excluding roof repair) are £15,330. We therefore have a shortfall of £2,365. What further do we need from a business plan?

·        Stanley- we need it to plan how we going to plug this hole in our finances.
There was some discussion. The points put forward included: we will not pay our parish share as our first priority (i.e. we can lower our expenditure by paying less parish share); and that the parishes will eventually be re-organised.
ACTION: We shall not discuss this again for the time being.

·        In answer to a question, Wendy said that the transfer of £4,500 from English Heritage had not yet happened.

7 e.   Fund raising.

·        Our main event is coming up- Cheddar Male Voice Choir on 19th June. We have posters out. NB. The ticket price has been reduced to £6.

·        We missed entries in the magazine for 2 months running, due to communication difficulties with the editor. This was a pity- but we should be in next month at least.

·        Other forthcoming events for book sales: Stawberry Fayre, Lions (at Fairlands); Stall at Wells market.

7 f.    Area for cremated remains (dealt with)

7 g.   School governors

The plan for the 30th June (patronal festival) was for a ‘Clypping service’. Participants will surround the church holding hands. This will be part of the 9:15 assembly. All are invited.

7 h.   Membership count

There are 51 on the electoral roll. On a ‘normal’ Sunday there are 20 attending.

7 i.     First To The Lord.

The next phase is to arrange a visitor. Either we get an external visitor, or we do this ourselves. No-one really wanted the visitor (Stanley proposed that we do not, Richard seconded, all agreed nem. con).

7 j.    Church re-ordering.

Stanley laid out some impressively executed plans for our inspection, which we discussed. He also reported back on the glass door (see previous minutes, item 7b- original suggestion was from Julie). This would be about £4,300.
ACTION: none for the moments, although we would return to the subject when the roof repairs were in hand.

7 k.  Glebe field.

Sheila Garrett was upset that at a recent funeral the Glebe field was opened for use as a car park without her permission. John Cartwright said he had contacted their house, and had been given permission.

We were warned that they may sometimes have to refuse permission.

ACTION: Stanley will call on them.

8.      New business

8 a.   Correspondence.

We had received a letter from West Country Tiling, acknowledging receipt of their outstanding account, and answering our query regarding storm damage.

8 b.  Church publicity.

·        We must do more. We should have some literature to give out to people.

·        Victor said that we required publicity for our lottery funding. We could use the grant as a headline and include extra details. English Heritage would themselves like their support to be publicised.
ACTION: Victor will draft the first part of a report, and pass it on to other people. It would come back to the PCC for agreement.

·        Our new sign in the Glebe field is also an important aspect of church publicity. Thea had some ideas. ACTION: we are happy to let Thea organise.

·        We were invited to look at publicity in other churches.

9.      Dates of next meetings

PCC: 21st June(Monday): 7:30 in St. Peter’s Church (following meeting- 20th July)

10. Closing prayer

The meeting closed with the Grace.

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