Parish Pastoral / Finance Councils - Originally I had planned to announce the membership of both councils by April 11. Unfortunately we had three funerals the week before Easter which, combined with preparations for Holy Week, caused me to postpone the announcement.

The Parish Pastoral Council members for this year are:

Council Chair: Tobias Hoppe (2013/2015)

Megan Wilson (2013/2015)

Sandy Concannon (2013/2015)

Dr. Anthony Roeder (2014/2016) *

Margaret Dalesandro (2014/2016)*

Palmer Dalesandro (2014/2016)*

Martha McGurk (2014/2016)*

Paul Lavallee (2014/2016) *

 

The Parish Finance Council members for this year are:

Council Chair:

Joseph Bondi (2011/2014)

Charles Ladner (2011/2014)

Ed Riedlinger (2012/2014)

Amy George (2012/2014)

Amy Snyder (2014/2016) *

Frederick Kohm (2014/2016) *

Francis Moran (2014/2016) *

* Denotes new member.

I would like to especially thank the following Pastoral Council members:

Council Chair: Matt Manion

Marley Dolente

Betsy Fadem

Melissa Mestre

As well as the following Pastoral Finance members:

Council Chair: Don Charlton

Jim Fox

Nicole Elguicze

James Sholder

Along with the other remaining members of the Pastoral Councils, they did the “heavy lifting” during the past two - three years through some difficult and challenging times at St. Monica Parish. They exhibited passion, professionalism and a tremendous spirit of self-sacrifice of the mission and people of the parish. Please join me in offering them our heart-felt gratitude!

 

Youth Ministry - Further discussions are pending especially in light of the latest budget forecasts. In addition, several new candidates submitted their resumes. Contact information for these new candidates was forwarded to Mary Pizzano and Marley Dolente who are evaluating their qualifications.

 

Parish Vision/Mission -

Many fine efforts to organize and “charter” the various individual groups/organizations/initiatives in the parish have been undertaken over the past several months. What has been missing has been an overall parish vision/mission. On the recommendation of the Pastoral Council, I have asked an ad-hoc group to meet on Monday April 28 to develop this parish vision/mission based on the “Parish Priorities,” the “charters” of the various groups/organizations/initiatives in the parish, the input from the Parish Pastoral and Finance Council and Staff as well as other parishioners. The session is to be held at “Catholic Leadership Institute,” moderated by Pastoral Council Chair, Matt Manion with other consulting assistance. Results will be provided to the entire parish soon afterwards.

 

Pastoral Outreach (Villanova University MBA Practicum) - Earlier this year, St. Monica was approached by the Villanova University School of Business who proposed a cooperative venture. The idea was for a team of students from the Villanova University’s MBA Program to work together with the parish over the intervening months to strengthen St. Monica’s spiritual and community mission by enhancing the parish’s Outreach Ministry to others. This project focused on applying what was learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario—in essence, a living case study. The practicum culminated in a final project presentation on Saturday April 26 which was attended by Fr. Zlock and other members of the parish. Project Findings and Recommendations can be found on my website here. (or go to frzlock.com - Click on “St. Monica – Villanova Pastoral Outreach Initiative”) During the next several months, Fr. Zlock will work with the Parish Councils and leaders of various parish organizations to determine how St. Monica can leverage this valuable effort to have a greater impact on the local community, while actively promoting parishioner participation in these efforts. At the conclusion of this venture, we hope the St. Monica community is better equipped to both further the teachings of Jesus and serve the surrounding area.

Catholic Schools - Terry Carey and I met with Msgr. Hans Brower (St. Katherine) and Fr. Michael Lee, O.Praem (St. Norbert’s) over dinner recently. This (well overdue) initial dinner meeting, within an atmosphere of camaraderie, candor, humor and fellowship, led to an excellent conversion about a series of issues (such as setting of tuition rates, timing of tuition determination, sacramental preparation and celebration of St. Monica students attending “regional/parish” schools, registration of families wishing to change parishes, pastoral sensitivities and age of reception of sacraments). A fuller report is forthcoming.

 

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Women’s Group - Completed phase 1 of their “Chartering Session” at IHM Spirituality Center this past Saturday moderated and mentored (fabulously) by Bernie Annechini and Theresa Rissel. The Women’s Group is aiming to have the charter complete by the beginning of June (before summer vacation). Feedback from the women was quite enthusiastic.

 

 

Employee Handbook - Terry Carey, Fr. Zlock and Amy George helped to draft an “Employee Handbook” with guidelines for parish staff, volunteers, etc… The parish staff is currently looking at the draft and will offer comments. A copy will subsequently be provided to both parish councils.

 

Parish Facilities - Flynn and Company - The parish signed a contract with Flynn and Company (commercial real estate broker). The contract terms and conditions were initially reviewed by the archdiocese. Members of the Parish Finance Council as well as an attorney for the parish made some recommendations which were agreeable to Flynn. Flynn with soon meet with the Cambridge School to discuss the terms and conditions for an on-going relationship with St. Monica to lease portions of the school facility to them. In addition, parish staff member, Diane Pealer, had been in contact with a number of other parties who had expressed an interest in some of our parish facilities. Flynn & Co. will evaluate the feasibility of these opportunities as well and report back to the parish.

Parish Facilities - The Remington Group - It has been recommended that we try and repair the Parish Center roof over the next few months before the end of the fiscal year. After analysis, Remington feels that this is a project well within the scope of the short- and long-term strategy for parish facilities and, considering parish funds are available, that is makes good financial sense as well. The names of three roofing companies have been submitted and are currently being vetted by Remington, the Parish Facilities Committee and Frank Pantano who will draft and send out a ” Request for Proposals” to several bidders, evaluate the proposals, make a recommendation as to a final choice, manage and oversee the project.

Parish Facilities - Tozer (HVAC) - together with the Facilities Committee and Frank Pantano has been working over the past few weeks on addressing a number of issues with the church air-conditioning as well as the boilers in the church and school. Some recent Sundays, the church was quite warm during liturgy, other times it seemed too cold. In a large part, this is due to the antiquated nature of our temperature control and switching system but also had to do with the recent transitional weather which was quite cold during the evening and warmer during the day. The current system does not lend itself to “fine tune” the temperature to account for these significant swings in temperatures. Nevertheless, Frank Pantano and Tozer are looking into some approaches to address the situation.

 

Finances and Preliminary Budget - Two Open Budget Meetings for parishioners were held at 12:00 noon and 7:00 PM on Monday April 14. Both moderated sessions had members of the Parish Finance Council reporting with Fr. Zlock in attendance to listen to ideas, suggestions and input from parishioners. A copy of the presentation slides can be found on my web site here (or go to frzlock.com). Look at the rotating banner at the top and click on “Parish Finances – Pre-Budget Meeting.”) In general, preliminary budget figures for the past 9 months show a slight decrease in overall Sunday collections. This will cause the parish to have to make some budgetary adjustments when examining specific programs and expense.

 

Special Snow Collection: Approximate numbers so far: $9,900.