The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Don Weltzien and opened with devotion by Pastor Rothe.

The members in attendance are listed on a separate page attached to these minutes. 34 voting members were present.

A motion was made, second and carried to approve the minutes from the January 23rd quarterly meeting with corrections to Mr. Ziel’s report.

Membership Changes:

A motion was made, second and carried to receive by transfer and by profession of faith; the individuals listed on a separate page attached to these minutes.

A motion was made, second and carried to dismiss by transfer, by release, and by removal; the individuals listed on a separate page attached to these minutes.

Jim Schneider was received as a new voting member.

The report by the Audit Committee was received and reviewed by Council. The Audit Committee found everything to be in order and all bookkeeping practices acceptable.

Unfinished Business

Report on FIC/FIO: Bob Schroeder reported for Joel on the progress made by Excel Engineering. The building committee recently updated Excel with some design ideas that were developed by the various subcommittees working on the project. In their first go round with Excel the floor plan was very significant, so they’ve been working to cut down on some of the space and tweak a few things. Excel will be able to provide some concept drawings in a couple of weeks for presentation to the congregation. Bob Peregrine discussed the school land and its current status. The County has not yet approved the Town of Oconomowoc’s land use plan. They should be meeting within the next month and we should know more after that.

A motion was made, second and carried to pay $5000 to Excel engineering in good faith for the work that they have done for us so far. The money will come from the $25,000 that has been set aside for the project development.

The Park Street parsonage has been sold and we received $155,593.20 in proceeds. The proceeds were put into the “Called Worker Home Purchase Fund” and invested in the Memorial Trust Fund.

The report on the long-range planning meeting held at Watertown was discussed. The four breakout groups identified a number of items that should be focused on for improvement. The Council is working to prioritize these ideas and will select 5-6 points that can be accomplished this year.



New Business

New Business items number 3 and 4 were stricken from the agenda at this time. They will be discussed at a later date after the leadership of St Matthew’s has a chance to discuss them with the leadership of Hope.

A motion was made, second and carried to have a special meeting on Thursday, May 22nd, to discuss New Business items number 3 and 4.

A motion was made, second and carried to authorize the Treasurer to use an additional $35,000 on our line of credit with the First Bank Financial Centre. There was significant discussion on this. The reason for the increase was to allow the payment of the Lakeside tuition subsidy that is always paid at this time of the year. There is often a shortage of money to cover this large expense and we usually have to temporarily dip into our line of credit.

A motion was made, second and carried to ratify the appointments of Roger Pruess as our delegate at this summer’s Synod Convention at Luther Prep in Watertown with Dennis Fletcher as his alternate if Roger is unable to attend.

A motion was made and second that we reduce our mission percentage for 2003 from 10% to 6.5%. After significant discussion this motion failed. The voters were interested in other options and not a continuous reduction in Synod mission offerings.

Filling the vacancy left by Andy Asmus was discussed. Steve Servais discussed the decision that was made by the Board of Ed on the need for the call. He presented a timeline that would require us to act immediately if we wanted to call from the field first, and allow us enough time to still go to the assignment committee for a new grad if our original call was turned down. Many of the voters had concerns over whether you could conduct a call at a voters meeting without giving the congregation prior notice that this was going to take place. Others spoke out about our current financial situation and would like an opportunity to check out other options. A motion was made, second and carried to Table this agenda item until the finance committee could meet with the Board of Ed and look at all the options available.

Financial Secretary: A motion was made, second and carried to approve the Financial Secretary’s report as presented.

Treasurer: A motion was made, second and carried to approve the Treasurer’s report as presented.

Board of Education: The Board of Ed is currently working on evaluating the current tuition policies of the grade school and the Lakeside subsidy. Their biggest priority is the new school building project and assisting with the design/floor plan. They are also working on developing a Non-Lutheran Elementary School youth ministry program.

Board of Elders: Announced that Council approved a pew registry program for a ninety-day trial period. The program will be rolled out as soon as funding of $200 can be attained, and someone found to administrate the program.

Board of Outreach: Neil discussed the findings from the Watertown workshop.

Board of Stewardship: Tom discussed the matching funds program and mentioned that those funds could also be directed to cover the operating expenses of the school. This is something new to the program and was not allowed previously. Their will be a table set up before and after services in the fireside room if anyone has any questions on how to participate in the matching funds program.

Board of Trustees: Eric reported on the sewer damage. We are still waiting for the final bills to come in. Some of the damage to the school was submitted in a claim to our insurance company. The sewer pipe repair costs will not be covered by our insurance.

Pastors: Pastor Rothe announced examination Sunday coming up and that we are bringing back the public examination of our confirmands. There are 28 total confirmands, 17 from St. Matthew’s and 11 from Public schools.

Mr. Ziel: Eric reported that 17 students would be graduating this year. Six of those will be attending Luther Prep, five will be attending Lakeside and six will go to Oconomowoc. The students were given a comprehensive 8th grade public school examination, that is given nationwide, and they scored in the 90th percentile average. Some upcoming events include a visit from a guest pastor who will speak to the kids about the war, also a fine arts concert will be held on May 15th.

Synod Communicator: No additional report.

Memorial Trust Fund: Distributed and discussed reports.

The meeting was adjourned with prayer.

Respectfully submitted

Todd Helwig, Secretary