St. John Pastoral Council Meeting
May 1, 2006

Fr. John Robbins opened the meeting with a prayer.  The March minutes were approved.

Council members in attendance:  John Bryan, Jeannie Carbo, Denise Diegel, Mike Fisher, 
Rosalie Gardner, Terry Jones, Mary Mussari, Mike Oster, Peggy Rager, Bob Repsher, 
Fran Rock, Paul Rock, Janet Tenney, Frank Tontala, and Steve Torbeck

Staff in Attendance: Fr. Kevin Mueller, Fr. John Robbins, Agnes Geraghty, Pat Brink

School Board President – Tom Witmer       

Guests: Teresa O’Brien, Jenny Scott

Parishioner Concerns – Some parishioners are concerned that the Bookstore in The Portico 
is open on Sundays.  This issue will be reviewed by the Liturgy committee.  They will 
check with other churches and religious shrines to determine their policies about hours 
of operation on Sundays.  

OLD BUSINESS:
Carnival Report – Jenny Scott and Teresa O’Brien reported about the upcoming St. 
John Carnival.  Jenny thanked all the ministries who helped last year; the Carnival did
well and it was a nice family atmosphere.  Last year’s net profits were $11,882.  They
hope to make 50% more this year; about $30,000, but want to make at least $25,000.
They will try some new items this year like funnel cakes and hopefully pit beef. There
will be a stage and possible security this year.  They hope to have people from the 
various ministries to volunteer at the booths; they need more help from the parish.  Most 
of the workers are from the school.  They will sell wristbands for $7 for T, W, and Th and 
encourage families to buy them in advance.

COMMITTEE UPDATES:

Outreach & Evangelization - Frank Tontala reported that the committee met on April
17th. The new issue of The Evangelist will go out in early June.  The Mary Martha 
Ministry is going well; the 9 week Bereavement Program called A New Day will begin
at St. John’s in September.  Janet Tenney attended the Faith in Action Training program;
there are 3 St. John parishioners who will be involved in the program. This program helps
homebound seniors with visits, grocery shopping, yard work and light housework.  On 
the weekend of May 20/21, a Ministry Fair will be held in The Portico; 11 ministries
will be represented.

Religious Education – Becky Martin was not in attendance, but sent her report.  Paul 
Gallagher is looking for 100 facilitators to assist with the Why Catholic Program; 40 
people have volunteered as facilitators and the first meeting for them will be held at 
St. John’s on June 12th.  Tickets for Scott Hahn’s visit in September will be on sale in 
June.  21 members of RCIA entered the Church at the Easter vigil and 14 people are
in the new RCIA class.  191 students were confirmed this spring.  Marty Link has 
resigned; interviews for this position will begin this week.  

School Report – Pat Brink reported that the school is involved in events like Fun Day,
Spring programs and planning for next year.  There was a successful Marketing 
Campaign on radio and in the newspaper.  Enrollment will be down next year because
each class will now have a limit of 30 students.  Kindergarten parents were surveyed
and the school will be investigating the possibility of offering both full day and ½ day
programs; full day kindergarten will not be state mandated in non-public schools.  
School board report – No official report.  Tom Witmer mentioned that we have had to
raise tuition because of decreased enrollment (the decreased enrollment is because of 
recommendations from the Archdiocese on class size).  The school budget is now over
$2 million.  We are also meeting Archdiocesan guidelines for competitive teacher
salaries. School tuition is competitive or below other schools in the Archdiocese.

Development - Ralph Arnold was not in attendance but sent a report.  The goals for the
committee are to reach the weekly offering goal of $30,700, finish the Capital Campaign, 
Phase II ($220,000) through additional letter writing, work with St. John school board to
develop funding plan for Full Day Kindergarten, develop a plan for introducing the 
Catholic Family Foundation to parishioners and exceed our Lenten Appeal goal.  In 
addressing these goals, the weekly offering is averaging $29,582, up 7% from last year, 
but short of the goal.  We have received $77,000 toward our Capital Campaign goal, but
we plan no new campaign initiatives. Since we are not required by law to implement full
day Kindergarten, no new expansion of the school is required at this time.  No new 
projects for school facilities are in the foreseeable future.  The Cardinal’s Lenten appeal
is behind in its goal, but we have already collected $89,000, $2,000 more than last year.

Liturgy – Rosalie Gardner reported that the first representative of the Spanish ministry
attended the liturgy meeting.  Also, the committee is already making plans for next year’s
Liturgical Ministries Retreat.  There have been many complaints by parishioners about
behavior in church; there will be additional training for ushers on how to handle these 
situations.  The Easter liturgies went well.  Denise Diegel reported that there have been 
over 200 people at the Spanish masses.  Bob Repsher commented that the Easter masses  
 in The Portico were packed and the parking/traffic was terrible.  The Liturgy
Committee will look into this issue, possibly moving back to Baker Chapel.

Management & Finance- No report

NEW BUSINESS:
Nominations Report – Jeannie Carbo reported that 2 candidates dropped out of the 
Election, so the following is the slate for the Council elections this year:  John Bryan,
Dean Ditman, Rebecca Maurio, Debbie Middleton, Jim O’Donnell, Bobbi Sandusky,
Vickie Stark, Janet Tenney, Tim Watkins, Jay Zeminski.  The election will take place
on the weekends of May 13/14 and May 20/21.  New council members will attend the
June meeting.
Picnic report – No report

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  
Fr. Kevin announced that Msgr. Art will probably be returning to Maryland this month 
to recuperate; there are no details on where he will stay.  

MEETING ADJOURNED.
						Respectfully submitted by,
						Peggy Rager, Recording secretary