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                                    HOLY ANGELS FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES

                                                April 15, 2010 

OPENING PRAYER
Fr. Jerry Brittain led the opening prayer. 

ATTENDANCE
Fr. Jerry Brittain, Fr. Nathan Reesman, David Beine, Jack Daniels, Paula Beine, Harry German, Kathryn Fisher Davies, Pete Rettler, and Mike Nowack.  Absent were: Chuck O’Meara and Randy Lawson.   There were non-committee members in attendance. 

MINUTES OF THE PRIOR MONTH
A motion to approve the minutes was made by Dave Beine and seconded by Paula Beine.  The motion was approved unanimously. 

OVERVIEW OF MEETING:
Jack provided an overview of what the meeting would consist of. 

-          The financials need to be reviewed by the members outside of the normal meeting time; questions need to be brought to his attention prior to the meeting.  (At the end of these minutes, highlights of the financials are provided.)

-          Jack would like to form a sub-committee to select the Audit firm that would conduct the audit; he will pursue the interest of existing Finance committee members via E-mail.

-          Jack passed on to Mike Nowack (Parish Council Liaison) a sheet of projects from the Property & Grounds committee that it would like to go forward with over the summer months.  Each of the projects would be financed with Faith In Our Future funds.  The committee is seeking approval to proceed or not to proceed with the projects at the Parish Council meeting in May.

-          The remainder of the meeting consisted of “Informational Presentations” being made to the Finance committee on various school related activities.   

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATIONS:
Jack stated that in the interests of complying with the Archdiocesan objective that the Parish have only “one” bank account on its books, it was now time to attempt to do so.  (Over the course of the past two years, the Parish has upgraded its accounting system by adapting QuickBooks as its primary accounting software.  This program provides the capabilities of performing accounting transactions for various categories (“classes”) of parish interests while at the same time keeping them separate.)

The purpose of this effort is to have presentations made by the people who are currently performing these activities in order for the Finance Committee to better understand the nature of the activity.  The objective of this undertaking is NOT to take over any responsibilities NOR is it to simply transfer funds over to the Parish for the Parish’s use.  (Activity balances will be transferred, but the purpose of any legitimate reserve will be honored.)  

INFORMATION SHARING FROM THE ATHLETIC COMMITTEE
Nick Chesak, Pat Bollen, Stephanie Rychtik, Linda Stanek, John Minz, and Toni Keegan attended the Finance Committee meeting representing the Athletic Committee.  Nick Chesak, the Athletic Director talked about how some of the athletic dollars are used.  Nick stated that the Athletic Committee funded the playground supervisor position which has been very successful in curbing bullying at the school.  Nick shared the expense of maintaining the gym floor and the uniforms used by all the teams.  Nick explained that it is very important that parents understand that proceeds collected for various athletic events are returned back to the athletic budget.  He worried that parents may not be as likely to volunteer to help out at athletic events if they thought money would go into a church general fund.  Stephanie talked about the ability to cut checks in case of emergencies.  She gave an example of the refrigerator breaking down just before a tournament was starting.  Nick wondered why the Finance Committee was trying to fix something that was not broken.  John Minz wondered if all purchases would now have to be approved by the Finance Committee.  Mike Sternig talked about a club structure being in place when he started at Holy Angels and the problems he had with a club structure.  Pat Bollen stressed that officials need to be paid in a timely manner and we needed to consider that if we went to centralized checking. 

Paula and others assured the Athletic Committee that its funds would remain Athletic Committee funds, and that the Athletic Committee would continue to authorize the use of their funds as they have in the past.  Paula clarified that the Finance Committee and Parish Council will continue to have oversight responsibility because the Athletic Committee and funds are part of the Parish.    Jack reiterated that the elimination of unnecessary bank accounts and centralized checking was being called for by the Archdiocese in order to improve controls over disbursement of funds.  The Finance Committee will consider all of the information shared and figure out ways to stay efficient with centralized checking. 

INFORMATION SHARING OF THE SCRIP PROGRAM
Chris Schommer shared how the SCRIP works.  It certainly sounds like a very worthwhile project that greatly benefits Holy Angels.  The SCRIP program has its own dedicated software program. Father Jerry shared a document dated March 2010 from the Archdiocese titled “Revised Scrip Policy for Parishes/Schools.”  Kathryn and Paula determined that SCRIP needs its own checking account because of the statement on page 2 of the document, “Use one separate checking account for scrip.” 

THANK YOU TO PRESENTORS:
The Finance Committee thanks both the Athletic Committee and the SCRIP representative for sharing information with us and applauds them for all their work.  (Mike Sternig will appear at the next Finance Committee to continue discussions on other activities.) 

REVIEW OF FINANCIAL RESULTS – MARCH
The weekly collections account was below budget for the month by $1,640 which puts us $45,989 behind the budgeted amount year to date.  The tuition account shows that we have collected $337,504 year to date compared to the yearly budget amount of $618,706. 

ADJOURNMENT
A motion to adjourn was made by Jack and seconded by Kathryn.  The motion was approved unanimously. 

Respectfully submitted,    

Pete Rettler, Secretary, Finance Committee