| Opening Prayer -- Marian Messek opened the meeting with a prayer. Elect new committee chair -- George Penniman was elected as Trustee Chairman to replace Ted Bliss, whose term is over. Elect new recording secretary – A recording secretary, who will be appointed at each meeting, should complete the Trustee meeting minutes and email the minutes to ecminutes@yahoo.com by the Monday after the Trustee’s meeting. (Before Church Council meets the following Wednesday.) Minutes – The May 3, 2007 minutes were approved. New Members – We welcomed new members, Glenn Herman and Peter Tibbetts. Treasurer’s Report – We are ahead of last year’s pledges. The rummage sale proceeds went to fund the Outreach Budget. Heat expense is up; since we didn’t use all we had budgeted for, the actual cost may not exceed 2006. Electricity expense is up (rate increase) but kilowatt hours are down. We will take $50k from the endowment to meet 2007 budgeted expenses. The current market value of the endowment is between $380 – 400k. The appraisal fee for the chapel’s painting will be taken from the A.G. Edwards Memorial Fund. The Treasurer report was accepted. We thanked Paula Merrick for her continuing hard work these past 9 years. Stewardship Update – 2007 is the first year in many that pledging units did not decrease. Council Meeting Report – None available. Pastor’s Report – Pastor Ken proposed that all committees (except Council) meet at the same time one day or evening a month in a 2 hr.15 min. timeframe. Individual committees would meet from 6:30 to 7:45 pm after which all committees would meet jointly for an hour to review items covered at the individual meetings. This format would promote better communications among all and free up evenings to devote to church programming. Pastor Ken asked for feedback on this proposal. Sunday school rooms will be changed into different settings to support the rotation teaching plan being implemented this fall. A new Christian Ed committee has been formed. 6/24/07 - Summer Services begin – one service at 9:00 a.m. Pastor Mitzi will conduct the 6/24 service. 9/9/07 – Rally Day. Ken would like to have a tent in the parking lot for the service, followed by food and games for all. Synod in Hartford – Over 8,000 have registered and 15,000 are expected to attend. The UCC National office gets its “marching orders” from the Synod Meetings. Advent – Christian Ed will have conducted two 4 week rotations before Advent begins. This will allow all children and adults (teachers/assist teachers) to attend Advent worship services. Old Business – (a) Trustees picnic planning -- was completed. Spouses and children are welcome. The date has been changed to Thursday, 6/21/07. We thanked Ted Bliss for making all the arrangements. (b) Appraisal of fine art glass -- Talk with Dan Kottke to arrange for an appraisal. (c) Brainstorming about use of the Endowment Fund -- Church Member Art Howe’s letter regarding the Endowment Survey and his comments on the May 23, 2007 Annual Meeting are part of the minutes. Ted Bliss reviewed the Board of Trustees’ responsibilities (as outlined in the current by-laws Pages 11 and 12) on disbursement of current funds (contributions and income from endowment) to meet budgeted and non-budgeted items. A general discussion of the church’s finances took place: Why are we in financial trouble? Are members aware of our financial status? We have 138 pledging units vs. 230 pledging units several years ago. Have we done benchmarking with other non-profits regarding how endowments are spent? Should we merge with other local churches? Should we sell our property and build a new church? Although all buildings require maintenance, our building at 150 years probably requires more than a new structure would. George Penniman suggested that it is time to get past talking and time to start developing action items to resolve our fiscal problems. New Business – (a) Youth Choir Director Compensation – A motion passed to recommend that Council hire Shari Wilcox as our Youth Choir Director with compensation of $2500 to be paid for the 2007 February – June months and an additional $2500 for the September – December months. Monies will come from the Collins Bequest. Thank you, Ted Bliss -- Before adjourning the Board expressed its heartfelt thanks to outgoing Chairman Ted Bliss for all the years of devoted service he has given to our church as Trustee. We are grateful to Ted for sharing his wisdom and financial acumen with us all. We are especially grateful for Ted’s love of our church, and its members. His focus always has been the care and well-being of us and our church. Respectfully submitted, Marian Messek | 
