Vestry Adopts Animal Policy for St. John's Buildings and Grounds

By Mother Tracy

Rector

After an incident this spring in which a dog belonging to a woman staying in her RV on St. John’s property allegedly bit one of the church’s neighbors, the vestry decided to take a look at how and when animals are present on St. John’s campus. We decided it would be wise to put in place clear guidelines and expectations for the behavior of animals and their owners while they are on our property.

A subcommittee was formed to look more closely at the issue, which consisted of vestry members Eileen Fernald, Suzanne Krakover-Nickel, and Gina Muller and members-at-large Nancy Shephard, Karen Greenleaf, and Janet Duncan. I also served on the committee. 

Our office manager, Chrys Sparks, very helpfully compiled a list of sample policies from other churches and universities and after reviewing and discussing those samples, the subcommittee drafted a policy for St. John’s that was approved by unanimous vote of the vestry at the August meeting.

The full text of the policy is printed below, and will be posted on the parish website, the parish bulletin board, and other areas around the campus. Please draw pet-owners' attention to this policy if they plan to bring their pet with them to St. John's.

Animal Policy

Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, Aptos, CA

Approved by the Vestry on August 15, 2017

Our animal policy aims to take into consideration both the needs of animal owners and people who may be allergic to or fearful of those animals, in order to create a welcoming atmosphere for all people and creatures on our church grounds.

Animal owners are welcome to bring their dog, cat, or other pet to St. John’s grounds and in the church's facilities, under the following conditions:

1.      The animal must be on a six foot (or shorter) leash or crated, and it must be under the control of the owner at all times.

2.      Employees and volunteers may have a pet with them in their office while doing church work, but must have a sign on the door notifying others that an animal is present and must provide an alternative meeting space if someone prefers a pet-free zone.

3.      No animals are allowed in the kitchen or the nursery.

4.      If bringing an animal to a group meeting, the pet owner must ask the other members of the group ahead of time if they are okay with the animal being present.

5.      The animal should be well-behaved. This means that the animal can sit quietly and not distract the owner or the rest of the people present from the tasks at hand. If the owner has to constantly interact with the pet, or if the pet is interacting with others in the room such as to cause a distraction, others present may ask the owner to remove the animal.

6.      Owners must clean up after their animal. This includes disposing of pet waste (i.e., scoop the poop), cleaning up any other messes made by the animal while on St. John’s campus, and removing hair or dander from areas where the animal has been sitting (to try to keep the area as allergy-free as possible for the next people who use the space).

7.      All animals must be tagged, registered, and vaccinated in accordance with appropriate state and county regulations. This includes being up-to-date on anti-flea medications.

8. If you have a complaint or concern about an animal present at St. John's, please contact the rector.

This animal policy may be expanded or revised in the future as needs arise.

Selecting the Vestry Nominating Committee

By Mother Tracy
Rector

At the August meeting, the vestry appointed the following people to the vestry nominating committee for 2018:

Eileen Fernald, Chair

Debra Spencer

Brian Raney

Vicky Wilson

Ray Wolfe

I will serve as facilitator of the Nominating Committee. I will attend meetings, but my primary role will be to facilitate rather than participate in the discernment process used to guide the invitation of the nominees.

To give you some background on what the Nominating Committee is and the selection process:

Article 5, Section 6 of the parish by-laws states:

"No later than the August Vestry meeting, the Vestry shall appoint a Nominating Committee consisting of at least three members of the Vestry. The chairperson of the Nominating Committee, who is one of the three members, shall be designated by the Vestry. The Nominating Committee may choose one or two additional members from the Parish at large. At least 21 days prior to the date of the APM [Annual Parish Meeting] Session 1, the Nominating Committee shall select nominees of no less than one person for each vacancy on the Vestry. Written notice of the names of the nominees shall be given to the Clerk of the Vestry."

Traditionally, the vestry members who serve on the Nominating Committee are those who are about to rotate off the vestry that year. The vestry decided to continue that tradition this year. (The three vestry members on the committee, Eileen, Debra, and Vicky, are rotating off the vestry at the end of this year.)

In consulting with Eileen, Debra, and Vicky, we felt it was important to follow the by-laws' invitation to choose "one or two additional members from the Parish at large" because in doing so, the voice of non-vestry members would be heard in the nomination process. This way, it won't be just vestry members selecting who the next vestry nominees are going to be.

We intentional chose two men, to add gender balance to the group. We selected one person who has been a member here for many years (Ray) and one person who is a newer member of the congregation (Brian, who joined St. John's when he was baptized as an adult a few years ago).

The Nominating Committee uses the standard, structured discernment process that has been used at St. John's for many years for making important decisions in the life of the parish. First, the committee discerns what characteristics are needed in new vestry members -- what qualities or skills are missing on the vestry, or will be missing after the current class rotates off, that we need on our board right now?

After praying and listening for God's guidance on that question, the group brings the list of characteristics they have come up with to the rest of the Nominating Committee. The committee as a whole then decides upon one list of characteristics, drawn from each committee member's input, taking special notice of characteristics that appear on more than one person's list.

Then, each member of the committee looks through the parish directory with those characteristics in mind and prays that God would reveal to them who might have these needed characteristics. Each individual creates a list, and then shares that list with the rest of the Nominating Committee. Anyone whose name shows up on more than one person's list is sent a formal letter from the Nominating Committee inviting them to prayerfully consider running for vestry next year.

This thoughtful, prayerful process for inviting people to serve on the vestry was one of the most exciting things about St. John's to me when I was learning about you all from conversations with the Search Committee and Vestry in my application process to become Rector here. I'm very impressed with the level of prayerful consideration you as a community put into this process, and I'm looking forward to getting to facilitate it myself this time around.

If you have questions about the Nominating Committee and our work over the next few months, please contact Eileen Fernald, who the vestry has appointed as chair of the committee.

Rector sets performance goals for 2017-18 program year

By Andrea Seitz
Junior Warden

Every year the Vestry goes through an evaluation of the year called a Mutual Ministry Review (MMR). The purpose of the MMR is to look carefully at the work that has been carried out on behalf of the parish’s mission to see how well goals have been met and where the Holy Spirit may be leading in the future. It is an honest, prayerful appraisal that can provide much cause for both celebration and a revisioning of the future. The process leads directly into another planning process that takes place each year: the Rector’s personal goal-setting for the purpose of her annual performance evaluation.

During the planning process for our new Rector, the Rector’s evaluation procedure was reviewed. The former process was vague and lacking in specificity. So, the Executive Committee rewrote that section of the contract to create an evaluation process that would encourage self-reflection and improved planning and coordination.

When Mother Tracy was hired, the process was collaboratively refined and finalized with her. The current contract asks the Rector to write five goals with accompanying measureable objectives. One goal is specifically for the parish, one for the Vestry, one is a personal goal and two others are her choice.

The goals are to be developed with the MMR in mind (where the Vestry has had input), any strategic planning document in place, input from the evaluation given that year, and for this year Mtr. Tracy also referred to our Parish Profile. The goals are then reviewed with the Executive Committee and the entire document is shared in closed session with the Vestry. It should be stressed that this is a collaborative process, covered with prayer and careful thought and completely undertaken for the good of the parish.

Mtr. Tracy's goals for the 2017-18 program year are as follows:

1. Curate a Sunday worship experience that is accessible to all ages, welcomes newcomers, and joyfully proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that is relevant to people’s daily lives. (Goal for the Parish)
2. Expand and develop my public speaking skills. (Personal Development Goal)
3. Encourage and promote reconciliation and healing throughout the congregation.
4. Develop efficient and clear procedures and practices for vestry meetings that encourage transparency and reduce conflict. (Goal for Support of the Vestry)
5. Support strategic planning for the next 5-10 years of St. John’s future.

Mtr. Tracy was intentional about formulating her goals based on information from parish-wide reflection and input led by the Vestry. This past year the reflection process was led by the Search Committee during our Lenten Study and resulted in our Parish Profile. The Rector’s evaluation is tied directly to this shared search for what we are being called to do, which leads to goals and objectives to accomplish and then assessment of how well they were accomplished.

If the process works as intended, the Vestry as a whole will be taking this information back to their ministry areas and collaboratively, seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance, will develop yearly goals during the Mutual Ministry Review. These goals and objectives will be shared at Vestry meetings and will form the major work of the Vestry for the year. The process is dynamic, lively, focused on our mission as disciples and should provide for opportunities for celebration as we see our plans to serve Christ in ever more meaningful ways come to fruition. We can all be a part of this yearly journey.

Office and Godly Play Room to Switch Spaces

By Mother Tracy
Rector

During the last week of August, the main office in the church building and the Godly Play room in the trailer annex building will switch spaces.

This change will make the annex building the center for all office operations at St. John’s, creating more collaboration and community amongst a staff that is currently disconnected from one another by physical location. Having the Godly Play Sunday School room in the church building instead of across the parking lot will be more convenient and safer for parents and children on Sunday mornings.

The tentative plan is:

• Move furniture Monday, Aug. 28 (Can you help?)
• Deal with all IT issues on Tuesday, Aug. 29 (computer hook ups, printer set up, networking, etc)

Whose idea was this? Why is this happening?
The idea to switch the spaces emerged from conversations I had with some office staff and Sunday School teachers. I then consulted with the rest of St. John’s employees, the regular office volunteers, the Sunday School teachers, and the vestry liaisons for Children and Youth and Building and Grounds, keeping the entire vestry informed about the process along the way. I received a lot of positive feedback from the majority of the people consulted about how this space use change would be beneficial to both the office staff and the Sunday School, so I made the decision last week that we would go ahead with the move.

So if you’re reading between the lines here, yes, I was ultimately the one to make the decision to move, but it was a decision made in consultation with those it would affect most and after an overall consensus emerged that this would be a positive change.

Why now?
The timing of the move allows Sunday School volunteers to set up the new space with plenty of time before Sunday School resumes on Sept. 10.

What all will be moved?
Chrys’s desk and the office volunteer desk will move to the largest room in the Annex, the room that is currently the Godly Play room.

The office copier and printers and the Riso duplicator machine used to copy the bulletins (now in the hall closet) will also move to the annex, along with other needed equipment and furniture.

Godly Play will move into the present office space.

The large mailbox center across from the bathroom near the current office will stay where it is, since that mailbox serves more than just the staff (it includes mailboxes for all vestry members, supporting clergy of the parish, and other key volunteers).

Adult library books will move to upper shelves in the current office (soon to be the new Godly Play Room), making room for Sunday School supplies on lower shelves, and the possibility of a collection of children’s books near those lower shelves. There will also be the possibility of using the Godly Play Room during the week for small meetings.

How will this change benefit the office staff and volunteers?
Currently, the staff is spread out between the trailer annex and the main building. Chrys and the office volunteers are in the main building while the bookkeeper and I are in the trailer annex. What this means for the daily operation of the parish office is a lot of running back and forth between the annex and the building and a lack of connection between the staff and volunteers. There is also no permanent, reliable office space for our other employees, organist Nico Canzano and Helpful Shop Manager Jil Anderson, to use. Though they are both part-time and need minimal office use, if they ever come in and need access to a computer, there is no guarantee they will have a place to sit and work.

Wilma Staver, our office volunteer extraordinaire who prints the bulletins for us each week, has to pull the Riso machine out from one of the storage areas into the hallway near the nursery every time she wants to use it. And since the Riso machine is very loud, there can be nothing else going on in the sanctuary or café space while she’s printing because of the noise it generates.

In the new configuration, the plan is to create several work stations and make sure there is always one available for Nico or Jil to use when they have need of it. Everyone will be in the same space and able to collaborate more closely. Wilma will not have to plan her schedule of printing bulletins around when groups are using the sanctuary and café space.

Won’t we lose the sense of community we have in the office now if we take it outside of the church building?
We have a sense of community created in the office by people dropping by when they’re at church for other things and we don’t want to lose that. The hope is that people will continue to “drop in” to the office as they always have, with a need for copies, to talk to Chrys, drop off donations to the Helpful Shop and library, since all those things will now be in the trailer. We'll leave the door to the trailer propped open when the office is open (as it usually is on Tuesdays already). (Ed Note: Chrys and volunteers are in office Tues-Thurs 9-2, Fri, 10-12:30).

Remember: This is all temporary!
Is this an ideal situation? No. It means the office will be more disconnected from the church building, even as the people working in the office are more connected to each other. But remember that the trailer annex is not a permanent location for the church office. The office’s final home will be in the office wing of the church when it is built. Moving all the offices into the trailer begins to create an “office wing” feel that is what the designers of the church were aiming for when they planned for an office wing in the building. Think of the office trailer as a placeholder for what is to come, and let it remind you of the vision of the completed building that we’re working towards.