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Dear St. John's,
Since the vestry meeting last night involved discernment over a significant potential acquisition for the parish (the Hook/Rosales organ), I wanted to send a detailed report immediately and invite you all to be part of the next step of the process.
Last night, the vestry approved a resolution commissioning a delegation from St. John's to go to Marysville, CA (north of Sacramento, where the organ is located) to listen to the organ and look at it in person and then make a decision as to whether to acquire it or not.
Any member of the parish who is interested is encouraged to join the delegation going to look at and listen to the organ this Sunday, June 17, in the afternoon. Bill Visscher will be there to play the organ to demo it for us. Contact Anne Baker if you are interested in going. Carpools are being arranged.
When the time comes to make a decision, only the vestry members present will vote, but they will take into account the feedback and input of all members of the delegation.
The vestry also approved a formal committee charge for the Aptos Youth Endowment Committee (to develop and oversee the new youth program funded by the Rebeles' gift) and next month will appoint members to serve in that official capacity. At the end of this email you'll find the full text of that committee charge. Please read it and let me know if you are interested in being appointed to that committee.
Many blessings,
Mother Tracy+
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More Detailed Report from the Vestry Meeting
Tuesday, June 12, 2018, 7 - 10 (!!!) p.m.
The vestry minutes, once approved, will be the official record of the meeting. I simply want to highlight some more detail than the minutes will show about the process and discussion from last night.
Discernment re: Hook/Rosales Organ in Marysville
This matter took up the majority of our meeting. It was approached with utmost seriousness and prayerfulness by the vestry and guests present.
Bill Visscher, the former organist at St. John's who helped build this organ in Marysville and brought it to our attention when it became available, was able to be present for the vestry meeting and answer questions. (That development happened after I had already sent the agenda to the parish, so my apologies that more of you didn't get to know that he would be there.)
The vestry and the guests present (John Melvin, Charles Greenleaf, Don Zimmerman, and Win & Eileen Fernald) spent nearly an hour with Bill, asking questions and taking a tape measure to the space on the dais (raised platform where the altar is) to see if and how the organ would fit in our current space, since one of the requirements of the church who is giving it away is that it be used immediately rather than put in storage.
Based on our interpretation of the specifications Bill V. had sent, we had come to think that it would not fit without significantly crowding the altar area and perhaps even blocking the barn doors.
After talking more in-depth with Bill V. (who knows this particular organ inside and out, literally), we realized that the organ would indeed fit in the current space, either with the back of the organ facing the left wall of the sanctuary area (with the organist sitting facing toward that wall, the opposite direction from where Nico currently faces) or with the back of the organ against the back wall of the sanctuary to the left of the barn doors (with the organist sitting with his or her back to the congregation). The measurements showed that in that arrangement, the organ would come EXACTLY to the edge of that wall, but without sticking out at all in front of the barn doors.
In the first scenario (against the left wall), the organ would come out as far as the music stand part of the piano (above the piano's keyboard), where the piano is currently located.
In the second scenario (against the back left wall), the organ would not come as close to the end of the platform as the current organ and piano do (it would stop maybe a foot or so further in toward the back).
In both scenarios the acoustic baffling in the corner above the organ would have to be removed (which is surfance sheetrock), and the piano would have to be moved somewhere else -- either to the other side of the dais (as a simple solution) or possibly to where the nursery is now, if we were to remove the nursery wall (which is a temporary, non-load-bearing wall meant to come out in the final design), and there could be a choir section with piano against that back wall of the room.
After answering the question of the hour about whether the organ would physically fit in the current space, we spent time firing off questions to Bill V. about the organ and the cost and its quality and value. I'll try to recap some of the questions we asked and answers we learned. All answers here are paraphrases of what Bill Visscher said to us.
How much would it cost to disassemble the organ and reassemble it at St. John's?
Approximately $100,000
Does that include the cost of disassembling our current organ as well?
No
How much would it cost to move the new organ from the current space to the new sanctuary when it is built?
I can't recall the complete answer but I believe Bill said you'd need to pay at least two workers $88/hour (that's in today's terms) for several days. I think the total was somewhere close to $40,000.
Lots of words have been used to describe the organ that are subjective, like "amazing" and "incredible." For those of us who aren't organ experts, give us a practical way to conside this. On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being the lowest quality and 10 being the highest possible quality organ in the world, where does this organ fall?
About a 9.7
How much would it cost to buy an organ like this one new?
In today's dollars, $650,000 - $700,000. (By the time we build the new sanctuary, the cost could be closer to a million dollars.)
How much would it cost to have an organ designed specifically for the space in the new sanctuary?
About the same amount as the question above.
Are we doing ourselves a disservice if we acquire this organ instead of having one built specifically for the new sanctuary?
Building one specifically for the sanctuary would be the ideal, but Bill didn't think we would really lose anything by not doing so, nor that we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn't build a custom one.
The casing (wood exterior) of the organ is somewhat gothic-looking and doesn't exactly match with the architectural style of our new building. Would it be possible to put the pipes in a different casing that more closely matched our church's architecture?
Bottom line: Yes, it would be possible (although Bill took about 10 minutes to describe to us the painstakingly meticulous manner in which he built the current casing, ending that description with: "But, I mean, if you want to throw all that away....")
Would the church's electrical voltage be sufficient for powering the organ?
Yes
This organ is intended for a much larger space than our current worship area. Would the sound overpower us in the current smaller space?
It would be possible to adjust the blowers on the organ to decrease the sound output to make it suitable for the current space, ensuring that we will still be able to hear each other and ourselves as we sing, and not be drowned out by the organ.
In light of Nico's departure, would the presence of this organ help us to attract an excellent organist in our next Music Director, even if we are not the highest paying congregation in terms of salary?
Yes. At Bill's current church, major organists have come to work there because of the quality of the organ, even though the church is not a huge cathedral with the budget to pay a large salary to an organist, because the opportunity of playing that organ is worth that much to them. Major organists from across the country have also come there to play concerts because of the organ.
We asked Anne Baker the following questions regarding the cost of necessary and possible alterations to our current building:
How much would it cost to remove the baffling (acoustic panel) from the left corner of the sanctuary? (necessary)
Maybe a few thousand dollars
How much would it cost to remove the nursery wall? (possible/optional)
Approximately $8,000?
After the vestry and our guests had exhausted all the questions they could think of for Bill, the vestry used the church's formal discernment process used for major decisions to consider all the reasons they could think of why the church should NOT move forward with acquiring this organ and all the reasons we SHOULD.
Questions and topics covered included the following:
- How would we pay for the $100,000 cost of dismantling and reassembling the organ? (There are two sources of funding coming to the church soon that would allow us to cover the cost without touching the operating budget or the building fund: one, the proceeds from the sale of a property in Santa Cruz in which we were given an approximate 11% interest in a bequest. The proceeds we'll see from that sale are estimated at somewhere around $150,000. The other option would be using a small portion of the proceeds expected from the Jean Strong trust, which has no restrictions as to its use.)
- Is an organ essential to the future of worship in our church? The organ is somewhat of a dying art. Should we take the Marysville church's experience as a cautionary tale? They built this great organ and are now having to close the church and sell the building because the congregation dwindled too much over the years. Could this happen to us?
- We carefully considered the perspective of two parishioners who took the time to write notes to the vestry giving their perspective on the matter based on what was presented in the agenda last week.
- We don't have a clear sense of our mission as a congregation. We should take the time to discern that first before embarking on a process like this.
- This process feels rushed because it is time sensitive. Are we allowing that to push us into an unwise decision?
- On the other hand, the fact that this organ came available at the exact same time as we have two possible sources of income that could cover it without touching our regular funds feels very serendipitous. Could this be the Holy Spirit at work? A sign? Is God offering us this organ as a gift?
- We have many things we say we care about here: serving the homeless, ESL, working with youth, attracting young families. Among our priorities is worship, which we think this organ would enhance significantly, but why should we give priority to this one thing over the other things that we also care about?
- Despite the fact that organ music is a "dying art" and mainline churches are declining, we're Episcopalians! The organ is central to the Anglican musical tradition. We like a variety of styles of music here but we wouldn't really want to give up an organ being part of the mix, and yes, we do feel that organ music is an integral part of our worship.
- This is a congregation that loves and excels at music. This organ would enhance that significantly and possibly make us a musical center in our area.
- Several people shared stories about experiences in other churches where a new organ was acquired and it attracted musicians to the congregation as parishioners and revitalized the parish.
After considering all these questions and perspectives, the vestry took a vote by secret ballot. The motion was to send a delegation to look at the organ and acquire it if that group decided it was a good choice, giving the vestry members on that delegation permission to make a decision without having to call a meeting of the entire vestry or wait until the next vestry meeting for a vote.
8 voted yes, 2 voted no, and 1 person abstained. (We had two vestry members not present.)
I may have forgotten some details of the various questions and perspectives we considered. Ask any vestry member about their experience of the decision-making process if you have questions or concerns. My experience (Tracy's) was that it was a prayerful and holy discernment process that was led by the Holy Spirit.
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Results of Other Items on the Decision Agenda:
a. Approval of Minutes from May Meeting (8:25) - APPROVED
b. Hook/Rosales Organ in Marysville (8:27) - APPROVED (see above for details of the vote)
c. Use Youth Endowment Funds for Rector's IAF Training (8:29) - APPROVED
d. Architecture Committee Charge (8:31) - APPROVED, with a structural edit (not affecting content) to put the charge in the same format as the other committee charges in the congregation
e. Appointment of Members to Architecture Committee (8:33) - DEFERRED TO NEXT MEETING
f. Aptos Youth Endowment Committee Charge (8:34) - APPROVED, with an edit to say that the membership will be comprised of 7 or 9 members rather than 7 to 10, to ensure that there will be an odd number of members on the committee so there will always be a tie-breaker
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Aptos Youth Endowment Committee Charge
Written by Michael DeArmond (youth ad-hoc) and The Rev. Tracy Wells Miller (rector), 5/23-6/18
Revised 5/27/18 by Rick Becton (vestry), Chris Cottle (youth ad-hoc), Charles Greenleaf (youth ad-hoc), Michael & Mary-Nona Hudson (youth ad-hoc), Judith Maxfield (recent participant in COPA organizing), Rowland & Pat Rebele (youth ad-hoc and donors), & The Rev. Tracy Wells Miller (rector)
Approved 6/12/18 by the vestry
1. Purpose
The Aptos Youth Endowment Committee assists the Rector and Vestry in providing oversight and coordination for the community youth program based at St. John’s and funded by The Rowland and Patricia Rebele Endowment Fund for Youth Ages 11-18.
2. Membership
The Committee shall have seven (7) or nine (9) members appointed by the Vestry. At least one (1) member of the Committee shall be a member of the Vestry, at least two (2) members shall be students in grades 8-12, and at least one (1) member shall be an adult from the greater Aptos community who is not a parishioner at St. John’s. The Rector and the Youth Program Director will be ex officio members of the Committee.
On an annual basis the Committee shall designate one of its members to act as convener and chair of the Committee.
With the exception of the ex officio members, each member shall serve a one-year term and members may be re-appointed. After serving three consecutive years, a member must rotate off for a period of one year before serving again on the committee.
3. Meeting Frequency
The Aptos Youth Endowment Committee shall meet at least once per month and may schedule additional meetings on an as-needed or emergency basis.
4. Role and Function of the Committee
- While the program is in the development stage:
- Actively engage with community members, both students and adults, for input and participation in the development of the program
- Encourage other parishioners not on the Committee to be involved in the process of developing the program
- Be an “ambassador” for the program both in the parish and in the greater Aptos community
- Encourage buy-in and ownership of the program by the parish
- Develop a name and mission statement for the youth program
- Administrative Oversight:
- Report quarterly to the Vestry on the Youth Program’s activities
- Work with the Rector and Personnel Committee to develop job descriptions for the program director and other part-time staff or volunteers
- Participate in the interview process for the program director and staff
- The Rector and the Committee Chair will conduct an annual performance review for the program staff, incorporating feedback from the rest of the members of the committee.
- Develop a budget for the youth program and submit it annually to the vestry in November/December for approval.
- Monitor spending for the youth program to ensure that it is in line with the approved budget
- Work with the Endowment Committee to oversee the corpus of the endowment and monitor its performance
- Consider additional sources of funding as necessary
- Operation:
- Ensure the youth program stays on track with its mission
- Be the ‘face’ of the youth program from St. John's
- Develop relationships with schools, churches, and other institutions in the community serving youth ages 11-18
- Develop policies and guidelines for the operation of the youth program, including appropriate means of interaction with students via email, phone, and social media.
- Approve and monitor the program’s use of parish facilities and offsite facilities
- Approve and monitor special events
- Develop an application process and policies for approval of volunteers and outside vendors, including background checks
- Ensure the youth program is in compliance with state law regarding work with children and in compliance with the Episcopal Church’s policies on ministries with youth and children, per diocesan and denominational canons.
- Work with the Rector to ensure that all employees and volunteers working with the program have received the “Safeguarding God’s Children” training.
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2018 Vestry
Education – Barbara Raney (2020) & Peter Goodman (2019)
Facilities – Jon Showalter (2018) & Rick Becton (2019)
Finance – Anne Baker (2019)
Helpful Shop – Bill Kell (2018)
Hospitality/Parish Life – Karen Greenleaf (2020) & Jeanne O’Grady (2020)
Outreach – Gina Muller (2019)
Parish Care – Andrea Seitz (2018)
Stewardship – Suzanne Krakover-Nickel (2018)
Welcome & Invitation – Sally Lewis (2020)
2018 Vestry Officers
Senior Warden – Bill Kell
Junior Warden – Andrea Seitz
Clerk – Nancy Shephard
Treasurer – Anne Baker
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