Virtual Meeting with some in-person attendees.    
 

Our congregational meeting will be held THIS SUNDAY following worship. It will be held both in person for those attending live and on Zoom. It will be the same meeting as worship so no separate link is needed. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this email.  

The meeting will NOT be available on Facebook because that is a more public forum and it does not allow for two way interaction which is required for being part of the meeting. The Facebook feed will close at the end of worship like usual.

Because we are meeting in this unusual fashion, it will be helpful if you look over the budget and other items ahead. If you have any questions about them, you may wish to ask them ahead of time so you can be prepared to participate and things can run smoothly. You can call Congregational President Bruce Alhorn at 713-283-4783. 

1. Order of Opening and prayer.
2. Call the meeting to order.
3. Submit the minutes of the January 26, 2020 meeting. 
   1. Minutes available at http://flcsm.org/jan-2020-congregational-meeting-minutes
4. Financial Update – Russell House / Bruce Ahlhorn.
5. Kids of the Kingdom status update.
6. Election of Congregational Council Members.
   1. Candidates: John Holloway, Jim Jensen, Diane Laumer
7. Election of Kids of the Kingdom Board Members.
   1. Candidates: Jean Brannagan, Skip Brasher, Marsha Moore 
8. 2021 Budget Presentation – Russell House / Bruce Ahlhorn.
   1. Proposed Budget is available online at http://flcsm.org/2021-proposed-budget/
9. 2021 Budget Approval.
10. Old Business.
11. New Business - 
    1. Sanctuary air conditioning unit: The main AC unit in the sanctuary is out. The inside unit is original to the building, which is 52 years old. The council recommends replacing the current 15 ton sanctuary AC unit and boiler heat with three 5-ton AC units with electric heat. The cost for this project is $26,000 for the AC units plus the cost of electrical modifications, which we are still awaiting. We plan to fund this out of cash on hand in the capital fund. The proposal is to authorize this work at a cost not to exceed $35,000. 
    2. Stained Glass Update
12. Order of Closing.
13. Adjourn.

Our constitution and the guidance from the Synod and ELCA both allow for meetings to be held online. Smaller and less formal groups like the congregation council have \been meeting online, but the larger it is the more challenges are involved. The process will be much the same as any other meeting but there will be a few items specific to meeting this way. As the number of participants increases, it becomes more difficult(or impossible)for the chairperson to determine when or who someone is attempting to speak. We will have someone at the computer running Zoom who will watch for that. People in the sanctuary will be able to hear those on zoom but may not be able to see them well or at all but that does not impact participation. 

Here are a few rules for making this work smoothly: 

1.remain on “mute” when not speaking to avoid extraneous noise in the meeting;

2.use the “raise your hand” feature to be recognized to speak, which we will point out at the start of the meeting. (If you are accessing the meeting by telephone, you do not have that available so you will need to unmute by pressing *6 when the floor is open and speaking up to ask to be recognized.);

3.refrain from speaking until recognized by the chairperson; and

4.identify themselves when beginning to speak. 

Voting: 

Zoom has a “poll” feature that we will be using to vote. All votes are planned for ‘yes/no” as we do not have any elections with opposing candidates. 

The full guidance from the synod is at https://www.dropbox.com/s/v12v64e28wf8j1q/VIRTUAL%20MEETINGS%20FOR%20CONGREGATIONS.pdf?dl=0