The parish council meets on the first Tuesday of every month. Please contact a council member if you are a parish member and would like to attend.
Council Meeting on June 5th, 2007
Meeting was held in St Mathew’s social hall and started at 7:25 PM with everyone present except Elie (sick) and Nadim who is overseas at this time.
Father Samir opened the meeting wit a prayer followed by a reading from the Bible.
Father Samir gave the council a briefing on party success and the feedback for not allowing kids into the party. Father suggested different proposals to deal with the kids issue in future parties. Father then announced his invitation to mister Souhad Khoury to become an active council member.
George took over the meeting management and after he welcomed mister Souhad Khoury to the council, he gave the podium to Toni Halabi (treasurer) to give the council a financial report and the state of the mission, everyone got a copy of the P&L from Toni and what we concluded was that in order to collect our expenses from Sunday’s collections, we need to double the amount collected every Sunday, then we discussed all possible ways to increase membership and to encourage people to join the church and attend on regular basis.
George spoke about reenergizing committees work and encouraged each committee head to come up with a plan that can be discussed and put into action so we can build on and move forward in different directions.
So far these are the committees created with clear missions:
Public relation committee to be headed by Souhad after he gets familiarized with the processes that were practiced by Nadim Harfouche.
Then we talked about the picnic that was scheduled for June 17th, and decided to move the date to the 24th for several reasons, there was no objection from anybody for the move and so it was decided. We will send an email to inform people on location, date and time of the picnic. It was also decided that Paula will take care of the food preparation for the picnic, food will be furnished and prepared by the council and sold for $10.00 per person and $15.00 per family.
Also was decided that Roula brings a Cake for father‘s day mass on the 17th, Father Samir will recognize all fathers during the mass.
Meeting was adjourned after father Samir delivered the closing prayer.
Council Meeting on May 2nd, 2007
Meeting was held in St Mathew’s social hall and started at 7:15 with everyone present except Patrick Njeim who is currently in Lebanon.
Father Samir opened the meeting with a prayer followed by a reading from the bible.
The meeting agenda was followed and all items were discussed except Sunday school and Youth activities for lack of time. These 2 items will be first to discuss in the council next meeting.
Father Samir told the council about the creation of new finance committee and about the first meeting that they held. The finance committee was formed with the following members:
Toni gave the council a brief financial report with all current accounts and amounts.
Short discussion followed on the May 19th party and a decision was taken to hold a mass/picnic sponsored by st Joseph for all parish members with their families to be held in Shoreline park on June 17th. Paula will reserve the space for the planned event.
The mission will sponsor all tangibles necessary for the picnic (plates, plastic ware, charcoal for barbeques, water and juices, etc…) parish members will be asked to bring their own food.
Other issues discussed and voted down:
Events that were voted on and approved are:
Other events that are tentatively approved but needs confirmation:
July 8th- Possible Falafil lunch since father Samir is going to be away and parish members will be attending the Roman Catholic mass at St Mathew.
Possible combine liturgy on Sunday May 27th or June 3rd.
Finally a request was made for all council members to be available half an hour early for May 19th party for final role assignment and final touches.
Council Meeting on April 3rd, 2007
Attendance: Full council, no absentees.
Meeting started at 7:05 PM by a prayer followed by a reading from the Bible.
Immediately after the reading, George gave a progress report on the May 19th party and role assignments for members to assume before and during the party.
Nawal Sayah, Joe Daher will not be attending (vacation & personal reason) Nadim may be out of town. Everyone else is on and ready.
Father Samir talked about the Book production and explained to members the idea behind it. Father Samir was asked to find out from the volunteer printer on how to submit data, pictures, business cards and any other printing materials. Father Samir will let us know ASAP on the medium desired for information submission.
Father asked that if each member can solicit 10 ads, we could raise significant amount of money for the church. We all agreed that we should have no less than 60 ads before the end of April for the book production to go forward.
Other decisions made:
We also agreed that Father will share all bank accounts information with financial committee and have them manage the accounts. Financial committee will submit a detailed report to council every month during the regular meeting.
Also all other committees will submit progress reports, budget needed, resources to use etc….Father Samir will give Roula phone numbers for similar associations elsewhere that can help Roula expand her understanding of what is required of her committee to do.
Fairuz and Patrick will have to brain storm ideas, do some serious research on what kind of activities, programs and ideas to work on so our youth get interested in what we offer them and participate with enthusiasm in this extremely important youth invitations. Budget and resources will be made available for the development of this program.
Paula was asked to help with Sunday school program. This program needs lots of work and a true plan that could succeed and to realize the expected goals behind the idea. Also budget and resources should be dedicated to this program.
George than explained his resignation letter and the logic behind the dissolution of the old council. The result of the letter instituted a retirement of all job descriptions and associated posts. The new job assignments stem from the Melkite rules book that father will pass around to all members so we can all read and understand the policies of the diocese and how the advisory council board works.
Father Samir will conduct all future meetings until we have a clear set of rules on how to move forward with our mission and who is responsible for what.
Before the meeting ended, Joe Daher formally resigned from his post and he was thanked by Father and by the board for all the sacrifices and the good work that he did over the years. Joe was asked to come back to resume his role anytime he chooses to do that.
Meeting ended at 10:00 PM.
Council Meeting on January 2nd, 2007
Present were: Father Samir, Joe Daher, Elie Kourdahi, Paula Farhat, Nawal Sayah & George Faddoul
Absent were: Nadim Harfouche, Patrick Noujeim traveling @ Toni Halabi sick
Father Samir opened the meeting @ 7:10 PM with a prayer and a small reading from the bible.
Father followed with a report on the status of the mission, the status pf the application for non profit organization, the mission got a new Employer Identification Number by which we can open a new bank account and transfer the money from existing tax ID number that still belong to the Maronite Archdiocese.
Father also shared with us his plans to visit the homes of all parishioners and non parishioners during Tiffany holiday and distribute the new printed calendars, all the revenues from donations generated during these visits will go to the general mission fund, father will be compensated for all car and travel expenses.
Father wanted to change the way we distribute the Sunday bulletin and starting this Sunday we will not stuff the bulletin in the prayer books instead Father will walk to ward the main entrance at the end of the mass where 2 people will stand by him and give away the bulletin as he greets people on their way out. Father will remind people to pick up a bulleting to read.
Father will do another push, letter and verbal reminders, about Sunday school and encourage families to enroll their kids.
Financial report:
Joe Daher, treasurer, gave the council a financial report. Although the total amounts in both saving and checking did not see any sizable increases, we are seeing a growth in collections and contributions.
The council is spending money on legal steps, church and coral group and that spending is taking away some of the contributions that otherwise would be in the saving account of the mission.
As of now, the saving account has $27900.00 and the checking account has about $4000.00. Stacy Chalhoub, CPA, is asked to audit the books and reconcile the account.
Different options were discussed to raise funds and bring more money to support the mission. Auction on Jewelry donated to the priest should add some money to the total income expected to be raised from the party on Feb 17th.
Party preparation:
After further discussion on the VIP issue, the council decided to drop that option and increase the ticket price to $50.00 per adult, $25.00 for young adults and free for kids.
We will provide dinner, entertainment and babysitting for kids in a different room close to the main hall so parents can enjoy some time on their own.
George was entrusted to connect with the entertainer and secure a contract. Talk to Ella about Maza and dinner while keeping Jason the caterer as an option.
The party tickets should out by Early next week. Paula will be responsible for ticket distribution.
The council agreed on auctioning 3 items and raffles 3 to 5 items only.
The council agreed to ask Roula Jarjour to join the council and entrusted Paula to make the invitation.
Meeting was adjourned about 9:30 and closed by a prayer.
Father invited everyone to cookies, fruits and beverage after the meeting.
Council Meeting on November 14th, 2006
Attendants: Father Samir, Joe Daher, Paula Farhat, Nawal Sayah, Nadim Harfouche, Patrick Noujeim, Elie Kourdahi & George Faddoul
Father Samir started the meeting at 7:30 PM with a prayer followed by George thanking the council members for a job well done the Sunday we made the Falafel feast.
Everybody enjoyed the falafel fest and we were able to save about $700.00 for the church.
We discussed the structuring and cleaning of the database that is circulating between too many people and the need to consolidate and maintain the DB, George will work on that issue and have done before year end.
We talked about charges for miscellaneous services that the church provides, father Samir will review the list of charges and make the changes necessary. Patrick suggested if we can calendar in events that we can do every year for individual parishioners like memorial services.
George announced to the council that Nicole Khoury and Leslie Srour have offered their resignations from the council but not their willing to help.
George will send a thank you letter for both individuals for their work and contributions to the mission.
Father Samir talked in length about several important issues that affect the future of the mission, among those issues:
We were supposed to discuss the Dec 2nd party, we ran out of time so we decided to have a meeting on Tuesday the 28th to discuss party preparation only.
Father Samir closed the meeting at 10:30 PM and invited everyone to the desert table that he had beautifully prepared.
Prepared by George Faddoul
Regular council meeting was held at Starbucks on Lake City Way across from Father Samir’s apartment, the meeting started at 7:45PM with the following attendants: Father Samir, Nadim, Tony, Paula, Elie & George.
Other members were absent for various reasons.
Father Samir opened the meeting with a small prayer and than George proceeded to welcome father Samir to St Joseph mission and wished him the best of luck on his assignment, George explained the current status of the mission and handed out a stack of papers to father, those papers contain the council self defined job description, council member names and current financial statement.
Father Samir was asked to tell his story and his past experience and his plans for the mission. Father told the council he was ordained a priest at age 25, he was born in Jordan and studied in Lebanon at the Melkite monastery than he was installed in Jerusalem for a while, after that he was transferred to the US and served in different state, his assignment in Seattle was a surprise to him because it was not planned.
During the first few days of father’s arrival, Bishop Elia who was still in Seattle, gave father a good rundown of the situation of the mission, so father has a good idea of what needs to be done to get the mission going again. Basically father has to start building from the ground up with all the programs that any normal church would have starting with a mass that people can attend, pray and feel the presence of God.
The steps father mentioned that he like to start with were:
Father also wants to move out of the apartment and live with a roman Catholic priest in any of parish housings so he can save us money and be with someone spiritual knowing that father has asked the Vicar of the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle to become bi-ritual so he can help catholic churches with masses when needed.
Father is donating gold jewelry (worth about $2000.00) for our next party to help with fundraising, that jewelry was donated to father to raise fund for the church that he left and the donor asked father to take with him and to donate it to St Joseph.
The council agreed with father Samir to pay him for his salary, food and retirement fund the amount of $1950.00 divided as follows: Salary $1550.00, food allowance $350.00 and $50.00 retirement contribution.
Until father leaves the apartment, the council will pay the rent apartment and the cost of utilities (total about $800.00 per month)
Other issues discussed in the meeting:
We need to get going on planning the party since we have limited time to prepare. More emails and communications will be forthcoming from George regarding the planning and role assignments.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:00PM
P.S Council Meetings are open to all church members and we encourage everybody to come and participate.
General Meeting on Wednesday August 23rd, 2006
The first general public meeting started at 7:35 PM with moderate attendance, the president of the council opened the meeting with a short welcome speech followed by an introduction of the council members and an explanation of responsibilities for each post.
The president enumerated and thanked the council for all the achievements that the council had done so far and thanked the previous council that was headed by Abraham Moukarzel for all the work that they did and the foundation that they laid down for the parish.
A document was handed out to all attendees containing the following:
The financial statement was explained and discussed, continuous update on financial information is found in every Sunday bulletin. The last figures show that we have about $30,000.00 in our bank account. It also details our monthly obligations to the priest, St Mathews, apartment rent, and other expenses as they come, total expense were $2,800.00 and total obligations (things we should be paying for) are $3,900.00 per month.
We asked all attendees to fill out the survey form so we can get a sense of what the meeting was about and whether the church will get the community support it needs to continue its journey. A survey form was posted on the internet to capture opinions from those who could not make the meeting.
A explanation was given by George Faddoul, president of the council, on why Father Charles is no longer the parish priest. It basically came down to incompatibility between the priest on one hand and the council/parishioners on the other, fundamental disagreements between the council and the priest made accepting the priest’s resignation a desirable result. A request to the Archbishop Bustros was made for a replacement priest and one got assigned to our parish as of Sept 30th of 2006.
The meeting’s moderator Mrs. Aniese Naffah took over the floor and a question and answer session opened to the public. Several questions were asked and some suggestions given.
The suggestions were the followings:
A Question was asked regarding assurances that this time around we will have a priest that will meet our expectations and will fix all the ills of the missions. The answer was that it is up to the diocese to send us a priest capable of leading this community onto the right path and we will have to wait and see the new priest’s qualifications.
Another question was about the council short term and long term plans for the church.
Answer was, the short term plan was to continue to solidify the parish member base that we can build on, continue to develop programs, do fund raising parties to augment our financial strength and to be of assistance to the new priest.
Long term plan is to increase parish member, put out news letter on a regular base, focus efforts on fund raising toward the ultimate goal of building or acquiring our own church with all the attachments from having a kitchen, to a social hall, gym, school etc…become a center for help that can be extended to new comers or/and locals in need.
A question was asked if we can interview the priest before he can assume his responsibility.
The answer was that it is not easy to do that especially that there are no priests to choose from so again we are trusting the archbishop to send us an experienced priest that can help us put this mission in high gear.
Most attendants were supportive of the efforts that the council is putting out, most promised to support the church in many possible ways and that they want the church to continue and to prosper for their sake and their kids sake.
Meeting ended at 9:00 PM