Board of Deacons (“BoD”) Meeting Minutes

July 16, 2016

1. In Attendance:

1. Attendees: Pastor Caleb Chang (Senior Pastor), Joshua Chang (Acting Secretary), Chun-Yi Hu, Lance Pan (Treasurer), Beata Shih, Jimin Xiong, Xin-Wen Wang, Haiguo Wu (Head Deacon), Jian Zhang, Tuanfeng Zhang
2. Invitees: BoE members: David Ho
3. Absentees: Christopher Cheng (Secretary), Phil Sailer, Shanchuan Zhao

2. Location: Conference room, church office building.

3. Meeting Agenda & Minutes

1. Meeting started at 9:07 am.  Deacon Haiguo Wu opened in prayer.
2. Senior Pastor Sharing and Update (Pastor Caleb Chang)

1. Pastor Caleb and Esther are grateful for the church-supported short term missions trip to Chinese Overseas Christian Mission (COCM) England in June.
2. Short term missions sharing at missions committee meeting (7/10) and at Chinese ministry prayer meeting (7/19).
3. Rev. Eric Yang suddenly passed away on Sunday, 7/10.  Pastor Caleb attended the farewell service before cremation in San Francisco on behalf of CBCGB and met many CBCGB old timers.
4. The Board of Elders has approved Pastor Caleb’s recommendation to offer the position of Youth Minister (with a focus on the Senior High ministry) to Stanley Chang, who had a candidate visit and on-site interview here with his wife June 8-13.  Pray that offer package will be sent in a timely manner and pray for their decision process.
5. A new website for the English pastor search has lead to many applicants, but there is an uneasy feeling interviewing complete strangers.  Church members are requested to help refer or recommend people they know.
6. Praise the Lord for the high morale of Metro-south church plant.  Cash and pledge goals for the new building project has been reached and tax exempt paperwork has been approved, all ahead of schedule.  Please pray for the process of Metro-south independence, that it would be a godly and healthy completion of the church planting process.
7. Pastor Caleb thanks the church council for approving funding for the HVAC replacement project, in which six aging heat pumps will be converted to gas-fired HVAC units.  The project will likely start with the ones used by the chapel and front entrance, which are at end of life.

3. Board of Elders (“BoE”) Sharing (Elder David Ho)

1. Next year, seven deacons and four elders will be finishing their terms.  Please pray for the selection of the new deacons.
2. Elder Bryan Che will be taking the lead with regards to working on the Mission statement following the Vision statement that has been developed.
3. The human resources committee is encouraged to put together an offer package for the Youth pastor candidate as soon as possible.
4. For more information, please refer to the July Board of Elders minutes.

4. Financial Report (Lance Pan)

5. The numbers above are preliminary and have not yet been reconciled by the finance committee.
6. General Fund budget summary - up to June 30, total expense is $1,697,407 (95.8% of total annual budget), and total offering is $1,967,770 (111.0% of budget).  The targeted percentage is 100% (12 months complete in the fiscal year).
7. The outstanding Metro-south member loan balance is $126,429. Through June 30, 50% of General Fund surplus attributed to Metro-south has reached $26,917. Together with Metro-south Building Fund balance of $113,958, the combined balance of $140,875 is sufficient to pay off the member loan, which will take place shortly after concluding the final reconciliation of the fiscal year financial statements.

5. Technology update (Joshua Chang)

1. Video cables have been updated to higher resolution cables, except in the chapel which requires a lift.  Some audio problems have manifested themselves; fixing these requires tracing out the audio cables to identify and fix the problems.

1. Stewardship committee will be renting a lift during the second half of August at which point the technology committee will replace the chapel’s VGA cable converter.

2. Two more Wi-Fi access points were purchased for the sanctuary to increase network availability.
3. The phone system in the church office was entirely replaced.  The automatic answering system (auto-attendant) needs to be finalized with the phone company and a training session needs to be conducted.
4. The English ministry website is waiting for the English ministry branding team to finalize on the brand.  The website is anticipated to be finished in the next month.
5. The committee is working with the finance and membership committees to identify a unified program to store membership data that meets the committees’ requirements.
6. The committee is working with the BoE to install a video conferencing system in the church office.

6. Stewardship report (Jian Zhang)

1. Property projects

1. As part of the carriage house and church office parking expansion project:

1. The trees in the carriage house parking lot have been removed
2. The carriage house parking lot has been widened/cleared
3. An area has been created next to the carriage house to allow for easier turnaround.  
4. An area has been paved at the front left of the church office for extra parking spaces.
5. Pot holes in the main driveway have been repaired.

2. The stone stairway between the carriage house parking and church office has been closed as a result of the parking lot being widened.
3. An Eagle Scout project has created a flower-bed dripping system.
4. The new playground set has been installed.  Stewardship and Children’s ministries will discuss further about playground plantings.
5. There is an investigation testing solar-powered lighting in the upper parking lot that is using temporary basketball hoops to ascertain effectiveness.  Lighting also needs to be installed along the path from upper-level parking to the main parking lot.
6. The committee is considering different ways to improve parking at the end of the main parking lot area
7. New parking lots have been suggested in the area between the church office, 151, and the driveway into the church area.  The church needs to consider how to accommodate parking if we lose the ability to park in the Stride Rite parking lots in the future.
8. New HVAC will be installed in the main building for the first floor, chapel, and front entrance between August and October.

2. Property maintenance

1. The crumbling stone wall has been fixed.
2. New stop signs have been installed.

3. Property management

1. A google spreadsheet has been created for recording room reservations with a coloring scheme that will minimize human errors.
2. In queue:

1. Get office stairs repaired.
2. Make telephone labels.
3. Work with the IT committee for switching the church telephone system.
4. Order new refrigerator for church office.

7. Other discussions

1. Metrosouth has obtained its own tax ID and a few other legal documents required for its independence.  They will vote regarding independence soon in the future.  The potential celebration of growth could happen as soon as January 1.
2. The board discussed how the church can further support Metrosouth in their push to raise money to build their new church building

8. Deacon Beata closed in prayer and Deacon Haiguo adjourned the meeting at 12:21pm.