Board of Deacons (“BoD”) Meeting Minutes

November 19, 2016

1. In Attendance:

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

1. BoE members: Terry Yang
2. Deacons-Elect: Jessica Chang, Jason Lee, Zongkui Joe Ma, Jiyong Wang

3. Absentees: Jimin Xiong

2. Location: Conference room, church office building.

3. Meeting Agenda & Minutes

1. Meeting started at 9:03 am.  Deacon Haiguo opened in prayer.

1. Deacon Haiguo welcomed the deacons-elect to this month’s meeting.

2. Senior Pastor Sharing and Update (Pastor Caleb Chang)

1. Thanks to all co-workers for organization of the Missions and Social Concerns conference on November 11-13.  Efforts continue regarding raising awareness for the missions fund and pledge.
2. Advent starts on November 27, organized by Minister Yuegang.
3. Chinese Ministry choir cantata will be on December 4, organized by JP Lee.
4. Christmas Eve service on December 24 is being organized by Cherilyn Hu.
5. Pastor Steve Chang is responsible for Christmas Sunday joint service.
6. There are three year-end missions related activities:

1. Chinese Missions Conference in Baltimore
2. Chinese Overseas Christian Mission short term missions trip in London
3. NEWS Camp in Western MA

7. The pastors are drafting the “long form” 2017 calendar including ministry activities that may have cross-congregation effects.  The hope is to integrate and desegregate all ministry teams, reflected in a single synchronized annual calendar.

1. It was noted that the church calendar on the church website is blank.  A suggestion was made to leverage technologies such as Google Calendar to enable easier and more automatic synchronization of individual ministry calendars with the master church calendar and the church website.

8. The Fall Mandarin Gospel Meeting in 2017 is being moved back to September 22-24.
9. Please pray for the process of changing the English Ministry brand to Cross Bridge.
10. Church ministries and members are requested to follow the guest speaker review process before extending invitations (including to music performers).
11. Church members are encouraged to follow the room booking procedure and leave the setting of thermostats to the stewardship committee.
12. The English pastor search committee is still receiving many resumes and continues to interview candidates.  Due to Elder Terry’s family’s new addition, Emily Cheng has taken over managing logistics for the committee.  Please continue to be patient and prayerful as we trust God and his timing.  
13. Three Chinese ministry members (including Deacon Shanchuan) were previously sent to an Evangelism Explosion clinic in Atlanta.  Evangelism Explosion training has been ongoing for three weeks with four teachers and six students.  Please pray for revival.
14. There have been many foreign students, seniors, and new immigrants with severe sickness at our church.  The church has been short-handed to address all these needs.  Please pray for this ministry.
15. A new campus fellowship ministry, initiated by Abraham Liu, has started to reach Chinese immigrant students at both Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  
16. There are two large and difficult projects the church is potentially undertaking:

1. Church building expansion alternatives:

1. Pastors have been assigned to assess the feasibility and impact of having multiple services on-site.
2. Elder Yuguang is responsible for assessing the feasibility and impact of streaming our service to remote sites.
3. One other idea is to encourage members of Chinese Ministry to attend Cross Bridge.

2. Pastor Peter Wu of Chinese Bible Church of Greater Lowell has proposed a joint venture between our two churches to plant a church plant in Andover.

17. After the recent presidential election, please pray for unity both in the nation and in the church.
18. The HVAC replacement project finally started on November 15, with the goal of completion before Christmas.

3. Board of Elders (“BoE”) Sharing (Elder Terry Yang)

1. The Board of Elders reviewed Chinese Ministry spiritual formation this past month.

1. About 40% of Chinese ministry adults attend adult Sunday School.  One of the challenges is that attendance has remained constant even as they incorporate suggestions from church members.
2. There is a desire to form discipleship and mentorship ministries.  One of the tasks is to draft a plan to enable the Board of Elders to better support the initiative.

2. During the annual meeting, Pastor Caleb announced his intention to step down at the end of 2018.  Elder Yuguang will head the Senior pastor search committee and will be looking for people to join him in this effort.
3. During the last major bylaw revision in 2012, the section that granted automatic church membership to church pastors and ministers was removed.  The human resources committee has been charged to update the church benefits policy to confer automatic membership, with the assumption is that any hired pastors and ministers have already agreed with our membership covenant and statement of faith.
4. For more information, please refer to the November Board of Elders minutes.

4. Financial Report (Lance Pan)

5. General Fund budget summary - up to October 31, total expense is $438,775 (23.9% of total annual budget), and total offering is $591,220 (32.3% of budget).  The targeted percentage is 33.3% (four months complete in the fiscal year).
6. The offering for October includes an electricity refund of $30,572.
7. Since last month’s update, the cumulative Mission Fund balance has dropped below zero to -$1,064 as of October 31. Given its overdraft status, an immediate replenishment is warranted.
8. After accounting for approved capital projects such as the HVAC project and expanded parking lot project, there is around $70,000 remaining in the capital fund.
9. As of the end of October, $70,365 is allocated to the Metro-south from the MS building fund and “50% of Metro-south surplus through the end of this calendar year”.
10. The finance committee is in process of looking for a replacement for John Cintolo, the assistant treasurer, who is intending to step down.  The hope is to identify someone from Cross Bridge.
11. The church staff medical insurance plan will be switched to Neighborhood Health Plan as per the online vote this past month.
12. Edwin Tam has proposed that the selection of the health plan in the future should be the joint responsibility of the human resource committee and finance committee (rather than the Board of Deacons).  A proposed change to the human resource committee charter is being drafted.

5. Technology Update (Joshua Chang)

1. An extra WiFi access point has been installed in the sanctuary, which has allowed more people to access the network.  If there is still trouble connecting, please notify the technology committee.
2. A training session was held for Chinese Ministry Audio/Visual team members on the new digital audio mixer.  Both worship services are now utilizing the new mixer.  The old mixer will be removed at the end of the month assuming no problems are found until then.
3. During the annual meeting, it was noted that the CBCGB website is not current; for example, there is nothing under news and events or on the church calendar.  The website team never intended to create content; their original vision was for ministry leaders to generate content with the website team assisting only with technical details.  Unfortunately, because there is no single person responsible for content, there are not many updates to the church website.  The board decided to appoint a deacon to be responsible for church website content next year.
4. Many have noted that when guest speakers come with laptops, they may not have the right connectors or cables for the displays or projectors in the rooms they want to use.  The technology committee will identify a strategy for enabling HDMI and VGA connectivity in any room with a television or projector.

1. Some deacons also noted that cables should be installed that cannot be easily detached from the wall to reduce wear and tear on wall connectors.

6. Stewardship update (Jian Zhang)

1. Property projects

1. The upper level parking exit driveway has been redesigned, reducing the cost of the project by 53%.

1. It was noted that no pedestrian access is planned for the exit driveway.  Some concern was expressed regarding the lack of strollers/wheelchair accessibility and worry that people will walk along the driveway anyways because it is the shortest path between the upper level parking and 151.
2. There was a question regarding the big picture view of church building expansion since changes have been made to the master plan since its inception four years ago.  It was suggested that the current state of the master plan be shared again with church council to help council members better understand the the long term vision for parking at church and how the exit driveway as currently designed fits into that plan.

2. The board reviewed plans for a new entrance parking lot the area between 151 and the church office.  Earlier in the month, the board already approved via online vote the project with 28 new parking spaces; however, plans have changed due to zoning and drainage problems identified during further investigation.  More discussion to occur regarding this project later in the meeting.
3. The nursery countertop, sink, and refrigerator will be replaced.
4. A new church entrance signs has been printed.  A new sign with the new English ministry brand, Cross Bridge, has also been printed.  The board also discussed proposals for landscaping the area around the entrance sign.
5. A wooden enclosure is being built around the gas pipes and instruments on the side of the main building to protect the equipment from ice and snow on advice of contractors.

2. Property maintenance

1. A safety belt and a rear light in our van fleet has been fixed.
2. Bathroom fixtures have been repaired and replaced.
3. Due to misuse of thermostats, the stewardship committee now has sole control over the thermostats.  Signs have been placed next to each thermostat with contact information if they need to be adjusted.

1. The initial signs only listed an e-mail address, but a phone number has since been added to the sign.
2. Pastor Caleb and Deacon Jian also have access to adjust the thermostat.

4. A second backup keypad for the 151 building garages has been proposed.

3. Property management

1. The remaining balance for the church office parking lot work has been paid to Twin Pines Landscaping.  Twin Pines Landscaping fulfilled their promise to grind the tree stump.
2. Better Comfort Systems inspected pipe layout work in order to begin HVAC project.
3. Met insurance agent to talk about our property insurance coverage, since the Sharon property will be removed from our policy after Metro-south independence.
4. Elevator operation was checked in preparation for the coming state elevator inspection
5. The timer for the parking lot lights was updated with the end of daylight savings time.

7. Entrance parking project (Haiguo Wu)

1. The Board had approved the project via online vote earlier this month.  However, the design has been updated with a reduction from 28 to 18 parking spaces due to design constraints.  More discussion may occur once more information is gathered regarding the proposed parking lot design and zoning/drainage constraints.

8. LED light and main parking lot scheduling (Haiguo Wu)

1. Based on a prior suggestion, changing the church lighting to LED was investigated.  However, it will cost $61,000 to change all the lights in the church building to LED.  The savings in electricity doesn’t justify the cost at this point in time.  It was suggested to only change those emergency lights which are always on.

9. Preparation for December church council retreat (Haiguo Wu)

1. The church council retreat will be on the evening of December 8.  A deacon (preferably outgoing) needs to be identified to chair the retreat.

10. Deacon Beata closed in prayer and Deacon Haiguo adjourned the meeting at 12:32 pm.
11. Addendum

1. In November, via online ballot, Deacon Haiguo motioned to switch our health insurance provider from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC) to Neighborhood Health Plan (NHP).  Deacon Chris seconded.  The motion passed.
2. In November, via online ballot, Deacon Jian motioned to approve $42,000 from the capital fund for the entrance parking project.  Deacon Tuanfeng seconded.  The motion passed.