The CVCC Council met on April 16^th. It was noted that although our council consists of twelve people only seven were in attendance, that said it was the Wednesday of Holy Week.

Duddie provided the Financial Secretary’s report and the Cash Flow Report was reviewed. We noted cash is getting tight and we will continue to review the cash status weekly. We may need to withdraw funds from the endowment, although this is not a good time to take funds out with the market down.

The annual building insurance premium is $9,931 and is paid in four quarterly payments of $2,483. Nancy Irving has seen multiple comments, in an online church tech group she belongs to, that other churches have been receiving cancellation notices from insurance companies that specialize in Church Insurance coverage. We may want to get quotes from local or other companies before our renewal in August.

Melody will switch to her summer hours starting in May, which are 8am to 4pm Monday through Wednesday, and 8am to 12:30pm on Thursdays.

Anne and Nancy met with the Masons earlier this month. They have been informed that in order to be a “Sanctioned Lodge”, they need “Exclusive Use space”, a space strictly for them. We showed them the former Henderson Room, (former Food Pantry sorting room). They think this space will work well for them. It will require some modifications. They will draw up a plan for our approval and they will do whatev- er  construction work is needed to make the room suitable for their purposes. It should work out well for all concerned, as if they move to that room we will regain the sliding door closet off Fellowship Hall and will not have to break down the worship service setup for their monthly meetings.

At the April 11th dinner, 82 meals were served. The dinner raised $1,415 however with food costs (even at the nice discount Carl was able to get) and advertising costs we netted $416. There is a lot of work that goes into these dinners. How can we increase the revenue raised? Increase what we charge, or our sug- gested donation amount? Cut back on paid advertising and use email and social media more? Can we get food donated? Should we have one or two gift baskets or prizes to raffle off at each dinner, would that raise more or just increase our costs?

Diaconate update: Judy provided an update on the remainder of Holy Week, with the four services this week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunrise, and Easter 10am) as well as the Easter breakfast. Charles will fill in for John on April 27th. Katherine Rhoda will be spending less time in the area this year but is scheduled to provide music for our services on July 20th, September 28th and October 19th.

The two building projects we are focused on next are the external siding on the bell tower and the sanctu- ary. Our insurance company has threatened to cancel our policy if these repairs are not done prior to next winter. Bergeron Technical Services has sent out for quotes for this work. We are looking at something other than cedar shakes, vinyl or composite that will resemble the shakes. Once we have that quote and we have a final number, and hopefully a check from FEMA, we will move forward with that project.

We hope that our funds will enable us to simultaneously start work on the sanctuary. The walls need to be replaced at an estimated cost of $47,000 to properly contain and dispose of any potential asbestos. For those who have not seen it, there is a design on the table in the Narthex, just outside the sanctuary doors, of the changes planned for the Sanctuary. We intend to resume reaching out to folks for capital donations to help fund this work and other projects that were needed and arranged prior to the flood.

The Spring Event was discussed at length. We do not have storage for Yard Sale items since we had to move the food pantry. So the decision was made to skip the Yard Sale this year. The only weekends we had available due to scheduling conflicts were after Memorial Day. Duddie noted that the plants won’t likely sell well after Memorial Day as most have their plants by then. Charlyne noted she did not have that many quilted items available to sell. With all this considered we made the decision not to hold a spring event this year. Since we typically budget for $5,000 of income from this event we will need to find another way to raise those funds.

We would like all of our members and friends to think about ways we could raise funds for the church, what fundraising events have you taken part in that have been successful? We are open to all sugges- tions. Please keep in mind the number of volunteers and planning time involved in the projects, and what initial investment might be needed.

Our largest fundraiser each year is the Fryeburg Fair, accounting each year for approximately one- quarter of our annual budget. The fair has added the preceding Saturday to the schedule this year so the fair dates are Saturday, September 27^th to Sunday, October 5^th. Our Apple processing will begin on Tuesday, September 23^rd with the baking started on Wednesday, September 24^th. Please mark your calendars now, we will need all hands on the deck for this major undertaking. It takes approximately 700 volunteer shifts to make this happen.

We will be looking to line up who can run the apple peeler/corer for the day and night shifts. We will need shift leaders who know how to run the ovens and evening shift leaders that know how to close up the booth for each fair day. Carl has repairs to make on the trailer. Should we do a trustees appeal to cover the costs of the paper products and other supplies for the fair so that we net more of the funds raised?

Blinds were installed in Fellowship Hall on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Nancy Irving, Trustee & Council Member