Central St. Matthew UCC
Special Congregational Meeting
Sunday, December 6, 2015
The meeting was called to order by President, Curry Miller at 11:21 am Sunday, December 6, 2015. A Quorum was present and the President recognized the members of the Take Action Committee asking them to stand.
Motion:
The president asked for a motion to remove from the table the motion from the Take Action Committee made at the November 15th special congregational meeting. It was moved, seconded and unanimously passed to remove the recommendation from the table. Paulette Timpton asked to add an addendum to the recommendation and the president told her that that would need to go through the Board of Trustees and Governing Council before the congregation could vote on an addendum.
Dale Bonds, chairperson of the Take Action Committee read the recommendation from the Take Action Committee:
The Take Action Committee unanimously recommends to the Congregation of Central St. Matthew UCC that we sell the Bienville property minus the parsonage and use the funds to renovate the Carrollton facility. We further recommend that a Move Forward Committee be established consisting of two sub committees, a Ministry Expansion Committee and a Renovation Committee
The motion was moved and seconded.
Discussion followed. The President asked that those speaking identify if they are speaking for or against the recommendation. We would alternate the discussion between the two opinions.
Speaking against the recommendation were: Cheryl Cramer, Robert Perry, Edith Jones, Michael Dejoie and Karen Lodrig.
Speaking for or neutral and not against the recommendation were: Carol Etter, Marie Weatherspoon, John Pecoul, and Charles Hadley.
Al Eickelmann spoke to the fact that in our denomination the majority speaks. Those who win should win without gloating and those who lose should do so without bitterness.
Sarah Moore moved to table the recommendation. Edith Jones seconded that motion. A vote was taken with a show of hands. 20 voted yes to table the motion and 35 voted nay. There were 4 abstentions.
The question was called and paper ballots were distributed. John Etter and Sam Ashley volunteered to count the ballots.
The results of the counting were: 26 against, 42 in favor and 1 abstention.
Cheryl Cramer made the motion that the Church council allow a nonprofit to take over the Bienville property. It was explained that this was a Special Congregational meeting and we could not entertain a motion that had not been in the call to the meeting. Such a motion may be made at the next regular congregational meeting.
There being no further business Curry thanked all for attending and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectively submitted by Arlean Fermanis, secretary