HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 124TH ANNUAL MEETING
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF BELLINGHAM
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
January 27, 2008

Moderator Keith Craswell called the meeting to order and led us in prayer.  

Keith thanked our wonderful staff and all the dedicated volunteers who keep our church running smoothly and our building and grounds in such good shape. Marcia Catey has resigned as our treasurer and she was thanked for serving so capably.

 ACTIONS:
Approved Church Council reviewing the minutes of the Annual Meeting at its February meeting. (Rationale: a year is too long for additions/corrections to be made) Suggestion that the minutes be published prior to Church Council meeting for congregational review.
Approved a $20,935.13 surplus from 2007 to be placed as a "carry forward" in the 2008 budget and that same amount designated for OCWM. With this revision, the 2008 budget was approved.
Approved the 2007 Treasurer's Report as printed in the Annual Report.
Approved authorizing the Board of Trustees to refinance the present capital debt at a more favorable interest rate as recommended by church financial advisors within the next 18 months.
Approved changing the name of The Carl Calhoun Fund to the "Carl Calhoun/ Legacy Endowment Fund and deleting Section 6 "Loans to the Church" of the Carl Calhoun Endowment Fund Investment Policy. (This would eliminate the possibility of taking a loan from this fund)
Approved authorizing the Budget Committee to bring a recommendation on retiring the capital debt to the congregation in a special meeting no later than June 30, 2008.
Approved the slate of Board and Committee members as proposed by the Nominating Committee.
There were lengthy discussions of our financial support of mission and outreach and fair compensation for our staff. A policy has been to fund OCWM at a level of 10% of our budget. At this time, we are not funding OCWM at that level. Our local mission giving was also reduced. We do not have a compensation package in place for the second pastor that meets current Conference Guidelines. Therefore, any additional funds received during the year as well as re-allocated expenses will be carefully monitored by our Board of Trustees and Church Council mindful of these concerns.

The gavel was passed to our new moderator, Sharon Camblin, and Keith was thanked for his dedicated service. Moderator Sharon closed the meeting with prayer.