Minutes:
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| 1.
| Apologies
The following people had sent apologies : Mark and Carine Lewis from Burkina Fasso, Montserrat Mané, in the US at the moment.
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| 2.
| Electoral Role Officer
Alan Golton, the electoral role officer reported that there were 56 names on the role. That is one more than last year ! Unfortunately it is not possible to add people on the day of the AGM, the role stops one week before, and opens again the week after.
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| 3.
| Minutes of last year's meeting to be approved
The Minutes
As not many people had read the minutes on the web, Stephen read them and they were adopted.
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| 4.
| Report on Church Council
The secretary's report
Elizabeth read and commented the report.
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| 5.
| Church Wardens Report
The Churchwarden’s report
David read and commented the report.
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| 6.
| Church Wardens Election
David Bailey had served as churchwarden for 6 years, and was unable to stand for reelection this year. Marie Colbert thought she was too often away from Grenoble to be able to continue. Joseph Agu and Elizabeth Cherhal-Cleverly had agreed to stand for election, and were elected. David was presented with a “certificate” to thank him for serving all this time.
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| 7.
| Election of Synod Representatives
They will serve for 3 years. There is no report of the synod this year as it has not met since our last Annual Meeting. Alison Coulavin and Valerie Golton had agreed to stand for reelection, and were elected.
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| 8.
| Financial Report
Each person received a copy of the accounts which had been approved by the auditor. Richard Sheppard gave the financial report. He had predicted last year that this year would be a difficult one, as we had to pay more charges in France as well as face a substantial rise in pension charges in the UK. However he had not forseen such a dire situation. We have 62KE income which is not enough. Richard stressed the fact that if we want to keep our chaplain we absolutely need to keep our giving up.
2 questions were asked:
- Sarah Paul asked why no “fund raising money” appeared in the accounts. Richard answered that it was currently included in “total income”. He will try to do more precise figures later.
- April Kern asked how many pledge forms (see council minutes for pledge forms) had been received. Currently we have 20 forms.
It was explained that the accounts contained a new part: the statement of assets, here we can see the commitments alreday made for charity giving or missionary support for the coming year.
The accounts were adopted. A round of applause was given to Richard for the hard and persevering work done on the finances.
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| 9.
| Accounts and Reports
Reports on our children's & youth ministry and our different missionary concerns.
- Marian Coffin read a report sent by Mark from Burkina Faso --> Mark and Carine's Report
- Montserrat had not had time to write a report on sunday school, but Stephen read a letter which will be given to every parent -->Sunday School report -->Sunday school letter.
- Alan Golton gave a report on the “outreach-evangelism” committee
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| 10.
| Church Council Election
The following were elected: David Bailey, Marie Colbert, Jason Kern, Lilan Peng, Richard Sheppard, Dante Thomas, Penny Vincent-Sweet.
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| 11.
| Chaplain's Report
The Chaplain's report
Stephen commented his report and ended up saying that it was remarkable that among the 75 names on the church mailing list, more than half served in some capacity, which was pretty exceptional. He thanked all those who had in any way served St Marc’s this year.
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| 12.
| Amendments to Procedures including proposals for Deputy Churchwardens
The council had discussed the idea of having deputy wardens to help the wardens in their tasks. Either to stand in for them while they were away, or to give advice or generally share the work. These would be chosen among the council members. This was adopted by the AGM.
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| 13.
| Miscellaneous
Church members made the following remarks or suggestions :
- Jane Sheppard asked for a round of applause for the catering committee. (The room resounded !)
- Hannah East, on behalf of all the students, thanked all those who had been involved with the student welcome, lunches and bible studies. They all had much appreciated their year in Grenoble and the St Marc’s family.
- Stephanie Vincent-Sweet thought that the family service could be improved, and didn’t seem to address all members of families currently.
- Thomas Vincent-Sweet asked if the church had a newsletter, as he would like to keep in touch during his studies in England. (his email needs to be added to the list !)
- Penny Vincent-Sweet stressed the importance of the prayer chain, and suggested that prayer requests be kept in a book and prayed for at services.
- Suzanne Bréant thanked Alison for producing the magazine.
- Lilan Peng suggested the church website be updated, particularly to reflect the international character of its membership.
- Howard Diehl thanked Jane for the flowers.
- Marie Colbert re-stressed the need to pray that Howard and Dona raise enough funds to be able to stay with us another year.
- Jane Sheppard suggested we better organise visits to people in hospital (members of the church or not).
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| 14.
| Meeting's end
The meeting ended in prayer.
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