Minutes:

• Item #74- Letter from Grenoble council of churches about asylum seekers Stephen went back to the board with our council’s comments on the letter. They now are having two people talk to the asylum seekers group to find out what is more useful to be saying in the letter.
• Item #75- Christmas present for prisoners or others Christmas presents collected will be given to L’Echoppe. They will be given out at the party at L’Echoppe to those who come.
• Item #76 Committee Reports on Children’s work Richard asked about the acquisition of the walkie-talkies and table and chairs. Stephen explained that the Sunday School teachers asked for them. The walkie-talkies were given to the Sunday School and the tables and chairs were purchased. Richard questioned how the purchase was made without going through council. Dan asked whether we should not trust the Sunday School leadership to make the decision on its needs without going through council. Alan asked how we can speed up the decision process and whether everything should go through council. It was stated that this is a question of principle. Richard stated that he must be able to plan on the expenditures for cash flow purposes. Stephen stated that in the past we have not had an authorization process as we did not have budgets by committees e.g. the Sunday School did not have a budget. Richard stated that up to now all expenditures have gone through council. Stephen stated that the tables and chairs had cost 120 euros and he had paid for it.
• Item #81 Any other matters-There was a discussion of how to improve the appearance of the church and Dan clarified that his contact’s comments were more specifically about the drapery which was very old. Claire also suggested that the entrance was a bit scruffy and maybe we could do something about that including perhaps get some of the clutter out.

• The building fund needs to be moved to a separate line item for fundraising purposes.
• The Away Weekend with Daniel Cozens was reviewed. Alan stated that he had suggested that Daniel Cozens could come just with a CD of his pictures, which would keep the cost lower, but Daniel felt this was ineffective. Alan said the cost ranged from a minimum 600 euros to 1000 euros.
• There was much discussion on how to present line items such as the away weekend and social committee as they were typically almost self funding. In the budget under review, they were shown at their gross cost without the associated funds that were raised with the various events.
• One person stated that special appeals usually siphon off from normal activity. Another council member stated that was not the case in their situation.
• It was agreed to increase the evangelism budget to 750 euros.
• As the youth ministry had requested funds for equipment, it was noted that the budget did not include the necessary funds. It was agreed to include the refurbishment of the Red Room in the budget.

• There was much discussion on how the budget should be presented to the church body and how best to make people aware of the need to support the church. The discussion included presenting an order of priority of expenses so if funds were not raised during the year what would be have to be cut. The concern was that the church body must understand that they are responsible for funding the church and without that, certain ministries could not happen. Also there is a high level of fixed expenses that must be covered each month. Joseph commented on the importance of this being well presented to the church body. Marie suggested separating the church running cost from the various ministry costs. Val suggested that Dan be involved in presenting the budget to the church body. After much discussion, the budget as modified was approved by the council. The Council thanked Richard and the committee for all the work done on it. At the next council meeting, how the budget will be presented to the church body will be discussed.