Minutes:

• 79. Apologies & prayers
  • Present : Stephen & Marian Coffin, Elizabeth Cherhal, Richard Sheppard, Alan and Val Golton, Neil Brownrigg, Howard Diehl, Lilia Ledent
  • Apologies: Bill Paul, Lilan Peng, David Bailey
  • Absent: Joseph Agu.

  • There was a general exchange of news while we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

• 80. Approval of minutes of last meeting & any matters arising
  • 2 minor changes were made to the minutes.

• 81. Treasurer's report
  • We've had 66,900E income, and taken 4,600 from our deposit account, which makes a total of 71,500. Expenses are 71,400E. (ie a real deficit of 4,500). There is 16,000£ in our deposit account in the UK and 20,600E in the one in France. There is 10,000E in the current account in France. Estimated required income for 2012 is 84,000E. The Common fund needs to be paid in the UK before the end of January, otherwise it'll be more expensive.

• 82. Past & future events/dates
  • There weren't many people at the Christmas day service. We don't really know why.
  • 4th February Church snow outing
  • 10th March Australian bush dance
  • Last weekend in March, visit from Bishop Geoffrey who will confirm Debbie and Marzieh.
  • 1st April AGM after short service and before meal !

• 83. Possible Sunday evening informal “sing and share”
  • Following a discussion with the Bréants and some others, the idea is to have an informal worship evening, maybe once a month, with songs and sharing. Alan reminded us that in former years the students used to have a meal on Sunday evenings at which there would be singing.Stephen insisted that there was no pressure on anyone (esp those who live far away) to attend. He and Marian will get things organised and see how it goes.

• 84. Preliminary discussion of Chaplain's Retirement date and the process to follow for finding a successor.
  • Stephen will have been here 12 years this autumn and feels it's time for a change. The official date is the 31st of October but Stephen and Marian are flexible, and would accept to stop earlier, if that enabled someone to take over at “rentrée", or later (new year).
  • Richard voiced the thoughts of many, wondering how we can afford to pay a new Chaplain.
  • The question of ICS was raised. All were in favour of continuing with ICS, who have been very supportive in the past, and also have been supporting the Lyon chaplaincy for over a century. Stephen proposed to contact ICS rapidly to see how to go about it. They might find someone to come out for a short time as a locum. Several examples of Chaplaincies having recently changed hands were given. It takes time ! Probably we will need to pay for 2 representatives to go to UK for interviews and then for any potential candidate to come here.
  • Options are:
    • A full time chaplain. This is not impossible if we have faith. (nothing is !)
    • A part time Chaplain
    • A recently retired Chaplain, who would do service in exchange for housing.
  • Stephen will ask ICS what remuneration other chaplaincies are offering and what expenses they are paying.
  • We need to get as much data as possible from ICS before the next meeting.
  • We (the council, or a smaller group of people from the council, but without Stephen) need to come up with a job description. Richard informs us that he still has the last one ! We will start tackling this in our meeting on March 14th.

• 85. Sucessor to Richard and Honorary Treasurer.
  • Fred Bréant has been approached. He would be very well qualified for the job, considering his professional qualifications. He is at home with the French system, but less with the English one of course. He has reserved his decision, and wants to spend some time with Richard, to see what the job really consists of! (Richard was warned not to put him off !)

• 86. Any Other Matters
  • None.
  • The meeting ended in prayer.