SSJC-WR COMMITTEE MEETING – Minutes October 13, 2018
San Rafael Church
17252 Bernardo Center Drive
San Diego, CA 92128
Present: Fr. George Morelli, Fr. James Bankston, Fr. James Babcock, Fr. Ramon Merlos, Pastor Paul Bieber, Diane Alves, Bob Greenwell, Jim Trageser, Mark Hartman, Anthony Porrello, Sally Provencio
The meeting opened at approximately 11:00. Opening prayer was given by Fr. Ramon Merlos.
Chairman’s Report: Fr. George opened the meeting by saying that this meeting will be about revision/simplification of the By Laws. He also mentioned that he had emailed his suggested revisions to the members of the Executive Committee.
Vice Chairman’s Report: Fr. Bankston said he would talk later.
Secretary’s Report: Diane Alves had previously mailed out the minutes (incorporating revisions by Fr. George). She asked if anyone wanted to make any changes or had any objections. She mentioned she had tentatively put the minutes for September 29th on the website with a disclaimer that they were subject to change. When no one asked for any revisions, it was decided that the minutes are approved.
Treasurer’s Report: Bob Greenwell didn’t have anything to add to his report of two weeks ago. Future changes in our financial procedures are discussed in the By Laws section of these minutes.
Website Team Report: Fr. Bankston moderated this discussion. Since two members of the committee can host websites for free, Jim Trageser and Mark Hartman, we will stop using a paid web host. Mark mentioned he might soon get a job elsewhere, so it was decided that Jim Trageser will host the website. Jim mentioned that he is with GoDaddy.
Fr. Bankston assured Diane that nothing about the website will change. He mentioned having the EPP code which is related to domain name registration transferred to Jim.
Since we will have a membership category called Supporting, Fr. Bankston mentioned adding a PayPal Donate button to the website and offered to install it.
Diane said that currently she and Fr. Hans are the only two people who have administrator privileges to the website. She asked if she needs to grant administrator privileges to Fr. Bankston, so he can move the website. Fr. Bankston answered no and said current assigned privileges (including Fr. Hans’ privileges) will go away when the website is moved.
Light of the East Newsletter: Jim Trageser said the main topic for the November 15th newsletter will be our reorganization. He has also been searching for articles about reactions of Eastern Christians to the Roman Catholic sex abuse/pedophilia scandals. Other suggestions for the newsletter were brought up by committee members. One idea was travel pages which would include pictures taken by someone who travels to significant church landmarks (Example: Hagia Sophia). Another idea was to have pages describing local parishes complete with pictures and parish information. Each newsletter issue could profile one Eastern parish and one Western parish. Visiting monasteries and convents and providing information similar to what we will provide for parishes was another idea.
New Business — By Laws Revision: The rest of the meeting was a discussion of By Laws revision using Fr. George’s rough draft as a starting point. We have no legal requirement to have By Laws since we aren’t a corporation, but we have an informal obligation to the National Board of SSJC to have a formal organizational structure, even though simplified.
We started by discussing eligibility for membership and decided:
–Anyone who has interest in Canonically recognized churches in the following list can be a Supporting member: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic churches, or Assyrian churches, if approved by Jack Figel, National President, Fr. George will make contact.
–Supporting members are required to pay at least a token amount (as little as $5 a year). They can, of course, choose to pay any larger amount.
–Executive Committee (voting) membership is normally restricted to members of the above listed churches, but exceptions can be made by the Executive Committee on an individual basis.
–Who can join the Executive Committee will be decided by a vote of the existing committee. The Committee consensus was that individuals applying for ExCom membership have some active function, they can provide the Society.
–Officers will be chosen by a vote of the Executive Committee.
–Executive Committee members will pay dues ($50 per year).
–The offices of President and Vice President will be renamed to Chairman and Vice Chairman.
–Honorary memberships can be awarded to people who do something special for the organization.
–Supporting members and Honorary members have voice but no vote.
Concerning elections:
–Section 4: Nominations will be by the Executive Committee. Supporting members can petition to join the Executive Committee.
–Sections 5 through 8 can all be rolled into Section 5. These sections describe elections, terms, duties of officers, removal of an officer, and vacancies. The result will be Section 9 becoming Section 6 which states that other positions may be created by the Committee (Example: Webmaster).
Most of the above ideas for By Laws changes were brought up for discussion by either Pastor Paul Bieber or Jim Trageser.
Conclusion of meeting: The following decisions were made:
–The newsletter will be out on November 15th (on the website). Its format will be more flexible than for a print version; however, right now Jim still has the templates for the print newsletter and might use them for the first few website issues.
–The next meeting will be held Saturday November 17th at 10:30 AM at Our Lady of Kazan Orthodox Church in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. We will then be able to look at and discuss the newsletter.
Motion to Adjourn: Bob Greenwell, 2nd: Pastor Paul Bieber
Closing prayer around 12:30 by Fr. James Babcock
Respectfully submitted by Secretary, Diane Alves