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The council met on Tuesday, November 14 th at 7:00 p.m. at ELC Board Room with Cathy Hackenschmidt, Benita Nylen, Shaun Oakley, Raymond Rossnagel, Earl Wickdahl and Pastor Heather Parrott-Howdle in attendance. Devotions lead by Raymond. Cathy lead Opening Prayer.The minutes of the October 18th meeting were accepted as distributed.

OLD BUSINESS

• Land Titles changes: Scandinavia Cemetery title waiting for news from Land Titles. Transfer of the Bethania Cemetery to Bethel Lutheran Society Order filed at the Court of King’s Bench after notification that the Minister of Justice had no interest in the matter following service of documentation and court hearing on Nov 14th.
• Parsonage sale: We have a precedent of how to proceed. Sylvia-Linda will start working on an affidavit for Cathy and the Notice of Application so that when we have a firm offer we will proceed ASAP. Court hearing may be done by teleconference.
• Cell booster: Earl will check with his neighbour on what specifically we need.
• EHF withdrawal: Funds will be withdrawn soon. ELC will receive $38,974.55; Bethel Lutheran Society will receive $21,367.00. Total withdrawal of $60,341.55.
• Website update: outline of pages to be included as follows: Welcome page, About ELC, Outreach, Events/News, Scandinavia Cemetery, Bethel Lutheran Society. Council decided that the entire newsletter will not be included; only the Council News and Pastor’s Message.

REPORTS:

• Financial Report: Reports reviewed and accepted as presented by Cathy.
• Worship & Music Report: Cathy will lead December 17th service. Pastor Heather will preside at the December 24th Christmas Eve Candlelight service at 7:30 p.m. No morning service on Christmas Eve day. Cathy will contact Gordon Gilbey of LAMP to provide the message on January 28th. Cathy is away for 2 weeks in January.
• Maintenance Report: Cross light: Burton Electric suggested a company that will replace the current cross light with LED for approximately $2,000; much less than fixing the existing lighting. This came to our attention when Burton’s were contacted for the cost of checking our electrical system – Inspection and report will be $300-400 and will be completed before the AGM.
• Pastor’s Report: Since October 19th meeting: In the office: 4 days per week Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. unless at a funeral, clergy meeting, pastoral visits or Clinical Pastoral Experience: Morning of November 1st did an electronic charting orientation. Experiences are going well. Pastoral Care Visits: 3 in person, 3 by phone. Funerals: One on November 3rd. Palliative Care Meeting: missed one due to illness. Erickson Care Home service was November 16th 10:00 a.m. Outreach Activities: Remembrance Day services at Erickson Legion at 10:45 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at Clanwilliam. Parklands Youth Hub – meeting every 2 weeks with Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline. Food Security: Erickson &; Area Food Bank, 46 Main Street, PO Box 86, Erickson, MB Phone: 1-431-399-0399, www.ericksonfoodbank.com, ericksonfoodbankcoordinator@gmail.com for e-transfer. Hours: Monday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Housing: 2 Erickson Housing meetings and a community meeting is scheduled for November 20th 7:00 p.m. at the Legion. All are welcome to attend. Church Membership: the pre-2005 lists have been updated. The subsequent lists are being addressed. Education: Parklands Youth Hub’s Open Futures next presentation is by Jennifer MacRae, a specialist in Food Security, from Climate Connection Manitoba on Thursday, November 30 from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Church. Administration: daily touch base with Sylvia-Linda.
• Administrative Report : Membership: Took the lists that council amended last meeting and reworked the Membership List. Active members number 56. The Responsibility List since 2005 have had 110 names removed and 16 individuals to have follow-up. The Responsibility List for 2024 has 120 individuals with follow-ups on 18 prior to year end or the AGM in March Website: . On the Welcome Page – Menu Section to include general information about what is in that tab and upon clicking on the bolded section, will be taken to that Section of the website for the specific information. Usual monthly duties in office, Newsletter, calendar, bulletin printing, webpage updating, Communion and Funeral records updating, cleaning and garbage collection completed. THANK YOU, Sylvia-Linda!
• Sunday School Report: Seems to be going well. Thank you, Andrew and Jewel!

CORRESPONDENCE

• - ELCIC Greening Faith Community form will be presented at AGM for congregational input.
• - ELCIC Reflections & Directions for Continuing Education of Rostered Leaders.
• - Someone from MNO Synod Council would like 30-45 minutes on our agenda to meet with council by May 2024. Cathy forwarded email with information to council members for review prior to this meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

• 3-year Budget was circulated. A minimum balance of 3 months of operating costs should be kept in the operating account. Further discussion next meeting.
• Upright vacuum has given some problems. Thank you to Raymond for getting it running again. We do not have a shop vac to vacuum up water but it would also be useful to vacuum heavily soiled areas and save wear and tear on the upright vacuum. Earl will price a shop vac.
• With the icy conditions we have experienced lately, the purchase of an ice chipper would be a wise purchase. Earl will price one.
• Replace flooring: loose threads in the carpet in the narthex are being caught by the vacuum. While not using the beater over these areas may help, eventually the carpet may need to be replaced. Good quality carpet is very expensive and laminate flooring may be a better choice as far as keeping the floor clean. In the meantime, we will contact a carpet installer to determine if we can mend the loose threads.
• Matthew W. has been clearing the snow from sidewalks fronting the Food Bank, Score Store and Kaminga’s. He is offering to provide this service for $75 per week. We do not have this in our budget; however, with the rental of the facility increasing, perhaps we should consider the safety of our renters and congregation. In the past, volunteers have arrived early to clear the sidewalks but considering we are all getting older and less able to do this, it may be wise to ask Sylvia-Linda to call this fellow as necessary for $20/hour.
• All council members are willing to remain on council for 2024. If anyone would like to volunteer to join us on council and add their voice to the decisions made at our meetings, we would welcome your input.
• At the last funeral luncheon, we discovered that the TV downstairs has control panel images burnt into the screen. Motion to purchase a smart TV to replace the TV downstairs. Pastor Heather will check with Dustin about livestreaming requirements and it must have capability to connect to the video camera via hardwire.
• Pastor Heather was excused as council discussed and filled in the form Reflections and Directions for Continuing Education of Rostered Leaders in the ELCIC. Cathy will compile the results and submit.

Next meeting will be Wednesday, December 13th at 7 p.m. in the ELC Board Room. Adjournment: 8:40 p.m. following closing with the Lord’s Prayer.

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Submitted by Benita Nylen, Secretary

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Winter has arrived! We’re looking towards our winter season and taking stock of the fall. On the whole, I would say that this fall was a bit of a mixed bag. We’ve had some great successes but also a few setbacks.

In the success category we have the re-launch of the Open Gym program, now with the inclusion of Jocelyn and Ralph Legault-Clark as supervisors. Both Jocelyn and Ralph are former Physical Education teachers with the Brandon School Division and have decades of experience in the field respectively. They will be a major asset to this program as they can bring a degree of expertise and experience to the program that will help us to elevate it as we move forward. Open Gym happens every Monday night in the Onanole Elementary Gym from 5:30-7 pm.

We’re also launching the Live Loud program. We were set to launch it this week(Tuesday Nov 14th). Unfortunately, Meg Hutchings, who will lead the group, has COVID. We’ve had to postpone the launch until next week. The new launch date will be Tuesday Nov 21st, 4:30-6 pm. Despite this setback there is enthusiasm around this group and I think it has a lot of potential to expand our network in the community. Live Loud group shall meet every Tuesday 4:30 – 6:00 pm.

The other new program we launched this fall was our Open Futures series. Open Futures is a series of speakers and workshops presenting a range of ideas pertinent to the prosperous development or our community and the people who make up or community. With this series we hope to promote a spirit of open and informed dialogue in our community. In October we launched Open Futures with a workshop on Diversity & Anti-Oppression, hosted by Chris and Han from SERC (Sexual Education Resource Center). The event was a success with all who attended learning and engaging in a very thoughtful conversation around the ideas presented.

Open Futures will be hosting its second event on November 30th from 6:30-7:30 pm. – Food Security and Climate change This event will feature a presentation by Jennifer MacRae from Climate Connection Manitoba. Jennifer is a specialist in Food Security as it relates to Climate Change and will be presenting on the problems and solutions relating to this field.

Not only does Open Futures allow us to bring interesting and important voices to our community, it also allows us to share our community with others. Open Futures is a fantastic way for PYH to situate itself within a larger network of likeminded groups in the Province allowing us to work together towards common goals. I believe that this will be very advantageous for our development in the future and lead to partnerships for our organization and community at large.

On the downside attendance for both the After-School Club and ARThub has remained patchy. I do think that as the other programs pick up there will be crosspollination that will happen. I will also be doing another round of advertisements soon to remind people of the programs now that it’s cold out. I will give these programs until the Christmas break. If nothing improves I will rework them or cut them to focus on the programs that are working.

Another option I’m considering is to replace those two programs with the S’upper Club. We have yet to launch S’Upper Club as I’ve been waiting until the other programs are in place before starting it. Since there have been fewer kids showing up I’ve been planning and making the snacks with the kids and they do seem to enjoy that.

As I mentioned above, some things are working well while others need work. As we look towards the coming new year it will be important to reassess the aspects that are not working and support what is. In this case the small size of our project is an asset and will allow us to pivot easily if need be. Since Parklands Youth Hub is still young it is still amorphous. If certain things don’t work the way we had hoped, it’s just an opportunity to learn on the way to finding the things that do work.

Submitted by Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline, Director