- 6:00pm Pastor Eddie opened the meeting with prayer.
- Bob White, Council Chair, Welcomed and thanked everyone for attending.

Malinda Claffey, Church Administrator
OFFICE STAFFING
We recently added two new floating volunteers to our Office Crew, Ingrid Ellis and Sherry Roberts.
Along with the existing volunteers that cover a day each week, these two new additions will provide
backup and relief when needed. And just this week, we are happy to announce that Matt Veselsky has
joined our office staff team as Office Assistant. He has begun training with Deb, who will continue
working as her treatment plan allows.

EQUIPMENT UPGRADES
Our internet infrastructure upgrades are complete. If you continue to experience any problems, please let
the office know.

CHURCHTRAC
All major church communications are going out of CT now. Prayer requests, weekly devotions, weekly
Sunday handout, bi-monthly newsletters, and ministry specific communications. If you need an email
sent on behalf of your ministry, please contact the Church Office.

PEOPLE/MEMBERSHIP
We are continuing to promote our new church database system. Church family continue to seek
assistance in getting setup not only on Sundays, but by coming through the church office throughout the
week. We currently have 114 signed up through our app, Church Connect.
Over the last 4 weeks we have averaged between 4-8 people who are not in our database, visitors,
individuals possibly church shopping. Through the info obtained on our Connect with Us Card, we are
adding them as a Visitor, along with their contact info into Church Trac, which includes them in all
future church communication, making them part of the church family from day one. And if they so wish,
this also allows them to use our Church Connect app and all its functions.
Starting this month, plans are to begin using the report options from Church Trac, to follow up with our
congregation, and visitors when they have not attended for a few weeks. Let them know that we miss
them.

EVENTS AND ATTENDANCE
We have found that our attendance tracking method through Church Trac is not comparative to the in-
person counting method we have historically used. We plan to continue tracking our attendance with
both methods.
During our Sunday check-in, we are currently printing labels for our Children’s Sunday School class,
one label goes on the child, a matching label goes on the parent/guardian. This safeguard is a big step in
the security of our children.

ACCOUNTING
As we continue to get our accounting module up; we are running systems side by side to ensure smooth
transition. As of May 1st , we no longer are using VANCO for our online giving platform. Stripe is our
online giving platform and available through our church website, or our Church Connect app.
A few comments have recently come into my office with concerns about Church Connect and a request
to provide financial information. No communication from Churchtrac will request your financial
information. Only if you choose to set up Online Giving will you ever be asked for your financial
information. If you have received any questionable communication, please let the church office know, so
that we are able to forward this information onto the support team at Churchtrac.

Tom McMurray, Church Treasurer -
Highlights of First Quarter 2024 Fiscal Year:
• First Quarter (Jan-Mar) 2024 Income/Expense Budget: $155001
• Actual Income: $158475
• Actual Expenses: $161014
Other Highlights of 1Q 2024 Fiscal Year:
FMCD manages “mingled” funds that include operating reserves, building funds and facility reserves.
The following actions were taken in early 2024 to optimize earnings with these funds:
• Consolidated funds into Checking and Money Market Accounts at
Brannen Bank. Money Market Account rate is 3.5%.
• Purchased $250000 CD at Brannen Bank (3 months @ 5.0%/5.12%
APR) with “Repurchase Agreement” protecting funds in excess of $250000 FDIC limit.
• Purchased $180000 CD at Regions Bank (5 months @ 4.88%/5%APR).
• Purchased $235000 CD at Cadence Bank (8 months @ 5.2%/5.25%APR).
• Purchased $235000 CD at Bank of the Ozarks (8 months @5.17%/5.3%APR).
• Maintain vigilance of Schwab “Earned Building Fund” Account. These are growth investments that
give FMCD a source from which to “borrow” funds if needed. These funds are "earned" funds, not
"donated" funds.
Tom shared that he considers our 1st Quarter to be a good one. Our CD's are laddered so we can always
have cash available.

Don Gamache, Facilities Chair -
The remodel of Friendship Hall has started and should be completed by the end of June. We apologize
for any inconvenience during this time.
We will be asking the Finance Committee at its next meeting for their approval of a 100 x 100 steel
building to be placed on the south east end of our property. This is the next step needed before we can
bring in contractors with bids for a new building.

Carol Stroup for Rick Ducharme, Missions Chair –
Honduras: Rosa Wood reports there are five weeks left in the El Pino school year ending June 15. With
86 children enrolled, the school is going well. Rosa shared several videos of the children doing various
activities. Rosa Wood reports that the process to transfer legal ownership of the El Pino Bilingual School
building from Bob Wood to her name is still in the legal process. Our church is the focal point for
outside donors to join us in providing monthly funding support for the Honduras mission which needs
about $5,000 monthly.

Cuba: Pastor Leiva reports that food shortages and daily power outages continue to plague the entire
Cuban nation. He continues evangelizing door to door in Cieneguita. Church membership remains at 51
with 12 – 18 youth attending services. Several church members contribute food items such as rice or
vegetables for lunches provided following Sunday services.

Care Portal: A letter was received from the Governor’s Faith and Community Initiative Office thanking
and congratulating our Church for officially joining the Florida Care Portal network. Care Portal is an
integral part of First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida movement to connect Floridians in need with
the Florida’s faith and community organizations that have a heart and capacity to meet those needs. We
highlight this mission in January. Elizabeth Chryst is our contact person for Care Portal.

Hernando Homeless: Susie and Mike Phillips take clothes, food, bicycles and walkers to the Hernando
Resource Center. This past Saturday, they delivered a load of food to Hernando Homeless provided by
the Dunnellon Post Office from their annual food drive. Our church was one of four churches in
Dunnellon receiving this donation. The “J” dollars collected at our Thursday night dinners provide
substantial support for the Hernando Homeless Resource Center.

Marsha and Scott Skelton completed a medical mission trip to Suriname April 21st through May 1st.
They saw approximately 3,400 patients, distributed 3,000 pairs of glasses, gave 250 joint injections, and
saw nearly a thousand salvations. They have also donated a quantity of surgical supplies that we have
distributed to Cuban hospitals. Many of these items are scarce or not available at many Cuban hospitals.

And finally, this month we are highlighting Jesus Ministry. We are praying that this month we will be
able to raise the $4,500 needed to replace their ice maker. They are currently having to purchase bags of
ice to meet their needs. We are also praying that the Lord will inspire a new person to become the
contact person for Jesus Is, replacing Beverly Snyder who recently moved from our area.
Thanks to everyone for helping us to be the Hands and Feet of Jesus as a Mission-Minded church!

Irene Brugh, Evangelism Chair -
I am reaching out to all members to become volunteers. There are so many ways to help, even just an
hour or two a month. Each formed group in our church could use help. We need people to consider
what their talents and gifts are, and where they might be able to help. We cannot run this facility
without everyone participating, giving back. I am available many times during the week and between
Sunday services in the Lobby. It doesn't cost anything except your time. The love God gave you is what
He expects from us all. I plan to get information from those who need help and make a list of when and
how much time is needed from each group. We especially need people who can step up to be a member
of a committee. Think about what you might be interested in and be ready and willing to serve. Thank
you, Irene Brugh, Lay Leader

Mike Wein, Youth & Family Outreach -
Last week teacher appreciation
This week: Wed Bible Study – around 200 attending and we have a new 1st lunch Spanish option.
Started with 1 in attendance two weeks ago and had 12 this week. It’s growing fast. Revival is on the
way.
Baccalaureate Graduation Thursday – I will be sharing at that function
Friday Morning – feeding 250 grads breakfast
Friday Eve – Harmony Pre-school-Interviewing parents for what they would like to see for a
contemporary service with the family
Youth - Wednesday youth program will be stopping for the summer, but that is not going to disconnect
us.
Events every two weeks for our youth, but will be inviting other students as well including our partner
churches. Archery, bowling, skating, meet at Sonic Night, kickball and several other events

Friendship Hall Update
Picture This – New young families coming to a very casual ultra contemporary service with their kids.
Welcome and 3-4 worship songs to start the service and then the youth and children break off into youth
group. The parents stay for the service while their kids attend youth. We are experimenting with a
curriculum that would allow us to have dynamic messages to include games, the message, as well as
small group discussion questions. This will streamline our teaching and make it easier for anyone who
wants to lead to be able to do so confidently. Something for the entire family. This allows us to reach
and relate to the students in unique ways while providing God’s Word to the parents.
We are renovating the hall to create an environment that is relevant to young families. It is going to be
fresh and exciting! We will have a full band, coffee bar with hi-top tables to hang-out at. We will also
have additional storage.

We have begun the update. Working with Jim Pott & Dave to get the stage built in sections to bring in. I
am coordinating all work around current meetings in the hall so as not to disrupt other ministries.
The renovation allows for all of the current ministry needs. The update will allow all ministries to
continue forward exactly as they have been. No changes needed.
When – Wednesday is what we are thinking. This is not finalized, but we are looking at Wednesday
nights. Wednesday nights are considered the “New Sunday”. This has been a trend over the past few
years for overbooked parents. Weekends with kids is just too busy for many families.
Why Wed? Young families are more willing to come on a Wednesday vs. Saturday. Why - FOOTBALL.
Also, we have the program for the youth and the children on Wednesday already in place. If we tried to
create a new Sat night service, we would need to build a youth program for Saturday as well as
Wednesday and we would need to put childcare in place for Saturday night as well. I believe that we
have to remember the amount of time our volunteers put in supporting our ministries and asking them to
make Saturday another day of service is a difficult request. We don’t want to lose momentum.
Everything is already in place for Wednesdays and I believe God is directing us to reach these young
families for Jesus. Our community will change and so will we.
We will tie in a VBS big event with invites to the new service in July. This will give us a couple of “test”
weeks to be ready for the end of summer. I am also going to canvas Vogt springs to ask what they would
like to see in our new service.
I’ll keep you updated and thanks for your prayers and support of our upcoming new service.

Organizational Structure
Pastor Eddie asked me to look at our current Organizational structure to see if there were any changes
that might improve our performance. I spent time reviewing how the structure had worked and what
could be done better.
Our Church Administrator position was carrying too much of a load, far above the job description.
Some governance carryover from the UMC did not work well in our new denomination.
I looked at some very successful churches to identify what they are doing different from others. Where
was their primary focus?
The new organization attempts to resolve the identified problems and move us in a positive direction.
The Church Council approved it last week unanimously!
Church Administrator – Staff to the Pastor with management of office personnel and other duties in the
job description. Not responsible to solve issues but with coordination of Pillar efforts.
Voting Members of the Church Council – Governance
Establishes a new Pillar - Community Engagement
Why do we need to do a better job of engaging the community? Barbara’s Sunday school lesson last
Sunday, and over 20 places in the Bible telling followers that we are to serve others and make
disciplines.

We do a “GREAT” job of taking care of our congregations! But have more we could do to reach out to
those outside our 4 walls.
1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful
stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
What is Community Engagement?
We should “FLING OPEN OUR DOORS”!! Be a source of Hospitality, Hope, and Healing to all those
in our community.
Develop and implement outreach strategies to connect with individuals and families in the local
community
Leverage Social-Media to invite nonmembers to our church events. Build and maintain relationships
with community organizations, non-profits, schools, and other stakeholders
Serve as a liaison between the church and the community. Stay informed about community needs,
trends, and resources.
All of this will require more volunteers, including a Pillar Head with lots of energy and a servant heart!
Pastor will put together a Nomination Comm. for next year’s leadership positions as well as this Pillar
Head. If you’d like to volunteer raise your hand, we need a few good men/women.
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s
grace in its various forms.”

The Congregation asked several questions and Bob provided answers.
Don Gamache made a motion to adjourn.
Barbara Watenpool seconded the motion.
Meeting adjourned at 7:05