Staff Meeting Highlights - Nov

· Present: Msgr. Mike Yarbrough, Fr. Martin Garcia, Craig Koett, Joaquin B. Martinez, Gloria Barretto,
Rosa Becnel, Cecilia Greene, Lizzette Kranz, Veronica Santillan, Martha Sandoval, Kristin Casas, Eric Mejia, John Dulske, Debbie Gray, Ana Rosa Lane,
· Excused: Doug Stolo,
· Opening Prayer: Cecilia led the staff in an opening prayer.
· Craig: He reminded the Staff about the arrival times that are to be respected. If one is going to be
late, please contact him or his VM…Thank you for the work that the Staff has been doing…If there are areas of concerns, the email or request needs to be sent to him, Craig, first. The staff member can “cc” the email to Msgr. Mike. But the initial contact person for concerns is Craig…We need to respect the office space of another staff member. If there is a need to enter that office, one needs to take Craig or another staff member with you. We need to be sensitive to the confidentiality of our particular ministry and work…Faith Formation offices need to remain closed and locked unless a staff member is there…Side door of the FF Building needs to remain locked for security reasons…We need to clarify who is the “follow up person” when a staff member is on vacation and who is responsible for their duties during this time? This needs to be addressed before vacation time.
· Ana Rosa: All letters for the parish census update, some 3200 letters, have been sent out. They are
being returned at a slow rate. We have imputted into the data base 683 thus far. We have a stack of ones that still need to be added to the database. These should be inputted by the end of the year.
· Kristin: She reported on the following items: Enrollment - Total enrollment for Elementary Faith
Formation as of Tuesday, November 15, 2011: Total = 801…Meetings/Conferences - We will be attending the North Central/Northeast Deanery Meeting on December 6^th at St. Helena from 11:30 AM-2:30PM….Sacramental Preparation - The second parent/child workshop for Reconciliation is on November 14^th and 16^th during regular class times. Msgr. Mike presented the workshop on Monday and Father Martin will present the workshop this evening…The First Communion service project this year is a Thanksgiving food drive. The items collected by the children will be dropped off at the San Antonio Food Bank on Monday, November 21^st along with the Thanksgiving cards that each child made…The Children’s Penance service is scheduled for Saturday, December 10^th at 10:00 am. Fr. Alton Carr, Fr. Tom Dymowski, Fr. Bob Lampert and Fr. Alex have agreed to come and hear confession at this service…Annual Catechetical Report - The Annual Catechetical Report was mailed to the ACC on November 2^nd…Catholic Night at the Rampage - Faith Formation has a block of tickets for Catholic Night at the Rampage, Saturday, December 3, 2011. Tickets are $12 and come with complimentary Skate on Ice passes and Meet & Greet with the Bishop passes for after the game…Christmas Story Presentation - The participation forms for children interested in participating in the Christmas Story Presentation at the Children’s Christmas Eve Mass have gone out must be returned to the Faith Formation Office by December 9^th…November Events - *There will be no Faith Formation classes on November 21^st and 23^rd due to the Thanksgiving Holiday…The Faith Formation Office will be closed on November 24^th and 25^th for Thanksgiving.
· Debbie: We are in the middle of the Confirmation process. We have given out the journaling books
for the confirmandi. Each candidate for Confirmation has an interview with her. We have sent out a flyer to the various bible study groups with the pictures of the confirmandi and their name on it. The request is for these groups to pray for our confirmandi as they move towards the Sacrament of Confirmation. We have one hundred (100) confirmandi for this year…We had thirty-five (35) high school retreatants for the Deer Creek Camp retreat in Medina TX…We are averaging one hundred sixty (160) teens at our Sunday night Life Teen gatherings…We are planning a Service Day on November 22-23^rd to help clean up and re-organize the Life Teen areas…We have a stage that was built by Luke Hajda that is in the Faith Formation Gathering area. It is portable and is in three (3) pieces. This was Luke’s Eagle Scout project. Thank you, Luke…We also have requests for three (3) additional Eagle Scout projects as well…We still have not received our date for Confirmation 2012…The Joshua Build – whereby people can come to the parish to help with the Habitat build rather than going to the site – is to take place on Tuesday, March 13^th, which is the Tuesday of Spring Break. It will be done in the parking lot of HT. More information in the future about this.
· John: The floor and the carpets in the church will be cleaned after the Guadalupe celebration on
December 12^th, in anticipation of the Christmas season…The Scanning Series is being done today (16) in the Banquet Hall, as well as tomorrow (17), from 7:45AM-8PM…Staff had a question: Will the bathrooms be checked during the Christmas celebrations? The response was yes from John.
· Veronica: She reported that we have thirteen (13) priests confirmed for the Advent Penitential
Service on November 30^th, 7:15PM in the Church…She is helping Fr Martin with the celebration for Guadalupe on December 12^th, 7PM. Bishop Cantu is to be the main celebrant…There will be a presentation with matachines at 6:30PM. Refreshments and entertainment will follow after the Mass, from 8:15-10PM in the Banquet Hall. The celebration is bi-lingual all the parish is invited to attend and celebrate Mary under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe…As our newest staff member, we also thank Veronica for her fine work and presence on our HT staff.
· Fr. Martin: Msgr. Mike and I have scheduled the daily and weekend Masses through the end of April
2012. He requests that any additional areas of priestly presence must also take into consideration the celebrating of the Eucharist here at Holy Trinity. He also requests to know and to understand what is the ritual or process for the particular celebration going to be ahead of time, not at the last minute.
· Cecilia: Thank you for using the sales tax exempt form for purchases. If there is tax, it is best for HT
to pay this upfront. Please remember this when you are selling any items that are taxable. She can be contacted if there is a question or uncertainty on this.
· Gloria: The Senior Luncheon went well that was held in October. Tina Zimmerman catered the meal
and event. Volunteers were less than last year. It was suggested that Gloria seeks out volunteer commitments for this event in August so that it can be put on their calendars. There were lots of door prizes…Due to the holidays, the November 27-28^th bulletin will be sent in early…Christmas bulletin deadline has not yet been set… There have been many occasions when parishioners, visitors, etc. use the banquet hall entrance (stairs and elevator) to enter the parish offices. It can get pretty uncomfortable as well as potentially dangerous, especially for Msgr since his office is the first door they come to, and guess who’s next? She offers a proposed sign to be put at the entrance of the Banquet Hall as well as the elevator and stairs for the security and safety of all.
· Msgr. Mike: He had several items to share with the Staff.
o Maintenance: This was also brought up at the PPC. We have no set maintenance schedule
except for some major items, such as the floor or carpet cleaning. Usually it is done as a “spot maintenance” or when the need is brought before John or one of the Staff members.
o Upcoming Dates: Two dates to the Staff for their reminder: New Parishioner Dinner on
Wednesday, January 11^th, BH, 7:15-8:30PM and the Ministry Appreciation Dinner, Sunday, February 12^th, BH, 2:30-4:30PM
o Staff Gathering w/ Families for Christmas: This is Saturday, December 10^th, 7PM
o Parish Christmas Luncheon: This is Wednesday, December 14^th, from 11AM-1PM.
o Habitat for Humanity: In honor of the 25^th anniversary of the parish, HT will do a full build
this year. It will be in the spring 2012, along with a Joshua Build here at HT. See above for more details on this.
o Directory of Music & Liturgy: It was suggested by the Liturgy Committee that HT needs an
additional staff person with this kind of expertise. They could coordinate all the various liturgical celebrations that we have here at HT. It is becoming cumbersome since we have a variety of parishioners responsible for various liturgical elements. This would not occur immediately. We would set out the job description as well. More information in the future.
o PPC comment on HT being “two communities”: Msgr. Mike mentioned to the staff that
this was a question that was raised at the last PPC meeting. Discussion amongst the staff also took place on this question. He stated that we are ONE community; not TWO. The church itself is built on unity with diversity. There were several suggestions offered that will be taken up for future discussion.
o Closing Prayer: Meeting ended with a closing prayer.
o Next Meeting: January 2012 – TBD