Well, that didn’t work out quite as planned… but even so it worked out pretty well. The plan, as announced earlier during mass and in the bulletin, was to have a Parish Council election in May. Three members of the current council were scheduled to leave it, and so we were looking for volunteers to “run” for those three positions. We asked people who were interested to fill out a brief form, and the plan was that all those who so expressed themselves willing to serve would be listed in the bulletin, with excerpts from their responses on the form accompanying their name. And then would come the vote.
But Robert Burns has that line about the best laid plans of mice and men that could be used here. A step-by-step recounting of all that happened is neither necessary nor helpful, but what we ended up with is a list of three people willing to serve in the three positions that were falling vacant: Sara West, who is already serving on the Parish Council and is willing to serve for another term of three years, and newcomers to the Council Virginia Picken and Jim Sherman. When there are just three candidates for the three open positions, it hardly makes sense to go through the formality of an election, since the results are a foregone conclusion. So this year at least, there will be no such election. We’ll try again next year and see what happens then.
The two members who will be leaving the Council are Adam Rusciolelli and Virginia Piecuch. Adam was council president this past year, and Virginia also was on the finance committee. We thank them for their service, and pray God’s blessings on them for the coming year.
With the two new members, the Parish Council consists of:
Dave Bowman Dave Samber
Eva Leonard Werner Seyfried
Erin Makowski Jim Sherman
Virginia Picken Sara West
Eileen Quigley Frances Williams
Sometime after Labor Day, there will be a formal presentation and blessing of the Parish Council members at mass. But that doesn’t mean that they will be taking the summer off. The new members will be introduced to their work and new officers for this year will be chosen at the June 3 meeting, and serious – very serious – discussions about parish finances will get underway later in the summer once the books have closed on the current fiscal year on June 30.
Meetings are open to any interested parishioner. Again, the next meeting will be Wednesday evening, June 3, at 7 p.m. in the rectory. All “old” members will be in attendance together with the Parish Council for 2015-16. Most of the meeting will be given over to a discussion of the current situation of St. James and the parish’s possibilities for the coming year.
Again, my deepest thanks go to the 2014-15 Parish Council, even as we all look forward with hope to the coming year.
Peace!
Fr. Bob Sprott, O.F.M.
