The Canadian Shield Regional Council Executive has met once on January 27, 2021. The minutes, as they are approved, are posted on the website. The next scheduled CSRC Executive meeting is on March 3, 2021. In the meantime, here’s a roundup of news that happened at the most recent meeting in January.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The CSRC Executive approved the updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Shining Waters Regional Council and Canadian Shield Regional Council. The MOU states that the two participating Regional Councils agree to enter into a cooperative arrangement to share the services of the Executive Minister and the Executive Minister Administrators assigned to Canadian Shield Regional Council and Shining Waters Regional Council.
REGIONAL SUPPORT FOR ST. ANDREW’S UC – NB
St. Andrew’s UC – North Bay has been experiencing a time of transition. The Regional Executive approved a budget of up to $16,000 to support St Andrew’s in conjunction with the appointment of Lillian Roberts, who has been hired by St. Andrew’s to provide pastoral care, provide leadership and walk with them through this period of transition and discernment for St Andrew’s.
ADDITONAL NAME ADDED TO THE NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE
Jim Jackson gave Executive an update on the Nominations Committee and the decision was made to add Donna Mese to the CSRC Property Resource Team as a member.
GRACE UNITED CHURCH – SUDBURY
Grace has been working with an insurance company to rebuild the church and things have been going well. The insurance company has now indicated they would like to buy out Grace UC and when Peter discussed this with our UCC lawyer, they advised that this is not unusual in situations like this and that Grace could check with a lawyer to ensure they are getting paid out properly. After consulting with the Communities of Faith Commission, Melody Duncanson Hales is requesting funding from the CSRC to support a conversation with a lawyer. Executive made the decision to allocate up to $5,000.00 from the CSRC Reserve Funds to Grace UC – Sudbury for legal consultation on their insurance policy related to the rebuild of their church building.
BY-LAW UPDATE CHECK-IN AND FUTURE WORK
Kathie Smith (Chair of Executive) indicated that from the work completed so far by the task group that there will be a recommendation for a policies manual so Commissions and Committees have a place to put their policies. The task group will be meeting in March to continue their work.
COVID 19 UPDATE
Peter shared that one approach to tackling Covid 19 issues around the region has been to host Town Hall Meetings. Another way the region is assisting communites of faith through the pandemic is to host different zoom tutorials. Recently, staff hosted a zoom tutorial on “How to Host a Congregational Meeting on Zoom.” This happened very quickly as there was anxiety around the region regarding congregational meetings and how to do it effectively online. It has been recorded and will be posted to the CSRC website for people to view anytime. The point was raised that there are communities of faith that do feel they have the capacity to hold an online meeting and there are concerns that decisions may not be made regarding nominations of trustees, the next year’s budget, etc. The decision was made to authorize the governing body of communities of faith to make decisions on their annual draft budget until June 30, 2021