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Shepherd's Call Mortgage/Debt Reduction Campaign -
Parish
Goal - $250,000.00
Total Pledges to Date - $202,528.00
Number of Pledges Received - 265
% of Parish Goal - 81%
% of Parish Registration (982 families) - 27%
$4,830 Below Goal - Diocesan Annual Catholic Appeal - The
returns of your donations to the Annual Catholic Appeal to
date are as follows:
Parish
Goal - $62,532.00
Total Pledges to Date - $57,702.00
Number of Pledges Received - 291
% of Parish Goal - 92%
% of Parish Registration (979 families) - 30%
Reminder: unless we receive additional commitments to this
Appeal, that $4,830 difference between the Parish Goal and
current commitments will have to be paid out of our Parish
General Fund!!!
Cross Bearers Needed For 5:30 Mass - We need a couple
or three teens or adults willing to be trained and function
at the Saturday 5:30 p.m. Mass. With summer vacations and
other summer activities, we are frequently scrambling for
a cross bearer for this liturgy. If you are willing to help,
please call the parish office.
Computing Professional Volunteer(s) Needed! - What
many of you may not know is that, since the beginning of the
parish (some 19 years now!), Skip Knoble, a Good Shepherd
parishioner, has volunteered his time and talent to keep our
parish's computer system up-to-date and running smoothly.
Most weeks this has involved at least one, if not two, trips
to the office to update software, back up files, configure
hardware, etc. Unfortunately for us, this coming spring Skip
will be moving out of the area following his retirement from
the University. We are seeking a replacement volunteer professional(s)
who would be willing to continue this work for us. Ideally,
we would like to have two volunteers who would be willing
to learn and work with the system. This would ensure that
we always have a backup person in place when one or the other
is not available. On average, the time commitment would be
1-3 hours/week and typical duties would include the following:
- Familiarity
with TCPIP-wired networking, wireless networking (router
and switch maintained as needed), and five PC file sharing.
- Use
of existing software to back up four office PC's weekly
- Restoring
files or folders if necessary (rarely)
- Installing
Microsoft security updates
- Installing
church office software updates (twice a year)
- Performing
typical disk cleanup procedures
- Installing
key updates for anti-spyware and anti-virus software products
(once per year)
- Maintaining
UPS units for five PC's
Anyone
who is interested in helping out or in learning more is asked
to call Dee in the Parish Office as soon possible. We would
like to get an early start in order to make this transition
easier for all concerned.
Thirty-Ninth Annual Anniversary Day Celebrations -
Bishop Joseph and the Family Life Office invite all couples
celebrating their 1st, 25th, 40th, 50th, 55th, and 60+ Wedding
Anniversary in 2008 (and their families) to attend the Thirty-Ninth
Annual Anniversary Day Liturgy. Couples may attend on either
Sunday, September 21, at the St. John Gualbert Cathedral in
Johnstown or Sunday, September 28, at the Cathedral of the
Blessed Sacrament in Altoona. Both locations are handicap
accessible. Both liturgies begin at 2:00 p.m. Bishop Joseph
will be the celebrant and homilist at each celebration. Punch
and cookies will be available after the mass for anniversary
couples and their families. Please call the parish office
at 238-6114 to register for either celebration. The deadline
for reservations is Wednesday, August 27.
REQUEST FOR HELP UPDATE!
Recently,
at Mass and in a follow up letter, Finance Council presented
information regarding the financial health of the parish.
We urged you to help as we faced a possible reduction of staff
and parish services. Parish and Finance Councils had been
meeting since February, praying and working to find solutions
to an impending fiscal crisis.
We
want to thank you for your overwhelming response in the weeks
that have followed. The parish has seen considerably more
weekly giving recently, leading to a 4% increase over last
year. Coupled with the fact that all of the parish committees
were able to reduce spending over the past year in light of
the budget concerns and that the diocese has adjusted due
dates on some of the payments owed to them by all parishes
we were able to turn a large deficit into a $20,000 surplus
as we ended our fiscal year.
We
found out that many of you were unaware of the problems we
face as we pay the bills for the ministries of the parish.
We have learned that you, the parish, respond when you are
informed. As a result, a summary of our financial status will
be presented each week in the bulletin.
REGULAR
COLLECTIONS:
The
2008/2009 budget has been approved. Our continuing bare bones
approach has kept expenses as low as possible while maintaining
the important ministries of this parish. Just like the rest
of you, we are looking at the coming winter with some trepidation
as the severity of the weather and the rising energy costs
can easily make or break this budget.
The
current budget requires an average of $8,400 per week from
the regular collection, $29,000 from the special Christmas
collection, $18,000 from the special Easter collection, and
additional monies from various fundraisers throughout the
year.
Here
are the figures for the current fiscal year through July:
Surplus/(Deficit)
Balance as of 8/3/08: ($847.07)
Collections for August through 8/10/08: $17,302.10
Year to Date Collections through 8/10/08: $47,562.03
Collection Goal ($8400/wk x 6): $50,400.00
Collections over/(under) $8,400 x 6 through 8/10/08: ($2,837.97)
Estimated surplus/(deficit) through 8/10/08: ($2,837.97)
Surplus
monies will be used to support additional ministries that
have been put on hold and to build our savings.
MORTGAGE
PAYMENT:
Remember,
the general collection does not go to pay the monthly mortgage
payment. This payment is made using donations to the Mortgage/Debt
Reduction fund.
Please
continue to pray for our parish.
Father
Bender
Members of the Finance Council
Members of the Parish Council
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