08/06/20 Tidings

Dear friends in Christ,

On Sunday, August 23, at 10:30 we will hold our semi-annual meeting via simultaneous Zoom video and telephone conference. Anyone with a telephone will be able to participate. We have three very important agenda items for that meeting.

Constitution – Over the past year and a half, council members led by Ron Michaelis, worked to update Trinity’s constitution. We’ve been operating under the ELCA’s 1988 congregational constitution and, as you might imagine, there have been a lot of changes since then! Things like computers and emails have been added to the ways in which churches communicate, for example. Every 3 years, the ELCA updates their constitution. Congregations update theirs accordingly. Ron, Tom Hawkinson, and I worked on these updates. The council has approved them. The synod parliamentarian has approved it. Now it is your turn to approve it.

Congregations typically update their constitutions every three years. You can imagine this was a BIG undertaking for us to catch up after 32 years. To accept these changes the congregation must vote twice to APPROVE them. This is our first chance to vote on the changes. You will receive an email with both our original constitution and the updated constitution. If you’d like a paper copy of these documents, please contact Sarah in the office at (920) 563-4145. She is here Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. At the semi-annual meeting, a question will be called to approve changes to the constitution. It will be a voice vote. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, say nay.

New Council Members – This year we re-instituted the use of the Nominating Committee to discern and determine new Council Members. We’re blessed to have 3 people joining the council. Each of them have children currently involved in programs here. They are: Maggie Messler, Randy Recob, and Jill Henze. (They will replace 1 male and 2 female outgoing members.) At the semi-annual meeting, a question will be called to approve the slate of candidates. There will be time for nominations from the floor. If there are none, we will again ask for a voice vote. All in favor, say aye. All opposed, say nay.

Adams Street Property – The council is asking congregational permission to sell the Adams Street Property. Our tenant left last October and the council and I have agreed that we will not rent it again.

We haven’t been great landlords over the years. For example, it wasn’t until I was the only Pastor here that a lease agreement was instituted. This made it hard on the tenant and the church. After investigating the cost of making that property into a parking lot, the council feels the best decision is to sell the property.

At the semi-annual meeting, the following question will be raised: “Based on research of the property ministry team, the most cost-effective option for the 315 Adams Street property is to proceed with the sale of this property. The council recommends the same. Therefore, the council hereby asks the congregation’s permission to proceed with the sale of this property.” Yes. No.

The meeting will then be placed in recess (per Robert’s Rules of Order) so that voting will take place. If you are attending the meeting via Zoom telephone conference, you will be asked to hang up at that time and call the church to indicate your vote. If you are attending the meeting via Zoom video
conference, you will be sent an electronic ballot. In both cases, each ballot must be accompanied by your name. 1 person = 1 vote. If we have extra votes or votes without names, the entire process will be null and void and we will have to start over. You will have one (1) hour to complete your voting.

Finally, the meeting with reconvene via simultaneous Zoom video and telephone conference to share the results of the vote.

We’ve ensured this is a legal way to conduct our meeting. We’ve chosen to conduct it this way so that anyone with a telephone will have the opportunity to participate.

While this is a new format to us, I’m confident that we’ll be able to successfully conduct our meeting on Aug. 23 at 10:30 am. We are a resilient, creative, and patient community all seeking to do God’s work in this
world.

Grace + Peace,
Pastor Amy

If you want to discuss the Adams Street Property, Eric Lonsdale will be holding a Zoom meeting Tuesday, August 11 at 6:30 p.m. Please RSVP to Sarah at officetlc314@gmail.com to let her know you’d like to attend.

Council Candidates

Randy Recob

I’m a proud father of four beautiful children and a devoted husband who still can’t believe how blessed he was to find Julie (my wife) and somehow convince her to marry me 20 eventful years ago. I’m an engineer by day (working for the past 14 years at Subzero Appliance Group) and try to stay active in my free time, boating and watching kid’s sports in the summer and skiing and watching kid’s sports in the winter. I’m excited to think about the opportunity to serve on council and hope that you will find me able to the task. I’ve been a member at Trinity for the last 16 years and think that I can bring a unique perspective as we move forward into these challenging and ambiguous times.

Jill Henze

Jill Marie Henze lives in Fort Atkinson with her husband Chris and their three kids, Helena, Weston, and Griffin. She is the Manager of Major Projects at Spacesaver where she manages a group of 10 project managers, estimators, and CAD drafters. She is going on her 4th year of teaching Sunday school, teaching 2nd grade, kindergarten, and 4K. When she isn’t busy running her kids to basketball, baseball, and football, she enjoys camping with her family, reading, and doing any crafting projects she can think of. She is excited and honored to serve the congregation on the council and hopes to provide insight for all the busy families.

Maggie Messler

Hello! My name is Maggie Messler. I have been a member of Trinity since shortly after we moved to Fort Atkinson 15 years ago. My husband Mike and I have 3 children: Anna (23) Ryan (16) and Aaron (13). I am a CPS social worker at Jefferson County Human Services and love my very rewarding and challenging work. Our family enjoys camping, boating, attending sporting events and spending time playing games with our family and friends.

When I have some time for myself, I love to read, play piano/sing and go to
the theater. Music has allowed me to serve Trinity in various ways over
the years, through Sunday school music, directing a youth choir, and
singing/playing with the band, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Trinity has
become part of our family and I’ve been proud of the compassion,
faithfulness and dedication this congregation has to God and sharing His
word. I am honored to have the opportunity to serve Trinity in another
capacity and look forward to working with this amazing group of people to
continue that work going forward.

New to Zoom?

If you are interested in receiving a written walk-through on how to navigate Zoom and the telephone conference for the semi-annual congregational meeting, please contact Sarah in the office at (920) 563-4145. She is here Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Meet our new office administrator

Sarah Baldridge

Hello! My name is Sarah Baldridge, and I am your new office administrator. I thought that you might enjoy getting to know five facts about me.

1) My husband (Jacob) and I just recently moved to Whitewater in early July. Jacob started an IT position at UW-Whitewater. We moved from New Castle, Indiana, where we previously lived and I worked as a teacher. I have decided to take a step back from education for a while, and am quite happy with the position that I have here.

2) Although we most recently hailed from Indiana, I am definitely a Wisconsin girl. I lived in Sheboygan for many of my growing up years, so Wisconsin has always been a part of me. My husband, however, is from Indiana, so he’s still learning the Wisconsin ways.

3) I graduated in 2018 from Taylor University–a small Christian University in Upland, Indiana–with a degree in English Education. I absolutely loved my time at Taylor.

4) We have one fur-baby–a beagle named Callie, whom we adore. We rescued her about a year ago, and she is (supposedly) 5 years old now.

5) I have lived in four states and visited 34. My goal is to visit all 50 states by the time I am 50 years old. I am so excited to be here and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me and Trinity!

Drive Through Communion

Sunday, 8/9 , 9 – 10 a.m. at Trinity!

Communion is a sacred gift to us from God. Jesus commanded that we “do this to remember” him and still serves as the host of this meal. Come. Receive this gift, be strengthened by the love and sacrifice of Jesus, be renewed. To prepare yourself for receiving communion, please worship online with us at 8 a.m.

Enter parking lot on Lincoln Street
Volunteers will direct you around the building
Roll down your window to receive communion
Gluten Free Wafers Available

Thank you Fran Frandson

Thank you for sharing your Heart Chain Project with us! Every day she adds a heart to the chain until we gather again for worship. It’s not too late to start your own Heart Chain Project!

Sunday School in a Bag

Trinity Lutheran is offering families the opportunity to continue Sunday school lessons at home. We are offering Sunday school in a bag! Every four weeks, a new Bible story will be featured, along with a bag of fun activities to help families explore the story. Activities will include several of the following, arts and crafts, science, cooking, games and storytelling.

You do not need to be a member of Trinity to participate. We do ask that you fill out a registration form, which will let us know the ages of your children, how to contact you. The registration form includes details of two types of options for participation. If you have questions, email Julie at julievtlc@yahoo.com.

Please register soon if you are interested in participating!

Registration link:
https://forms.gle/WEqaoCxkpqrAko4M8

Prayer for school employees

Are you a current member who works for a school or school district? We want to pray for you! Please let us know if you work for a school so that we can pray for you as the new school year begins.

We also want to offer a special time during a future drive-thru communion where we can pray over you in a socially-distant manner. We know that this a stressful time, so we want to offer special prayers to those who work in schools.

Please contact Sarah at the office to be added to our list of educator members.

School Kits for Lutheran World Relief

Ruth Circle will be collecting school kits, supplies and or a monetary donation towards needed supplies again this year for Lutheran World Relief. We ask that if you feel comfortable shopping for the supplies that you would make a
complete kit and bring to the church on drive thru communion Sunday. Ruth Circle deeply appreciates your help in providing these much needed school kits. It has been a difficult year in every sense for our communities locally nationally and globally.

School Kit items:

16/24 Count Crayons
4-70 country spiral notebooks
1 ruler with centimeters
1 pencil sharpener
1 blunt scissors
5 unsharpened pencils with eraser
5 black or blue pens
1 2 1/2 inch eraser
Again, thank you for your help. If you have questions, contact Stephanie Beran at sfberan@charter.net.

Prayers Requested for…

Judy Almquist, Marsha Anderson, Sandy Anderson, Karen Butcher, Alberto Calderon Castro, Linda Doerr, Melissa Endl, Kim Hannan, Phyllis Hulstein, Bob Kyle, Phyllis Lang, Steffani Liebel, Rick Liebel, Wanda Mello, Jane Milan, Dan Morrow, Pam Nicholas, Debbie Pierce, Tom Pomraning, Violet Prust, Paul Reed, Shelley Scheurm, Ruth Smithback, Karen Weber, Donna Weeks, Aryzone Zick, Donald Zuehlke.

Do you have a prayer concern? Email the prayer force at
prayerforcetlc@gmail.com. People will gladly pray for you or your loved one
with their whole hearts!