By Dirk Foster
The summer is flying by and it has been a while since I have submitted an update to the newsletter. There have been a number of activities that have happened over the last few months and I would like to catch you up on some of them.
Photo: Mark Olson (left), chair of the Zion Foundation Board of Trustees, and Dirk Foster (right), president of the congregation, accept the $800,000 check from Scott Vergin (center) on behalf of the Merle Dobbs Estate.
In June, the Zion Foundation received an $800,000 check from the Merle Dobbs estate. Merle grew up in Buffalo as Merle Stromberg, married Len Dobbs and made her home in Edina. She kept in touch with Zion though pastoral visits, listening to the chapel line and visiting whenever she could. A recognition and celebration of her gift is being planned for this Fall.
On a related note, the Foundation is currently looking for members with experience and interesting in investing to ensure the donation is invested wisely. The Zion Foundation is a separate financial entity from Zion Lutheran Church. It receives gifts which are strategically invested by the elected trustees, who use only the earnings from these gifts to disperse grants for religious, educational and charitable purposes outside of the normal church budget.
In July, Tom Janzen accepted the position of full time Facilities and Grounds Manager at Zion. Tom has been doing an outstanding job over the last few months as acting Facilities and Grounds Manager and the hiring team has great confidence in Tom continuing his duties. Fifty-four outstanding candidates applied for the position.
Finally, the council is reviewing guidelines for how committees function. These guidelines include, among other things, recommendations that committees meet at least once per quarter, invoking term limit for members and officers so that others may serve, encouraging committees to establish short term and long term goals and requesting that committees establish committee notebooks either physically or electronically (on the Zion website). The guidelines will be reviewed again at the August council meeting.
Please join me in praying for the continuing efforts of the Call Committee and the Capital Campaign Committee. Both these committees continue to work hard though the summer months on their very important tasks. Enjoy your summer and hope to see you in church.
