trinity lutheran church & schools

for May 31, 2020 Semi-Annual Meeting

voter information

This booklet contains photos and some bios for nominees to Congregational Council, Call Committee, Audit Committee and Endowment Committee, as well as brief descriptions of ratification votes. These elections and ratification votes require a paper ballot, which can be found at trinitylutheranchurch.com/council. Due to the stay at home for protection of COVID-19 please drop off at Trinity on June 1 & 2, 10:00 AM—Noon & 4:00—6:00 PM, or mail to Trinity (must be postmarked by June 5, 2020). With questions, contact President Sue Carlson (prez.sue@gmail.com).

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carolyn boone

Carolyn has attended Trinity for 12 years. During this time she has served as a communion assistant, and is a Stephen Minister. She has been on the Living Water committee for many years, sells Fair Trade food items monthly, and organizes an annual Fair Trade Bazaar. She and her husband John live in Edmonds.

2020 call committee for full time associate pastor

mary eaton

Mary has been a member at Trinity since 1992 (28 years)! During that time, she has been a Sunday School teacher, VBS director, education chair, Vice President on Church Council, President of Church Council (1st year in new building), member of the Worship Board, Reception Coordinator, Usher for years (currently an Usher Coordinator for 10:30 AM), member Trinity Women’s group, President and Secretary of TLCW, member of the Quilters crew, member of Anna Ester circle TLCW, and part of a small group Bible Study since 1992.

john cheshier

John, along with his family, Linda and Kimberly and Scott, were led to Trinity in 1992 by Wally, Judy, Mark and Beth Bergquist. They have been members ever since.

They joined at the time of the fire, and in fact their first years of worship were at the Adventist church as Trinity was being designed and built. They participated in some of the painting and finishing during construction. Once Trinity’s current building was completed, Kimberly and Scott were baptized and Pastor Diane Hastings performed Kimberly's wedding at Trinity a few years later.

John has served many, many years as a Stephen Minister, having been recruited by Erna Nelson and serving under the leadership of Liz Gimmestad and Joan Jolly. He has also served for many, many years annually working with Tony and Cathy Pettinger on the Esperanza mission team building houses in Tijuana,

Mexico. He has worshiped and served at Holden Village as part of a work party to rehabilitate some of the buildings a few years ago.

John and Linda assumed leadership of a ChristCare group from Judi and Vern Vaders, which now meets at our home (actually on zoom at the moment). Additionally, John was the co-president of the Call Committee which called Pastor Mark Reitan, along with Fred Chrysler.

For the last 8 years prior to retirement, John worked at Christa Ministries as an Account Executive for KCMS/KCIS Christian radio. (One of his clients was Arne Nelson at Campbell Nelson Volkswagen!)

After training with Pastor Red Burchfield John has been a reader at Trinity regularly and looks forward to that service, just as he looks forward to serving on the Call Committee for our next pastor.

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jayne meyer

Jayne has been a member of Trinity for about 25 years. She recently became a member of the Endowment Committee and looks forward to that work. Trinity has always felt to be the right fit for her, and she has felt that way since the first time she attended church here. Growing up in southern Minnesota, her family always attended church as a strong family unit, and those experiences helped her to become a person of strong faith.

Jayne is a retired nurse with a career in critical care nursing, coordinating renal transplants and monitoring

medical research studies for biotech companies. Working in this industry has strengthened her communication skills and the ability to listen, understand and prioritize information along with being passionate and compassionate about the issues at hand.

Jayne’s love for travel has taken her to 4 continents and 30 countries. The craziest thing she has done is to fly ultra light and glider airplanes. She looks forward to the opportunity to be a member of the Call Committee.

cathy rankin

Cathy has been a Trinity member for 15 years and been involved with various ministries within Trinity. She is currently involved with Stephen Ministry and the First Impressions Team. Her 26 year career as a biostatistician at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center reflects her desire to help improve our world in quiet but compassionate ways.

jessica postma

Jessica has been a member of Trinity her whole life. Her grandparents were members, and her dad was confirmed here. She was baptized, confirmed, married, and baptized both her kids here. This church has been her family, helped take care of her when she was little, and been a wonderful support system in times of need.

Jessica is currently a stay-at-home mom to two very sweet boys—William (5) and Jacob (2). She spends most of her time supporting them and her husband, Matthew, and keeping life running as smoothly as it can.

In the past Jessica has been involved in many choirs, music endeavors, youth group, and Sunday school. In high school, she served on the Student Leadership

Team for the youth group, and attended almost every event and mission trip Trinity offered.

After high school and college she returned and started directing the preschool choir, Joyful Noise, which she led for 4 years before passing it on to others because having a toddler and a baby made it much more complicated to have so many commitments. She and her family still travel to Trinity from north Marysville, though sometimes not as often as they would like.

Jessica is honored to be included on this committee and looks forward to helping find someone who will be a great fit for our wonderful community.

michael reay

Michael has been at Trinity Lutheran since 2009. He is currently attending Kings High School in Shoreline. In his time at Trinity he has volunteered as a sound/video technician, as well as helping at Neighbors in Need with the Neighborhood Youth Alliance since 2018. Michael is an active participant in the WAY youth ministry program, being involved in high school NET, as well as coaching in middle school ZOE. At Trinity he enjoys playing guitar in the worship band at the 9 AM service.

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2020-21 council new members

cecilia fisher

Cecilia Fisher has been a member at Trinity for at least 20 years. She has served as a Sunday school teacher, VBS craft teacher, Assisting Minister and has volunteered over 10 years with Esperanza.

Cecilia is a local Edmonds business owner, having successfully run her salon and spa for 6 years. She likes outdoor activities, painting and crafting when she has free time. She has donated several pieces over the years for the Esperanza auction. Being artistic is Cecilia’s biggest passion.

secretary

bill hunnewell

Bill has been a member at Trinity for 22 years. Over that time he served five years as a board member for the Child Development Center and Preschool and eight years as a Sunday School Teacher. He has worked for Everett Community College for 11 years, and is currently a Media Technician Supervisor.

member-at-large

brian king

Brian King joined Trinity Lutheran Church 14 years ago with his wife April and their two children: Anabella, a senior at the University of Washington and Nate, a senior at Meadowdale High School. Brian has served as VBS host, Cold Weather Shelter volunteer, Sowing Seeds of Hope special event emcee, children’s ministry leader and Esperanza volunteer. He’s been an agent with MetLife for more than a decade. In his free time Brian is an avid golfer and diehard Husky fan.

member-at-large

Two year terms beginning June 2020

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dagfin melby

Dagfin and his wife, Anne-Marie, have been married for 40 years, 15 of which as members of Trinity. They have four grown children and six grandchildren. Dagfin grew up in Norway during a time when church (Norwegian Lutheran Church) and state were not separated, and moved to the US in 1979 after graduate school. He retired from Boeing in 2017.

Over the years he has been part of the Neighbors in Need and Cold Weather Shelter teams in addition to participating in various painting and landscaping projects at Trinity.

Dagfin’s vision for TLC: Continued emphasis on social justice causes both locally (i.e. Neighbors in Need, Human Trafficking), nationally and internationally.

member-at-large

michelle reitan

Michelle has been a member of Trinity Lutheran for over 20 years. She began worshipping in 1996 and during that time, has been married at the church and raised two children.

Over the course of her time at Trinity, she has been involved in the Social Concerns Committee, the Endowment Committee and has had the opportunity to serve on the Nominating Committee for several terms. She has also had the pleasure to teach Sunday School, help with Vacation Bible School and be engaged in several bible studies as well as participate in our Values-Direction-Action (VDA) process.

She is excited to serve on the Council, and thanks the members of the congregation for giving her this opportunity. She believes that this is a great time for Trinity and is excited to join in our investment to build up the community both within our church and beyond, joining in God’s mission to nurture, love, and serve all.

member-at-large

carl setzer

Carl has been a member of Trinity for nearly 20 years and served in a variety of ministries and leadership roles including Treasurer, music and arts groups, sound and video, as a long-standing member of the technology committee and several stints on the Council. Professionally, he has severed in several administrative and technical capacities in a wide variety of industries including Starbucks, Microsoft, AARP, and the Episcopal church.

vice president

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2020-21 council continuing members

sue carlson

Sue has been a member since November 1980, and has served as Council VP, Worship Board Chair, Endowment Board Chair and now President of the Council. She also serves as Joyful Noise director, sings in the adult choir, organizes communion assistants and is part of the liturgical décor group. She is the mother of two adults and grandmother to two very handsome boys! She works part-time as a broker for Medicare plans and the Healthplanfinder.

president

colleen collins

Colleen will be serving her second year on the Trinity Council as a member-at-large. It has been a pleasure to serve for the last year and she is looking forward to another year of service.

She has been married to her husband Ron for 27 years. They have two children: their son Sam is 26 years old and married to Taryn; and their daughter Anna is 24 years old and engaged to be married to Merrek Mason.

Colleen worked in the Trinity office as the Communications Coordinator for 12 years beginning in 2004 having retired in 2016. She loved her time in the office at Trinity and made so many new friends. She is enjoying retirement, doing projects around the house and working in the yard. She and Ron have a goldendoodle named Indy who is a trained therapy dog. They visit ManorCare each Tuesday which they both really enjoy. The residents really look forward to our visit!

member-at-large

dave gunderson

David has held Trinity’s Treasurer position since June 2019. He previously served on the Congregational Council in 2014-15 and on the nominating committee in 2018. He sings in the Trinity Choir, and has been an active Neighbors in Need volunteer since soon after it started in 2007. He and his wife Joanne have been Trinity members since 2006.

treasurer

One year remaining in term length

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ann ndirangu

People know her as Ann and this is true, but she goes by Mbaire often especially to those from her native country. She was born & raised in Kenya, spent 12 years in South Africa & has been in the USA for 5 years.

Ann loves to serve others and her career allows her to do this: she’s a caregiver. Family is extremely important to her. She has been at Trinity for 3 years, and is engaged to Ralph Nettles.

Ann’s life philosophy: WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) & YOLO (You Only Live Once)!

member-at-large

sam sommerman

Sam has served as a member-at-large on your Congregational Council since June of 2019. She also acts as the Trinity liaison to the South Snohomish County Cold Weather Shelter. A relatively recent addition to the congregation, Sam began attending services at Trinity in 2018. In March of this year she moved from Edmonds to a five acre farm in Snohomish with her husband, Lucas. They are expecting their first child in September. Sam works as a criminal defense attorney for the Mazzone Law Firm in Everett and before that spent 5 years as a public defender. Sam was raised in Dallas, Texas attending Episcopal and Lutheran Churches.

member-at-large

nominating committee 2020-21

mark bergquist

vianne reay

jamie curtis

pam steberl karen kirkmire-wilson

dirk howe

One year term.

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audit committee 2020-21

hans berkenhoff claudia lafollette sarah zabel

endowment committee 2020-21

julie buetow lin russell kim palmer

endowment committee 2020-21

jayne meyer

ratification votes financial matters & bylaws

Paycheck Protection Program loan In early April, the Trinity Council authorized a team to apply for a CARES Act, Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA). This action was taken to prevent employee layoffs, especially in the schools. We were successful in our application at WaFd (Washington Federal) bank and were awarded $282,001.88 under the PPP program. This loan will be forgiven (turned into a grant) if we use it for payroll, mortgage principal, and utilities over the 8 weeks starting May 7 and do not reduce staff count. At least 75% of the funds must be used for payroll expenses. This action will be ratified by the congregation at the May 31 Annual Meeting.

Line of Credit Issued to Trinity Preschool & Child Development Center At its March 17, 2020 meeting, the Trinity Council approved a motion to establish a $60,000 line of credit for Trinity’s schools that has been used to fund schools’ staff employment and related expenses during the current COVID-19 emergency, prior to the successful application for the PPP loan. This emergency action requires congregational ratification, and is on the ballot for the May 31 Annual Meeting.

Trinity Bylaws New proposed bylaws updated following the adoption of and conforming to the new constitution in 2018, and requiring a congregational ratification vote.

Three year term Three year term [Two years remain] [Two years remain] claudia lafollette

[One year remains]