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Our congregation is growing. So much so, that one third of our members has joined us within the past three years. On several weekday evenings through the church year the building and the parking lot are packed as two community groups and various church committees stuff themselves into all the spaces and even the corners that they can find. This sardine effect repeats itself at occasional other times as well. Our moments of crowding and
overuse have grown more frequent in recent years. While it remains true that Allen Avenue is not at all evenly spread through the calendar, the week, or the day, the days when all the space remains empty are few.
Responding to a Congregational directive made by vote in January, 2007, the Church Board of Trustees the following March appointed a
Facilities Planning Committee to begin early work toward the project. On November 18, 2007, 103 Church members met and, with only a few abstentions, took these actions:
Approved the general concepts of expanding and or/renovation our physical plant and keeping the church at its current location.
(In the course of discussion the Facilities Planning Committee agreed to remain alert to the possibility of good off-site alternatives and inform the Congregation of any strong possibilities.)
- Agreed to work toward creating a facility to meet the needs of about 400 members, including a sanctuary that can accommodate up to about 250 attendees seated at any one time and be expanded to accommodate up to 400 people on special occasions. Current Church membership is approximately 270. The present sanctuary has seating for about 130 people; fitting in 165 chairs is do-able, and possibly will be necessary very soon, but not comfortable.
- Empowered the Facilities Planning Committee to work with an architect to prepare preliminary conceptual plans for Congregational review and approval.
- Asked the Board to establish a Financial Planning Committee to work with consultants to develop a financial plan for eventual congregational approval.
- Authorized the use of endowment funds to accomplish the goals it had set.
It is understood that preliminary architectural plans must go to the full Congregation for consideration and approval before final plans are drawn, and that plans for a capital campaign must go to the full Congregation for approval before new capital funds are raised or further current resources are committed.
It is also understood that the steps outlined above may reveal a gap between the building dream and the resources available, and that any such gap must be addressed before plans can be completed. It is possible that revised goals or a phased building plan will be required.
UPDATE: August, 2008
Architects Checking Us Out
Friday, August 15, is a significant date for the Facilities Planning Committee and the full church community. That’s the deadline for architects to state their interest in and qualifications for working on Allen Avenue’s expansion and renovation project.
We have already seen considerable evidence of architect interest. Representative of seven firms toured the existing plant in the last two weeks!
The architects will examine the packet and
tell us by August 15 of their continuing interest and their qualifications.
By September 12, we will notify the most qualified architects of our intent to interview them. We will conduct the interviews over the next few weeks, with the goal of choosing a firm by mid-October. Then we will send our recommendation to the Board for possible action at its October meeting. If all goes well,
we will inform candidates of our decision by November 1.Then comes the exciting creation of conceptual plans – with congregational input and for congregational consideration and approval, we hope by the end of the coming church year.
Stay tuned . . . we will talk about this much more in the coming church year.