Meeting with the architect

Kevin Milburn, of rkm designz, will be meeting with the newspace task force on Monday, April 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Pastor Jane's office. (Jane and Kevin will tour the church campus first at 5 p.m.) Any of you who are interested in joining us are most welcome. We've asked him for his advice and ideas about the four major areas that have been identified as needing attention: safety, acoustics, accessibility and greening.

-- Jane

March 24 task force meeting

These next steps are recommended in our on-going building discussion:

1) Direct Stewardship Council to set up a Building Maintenance Committee (who would report to and be accountable to the Stewardship Council) whose tasks would include:
a. Coming up with a 5-year plan for maintenance needs and estimated costs
b. Bringing this plan to Stewardship council and then Session for approval
c. Implementing the plan

2) Direct Stewardship Council to set up Housekeeping/Clutter Control committee
(and find a good name for it!) as well as a Grounds Maintenance committee whose tasks would be to plan for and carry out a system of keeping up with those particular areas of the property.

3) Session, ideally with a session member chairing it, establish a “Green Committee” whose first assignment will be to come up with a Master Plan for the properties to become increasingly more environmentally responsible. This Plan needs to have a continuum from the simplest, cheapest things we can do right now TO the dream of where we want to be in time. This committee would report back to the Session.

4) Direct the newspace@chpc task force (and any other session members who want to come) to meet with Kevin Milburn (of rkm designz, inc. whose architectural services we have access to for a few more hours and who was at our last newspace gathering) to get his input and suggestions about general space usage (including the Scout Hut and its possibilities) and what he sees as reasonable things we might consider in regard to these major (prioritized) issues:

1. Safety
2. Acoustics – Fellowship Hall and Fireside Room in particular
3. Accessibility
4. Greening

5) The newspace@chpc task force would report back to the Session with recommendations, if any, and for discussion about whether or not to set up a more long-range renovation committee.

NOTES:

All of these recommendations have overlapped with one another and so communication among groups will be necessary – with Session being at the hub.

The state of the stained glass windows, for instance, will probably be considered by both the Building Committee, because of the need for their upkeep, as well as the Green Committee, because of the fact that they are not energy-efficient.

-- Pastor Jane

February 25 session meeting discussion

An animated discussion takes place about why we don’t seem to get started doing the things that we agree clearly need to be taken care of? Why are we bogged down? Martha Gee would like to think big, look at the big picture. Several people talk about our relationship with change: we struggle, we resist, often subconsciously. Others are not alarmed at the long time we’re taking to deal with the large question of how improve the building and make it more accessible. We’re still in the middle of a long process. We’re not ready to move.

-- Peter