Chris Sealy, Project Management Posse By now, the news has spread – JUC members have voted to Make Room. To be specific, the motion at the April 15th Special Congregational Meeting to authorize the board to look for a new location was approved 300 to 40. That was nearly 88% of us saying YES to the vision of a larger campus to grow our ministries and better fulfill our mission. To everyone who took part in the conversation, thank you for participating in the important business of our beloved church. Now the real work begins.
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Debby Bower, Project Management Posse Welcome to the messy middle of the JUC Making Room deliberations! It's a place of questions and ponderings, angst and hopes. And it's exactly where we should be as we approach our Special Congregational Meeting, Sunday, April 15 to consider pursuing a larger church home in the area. Such a home would be a base from which we can truly live into our mission, nourish our spirits, welcome new members, visitors, and partners, and serve as both a convener of social justice and beacon of Unitarian Universalism.
Chris Sealy, Project Management Posse
Consultants Kay Crider and Rachel Maxwell capped a three-day weekend of meetings with JUCers with a presentation on the Making Room conversation. It included financial and organizational data – as well as info on all the processes involved – that could be useful in deciding whether to look for a larger space. Kay listed the results from a recent survey of members that revealed opinions on several topics, including JUC’s strengths (#1: ministers and staff) and challenges (#1: facilities).
Chris Sealy, Project Management Posse
What prompted the Making Room conversation at JUC? How did we get to this point of examining whether our congregation should look for a larger space in our part of Jefferson County? To answer these questions and bring everyone up to date on the Making Room conversation, Board of Trustees members and Rev. Wendy presented an informational briefing between services on Sunday, March 4th. You can watch the presentation below. It includes JUC membership and visitor numbers, a timeline of JUC’s facility history, a financial snapshot, growth figures of other metro area UU churches, limitations of our existing campus that preclude its expansion, and a map of the potential search area. Jim Matera, Property Evaluation Task Force I would like to highlight the geographic area that the Property Evaluation Task Force has determined would be a feasible NEW location for JUC . We will be staying within the confines of Jefferson County. The boundaries are: Jewell Ave to our south, 88th Ave to our north, Sheridan Blvd to our east and roughly C-470/Route 93 as a western boundary. Ideally we would prefer to find a location closer to the center of this target footprint rather than at the very edges, but it is important to realize that we are faced with a rather limited set of options and by expanding the area where we look we increase the possibility of finding a location that meets the many other criteria we are considering. A map of the search area can be found by clicking Read More below. Property Evaluation Task Force
The Board of Trustees has determined that we cannot expand at our present location, as it is not a good fit for helping us grow in our mission. Over the course of many years, as options were explored to allow room for JUC to grow, the idea of expanding in JUC’s current location has come up, and has, in fact, been done multiple times. The most recent renovation and expansion project was completed in 2005 with the addition of the chapel, the Religious Education wing and significant remodeling of the Mills Building for office and classroom space. Wendy Williams, Senior Minister Stewardship for Us is a team of Unitarian Universalists providing advice and assistance in mission-based sustainable stewardship programs. As their website states: “Because the future is in your hands...Your congregation’s ongoing life depends on your generosity, stewardship, and readiness to honor your history. We help you build the roots that keep you strong” JUC’s roots are strong. This has been a steady congregation for a long time and one that has been willing to be bold at varying times throughout its existence. Wendy Williams, Senior Minister At Jefferson Unitarian Church, we are Making Room! Our Board cast a bold course of action last fall when it said, by May 1, 2018 we will have a viable plan to free JUC from the limits of our campus in order to live more fully into our mission. It will take Board and Staff leadership, as well as congregational participation to determine the right plan for our church. Accordingly, we built this website to make it as easy as possible for leadership to share information and ask questions of our members. It will be regularly updated so that everyone has access to the same information and the process will be transparent. Jon Hassinger, Trustee A number of teams are working diligently toward fulfilling our BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal!) of having a viable plan submitted to the Congregation by May 1 to free JUC from the limits of our campus in order to live more fully into our mission. The Board recently entered into a contract with a commercial real estate agency to begin the process of analyzing potential properties and facilities. A team consisting of Rev. Wendy, Kathy Covert, David Fleck, Tom Goodreid,Jim Matera, Mark Baker, Carol Wilsey, and Dave DiGiacomo has been formed to evaluate various options. Rev. Wendy, in consultation with the Board, is interviewing fundraising consultants that would help us eventually run a capital campaign. |