Welcome and Introduction

Hello all,

I've set up this blog for people who are interested in what's happening with the facilities task force at Transcona Memorial United Church. I expect that I will be posting something here at least once a week.

First, a few disclaimers. This is my blog. I do not officially represent TMUC or the United Church of Canada. Opinions expressed (and I do have them) are strictly my own. Having said that, I will do my best to provide a fair account of our progress, and try to keep my own bias out of the picture.

So, why a task force? Our congregation has met in our current building for about 54 years. As I understand it, we've been discussing its adequacy for about 53 of those years. We are a progressive congregation, and our demands on our building are continually changing. In recent decades the question, "What should we do with this building?" has been getting asked more frequently, but has never really been answered.

This past year, TMUC took a serious approach to creating a strategic plan for ourselves. We developed a Vision, a Mission, and a number of goals that direct us to do the things that we believe are important. One of the things that came out of this strategic plan was the desire to get an answer to the question, "What should we do with this building?" Hence, a task force. We have until January 2009 to come up with recommendations.

And why am I leading this task force? Because I volunteered.

The official board of TMUC presented the task force with 6 scenarios to consider.

• Status quo


• Upgrade Present Facility


• Rental Facility


• Building a new building off current site


• Partnering with business (seniors complex) to build a new building


• Virtual Facility/Site

We'll be evaluating all of these options, and possibly more in the coming months.

We'll do a comparative analysis of these scenarios, based on a cost/benefit analysis for each of them. The costs and benefits that can be measured in dollars will be relatively easy to compare. We can predict maintenance costs for our existing facility. We can get "ballpark" estimates for renovation, building new, etc. We can investigate funding opportunities from governments, philanthropists and other funding bodies.

The costs and benefits that are less tangible - how well each scenario will allow us to meet our Mission, Vision, and Goals - will require more creativity. We will probably develop a matrix and rating system for these issues, evaluating each scenario against our goals.

I'm very pleased with the calibre of people who have agreed to serve on this task force. I think we have a good combination of experience, practicality, and creativity.

We've had one meeting so far, and we're already making some progress towards our goal. We've contacted the Architectural Resource Group of the United Church of Canada, and will be meeting with their representative soon. We've got a good start on the valuation of our existing property and will soon have information about what sort of zoning variances we would need should we decide to undertake major renovations.

And of course, the first concrete step will be to determine user requirements - find out what we want our building to do for us. We'll be creating a questionnaire for all of the committees of TMUC to find out what they think is important. This will include the newly formed Youth Committee and Environmental Committee.

And now here's me, opening up a can of worms.

I want your opinion.

There's a link at the end of this post that currently says "0 Comments". As a friend of mine would say, I want it to say n comments, where n is a relatively large number. Click on that link and tell me (and the world) what you think.