There’s plenty that’s been going on—or will be going on—in the life, ministry, and leadership of our congregation!  Here are a few tid-bits:

Safe Church Policy updates:  A team of four has been working valiantly to update and revise our church’s Safe Church Policy manual—the policies and procedures we have in place to ensure that we’re doing all we can as a church to ensure that children and other vulnerable populations aren’t put in a situation where they are at risk for possible abuse or other inappropriate behavior, as well as to ensure the safety of our facilities and programs for all people as best as we are able.  The update process made sure that our documented policies match our current governance and staffing structures and more closely reflect what we are realistically capable of doing given our current programs and activities.  It also added new material related to social media use and active shooter situations, as requested by our insurance company, among other things.  The Governing Board approved the revised manual at its September meeting, recognizing that there are still likely further revisions and additions that would be appropriate to pursue.  The updated Safe Church Policy manual will soon be available on our website.  Many, many thanks to Laurie Brookes, Janice Castle, Elaine Chague, and Bob Malecki for many hours and many meetings over many months!

Lead Ministry Coordinator position vacancies and role discernment:  We continue to have a couple of vacancies within our circle of Lead Ministry Coordinators (LMCs)—namely, for the Caring Ministry Coordinator and the Outreach Ministries Coordinator.  The good news is that, for the most part, the actual ministries we engage with in these areas have been continuing to happen, and happen well, thanks to the various ministry teams that do the work of ministry on the ground.  In the meantime, Pastors Matt and Nancy have been taking care of administrative needs in these areas as they arise, including making sure our benevolence giving continues to go out in ways congruent with recent past practice.  That said, though, we would still love to be able to appoint new Lead Ministry Coordinators in these areas.  Intrigued?  Feel the Spirit tugging at you a bit?  Talk to Pastor Matt or any member of our Governing Board.

  With the day-to-day realities that we’re seeing as we have now lived into our present leadership structures for nearly four years now, we’re beginning to think we may need to reexamine the role that the ministry coordinators occupy in our structure.  Four years in, we can see that things at the governance, oversight, visioning, and strategy end of things are happening well and continue to grow positively… and we can see that our on-the-ground ministry initiatives, and the teams that engage in them, are doing good things and continuing to grow and evolve in positive directions.  There continues to be less clarity, on the other hand, around the best structures for the “staffing” that supports those ministry initiatives and teams—the constellation of paid staff positions and volunteer ‘staff’ leadership that best fits our context.  So we will be putting some good effort and energy into discerning a potentially re?visioned model and structure for our ministry staffing, as we make sure to what sorts of paid positions and identified volunteer ‘staff’ leadership will best support, enable, and catalyze the ministry of our congregation.  The Ministry committee of our Governing Board will be facilitating our discernment in this area.

Did that last paragraph sound like a lot of gobbledygook?  Just know that we’re beginning a period of re-evaluating the overall role of a “lead ministry coordinator”, while also taking an intentional look at ‘staffing’ as a whole—paid and volunteer alike.  The Governing Board will be facilitating the engagement of the whole congregation in the discernment around these questions.

Church database migration:  In the late spring and early summer, the people in the roles that make use of the current PowerChurch church database system (namely, pastoral and office, and financial officers) were engaged in deciding how we would move along the process—talked about in some form or another for over a decade—of considering moving to a new church management system platform.  Product research done by our financial officers was added to information and research that Pastor Matt had gathered over the last few years.  Being satisfied that our current use needs would be adequately met and seeing exciting new possibilities afforded, with the consent of the team, Treasurer Bob Malecki and Pastor Matt moved forward at the end of July begin the process of signing on with Realm, a next-generation church management system by ACS Technologies, a seasoned and well-respected leader in the church management systems field. 
As with any other church management system, Realm primarily serves the administrative needs of our staff and officers—membership records, financial accounting, contributions tracking, that sort of thing.  But Realm, as a new generation system, also going to offer some exciting opportunities to support the way you are involved in our church through new ways we’ll be able to do communications, manage ministry teams, and facilitate participation.  In other words, not only will Realm improve work life for our ministry ‘staff’, it will make it easier for our whole congregation to connect with each other, keep up with what’s going on, and grow in connection and participation.

Our “on-boarding” with Realm is going to take some time, so it may be a little while before you see any evidence of the change-over.  Hopefully over the next month or two, we’ll complete our data conversion and setup as relates to our membership records; switching over our accounting will wait until the start of the new year, although this fall will give an opportunity to make sure things are set up properly.  Soon enough, though, Realm will be something you can engage with directly (church databases aren’t just for the office staff anymore!) and will become a key part of the way we help make ministry and connection happen.

Facilities updates:  Many of you are aware that Duffy Brookes, our buildings-and-grounds coordinator, makes so many improvements and little projects happen around our facilities… but do you realize just what all’s been accomplished this summer and early fall? 

• Electrical works, including new LED lighting for the M.H. chancel, putting portico and breezeway lights on light-sensor switches, and a new cupola light on the chapel. 
• A new fire alarm master panel and communications relay, replacing equipment damaged in a May lightning strike, moving monitoring to a more reliable system, and relocating equipment to be less subject to heat and moisture exposure. 
• A new drinking fountain with water-bottle-filler installed between the Sexton ‘office’ and the dumbwaiter. 
• Repairs to a heating system pump in the Meeting House and sump pumps in the steam system pit in the Parish House.