On May 26th, 2009, members of the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee submitted the following report to the Session of Grace Presbyterian Church. The purpose of this task force was to evaluate our current campus and facilities.
The summary of their findings and their recommendation: “Grow in our existing facility.”
Rationale:
- we have room to grow approximately 50 to 100% in our current facility
- it is not financially feasible to move our church to a new site in Plano (their estimate was from 12 to 18 million dollars to buy land and build a comparable campus)
- we can be more efficient with the space we have now (i.e. classrooms that are used for storage should be used for classrooms)
- we should pave the parking lot but in the meantime we must utilize offsite parking options to alleviate the crunch between 10:45 and 11:10AM.
- portable buildings and off site rental space should be on the table for consideration
Strategic Steps we can take immediately and recommended by the task force:
- Establish a parking ministry (this is a no cost option that we can do today). Look for folks who attend 9AM AND WHO ALSO ATTEND Sunday School as a priority.
- Build a Facilities Management Team (perhaps around a key person). This person and team should focus on scheduling room usage (software is available for this).
- Encourage members to scoot to the middle of the pews.
- Establish a long term Strategic Planning Team that meets regularly. This team would continually assess where we are and what our needs are for the immediate and long term future.
Download full report here.
