Saint Eleanor Parish

Building Committee

“Building the Family of Saint Eleanor”

Organization

Meeting Schedule

Activities

Minutes

Inserts

Visits

Survey

  Property

Meetings:

The Building Committee meets the 1st Tuesday of each month at 6:30 PM in the room next to the kitchen.

Sub Committee meetings will be announced in the bulletin insert each month and will appear here.

Activities:

The Building Committee has begun to get organized.  There has been a good response to our request for volunteers.  Many of you have volunteered to help and please know that we WILL try to ask you to do what you have volunteered to do – it may not be for a while.

This is a long-term project that may take as much as five years.  Many of the things that you have volunteered to do may not happen for a couple of years.  If you feel left out and want to be more actively involved, let us know.  There is plenty of work to be done.

Some things have to be done in sequence.  The Environment and Liturgy Sub-Committee members have to get organized and trained before they can begin to plan the spaces that we need.  They have to learn what ALL of the liturgies are and what is needed to support them before they can say that a space will allow the parish to participate in all of the different rituals.  With all of the training and research to be done, we can expect this process to take 6 to 12 months or more.

Once the spaces are designed then the Structure Sub-Committee can really begin the actual design of the building with an architect.  They can then accurately say how much the project will cost.  While the Environment and Liturgy Sub-Committee is formulating its plan, this Sub-Committee will be looking at the site(s) for the church, planning for clearing off old structures, drainage, parking, utilities and many other physical investigations that can be done.  They will interview architects and prepare their recommendations.  They will also make plans for the renovation of existing structures to make them more usable in their new role.  This Sub-Committee will do the actual supervision of the construction to insure that we get the best building for our money and that the building meets all codes and regulations.  We really cannot turn a shovel until we have raised at least half the money for the project.

The Development Committee is responsible for raising the money to pay for the project.  They will perform an assessment (or a professional company) to evaluate what this parish can reasonably expect to raise to pay for a building.  Once the Structure Sub-Committee establishes a cost then we can see if we have to cut back on the building project in order to stay within in the assessment.  Once a final cost is established then this committee will start all of the fund raising.  Most of the activities will take place over a short period of time (4 to 6 months) though the pledges may be paid over a period of years.

The Information and Support Sub-Committee will keep the parish informed of decisions and activities.  This is the area where many of you have volunteered.  These are the volunteers that will make copies, type minutes, serve meals, maintain files, create charts, desktop publishing, etc.  Many people have volunteered in these areas.  It is going to be difficult to utilize all 56 people that volunteered to make copies.

The Building Committee itself is shown in a graphic in this insert.  This is the final decision making body.  All of the ideas are discussed in the Sub-Committees and then they make recommendations to the Building Committee.

The Co-Chairpersons of the Building Committee are Jim Dickinson and Juan Arreola.  They are responsible for the overall operation of the project.  Recruiting leaders, budgeting, establishing and maintaining a schedule and any other detail not given to someone else.  It is especially important that they insure that all of the efforts of the Sub-Committees are coordinated so that no detail is overlooked.

Many of you have good ideas that you want to share.  PLEASE write them down and put them in one of the suggestion boxes.  I guarantee you that by the time I get home from Mass, I cannot remember all of the ideas that people have told me in church where I could not write them down.  Your ideas are good - my memory is not.

We are building a church that will greatly influence the spiritual lives of our children and grandchildren.  We need to take great care and pray for guidance throughout this program.

We ask that each of you pray for the committee members and the success of this program.

Jim Dickinson

Click here to view Minutes of Building Committee Meetings

Click here to view Bulletin Inserts