07/04/04 Communique'

Thanks to all of you who participated in the master planning process during the weekends of June 5^th/6^th and 12^th/13^th. Each council and commission spent a significant amount of time putting together presentations of its ministry and how it relates to our facilities – both current conditions and potential future improvements. We thank them for putting together these informative presentations and for staffing them at every weekend mass.

We also want to thank members of our parish community who spent time after mass looking at the presentations and filling out feedback forms. The master planning committee has found these very helpful and you can look forward to similar presentations and opportunities for dialog as we move forward with the planning process.

For those who may have been out of town during the “show and tell” weekends, we will be leaving the presentations up in the back of church so that you can study them at your leisure.

It is important to note that the Pastoral Council did not do a presentation. Since their role is to oversee the entire parish operations and to advise Fr. Bill, it is appropriate that their role in the planning process is to help ensure that it is inclusive, thoughtful, to be active listeners, and ultimately to share their advice with the master planning committee and Fr. Bill. In this way, they are active participants in the process.

The following five steps outline the process to develop a new campus master plan. We are now entering the third phase.

Establish inclusion and alignment of all ministries for the Master Planning Process. - Ongoing
Define scope and process with input from all councils/commissions. - Ongoing
Establish and verify physical condition and use of parish campus. – August and September
Develop a draft Master Plan (3, 5, 10, and 20 years).
Confirm Master Plan assumptions and parameters with parish community.

Verifying the physical condition and use of the entire parish campus will be a labor-intensive job. Fortunately, the facilities commission has already developed a data base and other information that will serve as an excellent starting point. The master planning committee will form a number of teams from a cross section of councils/commissions (ministries), to inspect the facilities. In this way, each council and commission will become aware of facility needs that they may not have encountered in their service to our parish. This should help develop shared understanding among the commissions/councils of our parish facility needs, wants and desires.

The next parish Leadership Meeting is October 4^th, from 7:00 – 9:00 PM. The master planning committee has been invited to use the first hour of the meeting to present its findings on the condition and use of parish facilities at that time. This will be one of several opportunities in the coming months to ask questions about our facilities and the master planning process.

Please be sure to check the Sunday bulletin inserts for updates on the parish campus master planning process. Also, the St. John web site (www.stjohnsea.org ) has all of the previous Communiqués, a list of the master planning committee, and related background for those who may be new to the parish or for those who want to become more involved in the process.