Strategic Plan

Strategic Planning Update

Update on June 14th, 2010

At our congregational meeting on June 13th the congregation approved the two motions presented by the board. We will be ending our relationship with CCC. They have a year, until July 2011, to move. We will also begin a design and planning phase for the new social area. The board of directors will be creating a task force to do this. When there are more details on this there will be more information.

The Big Picture

The Strategic Plan is a plan for the next five years or so of our church life. It encompasses many aspects of our church functioning, from how we do calendars, to the role of staff with committees, to expanding our sanctuary. The overarching goals are:

  1. Increase membership to about 500. There are more people out there for whom our message resonates, and we want to make room for them. This will also increase our pledge base.
  2. Get ourselves on good financial footing with an operations reserve and repairs to the facility.
  3. Improve the functioning of the church with changes related to governance and operations.

After those goals are achieved we will be ready to form a master plan for our campus and begin work on a capital campaign. It’s worth noting that five years isn't so much a deadline as it is an estimate. The changes suggested will take a certain amount of time to do, but if they take four years or six years instead of five that's how long they will take.

The Strategic Plan has been presented to the Board, and the Board is acting on the recommendations. If you have questions or comments about the plan e-mail John Mott, Board President. He will make those comments available to the Board.

Decision for the Congregation: Repurpose Restricted Capital Funds

Jan 4, 2010

The Strategic Plan lays out a path, with specific steps and a timeline. There are two different ways to 'get there'. One way is to use our operating budget to achieve the goals that are set out. The other way is to propose that we use the funds from the capital campaign to make the changes.

There is about $300,000 in the Capital Campaign Restricted account. This money was intended to be used for building a social hall. We fell far short of our goal of 2 million dollars. We have borrowed about $80,000 or more from that to pay different operating expenses. The proposal from the SPT is that we repurpose that money to get our church on a firm financial footing. The specifics of the proposal are in the Roadmap Overview.

The Board will be conducting discussions with the donors from the campaign and with the congregation to find out the level of interest in this option.

The goal is to get the church on a firm financial footing. We are not in bad shape per se, our debt load is very low, but we are constantly running into maintainance problems that drain cash and we have cash flow crunches from time to time. This repurposing would put us in a very secure place financially. This change would require a congregational vote, given the amount of money involved.

Recommendation: Move the Social Area and Enlarge the Sanctuary

Jan 4, 2010

Recommendation number 24 in the Strategic Plan is that we enlarge the Sanctuary and move the social area to the classrooms.

From the Strategic Plan: Provide a new social area in the main building classrooms. This will require Board-to-Board discussions to share space with CCC, removal of an internal wall, and redesign of how supplies are stored. Use the social area (or alternative prior to creation of a social area) as a choir lounge for 2nd service

This recommendation is based on our plans to increase membership. While there are creative ways to arrange services and change programming the SPT recommends that creating more seating is essential to attracting more members. The most direct way to do that is to add seating to the current social area. This would mean that the social area would have to be moved. The SPT looked at a number of options and recommends that the area be moved into two of the classrooms that we currently share with CCC.

The board has appointed a committee to do preliminary research work on this task while the congregation is consulted on this change.

The Recommendations of the Strategic Planning Team (SPT)

Jan 4, 2010

The Strategic Planning Team presented their recommendations to the Board at the November 2009 meeting. These are the same recommendations that were presented to the congregation in August, but now they have a timeline attached to them.

The recommendations span 5 areas

  • Programs
  • Volunteers
  • Staff
  • Facilities
  • Finances

It is now up to the Board to execute on the plan. Executing the plan may take changes in policies, staffing changes, priorities in the Stewardship campaign, and so on. Some recommendations will be relatively uncomplicated and some may require congregational votes to proceed.

Please be assured that this has been a patient and careful process, and that no change will be implemented without discussion and buy in with the stakeholders. When attached to a timeline this plan will be a fixture at every Board meeting, as important as our budget in guiding our next steps.

This plan doesn't preclude other initiatives or ideas -- just because something isn't in the plan doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't happen. What this plan speaks to is the changes that are part of the path that we are already on. This is the shape of the next phase of our church life.

Charge to the Strategic Planning Team

March 11, 2008

The Board of Directors of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville charges the Strategic Planning Team to:

  • define strategies to enable our vision and mission in a manner that is consistent with our principles
  • develop a five-year strategic plan that defines a course of action to provide programs, staff, facilities, and budget that support progression toward achievement of our strategies

The development of strategies should be an inclusive process with input from the entire church community and be informed by our vision, mission and principles.

  • The strategies should take into consideration the existing church community along with external communities to which we belong and serve. In addition to defining an approach to meet our vision, the strategies should specifically address questions of future church membership, facilities, and outreach.
  • The process of defining strategies should take into consideration the possibility of the evolution of ideas and provide the flexibility to review and amend the strategies during their development. The process of defining the five-year strategic plan should allow for assessment of costs and impacts, resulting in a prioritization of actions that can be supported by current and planned resources.
  • The Strategic Planning Team should begin as soon as possible to develop a process that will occur over a one-year timeline, execute the process, and be ready to report the results to the congregation at the Mid-Year Congregational Meeting in January 2009.

The Team reports directly to the Board of Directors and is requested to present monthly progress reports at each board meeting until the process is completed.

Planning to Enable Our Mission and Vision

Entering into an ongoing planning conversation with the larger church community in order to

  • Visualize Our Future
  • Shape Our Future
  • Build Our Roadmap

Strategic Planning Team Members:

  • Nancy Ransom, chair
  • Kathleen Harkey
  • David Lewis
  • Kathy Sowell
  • Anastasia Curwood
  • Charlie Akers
  • Linda Roberson, consultant
  • Gail Seavey, Ex Officio member
  • John Mott, Board Liaison

Contact the Strategic Planning Team:
strategic@firstuunashville.org