Beginning in January of 2011, two very important processes will take
place at Saint Nicholas and they are both linked in their scope and
in their purpose.
1) We
will invite everyone in the parish to attend just one in a series of
church-hall discussions on the state of our community. We will be
inviting approximately 30 families per session and each session will
take place on a Sunday afternoon or evening. During the discussions,
we will ask for your feedback on: a) ministries and programs that
need improvement or which need to be enacted and b) ministries and
programs that are doing well and should be continued as they are. We
will also discuss the importance of stewardship for the upkeep of
all our ministries and programs. This will be a frank and open
discussion and all comments and suggestions will be welcomed with
gratitude.
2)
Our parish council will be undertaking a Strategic Planning Process
for the future development of our community and its ministries and
programs. This Strategic Plan, once complete, will help to guide our
community to our desired future. Data collected from the church-hall
discussions mentioned above will be used along with the data
retrieved from surveys that will be sent to each parishioner in the
winter of 2011 to help guide the initiative. The data collection
process should take most of the winter and spring. We will use the
summer to compile the data and in the fall of 2011, we will work
together so that we may present the Strategic Plan of the parish, as
guided by the input of ALL participating parishioners, to the
community as a whole.
We
humbly request everyone’s vigorous participation in this process so
that we may continue to move forward as a community – always blessed
by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
With love in Christ,
Fr. Nick and the Parish Council
Strategic Plan
Announcement
Dear
Parishioners,
The
Parish Council and Rev. Father Nick have put together a Strategic
Planning Committee to guide the course of our parish over the next
few years. The committee has met several times since the summer to
begin the strategic planning process. The goals of the process are
to
a) get
a firm grip on our demographics and update our database of
parishioners b) engage the entire community in guiding our parish
forward in terms of ministries and major projects and c) planning
our parish’s goals over the next few years.
The
Strategic Planning Process will have six steps.
1)
Announcing the process to the parishioners (this is the
announcement).
2) Conducting a demographic study (January 2011).
3) Gathering data from parishioners (both via the church hall
meetings as you read about in Fr. Nick’s letter in this month’s
Compass and through a survey sent to all parishioners – January –
May 2011).
4) Holding a workshop or large group meeting to present the data,
make sense of it and create our vision for the future (September
2011).
5) Holding a workshop to set goals, objectives and action plans
(October 2011).
6) Present the Strategic Plan to the parish (November 2011).
This is an ambitious
project but will serve us well as we make plans for our future. We
sincerely hope everyone participates in this process.
