June 19, 2010

In Attendance:  Bette, Catherine, Finley, Ivan, Kent, James, Bill, Allan, Rev. Nina, Lara, Bobbi, Andy, Grace, Anita, Joan, Hank


Strengths
·    Beautiful garden
·    Location
·    Lots of rooms
·    Can help meet the needs of other groups we work with
·    History
·    Age/historic
·    New heating system
·    Overall well maintained
·    Committee people caring for the building
·    Some beautiful spaces
·    Inside:  room to grow
·    Some parking spaces
·    Beautiful sanctuary for weddings
·    Beautiful exterior which is inviting
·    Powerful “church” interior
·    Memory of this history of past usages
·    Financial support to our community
·    Serves the larger community
·    Some level of accessibility
·    Sense of balance of purpose which helps us serve the mission
·    Proactive Hyde Park and Chicago neighbor
·    Crypt – only internment option in a church in the city
·    Proximity to U of C
·    Storage space
·    Kitchens
·    Hull Chapel – intimate for weddings
·    Could use Fenn House for alternative services
·    The new boiler helps move us to being a more green church

Weaknesses
·    Don’t have a vision for how to use the spaces yet
·    Outside:  no room to grow without deep sacrifice
·    Hull Chapel – no room to grow for social hour
·    Lots of space
·    Some areas not maintained well enough to attract space users
·    Fragile chairs
·    Limited accessibility
·    Current design structure
·    High maintenance
·    Many members only see the buildings the way they are being used now,
·    Lack of air conditioning
·    Need for space to produce income in one way or another
·    Need upgrades to maintenance
·    Lack of security
·    Sanctuary too big for the membership of our size
·    Limited budget and management capacity – multi-space users
·    Membership too small to up the campus
·    Disconnected from our space users
·    Windows leak water in, heat out
·    Not energy efficient
·    Churchly interior can be off-putting here – creativity limited
·    Can’t use Hull Chapel while using the sanctuary
·    Limited meeting room space
·    Limited flexibility in the sanctuary – front forward, linear, authority structure/set up
·    Acoustic challenges in several spaces
·    Don’t communicate traffic challenges ahead of time
·    Need an alcohol policy for when we are using the space.  There is one for wedding receptions and other types of events – beer and wine only.

Opportunity
·    Place for non-profits to meet, we don’t restrict who uses our space
·    Location with lots of visibility
·    Appeal of Hyde Park on the South Side
·    Potential use for social justice purposes
·    Potential uses:
o    Cultural activities
o    Bed and breakfast
o    Education service provide
o    Social events
o    Dormitory
o    Hostel
·    LGBTQ space
·    Street parking fairly easy on Sundays
·    U of C
·    Flourish Studios, on the north side, Model of multi-space users
·    Shared office space, Fenn House
·    Turn one of Meadville’s buildings into a parking lot

Threat/Challenge
·    Economy
·    Zoning restrictions, could be hard to change
·    U of C
·    Parking
·    Visibility in the community
·    Neighborhood resistant to growth of commercial space, not a hospitable environment for entrepreneurs
·    Tough economic times
·    Poor communication by City of Chicago when traffic challenges
·    Right of eminent domain
·    Lots of rental space available now
·    Loss of Meadville
·    Average household size in the neighborhood and income has decreased.  Not sure what it will be in the future, but it will certainly change again
·    State of Illinois’ funding problems has impacted two organizations that used Fenn House over the years.

Themes
·    Need for complementary space users, mutually beneficial/enhancing
·    Multiple constrains upon us, hopefully it will serve to inspire us
·    Share space concepts
·    Increase in stewardship participation will lead to increase in our use of the building… decrease in stewardship leads to decrease in our use of the building
·    Need to creatively look at resonance between rooms and their use
·    Don’t have a church body that can use all of the space now
·    Restricted architecturally
·    Looking at challenges multiple times, e.g. sound system, chairs, VOV’s leaking roof
o    Need to be smarter about solutions
·    Space service the community
·    Increase administrative capacity to manage and maintain our space
o    Need to be looking at the whole campus
o    Trade rent for work, e.g. handyman live onsite
·    commercial enterprise dramatic
·    property rich – has been a source of money over the years, but we don’t have the administrative capacity to manage currently
·    need to be realistic and professional about using our spaces, may need to reorganize
·    space is too occupied for the membership to grow
·    membership too small to pay for the upkeep of the campus

Conversation
·    maybe need to look at isolating the use of Fenn House to be a commercial property and work toward using all the other spaces for us
·    need a long term plan for our use of the spaces
·    We are currently classroom poor – access for us, for our RE needs, could we use any of the 2nd floor rooms on Sundays?
·    Pay attention to the long term arc of our space users
·    Love the idea of using Fenn House as a Bed and Breakfast, would serve a need in the Hyde Park Community, U of C, UUs, employment
·    Increase effective use of our spaces, especially Pennington and Basement
·    Cautions with commercial use
·    How many people do we need to have in the congregation to fill up our spaces
·    Membership/Stewardship as a key to space use
·    Parking restricts our growth
·    Partner with other churches near us, esp. parking
·    Fenn House needs t generate income in some fashion, either with a space user or in a way that attracts enough new members that would fill the budget requirements (e.g. a social justice project
·    Need to do an in-depth inventory of our assets and needs and the needs of our neighbors, e.g. partnering to do stained glass repairs to get a better price point
·    Spiritual pluralism – more attractive if there was an established space, e.g. for meditation
·    Need a place for members/friends to hang out
·    Test our assumptions consistently
·    Learn from what other churches have done, e.g. Evanston’s use of their basement space
·    What if we bring these conversations up through Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council
·    Do we need a representative on the Hyde Park Kenwood Community Conference?  Maybe participate with the Chamber of Commerce.
·    Need a business plan if we are going to move to a commercial situation.  If we remain dependent on income, we risk lowering our standards on “quality” of renters.
·    Selling of Fenn House – a fallback position to the rental use.
·    We have great hope for a Membership Coordinator
·    What would it take (membership wise) to support our community and campus?
·    Membership Coordinator – need to work on job description
·    Keep all of the space in mind when making decisions, not one part of the campus alone
·    Focus on a gift oriented model, as opposed to a commerce focused one
·    Recognize that empirical data driven models don’t always tell the whole story, so don’t hold a new membership coordinator to false/unrealistic expectations