Another Special Rapp Sheet - Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Town Hall Meeting Postponed Due to the weather. Due to the inclement weather, tonight’s Town Hall meeting on the renovation/expansion project has been postponed until Thursday. There will now be Town Hall meetings at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM on Thursday, January 23. Reminder: The presentation packet that is being distributed at the Town Hall meetings is also available on the church website at sterlingumc.org/BuildingCommittee. Fundraising Study Report Now Available Also now available on the website is the fundraising study report of the capital campaign consultant. In accordance with Paragraph 2544.4.f. of the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the Building Committee is required to provide an estimate of the amount the membership can contribute in cash and pledges. In order to establish a reliable estimate, the committee felt a professional outside opinion was needed. Walsh and Associates consulting firm was contracted. Scott Schoaf of Walsh interviewed 39 active families in our congregation who represent a broad cross-section of our membership. In addition, Scott also studied other financial and demographic data we provided him to make his report. The report is available at sterlingumc.org/BuildingCommittee. Note, names have not been published to respect confidentiality of the participants. Questions and Answers At the conclusion of the Town Hall meetings (and before Church Conference), the Building and Capital Campaign Committees will publish a summary of questions and answers from the 4 Town Hall sessions. We are thankful for the many thoughtful questions and comments we have received to date. However, two questions were raised that we feel need further clarification at this time. We feel these are very important questions that should be addressed right away so our Church family can have time to fully contemplate before the Church Conference. What happens if we do not meet our benchmarks of $1,000,000 in pledges, including $400,000 cash on hand? If total pledges fall short of $1 million at the closing of the campaign (on September 7), we will scale the project back so that it is two times the amount pledged. For example, if we raise $800,000 in cash and pledges, we will proceed with design of a project valued at $1,600,000. The size of the project is determined by the total amount raised in cash and pledges. The Financing Plan also mentions a benchmark of raising 40% of our pledges in cash before commencing the project. This benchmark has to do with timing of the project start. As we re-read the Financing Plan we understand why this may be confusing. It is our intention that we not begin the design and start incurring costs for this project until we have 40% of the pledges in the bank. This is so that we have enough cash in hand to cover the soft costs of the project without incurring debt. To summarize: the total pledges determine to value of the project up to $2 million, and the point in time when we have collected 40% of those pledges in cash is when we can begin the design of the project. Sorry for the confusion. What will be cut from the project if we do not meet our fundraising goal? We simply cannot answer this question at this time. It took a year for us to develop, with the help of a licensed architect, the plan now before you. If we must scale the project back to $1,600,000 we will need time to prepare a revised plan. If this happens we make three promises. First, in partnership with the architect, we will work as hard as we have to date to prepare the new plan that addresses as many of our most critical needs as possible. Second, we will listen to, and carefully consider, every suggestion from the congregation. Third, we will share the plan with the congregation. However, it should be noted that an affirmative vote at Church Conference authorizes the project to move forward, either in the full amount or at whatever dollar amount the fundraising allows. The Book of Discipline (paragraph 2544.7) does not provide for an additional Church Conference vote. There will, however, be additional approvals required from both the Charge Conference and the Bi-District Board of Church Location and Building, before construction begins. We realize that this takes a level of trust. We will work in good faith to maintain that trust. We apologize for any confusion caused by our answer in the January 15 Town Hall meeting. Further research of the Book of Discipline was required to provide the answer presented here. Thank you for your interest and ongoing support of the Building and Capital Campaign Committees, as we work on your behalf to develop a project that we hope will best position us to do God’s work at Sterling United Methodist Church for years to come. David Printz, Chair of the Building Committee
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:14:51 +0000
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