Our Home Theme Conversation - 10/4/2009 and 11/22/2009 Consolidated

Theme: Our Home (Three-Circle Composite, sorted into similar response clusters)

Circle Participants: Sally Wilson, Carolyn Mitchell, Andrea Tryon, Beth Balas, Donna Mohr, Tom Kuniholm, Frank Petrie, Diana Peters, Donna Moore, Jane Martin, Leslie Marshall, Richard Wilson, Tracy Dickerson, Louise Rikley, Gene Bullock, Sandy Bullock, Phil Brown, Gerlind Jenkner, Vinnie Perrone, Angie Hoffpauir, and (by later email) Diane McCann

Question #1: What do you most like about the way Cedars uses shared facilities?

I am delighted with the home we have now: It is a wonderful space - light, airy, roomy

Webster Hall is a quality space with natural light and a great feel.

The location is great (more convenient) for North Kitsap members.

I am delighted with the home we have now: It is in a setting committed to education - given that individuals are lifelong learners, what better place to explore, adopt, and practice spiritual issues than in a school.

Classrooms at The Island School are wonderful for the children. We need a place for our youth as well, so that they stay connected with the rest of the congregation.

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I love the idea of sharing space with a school

I’m proud that we share The Island School; it would be empty on Sunday anyway, and it’s a prudent, fiscally sound choice for us.

I am delighted with the home we have now: It is making use of a facility that might otherwise be empty on a Sunday, and it fits in with our aspirations of taking good care of the earth in that we are not adding more buildings, etc.

Appreciate the green aspect - sharing allows building use every day

Our use of The Island School represents a green sanctuary by giving us a smaller footprint. The space also offers versatility in how we set up.

Ecologically sound, less taxes, less carbon footprint.

Practical – the facility already exists, cheaper in the short run.

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There is really positive interaction with The Island School administration; they like us and we like them

The relationship with The Island School is very positive for both sides

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Church-in-a-box is appreciated for what it allows, since we are not big enough to have our own building and The Island School has so much positive energy

How everyone has fallen into use of The Island School is impressive (our setup modifies the shared space to better suit our needs)

Two things are striking: aesthetics and comfort: The Island School provides a beautiful space more like Hyla, but it is not as comfortable as desired, and it takes too much effort to set up, so there is concern about potential burnout

I would like to create a more personalized spiritual space, one more aesthetically pleasing, comfortable.

Noise is very difficult at times

The space seems too spread out, we are too far away as Amanda said this morning. Not an intimate environment, space too expansive.

Maybe we need to re-look at how we are using the space, especially seating.

Maybe we should invite people to move closer after the children leave, so there aren’t so many holes. That might create a more intimate space. It is a hassle to shuffle around, though.

People get nested, might be harder to move.

The labor intensity of set-up is huge, especially for a few people like the chair and sound people.

Alan Miller works so hard, harder than just about anybody on Sunday morning, not really fair all the time.

We are living within our means and at low risk, in contrast to another church (different denomination) that I recently learned is having financial difficulties and was forced to sell a building that they had funded and built.

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We aren’t really in a position financially, but having our own space would make a huge difference for growth and programs, etc.

We would use it more, do more things, if we had our own space. Hard to do that now.

If you are a housemate, renting space, you have to abide by others’ rules; they can seem arbitrary, cause friction.

We had that at Hyla more than here, and the Playhouse was really a mess!

Right now it’s less hassle with maintenance, if we had our own place there would be more.
It could be designed so that there wouldn’t be as much maintenance. Depends on the design.

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Helps to have church office where there is meeting space.

The Katz building offers versatility, represents a future opportunity for an expanded role in the community during the week. Our use of TIS is limited primarily to Sundays.

There is a thought about using capital fund and buying office space, share it with another group, but I think that may not be good and I am not in favor of it.

That depends on the deal {re above}, could be a good investment.


Question #2: What images does “Our Home” suggest about Cedars, both currently and in the future?

At Cedars, need to be more attached to people rather than place, more community (our tribe).

Yes, a gathering place more than a physical structure.

In sociology, you call that a “non-territorial community.”

Like the Bedouins, they had to make their places comfortable and hospitable. You need a great sense of hospitality if you are migrants. We need to do a better job of that.

There are lots of complex feelings about this issue – place can help evoke shared memories, meaning, sense of history.

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My “church” is not only at The Island School. It is in my garden, on my computer, and on my refrigerator. Our UU faith doesn’t only reside in a physical place. The physical place is less important than the community we build.

Being green, our image is reflected in the wider community.

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Place needs to be more aesthetically pleasing, comfortable, we don’t have that now. We need to be more welcoming.

Here is not “home” yet, -- it’s too spread out and too formal, structure of chairs could change and be more welcoming of people.

We could have banners, images, to help personalize space, decorate room more.

We could have family activities to make things, etc. But, that would create more work for set-up

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Life is never perfect...but the setup instructions are as close to perfection as one can get. I have only one suggestion, which I hesitate to make, as I am aware of how much effort has gone into the setup process for the service...but if it (the process) could be simplified, that would be helpful...

The effort we face is worrying – is the effort to set up and take down at The Island School more or less than the effort to maintain a building of our own?

We need to have a “set-up” that makes it not such an ordeal to be a community, it needs to be easier.

We need more “theater in the round” like Barbara experimented with a couple of times (several people re-iterated this, felt it would reduce isolation).

The music was beautiful this morning, but I had to crane my neck to see the choir, it’s hard the way the set-up is now.

How do we create a better sense of community, be more creative in use of space and people? Not easy.

We could experiment with the choir, in different directions.

Yea, bring the “show” down, and have choir among the congregation. Come down to sing, not so far away on the stage.

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A real problem is the acoustics; the acoustics in such a large room are terrible.

Money is always the stumbling block to doing more, for example the sound, it could be fixed but it would be expensive. Need to look for creative solutions.

Sound and noise are a problem. Sometimes people may not be able to hear well.

We could ask how many people have trouble hearing, be playful about it. Have different sounds and voices, from different parts of the room, check on a paper whether things were heard or not, sort of a reality check.

We could also train people to use the microphone better. Talk into it properly, not down at the waistline.

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I’ve always wanted our own building where we can be set up and could share with others

I’ve always wished we could share a church with another congregation - perhaps a Jewish one

Space has uses beyond our congregation.

Quimper UU Fellowship in Port Townsend and Eagle Harbor Congregational or Grace Episcopal on Bainbridge are examples of how building-owning churches can be vibrant institutions that share their buildings with other community groups

We have to dream big or it won’t happen

A prominent sign needs to mark where we are – one that is rooted in the earth

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If we had a building, we’d be in trouble right now because of the economy

It would be nice to own an office building so we would have a permanent location

Owning something is better than owning nothing. We should have a plan to purchase a modest building to serve as our office/ community center. Need a formal committee or task force to keep abreast of and explore opportunities as they arise.

What should we do with our capital fund? Should the capital campaign pledge ask be combined with the Stewardship ask? Three people felt no, it diminishes the importance of both to combine the asks. Better to do them separately.

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Synergy with The Island School: We share a mutual regard and similar values. Future shared ownership of space with TIS & perhaps Grace on adjacent property would be a positive development.

We will need more storage as we grow. Maybe TIS will let us build a storage building somewhere on the property.

Trust for Working Landscapes has a long range plan to build an educational facility on the city-owned Day Road property just east of TIS.

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One last thing, I would love to see an occasional service scheduled somewhere in Poulsbo - Chapel at Mary & Martha for instance.

Glad that Barbara’s doing some stuff there; it’s in keeping with the idea of making North Kitsap more included.