The Planning committee’s role is to take “the long view” and bring perspective to the leadership and working committees of the Church. Our plans, with input and approval of the congregation, outline where we are going over the next few years, how we are going to get there, and how we’ll know whether we got there.

The Planning committee is responsible for
• Maintaining the master campus or site plan.
• Maintaining the strategic plan of the church — how we live our mission and realize our vision.
• Working with Church committees to ensure that plans are in place to deal with the use of facilities, future programs, etc.

The committee has developed both five-year as well as shorter term plans when necessary. Our previous five-year plan (2007-2011) focused on realizing our vision “to be a center for liberal religious education for people of all ages,” which resulted in the construction of the multipurpose building. During that period, the committee engaged an architect to give us ideas for repurposing the small dome and reviewed plans to double our available parking and make better use of our property.

The Planning Committee believed that the critical areas of attention for UUCT over the next five years are growing and sustaining our membership, leadership, campus, and revitalizing our committees. The committee believes improvements in these four focus areas are necessary in order to reach the next level of church activity — the program level.

These four areas were the focus of the proposed 2012-2016 plan. That plan was not approved by the Board, however, who believed it to be too ambitious during Rev. Zimmerman’s sabbatical (September 2012-February 2013). What we did agree to do was to work together to develop leaders at the board and the committee level: the Board and Planning committee collaborated on this focus area during the program year 2012-2013. We now have a clearer process for recruiting and preparing new Board members. We have better committee and committee chair position descriptions. We outlined and piloted a process whereby the member list is periodically reviewed to assess our human resources, and who might be available to serve in a leadership role.

At present the committee is assisting the MSC with the survey and cottage meetings in the hope that this data will inform our next plan. We will not develop a five-year plan during the ministerial transition; instead, we will work on smaller projects and then collaborate with our new minister to determine our next steps.

The planning committee chair since 2007 is Ara Rogers. Other current members of the committee include Ed Benedict, Earl Harvey, Alicia Montes, and Jerry Seeber.