Much was accomplished in May.  The Building Plans Subcommittee presented their Draft Charge to the Architect to the congregation and has been actively seeking feedback on this document.  We also hosted our UUA consultant, Mary Gleason, for a long weekend of meetings and discussions with the BPSC and its various subcommittees, the Architect Selection Task Force, the current and upcoming UCLA Board, our minister and staff, many individuals, as well as a congregational Town Hall meeting.  Every meeting was filled with revelations, good information, and great ideas for our continuing trip towards a new church building.

The most notable revelation grew out of the Town Hall meeting and was reinforced by almost every other meeting and discussion.  The question was raised: How will we determine priorities and what will guide our decision making as we pick an architect and start working on the actual design of our new church home?

In the words of Don Neeper, the Building Plans Subcommittee Co-Chair:  “The UUA consultant, Mary Gleason, pointed out that the congregation needs to do a visioning.  The visioning is not specifically for the building design, but to quantify what the congregation wants to become and what its priorities are.  The building plans can then be assured to be consistent with a widely accepted vision.”

The existing Board and the incoming Board, as well as the church staff, Rev. John, and the entire BPSC and its subcommittees, agree that the time is right to revisit our congregation’s Mission and Vision.  So much has changed since we last did this.  Our church demographics have been changing, we have a new minister, and even the way we congregate on Sunday has changed significantly since we last looked at our Vision.

Mary points out that now is the time to boldly look at who we are and who we want to be in the coming years.  She suggests that we adopt a Vision that is much more specific and daring than the usual single paragraph made up of vague statements and generalities.  Specific ideas and goals for the next five to ten years will mean that our new building can be designed and built to facilitate achieving our goals.

Therefore, our Board will initiate a Visioning process in the fall.  The BPSC will be adjusting our schedule to match up with this process.  Some BPSC tasks will be sped up a bit while other tasks will wait for input from our renewed Vision in order to insure their relevance to the congregation.

The Building Projects Steering Committee consists of:  Rick Bolton, Mia McLeod, Don Neeper, Carl Newton, Felicia Orth, Steve Tenbrink, Gloria Coe, Pam Risley, John McLeod,  Sherry Hardage, and Evan Rose.  As always, please feel free to contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or ideas for the new building.

Rick Bolton
Chair, Building Project Steering Committee 

March and April were busy months for the Building Project Steering Committee (BPSC).  Please be sure to check out the new BPSC bulletin board in the Hearth Room to keep up-to-date on progress toward our new home.

A lot of work has gone into creation of a draft Charge to the Architect document.  This draft document will be released to the congregation in May and there will be several opportunities for feedback to the Building Plans Subcommittee.

During the Forum on May 10^th, the Building Plans Subcommittee will present the draft Charge to the Architect.  They will discuss how the Charge was developed, what went into the specifications and how it will be used.

Also on May 10^th, the BPSC will host a Town Hall meeting (see next page) after church to receive congregational feedback and input to the Charge to the Architect.  Please make plans to attend these two important meetings.

Another accomplishment for April was the formation of an Architect Selection Task Force (ASTF).  Nancy Tenbrink agreed to head up the ASTF and worked with John Cullinan to put together a group that represents a broad cross section of the congregation.  ASTF members are:  Nancy Tenbrink, Cary Neeper (Building Plans Subcommittee liaison), David Coblentz, Kathy Gursky, Gordon Keating and Eric Vasquez.  This task force has already started meeting and compiling a list of architects in the surrounding area that might be interested in our building project.  The ASTF will use the final Charge to the Architect document when making their selection.

The BPSC timeline for the remainder of this year is mostly worked out.  Here are some key dates:

May 1 – Release the draft Charge to the Architect document to the congregation.  The congregation will have the entire month of May to provide feedback to the Building Plans Subcommittee.  Also, we hope to publish the first edition of the BPSC Newsletter.  This edition is timed to coincide with release of the draft Charge to the Architect.

May 9-11 – Proposed dates for Mary Gleason (our UUA Building Consultant) to be in Los Alamos.

May 10 – On this Sunday, the BPSC will provide a progress update and discussion of the draft Charge to the Architect at the Forum.  A Town Hall meeting to further discuss the Charge will be held after church.  If Mary Gleason is in Los Alamos, she will facilitate this Town Hall meeting.

June – July – The Building Plans Subcommittee will complete the final Charge to the Architect document and turn it over to the ASTF.

April – July – The ASTF will create a list of available architects to interview and investigate.  These architects are given the final Charge to the Architect document.

July – October – The ASTF interviews, investigates, checks references, and examines previous work of all the architects.

September – The second edition of the BPSC Newsletter is published.  This edition concentrates on the architect selection process and coincides with Town Hall meetings, facilitated by the ASTF, where they detail how the selection will be made.

November 1 – The best architect match for our congregation is selected and the ASTF makes their recommendation to Board.

November – The ASTF presents their selection to the congregation in various venues.  A congregational vote will be held to approve the architect selection.

December – The Board formally approves the architect selection and creation of a contract is started.

The Building Project Steering Committee consists of:  Rick Bolton,  Mia McLeod,  Don Neeper,  Carl Newton,  Felicia Orth,  Steve Tenbrink,  Gloria Coe,  Pam Risley,  John McLeod,  Sherry Hardage  and Evan Rose.  Please feel free to contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or ideas for the new building.

BPSC Town Hall Meeting Sunday May 10^th By Rick Bolton

Following a Forum presentation by the Building Project Steering Committee in the morning, the BPSC will host a Town Hall meeting on May 10^th to discuss our draft Charge to the Architect document.  We hope to have Mary Gleason (our UUA Building Consultant) here on that day to meet the congregation and to facilitate these discussions.  Please plan to attend this important meeting.

For the last few weeks, there have been posters up in the Hearth Room on Sundays featuring questions to the congregation about new building ideas.  These posters are intended to have three functions:  to maintain awareness of the building design efforts that are going on guided by the Building Project Steering Committee, to inform the congregation about some of the issues and trade-offs that the committee is attempting to resolve, and to obtain general comments and responses from the congregation.  The posters are an attempt to show that each design choice has drawbacks and benefits.  Please check out the ideas presented by the posters and feel free to write comments and suggestions on them.

The Steering Committee and the various subcommittees have met and started working on their tasks.  At this point in the process these tasks include:

• Establishing a baseline project schedule
• Recruiting subcommittee members as needed
• Gathering information and estimates for moving utilities
• Investigating various possibilities of land sale/purchase/trade
• Gathering building use and other important data
• Establishing an Architect Selection Task Force

Our first major accomplishment is the establishment of a New Building Fund!

The next major effort is to create a “Charge to the Architect” document.  This document is being developed by the Building Plans subcommittee based on work done by the Building Our Future Task Force, studies of our existing building and building use patterns, and input from the congregation.  Once completed, this document will be presented to a short list of architects who will be asked to propose designs that meet these specifications.

The Building Projects Steering Committee consists of:  Rick Bolton,  Mia McLeod,  Don Neeper,  Carl Newton,  Felicia Orth,  Steve Tenbrink,  Gloria Coe,  Pam Risley,  John McLeod,  Sherry Hardage,  Warren Houghteling,  and Evan Rose.  Please feel free to contact any of us with questions, suggestions, or ideas for the new building.