Building 4 Community Update: August 22, 2006

First Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL
Building 4 Community Update

August 22, 2006

The Building 4 Community Committee met on August 8. We discussed the feedback received from church members at the ice cream fellowship on July 23. Thank you to those of you who shared with various members of our committee. In addition to discussing that member feedback, the committee began to look at building utilization. Steve Wofford provided an initial summary of utilization of FBC space by hour throughout the week for various areas. For example, on Sundays at 8:00 a.m., 54 people meet on the Ground floor of Adams. Steve will continue to build on this summary. As we look at things like:

What is the capacity of the various rooms/areas?
How many groups comprise a given number (e.g., is the 54 made up of one, two, or more groups?)
Detailing information in certain areas. For instance, CLC numbers include a variety of groups, including noon basketball, ceramics, and others

An architect selection subcommittee (Jim Cooke, John Corven, Al Eppinger, Matt Folsom, and John Schanbacher) reported that a letter had been prepared to request qualifications from architects. The letter has since been sent to a number of local firms as well as some non-local firms that have been recommended to our committee members and/or church staff. We have requested qualifications from these firms by September 12.

The Building 4 Community committee plans to meet with representatives of “community groups”, or ministry areas, on Saturday, September 16. Staff members will identify groups of 4 to 5 people in each ministry area to provide feedback for our committee. Saturday, September 16, the groups will be asked to meet at the church from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. We will have a few minutes for Dr. Dortch to share with the group and discuss how the work we are doing is a part of our church’s mission and that we are preparing for ministry in the 21st century. The ministry groups will then have some time to meet and share with the appropriate staff member and one or two Building 4 Community committee members. These discussions will begin the process of gathering information and providing input, broadening the committee’s view and developing a starting point for the selected architect. We certainly expect the architect to ask more questions that will help formulate the programming of a master plan. Hopefully, our steps will help expedite the process by proving a base of information form which to work.