Notetaker: Adel Gardner
Meeting Leader: Lulu Phillips
About 30 in attendance
Juliaʼs opening comments: now is the time to ʻreinvent, revision, take advantage of new
building, find ways to be in communityʼ
Reviewed notes from 1st “Survival” Meeting, some notes missing especially some of the
more long term aspects brought up such as the need for a visioning process, how
Walker is presenting itself as a Methodist Church, how Walker is presenting itself as
exclusively a Christian organization, how Walker has NOT worked specifically for people
who have come and gone recently….., the need to market and/or advertise what is
available in the new building, need to find out how Walker can be a resource and of
service in a meaningful way to the surrounding community
Meeting mostly divided into 4 discussion areas as perceived by Julia as the main
categories from the 1st meeting focusing on short term need for money:
Grow Membership , Reduce Staff/ Reduce Cost, Increase Fundraising/Donations,
Increase Rentals
Grow Membership:
Reviewed Jessieʼs written proposal, which was handed out again in a refined version
from the one at the last meeting, which was primarily in favor of increasing membership
and it was agreed that we need a membership committee.
Some discussion: Vision 1st/ Membership second; Membership is not ALL of the
solution, need to ʻtake a stabʻ at all 4 of the areas suggested from Juliaʼs notes from
previous meeting; there is an inclusiveness issue within the membership issue; the
synergy of doing a variety of things will help all; need to get at nitty gritty details inherent
in the definition of ʻmembershipʼ; need to get a baseline, who are active participants
etc., in Methodist organization measured by how many come on Sunday…; might need
to redefine the concept of membership and look at the huge variety of ways that
organizations create membership programs including dues and benefits
Reduce Staff/ Reduce Cost of building:
People overall agreed (some fervently) that a reduction of the staffing that we have now
will not be in our best interest. Consensus to not cut staff time. Little to no discussion of
building expenses…
Some discussion: Walter has proposed renting out his office (another issue really), will
not be able to increase money without staff; reducing staff always decreases income;
KFAI and HOTB have both laid off staff recently; love member sermons; Walter is
investigating working full time (which is his desire) by working for another church 1/2
time also, have to ask District if we want to use $ from sale of the parsonage for
operating expenses (?)….
Increase Fundraising/Donations:
Increasing Fundraising
Some Discussion:Themed Dinners, “Eat Lower on the Food Chain” Classes offered to
be taught by Deb Ramage; classes in general utilizing the kitchen; need to encourage/
create partnerships particularly with other neighborhood business and organizations;
there are funds for both artists and Walker through the State Arts Board/Constitutional
Amendment Grant(s) for artists to collaborate with Walker on 4 events per year; money
available through schools for the arts facilitated by Walker; Coffee shop, coffee times,
fireside/Coffee times, Open Space; Rummage Sale has brought in about $3,600 in new
building which is significant increase from before (over $1,000 more?) and can still be
increased; Give to The Max Day; a Thrift Store; Redefine meaning of Membership;
fundraise specifically to support mission; can make money/ get donations online,
through Website, Who is going to Website?, How about a separate online promotional
vehicle?; use website to attract (more?) donations via Pay Pal, create promotional
products advertising Walker: t shirts, mugs, hats, each order made to order; partner with
another church for donations i.e.: get rummage leftover from suburban church rummage
sale to sell at Walker; clothing exchange idea from another idea seen via a van,….
Increasing Donations:
Stewardship 101: Time, Talents, Treasure (Walker has 10 Substantial Giving Units
which possibly make up 80% of total giving); key to attracting new members is to have
missions that people are ʻachingʻ to do; need more opportunities to give ie: donation box
at community meals particularly for Walkerites that are attending; decide what Walker
wants to be, wants to be known for, is good at…; what separates us from other
nonprofits?; people looking for a spiritual community that cares about them, to be a part
of and contribute; ʻchristianityʼ as an issue; do we need to bust through the negative
cast of what we are NOT to a more positive approach of what we ARE in order to
breathe new life into what we DO?; important to figure out what we want to say to
others; ʻchurchʻ as an issue; how about concept of ʻsustainableʻ membership and
options such as auto deduct; make it ʻeasierʻ to give; sliding fee scale based on income;
some guidance as to appropriate amount of giving and/or what is needed would be nice;
we need to know who we are and what we want to be and then look at how we can be
sustainable; would be good to discuss giving with new members….Agreed that there were many possible ways to improve and/or increase fundraising and donations.
Rentals:
Reviewed Kimʼs written proposal of an Adult Day Center, solid income generation, state
is pushing for more, funding available, state pays $81/day per senior, job creation and
volunteer opportunities, can flyer/go door to door /Survey to find out need and
preferences within community, 28 Day Centers in Metro area; another issue is what
happens to foster kids when they grow out of the system, possible job training
opportunity and ʻhome baseʻ for them; we need to have a vision; need a rental task
force; how about the Hispanic community?; lots of desire and rentals currently going on
especially events for Sat. nights through the Hispanic Community; Ignacio has been a
great resource and help with interpreting; need to reach out to community; promote as
an event center, wedding venue, meeting place, co-working and collaboration space, art
space, alternative health space, music venue and performance space, retreat center;
need more open ended characterization of spaces to increase rentals and use of space
at times when it is not currently in demand; need to consider needs of church members
for space use; maybe need to minimize needs of church members to be more viable
financially or consider issue of use policies due to the reality of costs….
Consensus that we need a Rentals Committee
To all who were present at the meeting: Please forgive me if my notes are incorrect or
pertinent information is missing due to distraction, participation, misunderstanding and/
or bias. Send me an email and I will add what is missing to the original notes.
Speaking as the lay leader, which I have not done as yet, I believe that in order for
Walker to become the vital community that it could be, the foundational structure of the
organization needs to be examined with care, and concern for all those involved now
and in the future. Now is the time to GO FORWARD; not backward, and become the
kind of spiritual community we can all be proud of and support and encourage others to
be a part of with us. It makes me tired just thinking of it and I am not even sure if I am
willing or up to the task. Maybe others feel the same. I want us to all be in the same
boat with Julia at the end of her summary of the last meeting but I do not want us to be
floating down ʻde nialʼ in order to do it.
Thanks David for the thoughtful comments. This is great. It seems that we now, with this new website,have a vehicle for communicating with each other in a new way. I view this as a very positive development,and something that has been difficult to achieve at Walker in recent years. Important issues were brought forth at the two recent financial survival meetings that aren’t easy to address by creating a new task force. Its my hope that we can have respectful discussions in person as well, but for now at least, this is a hopeful opportunity. —— steve sandberg
I was checking out our new website and saw the interesting (and perhaps provocative) comment by David West. Thanks to Deb Ramage, who set up this website, we now have more opportunity to exchange ideas. But I have stayed up way to late and won’t look at the website late at night anymore.
I was at the meeting and my impression was that questions were raised like “what is the Walker community’s relationship to Christianity and to Methodism?.” I didn’t hear answers, conclusions or consensus. I heard comments about wanting to discuss these questions and trying to reach consensus on answers.
Thinking about the meeting and about consensus I thought of dyads. A dyad is a two-person interaction. For example, if on a Sunday there were 60 people in the sanctuary and everyone shook hands with everyone else there would have been 1780 dyads. ( 60 X 59 = 1780 divided by 2 = 1780)
The ability to reach consensus is based on the size of the group, the number of reciprocal relationships between individuals in the group, the desire of all present to hear what others have to say, to compromise and to reach consensus.
So, increasing the number of dyads in a group is a start in an attempt to reach some sort of consensus.
“See similarities, hear differences, speak connectedness, touch adversaries.”
I love this ability to comment on our new website.
But now (seeing my previous comment on dyads) I feel compelled to make the following correction:
A dyad is a 2 person interaction.
So if 60 people were in the sanctuary on a Sunday and everyone shook hands with everyone else there would have been 1770 dyads.
(60 x 59 = 3540 divided by 2 = 1770)
I wonder how long it would take.
Sorry I missed the 2nd meeting. I’m a little confused around this talk about Christianity. Was the feeling that we aren’t out there enough with our Christianity or that we are too Christian and need to emphasize our community aspects?
Personally, I’ve become a little bored with Walker. While I still love and enjoy the company of almost all the members I find myself volunteering less and contributing much less than I used to. Many said when we lost our old building that our church is more than brick and mortar but I guess I’m not seeing it.
Seems to me we’ve been all about the building.
What attracted me to Walker was not its churchiness, its committees and the fact that it was a landlord. I liked the community of artists, the plays my kid was in, the potlucks, singing on Sundays, the exchange of ideas and talk back during celebration and the peace with justice work we did around affordable health care and labor issues. So I felt like I was part of a loving, vibrant, artistic and political community but it turns out I’m only Methodist worrying with other Methodists about how to pay for the temple.
I’ll take responsibility for my part in this. I was probably so in love with you all and smitten with revolutionary zeal I didn’t realize where I really was. It is possible now that my kid is grown I’ll just move on to other stuff like so many have done before me. Or I’ll be one of those crochety church elders who counts the offerings every Sunday and keeps suggesting we hold another bake sale. After all, at my core, I’m just as middle class as Walker is.