UUCDC Strategic Plan 2012 – 2016
Executive Summary
This Plan is the first Strategic Plan that the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County has developed. The goal of this plan was to capture the issues of strategic importance to our Congregation. The plan is representative of the Congregation; it is ambitious and aggressive, yet executable.
The UUCDC in some form has been in existence for sixty years. The UUCDC has grown from 24 members to almost 300 members today. In the last five years the church membership has grown approximately 25%. Due to this growth and anticipated additional growth, the Church leadership believed it was necessary to develop a strategic plan. The Strategic Planning team has developed a plan that captures the hopes and desired goals of the Congregation along with an implementation timeline.
The Plan also includes a vision of growth for the next five years. The Strategic Planning team has facilitated a series of meetings with the various UUCDC Ministry Teams, culminating in a Strategic Planning Summit. Members of the Congregation’s leadership participated in the Summit and provided their input for the plan. The information obtained in these meetings resulted in the identification of eight focus areas:
• Fostering Relationships
• Worship Diversity and Expansion
• UU Faith Identity/Faith Development
• Facilities
• Human Resources
• Communication and Outreach
• Social Justice
• Mission Based Budgeting
Classism, Local Partnering and Multiculturalism also emerged as areas that need to be addressed. These issues are addressed by incorporating them into each of the eight focus areas listed above. The Plan also includes the Mission Covenant, the UUCDC Vision, the Ends Statements, a vision of growth for the next five years and an Organization and Governance section. The Plan contains a section for each focus area, along with goals/action steps and timelines, using the information gathered from the Lay Leadership Council, staff, Board and Congregation members. Members of the congregation who have experience in specific focus areas have provided additional input related to their area of expertise. The Strategic Planning team shared a draft of the plan with the Minister and the UUCDC Board of Trustees for another round of input. The plan will be presented at a Lay Leadership Council meeting and then a Congregational meeting. A brief outline of each focus area section is listed below. We hope that you will take the time to review the full length document as it is much more thorough and more reflective of our process.
Section One Fostering Relationships
- Conduct a survey to create a “connectiveness” baseline
- Implement 2 new approaches to include mentoring, social events, pastoral care, etc.
- Assess and adjust goals
Section Two Worship Diversity and Expansion
- Implement two Sunday services and continue Saturday services between November and April
- Develop a plan to collect data and evaluate the church’s service structure
- Consider ways to incorporate multicultural elements in the worship service to expand to a more diverse audience
- Evaluate current worship service structure
Section Three UU Faith Identity/ Faith Development
- Recruit members to design and facilitate Lifespan Religious Education sessions for adults and train facilitators
- Explore options for structured senior youth group
- Encourage and support members to attend General Assembly and other UU events
- Continuous evaluation of all aspects of Lifespan Religious Education
Section Four Facilities
- Develop a multi-year plan for rotation of maintenance and renewal of existing spaces
- Do a feasibility study and preliminary plans to meet physical needs of Religious Education and the overall growth of the Church
- Finish off existing basement space as Religious Education space
- Develop a capital campaign to obtain funding for AC, parking and other future improvements
- Execute the capital campaign
- Add a kitchen and create more storage space
- Improve accessibility for members and visitors and add a labyrinth
Section Five Human Resources
- Create a plan for the Minister’s sabbatical
- Implement a proposed Lay Leadership Development
- Program and create a succession plan
- Achieve and maintain the mid-point or better Fair
- Compensation level for professional staff
- Increase Lifespan Religious Education staff
- Expand chorus and add a children’s chorus
- Become a “teaching “ congregation and include an intern Minister
Section Six Communication and Outreach
- Implement findings of the communications team
- Develop a plan to support new member growth
- Assess ongoing communication needs
Section Seven Social Justice
- Establish a team leader within the Social Justice ministry team and include succession planning
- Continue activity in current Social Justice programs and generate new interest and and energy
- Establish a system to make church members aware of Social Justice activities and events
Section Eight Mission Based Budgeting
- Encourage discussions on how we can improve the financial condition of the church
- Generate average increases in the operation budget between 5 and 10%
- Increase new members and generate support that exceeds the expenses related to them
- Hold a small number of significant fund raisers each year
- Track membership to determine the need for physical expenasion
- Increase endowment fund donations by 5 to 10% annually
- Increase external rentals
The assumption concerning membership growth is that it will grow from 292 in 2011-12 church year to approximately 400 in the 2015-16 church year
Version 0.5
January 17, 2012