We Did It!

We Are Making Room For Our Future

On the right hand side of your screen you'll see a heading entitled Important Sites to Visit.  Right under that title it says We Are Making Room For Our Future.  That link contains the Special Announcement of February 3, 2019 regarding the details for our big move.

Also:  Check out the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on the upper right side of your screen:  lots of good information about the move to the Methodist church.

More to come....

Greetings, All--

1. Construction Contract Signed: Our contract with Milo Construction was signed on Friday, February 1, so our building project can proceed! Special thanks to Jim Highsmith, Joan Mulcahy, Robert Nichols, and Larry Sherwood for their significant contributions of time and expertise during our contract negotiations.      

2. Office moving to Longmont: Our office is moving to Office Evolution in Longmont this week. (Our mailing address and phone number will remain the same.) Office Manager Carol Pranschke is overseeing the packing and moving of the office and equipment. That process should be finished on Thursday, February 7. 

3. Last Service in our Building and Groundbreaking: Our last Sunday service in our building will be on February 10; it will be a single service starting at 10:00 a.m.Please join us for the Groundbreaking ceremony following the service!

4. Final Packing Parties - February 9, 10, 11: All hands on deck! See important message from the Building Committee's Transition Team below!

5. Pledges Up to date: A big thanks to those who heeded our call to pay on your pledges in December! Treasurer Joan Mulcahy reports that our pledge receipts are now in line with where we have stood at this time in the previous 2 fiscal years!

So ... our Year of Adventure continues! As we move forward, let's all keep in mind this year's congregational goal: Maintaining and Strengthening Our Connections. 

In community,

Marky Lloyd

Board President

Important Message from Building Committee's Transition Team

FINAL PACKING PARTIES - WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Construction will start as soon as we are out of the building, or even before!  We need to pack up EVERYTHING not nailed down, and some things that ARE nailed down and store it in the pods or move it to its temporary location for the next nine months.

We need EVERYONE WHO CAN to help sort, pack, move, take things off the walls, etc.  Please plan to spend a little time helping out this week.

These are the times we will be working as a group:

Saturday February 9

10 am- 2 pm (or longer)

Packing up everything except what we need for Sunday's service.  Moving it into the storage unit or barn.

People with TRUCKS are appreciated: they can take some furniture to be donated.

Lunch will be served. 

Sunday February 10

11 am-12:30 pm

Help move to storage after service: chairs, tables, dais furniture, kids' furniture, welcome desk, etc.

Healthy snacks will be available.

Monday February 11

9 am- 1 pm

Move the kitchen, move AV equipment

Move anything left from Sunday

Please contact Ellen Saunders Duncan if you have childcare needs.

Note: If you don't want to do the heavy lifting, you can still help by offering to get the food and set it up for workers! Email Robyn (worldofrobynrcr@gmail.com) or Juli (julimack@hotmail.com) if you want to help with food.

A Convenient & Welcoming Location for Our Sunday Morning Activities

An update from the Building Committee and the Board on the progress of our Project:

We are still involved in various financial and contractual details, working with our attorney and with our general contractor.  As soon as some important details are finalized, we will be able to determine when we need to move out of the building.

We can't answer the questions of "when?" yet, but stay tuned!

However, we can now give you an update on prospects for a convenient and welcoming location for Sunday morning activities.  Initially we explored possibilities at various schools in Lafayette.  None was ideal and some dropped out of consideration for scheduling reasons or inconvenient layout.

Now we think we have found:

• Warm, welcoming landlords,  with a space designed for just what we do.
• No need for elaborate Sunday morning setup such as schlepping chairs.
• RE space designed for kids - classrooms and a playground.
• As well as a sanctuary for our Sunday service.  
• This space includes:  a fellowship hall, kitchen, and some storage space for our materials.
• A good-sized parking lot.
• A Location close to our own property for convenience of our members and friends coming from all surrounding areas.
• Flexibility  on start date.
• Significantly lower rent than was being asked by the school district.

So where is this place?   And what factors do we need to consider with this decision?

It's the First United Methodist Church 

on Centaur Village Drive, just down South Boulder Road from our Fellowship.

Rev. Lydia, Robyn Rathweg for the Building Committee, and Ellen Saunders Duncan for School of the Spirit met with their pastor and a member of their board of trustees.  The Methodists  were warm and welcoming and eager to share their space with us.

Here are a few adjustments that we would have to be willing to make during this temporary time away from our own building:

• Because of the Methodists' own Sunday use of the building, we would have to adjust the time of our service and social hour.
• Perhaps our services would start at 11:30 AM or noon. 
• Or, maybe we'd hold our social hour at 11:30 AM followed by our service at 12:30 PM.
• We would also have to resign ourselves to seeing a cross above the altar.  We suggest taking it as a symbol that is meaningful to our gracious hosts although it does not define who we are as UUs.

In related news, we think the prospects are good for renting office space again at Office Evolution in Longmont.

Please bear in mind that these are not yet firm rental agreements.   We are announcing these prospects because we promised to keep you informed. 

Key leaders of our various Sunday morning activities have reviewed the idea of meeting at First United Methodist and are supportive.

Talk to members of the Board and Building Committee if you have further questions or ideas.

Time-Lapse Photography - Move Over Peter Jackson, the BC Time-Lapse Team Has Arrived.

THIS IS A TEST!  THIS IS A TEST! OF THE BVUUF TIME-LAPSE CAMERA PROJECT!  
THIS IS ONLY A TEST.  IF THIS WERE AN EMERGENCY, YOU WOULD BE REFERRED TO THE BUILDING COMMITTEE BLOG. Wait a minute, this is the BC Blog.

Your ever creative and enthusiastic Building Committee hopes to document the progress of the construction and remodeling of our Fellowship via time-lapse photography.  We're still trying to figure out the technology, the learning curve is steep, but we know we can do it!

This test of the time-lapse camera was produced on Saturday, September 22, 2018 when we moved a whole bunch of "stuff" out of the building into our storage pod on the west side of the property.

We will place two time-lapse cameras on the property.  One of them will be on the west side of the building and the other will be on the east side. This way, we can keep you advised of the progress of our building project as it progresses through the year.

Won't you take 47 seconds of your time to watch the Transition Crew as they pack our pod?

New Year's Updates

Happy New Year!

Your Building Committee members and many, many others, are busy working behind the scenes in an effort to move our building project ahead as efficiently as possible.

We are closing in on some very important milestones, not the least of which is the eventual move out of our current building.  Obviously, the more lead time we have to prepare for the move, the better.

There are a lot of ministries hinging on that unknown move-out date:  Sunday Services & SpiritJam, Meeting of the Minds, Path to Membership, to mention only a few ... plus all those monthly meetings!

Here are the milestones that we have facing us in the next few weeks:

1. Secure the bank loan
2. Receive a new bid and contract (Milo Construction)
3. Approve the contract (board)
4. Review the contract (our attorney)
5. Sign the approved contract (board)

Once the contract is signed, we are going to want to start construction right away.  We don't have to time these things perfectly.  We can move out a week or two before construction starts.  But we do want to be as sure as we can be that construction WILL start before we set things in motion again.

Once we have a firm construction start date, we'll communicate clearly with everyone so that we can gear up for the move again.  We're hoping Committee on Shared Ministry & Board liaisons can reach out to their Councils and Committees to support them during the transition.

Here is the document with off-site meeting options .  We'll need to distribute this document widely as well.

Here is an update on possible rental spaces:

• Sunday Services:  We are in conversation with Boulder Valley School District to discuss the possible use of Pioneer Elementary School.  It has a great location at the intersection of  Baseline Road and Public Road, right next to the Lafayette Recreation Center, as well as very workable spaces for worship, fellowship and religious education.  No contract can been signed until the above-mentioned milestones are complete.

• Office Space:  For the first time since we started talking with them months ago, Office Evolution has no rentals available at this time.  Perhaps that will shift in the new year, but we may have to get even more creative to find space. We've looked into other office spaces and renting space from other congregations as well and will keep looking. 

It's going to be an exciting 2019, that's for sure!

Our Year of Adventure continues.