Spacial Considerations, March, 2011

During the months of December, 2010 and January, 2011, the site team met to discuss the future spacial needs of our congregation as a precursor to determining building and parking requirements for our new site.

Lower Floor View of Skiver Building

Skiver Building.  We started with the space we are currently using (the "Skiver Building") and asked, "How can this be improved?"   We asked this question of each functional area of our ministry: Worship, Christian Education, Congregational Life, Christian Outreach, Small Groups, Personnel and Administration.

Today we are utilizing most of the Skiver building, which is approximately 10,000 square feet.


 New Space Considerations.  When we consider building a new space, we want to answer the following questions:

1. What is needed to serve God's purposes today?
2. What is needed to serve God's purposes in the future? 

Spacial Requirements Spreadsheet for CMPF - Phase I

We have proposed a number of changes to our current allocation based on anticipated growth and also on the observations of using our current space - things that don't work as good as they could if we could "just have more space".   A number of these spaces were identified as possible "shared spaces" with the YMCA organization, but how we end up actually using them is still being considered.

In summary, we are asking for:

• 23,000 square feet of total allocation (roughly 2X what we currently utilize in the Skiver space)
• 7000 square feet for worship space
• 6000 square feet for community fellowship and activities including a 1000 square foot kitchen
• 2000 square feet for office staff, support
• 8000 square feet for Christian Education programs including dedicated youth space

What YMCA Needs.   The spreadsheet shown above is the kind of input that the YMCA needs to create a preliminary architectural drawing for accommodating both the YMCA and CMPF organizational needs in the future.

Example YMCA utilizing 65,000 square feet

The drawing should include a building outline showing each of the individual rooms, hallways, doors, closets, etc.   This won't be a final drawing, just a concept drawing of what might work.

An example of such a drawing is shown on the right.


Congregational Input.   This week we begin a series of congregational meetings to help identify how our existing ministry areas will work with a YMCA organization as well as consider new ideas not previously considered for ministry growth.   One of the many questions we will want to answer during the coming weeks and months are:

1) What is the scope of community involvement we envision as our ministry grows?
2) Does the full scope as we conceive it become reachable with the design considerations we have?
3) Are there building features and/or spacial considerations that go beyond what we have conceived of up to this point?    If so, what are they?

Our next meeting with the YMCA organization is in a few weeks.  At that meeting, we hope to receive a proposal from them as to how a church+YMCA might look like in terms of a proposed schematic drawing.  We are looking forward to this!   Using ideas stemming from the congregational meetings during the next few weeks we hope to produce the best possible concept of a community center that ultimately will be agreed upon by both organizations within just a few months.

Continue to pray for God's blessing and guidance in all that we do!

Blessings!

Douglas Hoy
Chair, CMPF Site Development Team

Visit to Sunset Presbyterian Church, February 9, 2011

During our joint CMPF-YMCA meeting on February 2, 2011, a suggestion was made to visit the multi-purpose space at Sunset Presbyterian Church together as a group.  The idea of identifying as much "shared space" as possible was discussed - in all areas of building use and ministry focus.  The largest space utilized in a church is the place of worship - often referred to as a "sacred space", "worship hall", or "chapel".  Many churches start out their life using less-than-desirable multi-function spaces like school gyms.  Cooper Mountain Presbyterian Fellowship (CMPF) started out this way at Cooper Mountain Elementary School about 15 years ago.  The question for us is: do we want to go "back to a gym" or is there an alternative approach that will be satisfying yet provide good value to the overall YMCA-CMPF partnership?

As we visited the site the following week, we began to ask ourselves a number of questions:

• What is required to create a sense of sacred space?
• What features should be part of this space?
• How flexible can we go?  What is the cost of this flexibility?
• If we don't allow the YMCA to use our special worship space, can we justify the cost of its construction with other mid-week activities that are separate from YMCA programs?
• What is important to those in worship that would indicate the right amount of balance between mid-week non-religious activity and weekend worship of God?
• If the space can be constructed with "Transforming Features" that allow it to be better identified with these different building uses (for example, Friday afternoon men's basketball game versus Saturday night worship service), what features should we consider?  How much will they cost?
• If we can do this, should we do this?  Can we afford to build our own space?

Over the next few months, we hope to begin answering these questions.  They will be pivotal for our success moving forward.

Peace!

Douglas Hoy
Chair, CMPF Site Development Team
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Here are some pictures taken that day of the multi-use building used for worship at Sunset Presbyterian Church.

An Evening with the YMCA, January 29, 2011

Last Saturday at our annual potluck and meeting, Bob Hall, President and CEO from the YMCA Columbia-Willamette made a  25 minute presentation to the congregation following dinner.  This was followed by about 15 minutes of Q&A.  A video production of this event has been divided up into 3 parts:

An Evening with the YMCA, PART I - Intro by Bob followed by a 3 minute Video about Christian Ministry within the Columbia-Willamette YMCA organization (10:48 minutes)
An Evening with the YMCA, PART II - Additional material and answers to questions given to Bob in advance of meeting (13:44 minutes)
An Evening with the YMCA, PART III - open Q&A portion from members in attendance (13:40 minutes)

Thanks to all the members of our A/V team and especially Rick Terletzky for video post-processing this event.

Doug Hoy
Chair, CMPF Site Dev Team

Site Team Presentation Following Service, Oct 24, 2010

Following the worship service this past Sunday, October 24, I presented an update to the congregation during the time normally alloted to adult Sunday school.  This presentation was followed by a Q&A period. 

If you want to see the presentation, you can download it here.  If you have any questions, feel free to follow up with me or any other member of our site team.

Blessings!

Doug Hoy
Chair, CMPF Site Development Team

Visiting the Kroc Community Center of Salem Oregon, Oct 2, 2010

On Saturday, October 2, a group of about 10 people from CMPF joined two staff members of the YMCA to tour the new Kroc Community Center in Salem, Oregon. Our purpose of this visit was to learn more and discuss:

1. what an effective community center facilty with imbedded worship space looks like and how it functions;
2. the partnerships the Kroc center has incorporated;
3. how different programs work together to achieve their mission;
4. ideas about YMCA-CMPF partnerships in sharing programs, facilities, staff, volunteers, etc.; and
5. ideas and dreams about what our community center might incorporate.

From that visit the following summary  was generated by those participating from CMPF. This is a compilation/composite of their responses.

Take Aways

Kroc Center Climbing Wall

1. It was great to see examples of a building that combines worship with athletic areas to help visualize possibilities. Very impressive building. The entry area was warm and inviting for both church worship space and athletic activity space.
2. It is worth spending a lot of time and thoughtful consideration of options so that the final result is really serviceable and utilizes the space in the best possible way.
3. The building reflects the priorities. The Kroc center prioritized aquatics, meeting space, large building support staff and high end look and feel in all finishing work and attention to detail. It seemed as though no expense was spared.
4. We don’t always need the very best in accessories and finish work, but our resources would be better spent on a focus of our ministries and target mission.
5. The building design allowed for possibility of future modifications.

Kroc Center Chapel/Worship Space

Great kid slide as part of family swimming area

Aspects appreciated:

1. The warmth of the building was great. The lodge feel on the outside and in the entryway were inviting. The use of the fireplace and gathering area near a coffee cart and general use of colors and natural and artificial light was appealing. Loved the seating areas for small group conversations.
2. The hallway was just the right distance between the two sections (sanctuary+conf rooms and aquatic+fitness area).
3. The design of the conference rooms incorporated flexibility. The walls could be folded away into a closet transforming one space into another (larger or smaller depending on need).
4. Technology was evident and seemed to add to the perception that it was multi-use. (WiFi everywhere).
5. The open feel throughout the building was great – windows in both walls and doors aided in the sense of being included as well as minimizing security issues.
6. The worship sanctuary felt like a very sacred place – but we could also see other multi-use utilizations of it during the week.
7. The pool area and dressing rooms were fantastic (even though the fun pool was too small). The idea of using it to draw people from outside of the Aloha community might be possible if it were done well. Contrast with the service area the Clackamas Swim Center draws from (Portland metro and even Newberg and McMinnville).



Fixed seating and high end finishing details throughout worship center

Hallway leading to conference rooms (center) and Chapel (to the right)





Aspects not appreciated:

1. Little emphasis on children throughout the facility. No classroom-type space was shown to us (except adult or teenager spaces). Teenager/youth space too limiting (staff noted that there was a waiting list of people to use this space at times). Nursery area was really small.
2. The Kroc center seemed to be a community center/conference center with a church inserted. The only part of the church portion that was really church was the actual theatre/sanctuary. The fitness center seemed smaller than what would normally be in a YMCA. Fitness classroom space was too small for this community.
3. Space was not utilized efficiently – lots of excessive square footage and features (rounded walls, domes, expensive carpeting) 
4. Poorly laid out kitchen and connections to service area – several possible bottlenecks in traffic flow when events requiring hundreds of plates for sit-down service need to be prepared and served.
5. Pool was too fancy and too small (mixed use pool). For the larger pool, the volume of water would be hard to justify in terms of what it takes to keep it to the correct temperature. Note that they made one dimension 50meters and the other dimension 50 yards so that events could utilize either dimension.
6. No dedicated large space for fellowship/potlucks, visiting after service, etc.



Kitchen - View 1

Kitchen - View 2







Pictures of Gig Harbor, WA YMCA

Tonight I found some pictures by "browsing the internet" since I forgot to take pictures that day while overwhelmed by what we saw!  This is one very impressive building as you can see below.  As you can also tell, these pictures were taken on different days (and not by me!), but they do show some of the insides and outside view.  Enjoy!

Doug Hoy
Chair, Site Development Team

Site Development Status, Update July 30, 2010

During the past few months Triangle2 Research, a firm based out of White House, Tennesee did a phone survey of 604 households within a 7 minute drive of our site at 194th and Farmington.  The purpose of the survey was to assess the feasibility and economics of a YMCA at that location.  The results were presented to the long range planning group of the YMCA and CMPF site planning team on June 23.  The summary is that this community would be very much supportive of such a facility. This  is very encouraging news for us!   If any of you are interested in the specifics of this survey, I have a copy in pdf format.  Feel free to send me a request via email and I can forward this to you.  Alternatively, see me after church on Sunday and I can give you more details verbally.

Yesterday, Pastor Scott and I participated in a meeting between executive staff at THPRD and YMCA. The meeting was held primarily to establish communication and open dialogue between those organizations.   The conversation focused on a possible construction of a significant aquatic and exercise facility funded by the YMCA.  We know that THPRD has been talking about future construction of another aquatic facility in our community, so this meeting was a first step in development of additional partnerships that would lead to meeting that need while avoiding the possible conflict of "dueling athletic facilities" by 2 non-profits.

Later that day, Scott, Trevor Sheffels, Megan Sheffels and I joined Bob Hall (CEO) and Bruce Patton (VP) of the YMCA.  We traveled north together and visited an impressive new YMCA located in Gig Harbor, WA followed by another facility in Puyallup, WA.  We spent the better part of 10 hours together that day with lots of driving time (in one minivan).  It was time well spent!  We got to know them and they got to know us.  We also learned much about different ways YMCA's are constructed and managed in our communities.  We are not done with this part of the process, but yesterday was a valuable first step.  Future meetings will include visits at the Sherwood YMCA as well as other facilities close to home such as the Kroc Community Center in Salem. 

Our next step together will be to select a suitable organization and perform a YMCA capital funding feasibilty study.  This will involve development of more specific plans and concept drawings that will be used to educate potential high net-worth donors in our community and solicit their commitment to funding this project.   Along the way as we finalize our commitment to the YMCA-CMPF partnership, we will be looking for additional partners to complete the project and help us meet our stewardship goals.

As always, if you have any questions about this or other site-related topics, feel free to contact me or other members of our site development team: Pastor Scott Peterson, Mat Sinclair, Jon Hughes and Paul John.   Our team also includes these non-CMPF members: Mike Tharp of Norris, Beggs and Simpson Realtors, Bob LeFeber of Commercial Realty Advisors and Jeff Los Senior Architect at Ankrom Moisan Architects.  Please keep all of us in your prayers as we move forward in development of this exciting project!

In His Name,

Doug Hoy

Chair Site Planning Team